July 2011 ISKCON-London Community Newsletter

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

July Highlights • Counsellee Cottage Retreat • Croydon Rath Yatra • Arti Filmed at Soho Street Temple • Community Development • Youth Preaching Report • Book Distribution • Govinda’s Restaurant

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

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Counsellee Cottage Retreat The Counsellee Cottage Retreat 2011, entitled “Krishna and His devotees” may be described as a positive and interesting experience.

On Friday morning a group of fifteen devotees drove from London for spiritual renewal in the West Midlands. In the excitement, with different expectations, through fatigue and hard work during the week, the trip by car turned out to be very calm. On this day we were blessed with the grace of having darshan of the Deities in the three temples: Sri Sri Radha Londonisvara in London, Sri Sri Radha Gokhulananda in Watford and Sri Jaghannatha, Baladeva and Subhadra in Birmingham.

In the last temple, we were welcomed in a very pleasant atmosphere. After singing the arati and getting knowledge of the curriculum of consecutive days, we heard the lecture “Why to study the characteristics of Krishna and His Vaisnavas?” led by Murli Manohara dasa. Then we honoured delicious prasadam, cooked by two local bramacaris. After lunch we continued our trip.

of thanking our eternal spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada, without whom this meeting would not have a place and purpose; culminating with the lila kirtan led by Radha Londonisvara dasa.

and ending with the accompaniment of the evening bhajan. The weather was good through out the day which enabled us to get out in the morning for 2 japa walks and sit in the garden for a japa workshop.

In such an elevated mood we continued our weekend. Murli Manohara dasa introduced us to explore the secrets of knowledge about the qualities and pastimes of Lord Krishna and His Vaisnavas, and Radha Londonisvara dasa delighted us with sweet melodies to praise the holy names.

A well-planned program allowed us all to take part in devotional service. The combination of cooking, singing, prayers, drama, and also offering arati to the deities as per the standard in the temple, preceeded by a quick course taught

by Bhaktin Nina.

On Saturday and Sunday, according to the program we had intense spiritual purification.

A special thanks to Gaura Kishore dasa and bhaktin Shital who made great efforts to organise the event and took such great care of everyone.

Starting from the early hours of Mangala Arati

The place of our stay was a house in the countryside. The house where we stayed reminded some of a palace - the endless number of rooms and bathrooms, and the whole design was breathtaking. Additional charm came from a fireplace in the room of the Deities, where we lit a fire everyday.

Friday evening we finished with the exchange

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Croydon Ratha Yatra, July 2011 On Sunday 3rd July, Croydon Town Centre turned into a massive cultural street party as it celebrated its first ever Ratha Yatra festival.

Devotees and local residents came together to dance and melodiously chant the Hare Krishna Mantra for over two hours as the procession made its way across the High Street.

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devotees who had gathered in the hundreds to participate in this event - the first of its kind to ever take place in South London .

Coincidently, Croydon celebrated its Ratha Yatra on the same day as Jagannatha Puri Ratha Yatra and was therefore a very auspicious day from the start.

VIP guest, Malcolm Wicks MP took delight in being asked to smash a coconut, brush the floor in front of the cart and offer a ghee lamp to Their Lordships. He greeted the crowd with “HARE KRISHNA� which was greatly appreciated by the

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The procession ended at Park Hill Recreational Ground where several cultural tents were set up for guests including henna tattooing, face painting and a stall with Srila Prabhupada’s books.

A large marquee set up in the centre of the Park staged two hours of wonderful entertainment performed by ISKCON youth groups.

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The performances included various dances, a spiritual play and a dance and vocal fusion of Sri Jagannathastakam prayers which had been created especially for the event.

Over 900 plates of prasadam were distributed.

Local VIP guests, the Deputy Mayor of Croydon and Councillor Vidhi Mohan stayed until the end

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Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

and shared their delight in being part of such a wonderful occasion.

The ISKCON Croydon sanga group took the exciting step of organising this event with support of Jai Nitai dasa and the devotees from the ISKCON South London Temple.

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Due to its popularity and success, the local council have agreed that this event should be held annually in Croydon.

For more information about ISKCON events Croydon or to get involved, you can email ISKCON.Croydon@gmail.com

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Arti filmed at Soho Street

Community Development

An Arati ceremony was recently filmed at the temple. This Arati film is now being hosted by two online educational resource sites for secondary school teachers.

In July CDT posted out the Janmastami mailout.

It went out one month before Janmastami.

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For the first time in a few years we packed the entire mailout in house in 3 days with a host of volunteers being engaged.

We have begun planning for the next 2 events of the year - our Volunteers dinner and the 42nd anniversary of Sri Sri Radha Londonisvara.

YouTube Video: The Arati Ceremony Explained, youtube.com/watch?v=d7r1L3kOusw

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Youth Preaching Report July 2011

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adventure to find spiritual fulfilment in this lifetime. The discussion was led by Sachi Kishore dasa, and utilised the lessons embedded within one spiritual journey portrayed in the popular film ‘Eat, Pray, Love’.

This was a highly successful session, with the boys being exposed to the richness of devotional preparation for Krishna. This included lessons on planning, cleanliness, mentality during cooking, offering and finally honouring prasad.

Forbidden Archaeology

Vedic Universe

Special Guest Speaker

The KC Loungers also enjoyed an evening of controversy and debate as they explored the topic of Forbidden Archaeology.

