Dharma Gau Gram Yatra – East Godavari, Andhra Pradesh, India

(Experiencing the Real Meaning of Krishna Consciousness Preaching)

Dharma Gau Gram Yatra is an initiative of the ISKCON Daiva Varnasrama Ministry of India, (IDVM-India). The main purpose of the Yatra is to preach the essence of Dharma and to bring awareness to as many people as possible about the importance to save our mother cows, to save our traditional villages and to save our Vedic culture. The Dharma Gau Gram Yatrra’s target is to reach 108 villages in India.

Our present modern-day society makes most people completely forget about Dharma. As a result of adharmic (sinful) activities, Mother Earth becomes over-burdened, and to keep the balance in nature she arranges various calamities under the direction of the Supreme Lord. To experience natural calamities and disasters, as we see today more and more, should not be surprising to us as this is due to our many sinful activities, especially the killing of cows and the exploitation of Mother Earth.

On August 13^th, 2018, with a view to participating in this Yatra, I started my journey from Sridham Mayapur to the town of Kakinada which is located in East Godavari District of Andhra Pradesh. I arrived in Kakinada the next morning, the same day that HH Bhakti Raghava Swami Maharaja also arrived. Maharaja had started this Dharma Gau Gram Yatra since a few months and had already visited eight villages in Andhra Pradesh.

On August 17^th, we started our ninth village for this Yatra by visitingThammavaramVillage located about 6 km from Kakinada Town. We started our Yatra by meeting the leaders of the village and by doing the Basic Needs Survey covering 10 families. On the fourth day (August 20^th) we held the main program in the village which started by performing a Go-puja (worship to Mother Cow) followed by Nagar Sankirtan (congregational chanting) with bullock cart around the village ending at the Community Hall where Maharaja gave the pravachan (lecture) and at the end distributed free Krishna Prasadam to everybody. As in all such programs, we set up a book table where people could purchase Srila Prabhupada’s books.

The special feature of the Dharma Gau Gram Yatra is that we not only help people spiritually, but we also address their village and agricultural problems. As Maharaja mentions in his lectures: “There are two levels of Sva-Dharma, one being the spiritual level of Bhagavat-Dharma which deals with our relationship with the Supreme Lord, how to nourish the spirit soul, and the other material level of Varnasrama-Dharma which deals with the more natural way of growing our food through natural farming where both cows and land are protected. We can’t neglect Varnasrama-Dharma as long as we have this material body”.

Dharma Gau Gram Yatra is helping people spiritually by giving them the awareness of the Yuga-Dharma, the chanting of the Holy Name of the Lord (the Hare Krishna maha-mantra) and by distributing Srila Prabhupada books. In fact, many villagers purchased Srila Prabhupada books after Maharaja gave the lecture. The Dharma Gau Gram Yatra also encourages villagers to register as a Nama Hatta Sanga (a village outreach program in which HH Bhakti Raghava Swami Maharaja was involved many years ago in Sridham Mayapur when he was instrumental in opening 1,200 Nama Hatta Sangas mainly in West Bengal and Orissa).

In terms of helping the villagers materially, we are bringing them the awareness of the importance of cow protection, the benefits of using only organic fertilizers for growing their food, the advantages of living in their village following the motto “Simple Living & High Thinking”. We also encourage them to produce their own food and cloth similar to what the residents of Vrindavana were doing when Lord Krishna was performing His transcendental pastimes 5,000 years ago. In fact, not long time ago (like 100 years back) in India this culture was still present and people had no need to leave their village to meet their needs because mostly everything was available within their village. But the so-called modern civilization started introducing villagers to chemical fertilizers, chemical pesticides and to tractors for ploughing the land, all of which are very detrimental for Mother Earth and as the result, she doesn’t produce what we are expecting. This mal-practice creates a complicated situation for the farmers such as over-pressure with bank loans and finally, many farmers in India commit suicide. Therefore, unless the natural institution of Daiva-varnasrama is established in society beginning with the protecting Lord Krishna’s cows, there will be no peace in society. And if the society is full of anxiety, people cannot perform devotional activities to the Lord properly. The villagers are thus encouraged to register as a Krishi Gau Raksha Sanga.

We then covered MukkolluVillage (August 21^st– 23^rd) where we did the same program beginning with the survey till the village program on the last day. Although this village was located quite far (1,5 hours journey) from Kakinada Town where we were based, Maharaja and the devotees were very eager to have the Dharma Gau Gram Yatra in this village considering that we have to save as many villages as possible.

Our third village was Atchampeta(August 24^th – 27^th) which is located in Samalakota Mandala, but, unfortunately, I missed the village program on the August 27^thbecause I had to leave for Mayapur.

From these two weeks (August 14to 26) of active participation with the Dharma Gau Gram Yatra, I got an immense clear understanding of the importance of establishing Daiva-varnasrama within the society. Not only we care for the souls, but we also have to give importance to protect Krishna’s cows and the villages which form the basis of the Vedic culture. Dharma cannot be established without cows. Of course, the soul is the primary thing, but secondary doesn’t mean unimportant.

I thank very much HH Bhakti Raghava Swami Maharaja who gave me this opportunity to participate and relish the bliss of the Dharma Gau Gram Yatra. I also thank both Bhakta Hari Kishora Raja and Bhakta Satya Narayana those were very actively organizing the village programs, assisting and accompanying me to make the survey to the villagers successfully. I hope to join this Yatra again in the future.

And I also highly recommend to those who never participated in this Yatra to keep aside some time and participate in the Dharma Gau Gram Yatra where we can carry out the order of Lord Chaitanya, spreading the Sankirtan Movement as well as carrying out the order of our beloved Founder-Acharya, His Divine Grace A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada to establish the Daiva-varnasrama in the present society.

Prepared by:

Vishnurata Das (August 29^th, 2018)