March 2011 ISKCON-London Community Newsletter

News from ISKCON-London’s Radha Krishna Temple The March Edition 2011

March Highlights • Gaura Purnima • Gaura Purnima Marathon • Mother Yamuna Visits London • Faith In Leadership Dinner at Lambeth Palace • Brahmacaris Bhakti Sastri • Community Development • Outreach • Memberships • Food For Life • Govinda’s Restaurant

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Gaura Purnima

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dasa who led an ecstatic Guru Puja.

The most auspicious festival of Gaura Purnima was celebrated on Saturday, 19th March 2011.

Maha Harinam was led by Parasuram dasa of the festival’s team with a mini Rathayatra procession from Soho Street to Marble Arch.

Their Lordships were dressed in a new outfit.

And ecstatic kirtans continued throughout the day.

There was a wonderful drama performed by Krishna Kids Club on the Brahmana’s offering pastime.

VIPs included Kripamoya dasa with his daughter Jahnvi who sang sweet bhajans relating to Lord Gauranga and also present was Sakshi Gopal

Kirtan continued late into the night led by Radha Londonisvara dasa as devotees joyfully danced until the early morning hours.

Mini Rathayatra Procession on Oxford St.

Mini Rathayatra Kirtan concluding outside Temple

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Gaura Purnima Marathon We had an extremely successful Gaura Purnima book distribution marathon.

Devotees distributed Srila Prabhupadas books with such enthusiasm on the run up to Gaura

Top Book Distributors:

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Purnima that we made it into the World Sankirtan Newsletter.

We were the top book distributing temple in Europe.

Bhakta Alexy

Sundar Nitai Prabhu

ISKCON London’s Bhakta Alexey and Bhakta Laurie took first and second place as the top book distributors in Europe with Sundar Nitai dasa also in the top ten.

Bhakta Laurie

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Mother Yamuna Visits London

Community Development

This month we were very fortunate to have Yamuna devi dasi visiting London.

The Congregational Development Follow Up Team changed its name to The Community Development Team. Our mission statement is:

Although she wasn’t able to give any classes she gave darshan everyday and many devotees were blessed to have her very inspiring association.

“To maintain and expand a healthy and thriving community through support and guidance, and to cater for individual spiritual needs in a loving mood of service.”

Faith In Leadership Dinner at Lambeth Palace

This Team oversees the following departments: Festival mailouts (2 devotees), Membership (3 devotees), Follow up calls (7 devotees),

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Deity worship sponsorship (1 devotee), guest greeting (6 devottees), volunteer care (3 devotees), home programs (1 devotee).

Currently we are working on organising a summer boat party for our patrons, a volunteers dinner, an external event for the 42nd anniversary of Their Lordships Sri Sri RadhaLondonisvara.

We currently maintain a database of over 3000 contacts and devotees, and have 87 members contributing Laxmi regularly (each month or year).

In March we sent out our annual Gaura Purnima/ Ramanavami mailout to our entire database.

On the 28th of February Bhakt Ajay attended the annual Faith in Leadership Dinner at Lambeth Palace.

Faith in Leadership is a leadership programme for individuals in their midtwenties and thirties from the different faith communities in Britain.

It brings together the faith leaders of the future and enables them to learn and grow, side-by-side.

Brahmacaris Bhakti Sastri This month we started the Bhakti Sastri course for our resident Brahmacaris.

Classes are held three days a week and taught by JaI Nitai dasa, Murli Manohara dasa, Saci Kishore dasa and Sundar Nitai dasa.

By September they would of covered The Bhagavad Gita, Nectar of Instruction, Nectar of Devotion and Sri Isopanisad.

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Outreach

Memerships

The following activities were carried out by Jai Nitai Das during March.

During March we made 1 half patron.

4th – Brighton program attended by 20 devotees.

6th – Bhakta Ajay gave introduction talk on Hinduism to a group of 40 Italian teachers.

9th – Home Program with Ram and Maria.

For the month of March we distributed over 1260 plates of prasad.

10th – Held a training program on Hinduism for 10 Police officers. It was well received and built a nice relationship with the police.

As well as 50 plates to the during the Westminster protest against soup kitchens.

11th – Program in Crawley.

12th – Attended 65th Birthday celebrations of one of our most senior devotees Hrsikesha Prabhu. The program was attended by 60 devotees.

28th – Started teaching Devotion Practice course which was attended by 15 devotees.

Total for March 2011:

21st – Program at Kartik Candras house.

£ 50184.44,

25th – Attended interfaith open day at the Newton Farm School with Bhava Bhakti devi dasi.

of this above amount: Catering £ 350.00 and Books £ 178.90.

26th – Taught Guru Disciple course attended by 10 devotees.

Total for Govinda’s restaurant £ 49655.54.

27th – Gave morning Caitanya Caranamrta class at Bhaktivedanta Manor and attended south regional meetings in the evening.

Notes: * 31 working days. * Average per day for restaurant: £ 1672.81. * Govinda’s restaurant made £ 8547.38 more compare to March 2010. This is our best score compare to same months previous years.

31st – Jai Nitai’s mother arrived in London for the first time since Jai Nitai joined ISKCON.

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Hare Rama Hare Rama Krishna Krishna Rama Rama Hare Hare Hare Hare

Radha-Krishna Temple 10 Soho Street London W1D 3DL

T: 020 7437 3662 E: london@pamho.net W: www.iskcon-london.org

International Society for Krishna Conciousness Founder-Acharya: His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada