Under the leadership of Shrila Loknath Swami Maharaj, the beloved disciple of Bhaktivedanta Swami Shrila Prabhupada and the International Pad -Yatra Minister, this trek is continuously visiting all over India since last 34 years. In Nagpur this trek entered through Bhandara Road H.B. Town near Old Paradi Naka. In front of this town Nitai Gaur Sundar and Shril Prabhupada’s idols were greeted with wreaths.
Prominent among those who were to welcomed, included, Chetana Tank, Raju Bhai Tank, Dharmendra Pradhan, Virendra Parashar, Kantilal Vaghela and family, Kishan Bhai Dudia, Rajesh Jain, Suryakant Khandelwal, Naval Kishor Harsh, Rajesh Joshi, Rajesh Motghare, Sanjay Lokhande, Prashant Dhoble, Sachin Thawkar, Bharat Keshavani, Sandeep Singh Siv, Shyam Kalakar, Pradeep Shirase etc. large number of devotees were present on the occasion.
President ISKCON Temple, Parmatma Das, Co-Chairman, Vishal Das, Padayatra Chief, Acharya Das along with others chanted kirtan of ‘Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Ram Rama Hare Hare’, this Hare Krishna Mahamantra and also danced with all the devotees present.
Acharya Das said that this padyatra was initiated with the decision of the ISKCON Governing Body Commissioner (GBC) in 1984, after the 500th birth anniversary of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. The trek started from Dwarka Dham and reached Mathura and Vrindavan, and further to Badrinath Dham, Mayapur, Jagannath Purni Dham, Tirupati, Shri Rangam, Rameshwar Dham, Pandharpur, returning back to Dwarka Dham.
Devotees have travelled more than one lakh sixty thousand kilometers up till now. Akhiladhar Das of America has been running with this trek for the last 20 years. Apart from these, 25 devotees from different parts of India and Russia continue to walk along.
Prasadam, Bhagvadgita and Bhagavatam are distributed in all the villages they pass and they also perform nagar sankirtan.
The devotees have travelled 5 times around whole India up till now and this is the 6th pilgrimage arrived at Pandharpur on the Asadhdi Ekadashi, after moving continuously from Pandharpur they reached Tuljapur, and continued their trek to Solapur, Beed, Latur, Osmanabad, Yavatmal, Wardha, Chandrapur, Gadchiroli, Bhandara, Mouda and they finally have arrived in Nagpur.
Iskcon Spokesman Dr Shyamsundar Sharma, told that, this trek moved from H.B.Town to Surya Nagar at the residence of Rajesh Motghare and then to Iskcon Nagpur, Empress City, Near Gandhi Sagar.
Iskcon Nagpur is organising Jagannath Rath Yatra on February 9, 2019 at 12.30 PM from Poddareshwar Ram mandir to Agrasen Chowk, LalImli Chowk, Ballabhacharya Chowk, Khule Chowk sarafa bazar,Gandhi Putala, Bachharaj Vyas Chowk, Chitnvis Park, Tilak Putala, Thadeshwari Ram Mandir, Aagyaram Devi Chowk to empress City Gate No.2. This pad yatra will join the Jagannath Rath Yatra and which will be the centre of attraction of the event.
