o us and said, "They won't take any more births because they are carrying Gaura-Nitai from village to village."
SATURDAY 17th
Mangala aratik started at 5 am. 25 devotees were present. The morning lecture was given by Sundarlall prabhu. He spoke on the great importance of the Damodar month.
After breakfast we walked towards the Hare Krsna Temple in Grant Bois. 20 devotees took part in the harinama.
The ecstatic kirtan attracted the public and they watched us passionately. At two places along the route people served us fresh juice. We arrived at the Hare Krsna temple in Grand Bois at 1 pm. We were welcome by the local devotees, and again we where served fresh juice.
After taking a nice swim in the nearby river, we took prasadam. Then we were ready for the afternoon harinam. Again more than100 devotees took part. We went through the whole village and returned back to the temple for the evening programme.
Nrsimha prabhu joined us and gave the lecture. All present offered lamps to Lord Damodar. During aratik we where all dancing and jumping and later we watched a nice movie about the temples of Vrindavana projected on our big cinema screen.
At the end a full feast was served to everyone. The programme ended at 10 pm.
SUNDAY 18th
Mangala arati started at 4.30 am followed by Tulsi aratik and Gurupuja. 40 devotees took part. In the morning we had an istaghosti were we all shared the last days experiences.Very enlivening. Many devotee expressed that they want to have Padayatras more often. Several padayatris were lamenting due to the upcoming separation and our Vrsabanu Prabhu sheed tiers while he expressed his appreciation for all of us and for the Padayatra tour.
After we dried our eyes we went on to Grand Bassin (a sacred lake where waters from 1008 holy rivers of India have been added). It is also called Ganga Talao. Here we where fortunate to have the association of His Grace Arjuna Prabhu who joined us in Harinam. We were very enthused by his presence. We brought Sri Sri Gaura Nitai down to Ganga Talao and we circumambulated Sri Hanumanji while the kirtana became more and more ecstatic. Hundreds of pilgrims watched us in amazement and appreciation. As today is Gopastami we all sat under a big tree and relished Krishna katha given by Arjuna Prabhu. Then we all had sumptuous prasadam kindly donated by Sarvalochan Mataji and her husband.
When everyone was fully satisfied we returned to the Hare Krsna Temple in Grand Bois. After some rest we went for a program at a local Telugu Ashram where they conduct a public Sunday program. We did ecstatic kirtan and participated in their aratik. The asram leaders asked us to please come more often. In the afternoon we went on harinam near the Grand Bois Cooperative hall were we later conducted our evening program. We where 100 devotees on harinam well escorted by the local police. The harinam was very ecstatic and had a special happening. Some South Indian mystics had a gathering in the street were they where walking on fire. Many people where present and our harinam merged with the mystic exhibition and had such an impact on the people gathered taking them to another dimension. Then we headed to our evening programme. About 300 people came and we noticed that some of the people from the fire walking had also come. During the aratik and the vibrant kirtan, everyone were dancing. We all became mad.
It was a very nice evening.
The programme ended at 10 pm with a full feast and a thankful farewell to all who had taken part in the Padayatra. We all got one of Srila Prabhupada books. Then all Padayatris packed their belongings and departed to their respective homes.
We here at Padayatra Mauritius send all of you our best wishes and pray that you will all go on Padayatra and get this wonderful experience.
THANK YOU.
HARE KRISHNA
PADAYATRA DEVOTEES MAURI
