OUTREACH

OUTREACH OUTREACH

Bhakti Yoga London

Bhakti Yoga London is an outreach initiative, run by temple residents and volunteers, for young professionals. During the lockdown, the team have utilised online platforms such as Zoom, Facebook and Instagram to continue to offer a range of exciting weekly programmes.

Wisdom Wednesdays

Wisdom Wednesdays takes place every Wednesday from 6.30pm to 8.00pm via Zoom and live on the Bhakti Yoga London Facebook page. The online programmes kicked off in January with a unique Goal Setting Workshop Series with Bhuta Bhavana dasa. Guided by wisdom found in Vedic scriptures, the workshops explored what lessons could be learnt from 2020 and offered tools to set goals for 2021. This was followed by an illuminating Spoken Word Poetry evening entitled ‘Arise’ which featured bhakti artists from the UK, South Africa and the USA. Artists and devotees came together to share poetry, inspire and uplift each other to embrace 2021.

In February, to mark the 125th anniversary of Srila Prabhupada’s appearance, they invited Trai dasa, a disciple of Srila Prabhupada, for a unique Wisdom Wednesdays evening. He took the group down memory lane sharing his personal experiences with Srila Prabhupada in the 60s and 70s, when ‘Hippies turned to Happies’ upon joining the Hare Krishna movement. During March, the team organised a session with Srila Prabhupada disciple Adi Karta dasa on the topic “Staying Sane Amidst Insanity” where he explored how people could still lead a peaceful and simple life amidst challenging times. He shared his experience living in a farm community and inspired us to be more close to Mother Earth to stay calm, balanced and spiritually fit.

Bhakti Yoga London celebrated International Women’s Day in style with an inspiring session where Saradiya Rasa dasi used the tale of Draupadi in the Mahabharata to help address injustices and stay free from victim-mentality and grow through our challenges. This was a truly international sanga with participants from South Africa, Sweden and Zurich.

The team drew March to a close with a special session with Mahatma dasa, who enlightened everyone on how Chaitanya Mahaprabhu started the movement of chanting the Holy Names, introducing the perfect form of meditation fit for the iron age.

Spiritual Technologies

Spiritual Technologies takes place every Thursday from 6.30pm to 8.00pm via Zoom and live on the Bhakti Yoga London Facebook page. This weekly Bhagavad-Gita study group provides an intimate and safe space for those who are new to bhakti to study and understand the teachings of the Bhagavad-Gita. Shyam Govinda dasa leads the interactive sessions. This sanga creates the opportunity for like-minded individuals to come together and reflect on how the Bhagavad-Gita’s teachings should be applied to transform one’s life.

If you have ever felt the Bhagavad-Gita is difficult to read and understand on your own, or wanted to read it but never got round to it, this is the perfect session for you. No question will be classed as a silly question. This will also give you the opportunity to connect with like-minded individuals and reflect on how we can use Vedic teachings to transform our lives.

A new podcast called ‘Redefining Spirituality’ started taking place every Friday from 6.30pm to 7.30pm via Zoom and live on the Bhakti Yoga London Facebook page. This interesting and exhilarating podcast with Syama Kisora dasa and Bhakta Keshav explores various aspects of spirituality guided by ancient Vedic texts. They have been discussing the Sri Isopanisad. The upcoming sessions aim to delve deeper into the Vedic scriptures such as Srimad-Bhagavatam to develop an understanding of the culture and practices of Bhakti Yoga.