This month KC Lounge was treated to a no-holdsbarred, full blown debate session on the topic of Science & Religion, facilitated by Bhuta Bhavana dasa.

During this session, the group was encouraged to question the established Theory of Evolution, and to perform educated and intellectual analysis of the facts.

The event was a huge success, drawing around 20 guests. This was also the first KC Lounge event to be recorded and uploaded onto the KC Lounge website.

The session was also concluded with all attendees receiving a present of the new book ‘Re-thinking Darwin’.

This month KC Lounge also explored the concept of the Vedic Universe. This was done through the critically acclaimed film ‘Contact’. The boys were encouraged to assess man’s need to search out a truth beyond themselves, as well as the attitude required in such pursuit, as depicted in the film.

The preaching work for the month of July was focused on the men’s weekly Friday Programme (now called KC Lounge). The main events are highlighted below:

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Maha Sanga Outing The KC Loungers were treated to a very rare and special treat at month end when they were invited to attend a maha sanga event at Bhaktivedanta Manor.

Speakers included Radhanath Swami, Janananda Swami, Bhakti Rasamrita Swami and Jananivas dasa. This was a thoroughly enjoyable outing for the boys who attended and served to strengthen the bonds forming within the group.

Spiritual Journeys This month the KC Loungers were challenged to embark on the ultimate

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Cooking Workshop The ever popular cooking workshop event was held again this month, this time adopting a more adventurous and exciting menu of stuffed parathas, paneer and sweets.

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Book Distribution During the month of July we collected £14,590.00 and distributed 4952 books!

The scores are as follows:

Name

Days Lakshmi

Book Points

1

Murli Manohara dasa

1

£60.00

24.00

12

1

Aditi DD

4

£128.00

41.50

19

1.00

4

Tattva Jnana Dasa

1

£100.00

£5.00

1.25

5

Russian Bhakti Vriksha

4

1

£6.00

1.50

2

Uddhava Damodara Dasa

Bhakta Jay Suthar

1

£10.00

2.00

Bhaktin Shibani

1

£10.00

2.00

Candravali dd

1

£6.00

2.00

Bhakta Aryan

1

£5.00

Bhaktin Debbie

1

Krsna Vidhi dasa

Name

Days Lakshmi

Book Points

Mangala Hari dasa

1

£2.00

0.75

1

Bhaktin Trisha

1

£3.00

0.75

1

Lavanga Latika dd

1

£4.00

Sri Rangavati dasi

1

Govindas Restaurant

Big

Maha Big Medium Medium Set Small Hard Hard

Big

Maha Big Medium Medium Set Small Hard Hard 1

1

46.00

90

2

£152.00

46.00

6

5

£117.00

47.25

Kashinath dasa

1

£173.00

61.25

Bhaktin Julia

6

£174.00

65.25

1

Croydon Rathayatra

1

£253.00

74.00

2.00

1

Srila Vyasadev Guru Purnima 1

£196.00

78.00

39

£10.00

3.25

1

Bhakta Eliott Reed

3

£256.00

87.50

38

11

1

£10.00

4.00

2

Janava Sundari dd

7

£329.00

101.75

34

12

Devotees at fest.of Cultures

1

£20.00

5.25

1

9

Sharada dd

2

£263.00

114.75

Maidenhead Nama Hatta

1

£17.00

5.50

2

Sachi Kumar das

18

£280.00

115.00

Bhakta Sanjay Sundar

1

£19.00

6.00

2

4

Bhakta Pasha

17

£448.00

145.25

Vasu Gosh das

1

£20.00

6.25

5

15

Sachikishor das

2

£396.00

158.50

KC Lounge

1

£50.00

7.00

14

Bhakta Robert Revel

13

£351.00

175.25

Vrndavana dasa

2

£32.00

14.00

7

Bhakta Laurie

11

£945.00

380.75

190

Bhakta Ajay

1

£51.00

18.00

9

Virabhadra dasa

15

£1,062.00 390.25

165

64

113

Mahavisnu Swami

2

£63.00

19.75

7

10

3

Sundara Nitai das

14

£1,697.00 659.75

325

1

37

Ladies Sanga

1

£147.00

20.25

1

6

4

21

NPKTSP

5

£2,132.00 818.00

359

46

Sastra-dhan Sponsorship

2

£115.00

21.25

2

3

53

Bhakta Alexey

21

£4,473.00 2,046.75

950

4

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

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5 2

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4

10

10 1

35

15

23

100

45

27

1

43

25

16

3

5

38 24

6 9

59 4 460

4

52

14

121

79

2 346

22

1

7 3

2

216 3

168

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Outreach In July Jai Nitai dasa carried out the following activities Govinda’s Restaurant takings for July 2011:

2nd – Attended the wedding of Mark and Nikki Ellis at Bhaktivedanta Manor

£58,605.46p

3rd – Attended the first Croydon Ratha Yatra

from the above amount:

Jai Nitai dasa was away visiting family in USA for rest of Month.

Catering £2,350 & Books £166.50p *************************************************** Total for Govinda’s restaurant: £56,088.96p *************************************************** * 30 working days. * Restaurant average per day: £1953.52p * Restaurant made £5,951.13p more compared to July 2010. This is our best score ever.

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