ISKCON Ujjain Preaches In More Than 900 Villages In 11 Days

It gives us great bliss to inform that we at ISKCON Ujjain got the wonderful opportunity to spread the glories of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Srila Prabhupada to hundreds of villages in Madhya Pradesh

MP Government (MP Jan Abhiyan Parishad in association with the Cultural Department, Public Relations Department, M.P. Tourism Department, and Acharya Shankar Sanskriti Ekta Nyas) organized a Sneh Yatra in all 52 districts of the M.P. State.

The objective of this Yatra was to create harmony among different sections of society to rise from the level of discrimination of people on caste, race etc. by conducting Hari Nama Sankirtan and Katha by sadhus. The Government planned this yatra simultaneously in all districts for 11 days from 16 August to 26 August 2023. The schedule was to visit 10 villages every day and in total they covered 5720 villages.

We were requested to lead this yatra in 8 districts. We dedicated 40 devotees to this service and sent a team of 4-6 devotees in each district. In total, we covered more than 900 villages with outreach of more than 2 lakh people. We gifted the Bhagavad Gita As It Is for one main temple of almost each and every village and distributed some prasadam also. As Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu predicted “prthivite ache yata nagaradi-grama, sarvatra pracara haibe mora nama”, we sincerely aspire to try to take the mercy of Lord Chaitanya and Srila Prabhupada to the villages of M.P.

During all our endeavours we could sense the inconceivable mercy of Srila Prabhupada and Lord Chaitanya. With the deities of Sri Sri Gaura Nitai and doing harinam Sankirtana our devotees went into villages and the response was overwhelming. The Government officials, villagers, NGO workers, sadhus of other sects and politicians, everyone participated in chanting and dancing. Many people including government officials have started chanting regularly. The completion ceremony of Ujjain district’s Sneh yatra was organized in our ISKCON Ujjain temple in the auspicious presence of HH Bhakti Prema Swami Maharaja.

During the yatra, our devotees got the status of State Guests. They were given all the facilities and treatment befitting State Guests. They were always escorted by police officers and were received and respected by administrative officers. On 22nd August, Honourable Chief Minister of M.P. Sri Shivraj Singh Chauhan ji organized a zoom meeting with the leading sadhus of all the Madhya Pradesh and he heartily appreciated the contribution of ISKCON. On behalf of the 8.5 crore population of the state, he expressed his gratitude and gave a certificate of appreciation to our team leaders for their selfless service.

We are extremely grateful to Srila Prabhupada and all the devotees for this opportunity to give our insignificant contribution to their mission.

Your Servant,

Dhira Gaura Das

Co-President, ISKCON Ujjain