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While driving back to Mayapur Guru Maharaja shared couple of very
interesting informations with us. He said today he traveled through all the
nine islands by car. Then he was describing how he traveled all the nine
islands simply by visiting all the four parikrama parties. He has got the
whole map of Navadwip in his mind. Our discussion led to the mahasanga of
all the parikrama parties which will take place on the 14th March especially
the place where they are all going to meet. At that point Guru Maharaja said
that we could have even organised all the parikrama parties to get together
at the land next to our Panca Tattva Hall. He said Srila Bhaktivinode Thakur
has described in Bhakti Bhavataranga, how he saw the lila of Lord Caitanya
and his entire sankirtan party transformed into Krsna and gopis performing
rasa lila right here at Antardwipa. He continued that actually Srila
Prabhupada has said that our Iskcon Mayapur Radha Madhava temple hall is
located in Rudradwip, Pancatattva Temple Hall is located in Antardwip and
Nrshingadev altar is in the border of both the islands. As we were listening
to this wonderful discussion we saw a big gust of wind blowing all over. We
were passing Mayapur Nama Hatta Building when this happened. Some small
trees got uprooted,branches and twigs fell all over the road leading to
Iskcon Mayapur.Our car was in the middle of whirlpool of sands, dirts and
plastic bags. After seeing this violent storm, GM requested us to call
Sankarshan Nitai Prabhu and find out how are the parikrama devotees are
doing at the camp site? After 10 mins Sankarshan Nitai Prabhu called us and
said that some of tents at the camp site were destroyed by the strong wind
and some parikrama devotees been ferried back to Iskcon Mayapur.

Your Servant,
Maha Varaha D

Today is the 4th day of the parikrama. At 7.15am Guru Maharaja came down to
the temple hall to take darshan. He comes down from His quarters to the
temple hall through the Caitanya exhibition hall using the newly installed
elevator. Unfortunately an embarrassing incident took place this morning.
The key for the grill gate which divides the temple hall and exhibition hall
was misplaced. Guru Maharaja waited for almost five minutes and while He was
waiting, I saw the devotee who was pushing the wheelchair slowly stepped far
away from Guru Maharaja, fearing he may get scolded. This is the second time
such thing has happened. It was very embarrassing for me because at least 8
of us were there with Guru Maharaja but none made sure if the key is with us
or went ahead to open the gate. Guru Maharaja kept himself quite and decided
to leave without darshan. Guru Maharaja has very high level of tolerance. He
tolerates our mistakes so much. But one should not take advantage of His
kindness. Anyway let’s get back with the parikrama now.

Today is the 3rd day of the Navadvip Mandala Parikrama. Our first group to
be visited today was the International party in Naimisharanya. When we were
about to go out from the Lotus Building through the exit of Caitanya
exhibition Hall,we heard the beautiful greeting kirtan for Their Lordship
Sri Panca Tattva’Sri Krsna Caitanya Prabhu doya kore moreeee….’ was going
on in the temple hall. Guru Maharaja told us to wheel him down towards the
temple hall for taking darshan of the deities. We left Iskcon Mayapur at
7.30am and drove towards Naimisharanya. While driving down we were told by
the manager of the party that Naimisharanya cannot be accessed by car and we
should meet them at Pushkar Tirtha. So we changed our plan and drove to
Pushkar Tirtha which is just a kilometre by walk before Naimisharanya. We
reached Pushkar Tirtha but the International party was yet to reach.

Last night we managed to put Guru Maharaja to sleep by 10pm, for sufficient
rest. He woke up at 4.30am and as soon as he woke up, he revealed his
parikrama plan for today. His schedule was to first meet the International
and Bengali party at Suvarna Vihar. We planned to leave by 6.30am but we got
delayed and left Iskcon Mayapur only at 7.25am.

We reached Suvarna Vihar at 8am and met the International party who were
listening to the nectarine pastimes from different maharajas. As
the last speaker Guru Maharaja shared the pastimes of Suvarna Vihar and
mentioned that, “we need to have ghee like heart and as soon as we hear the
name of Gauranga, it should melt instantly.” Then everyone chanted
Gaurangaaaaaaaa!!!!”.”He continued,”We should cry for Krsna and
Gauranga!!!!…. Mahaprabhu’s mercy is flowing freely in Navadvip Dham and
one should take this mercy from here and distribute it to the other part of
the world. Every step that one takes here, should chant the name of Nitai!
Nitai! ” Crowd chanted Nitaaaaaai! Nitaaaaaai!!

Guru Maharaja woke up at 5am today. As usual the first thing we do as soon
as he gets up is cleaning of his eyes. while I was cleaning his eyes the
first thing he talked today was about his parikrama plan for today. He was
piling up all the places he is desiring to visit. I wasn’t able to keep up
with him so I told Him “Guru Maharaja you have all this in your mind but I
need to write it down.” At that time we heard over the radio, HH Lokanath
Maharaj was making an announcement for all the devotees in the temple hall
after the mangala arati, “We have so many walkers for the parikrama but less
talkers. We need more of my godbrothers and godsisters to come with us to
share the pastimes of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu”. He continued saying that
Jayapataka Swami is going to go on parikrama visiting all the 4 parties
everyday. Immediately there was a loud chanting of hariiiii bol!!!!!!
Maharaj said if Jayapataka Swami can go then none of us should have any
excuse. We have minimum 5000 devotees joining the parikrama this year. After
HH Lokanath Swami, His Holiness Bhakti Purusottama Swami spoke and he said
that Bhaktivinode Thakur has said there are 3 ways to serve Mayapur dham.
1)Developing nama hatta, 2)Doing book distribution 3) Developing Nawadhip
Mandala Parikrama. By 6.30 am all the 4 groups of parikrama
devotees started walking out of mayapur compound with kirtan parties leading
them all. All 4 groups started from different locations. The whole of Iskcon
Mayapur air was filled with rocking kirtan. It was very ecstatic and we felt
the inspiration of just leave everything behind and go for parikrama right
away.

GM woke up in the morning around 5.15am.I did my morning seva for
GuruMaharaj and then took shower by 6.30am.Today is the parikrama Adivasa
day. Around 5000 devotees are taking part in parikrama this year.
The 7-day pilgrimage to the Navadvipa Mandala and the pastime places of Sri
Caitanya Mahaprabhu by walk, in the association of Vaisnavas is a
spiritually enriching experience. Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur initiated the
Parikrama, Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Sarawati Thakur developed it and Srila
Prabhupad made this vision of acharyas into a reality. The devotees
participating in the parikrama are constantly increasing every year. Four
parikrama parties, an international group, a Bengali group, Russian Group
and Hindi group of devotees go in Parikrama and on the last day of the
parikrama, there will be a Mahamilan of all the four parties at the Yogapith
with ecstatic kirtan .All the four groups walked to Yoga Pitha in a kirtan
procession led by HH Lokanath Swami, Maha Vishnu Swami and others around 6am
and GuruMaharaj reached there at 8 am. As soon as Guru Maharaj made his
appearance on the stage, HH Lokanath Swami said “Here comes the
spirit of the parikrama. If He (Jayapataka Swami) can go on parikrama, then
we all should go and no excuse should be given. Maharaj, you are an
inspiration and your presence alone is enough.” GuruMaharaj took darshan of
all deities.