June to July 2021 ISKCON-London Community Newsletter

COMMUNITY NEWSLETTER ISKCON ISKCON -- LONDON LONDON

HIGHLIGHTS JUNE TO JULY 2021 Festivals Harinama ISKCON Educational Services London College of Vedic Studies

Outreach Project Grow Sankirtan Spiritual Mentorship System

DEPARTMENTAL CONTACTS

JAI NITAI DASA

BHAVA BHAKTI DEVI DASI Temple Administrator Charity Secretary Member of Temple Leaders Council South Regional Secretary Mentorship System Coordinator Mentor

DAYAL MORA DASA

Temple President Charity Chairman Member of Temple Leaders Council South Regional Coordinator UK Zonal Supervisor Mentor

MURLI MANOHARA DASA

DARRYL BIGGS

RADHA RAMAN DASA

ROBERT GUPTA

RUPANUGA BHAKTI DASA

THIRUPATI GAURANGA DASA

Head Pujari Mentor

Charity Trustee

ACUTYA CHARAN DASA Food for Life Coordinator

Community Development Coordinator Member of Temple Leaders Council

Temple Commander Member of Temple Leaders Council

ADILBEK SARSENOV

Russian Vedic Society Coordinator

Deputy Temple President Member of Temple Leaders Council Charity Trustee Men’s Ashram Leader Mentor

Charity Trustee Mentor

Govinda’s Restaurant Manager Kitchen Manager

ANANTA KRIPA DASA Sankirtan Co-Leader

DEVAKI DEVI DASI

DOYAL CAITANYA DASA

JHULAN LILA DEVI DASI

Festivals Coordinator Volunteers Coordinator

Ladies Ashram Leader

KRISHNA KANTA DEVI DASI

MICHELLE TCHOUKOV

PADMANABHA NITYANANDA DASA

PRITESH PANDYA

PRIYA KUNDA DASA

SHYAM GOVINDA DASA

SYAMA GAURI DEVI DASI

SYAMA KISORA DASA

TITIKSU DASA

Volunteers Coordinator

KAPILA MONET

Radha Krishna Records Manager

Financial Controller

Food for Life Coordinator

NATASHA MENON

Communications Secretary

Child Protection Officer

London College of Vedic Studies Coordinator

Atma Lounge Manager

Sankirtan Co-Leader

Outreach Coordinator

UK Rathayatra Coordinator

Atma Lounge Manager

TABLE OF CONTENTS 06.

TEMPLE PRESIDENT’S ACTIVITIES

08.

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

10.

FESTIVALS

11.

HARINAMA

12.

ISKCON EDUCATIONAL SERVICES

13.

LONDON COLLEGE OF VEDIC STUDIES

15.

OUTREACH

18.

PROJECT GROW

19.

REGIONAL

20.

SANKIRTAN

25.

SPIRITUAL MENTORSHIP SYSTEM

Editors: Devaki devi dasi, Padmanabha Nityananda dasa Designer: Krishna Lila dasa Proofreader: Darryl Biggs Photographers: Bhakta Sunny, Chris Caswell, David Crick, Harsh Sharma Louise Guthrie, Pitambhara Govinda dasa Thank you to everyone who contributed content.

For any comments or queries on this publication, please email newsletter@iskcon.london

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“The science of Krishna consciousness is transcendental science which is never understood by materialistic persons… this science is appreciated by service attitude only. It is never understood by any challenging spirit. One who is submissive and ready to give aural reception of the transcendental message, to him only the transcendence becomes revealed. So the more you become in service attitude for Krishna, Krishna will reveal Himself to you. Krishna is within you and He is awaiting your surrender and service, and as soon as He sees that you are seriously in serving mood, you will understand everything about Krishna – His qualities, His form, His pastimes, His entourage, and His abode... In other words, Krishna is unlimited, but the more we advance in service attitude, we appreciate Him in newer and newer features.”

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Srila Prabhupada, Letter to Sacisuta dasa, 17th June 1968

TEMPLE PRESIDENT’S ACTIVITIES During June and July, Jai Nitai dasa engaged in the following activities.

June

Wednesday 2nd

Hosted an online meeting for his men’s mentee group.

Thursday 3rd

Had a meeting with the Russian Vedic Society.

Saturday 5th

Chaired and facilitated the ISKCON South London vision and mission meeting.

Tuesday 8th

Attended the online Euro RGB meeting.

Thursday 10th

Facilitated an online grihastha mentee meeting with Bhava Bhakti devi dasi.

Friday 11th

Attended the online Zonal Supervisors meeting.

Sunday 13th

Taught the Bhagavad-Gita Explore course to ISKCON South London community members.

Tuesday 15th

Presented an ethos training session at the Avanti Court Primary School in Redbridge.

Wednesday 16th

Facilitated a Strategic Team Meeting for ISKCONLondon Management and hosted his men’s mentee meeting in the evening.

Saturday 19th

Chaired and facilitated the ISKCON South London vision and mission meeting.

Thursday 24th

Facilitated an online grihastha mentee meeting with Bhava Bhakti devi dasi.

Friday 25th

Attended the online Zonal Supervisors meeting.

Sunday 27th

Attended with Bhava Bhakti devi dasi the registry wedding ceremony of community members Radha Govinda dasa and Vrindavani devi dasi.

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Temple President’s Activities

July

Thursday 1st

Performed a wedding ceremony for community members James and Lalita Priya devi dasi in Nottinghamshire.

Saturday 3rd

Chaired and facilitated the ISKCON South London vision and mission meeting.

Sunday 4th

Performed a safe delivery ceremony for a mum-tobe in the community at their home and later that day performed a first outing ceremony at ISKCONLondon for Bhakta Rajesh’s baby.

Thursday 8th

Attended the online Westminster Interfaith meeting with Bhava Bhakti devi dasi and later in the evening facilitated an online grihastha mentee meeting with Bhava Bhakti devi dasi.

Friday 9th

Attended the online Zonal Supervisors meeting.

Sunday 18th

Visited the Atma Lounge project in Folkestone and had a management meeting with the manager Priya Kund dasa. Later Jai Nitai dasa gave the Sunday feast class at Atma Lounge and attended the local harinama.

Monday 19th

Facilitated a Strategic Team Meeting for ISKCONLondon Management.

Friday 23rd

Performed a new home ceremony for community members Padmanabha Nityananda dasa and Mayuri Patel.

Saturday 24th

Attended and spoke at the first anniversary memorial service for Bhakti Caru Swami at the Avanti House Secondary School in Stanmore with Bhava Bhakti devi dasi.

Sunday 25th

Saturday 10th

Chaired and facilitated the ISKCON South London vision and mission meeting.

Gave a special festival morning class at Bhaktivedanta Manor on the topic of Snana Yatra and attended the Snana Yatra festival which was celebrated at Bhaktivedanta Manor this year.

Sunday 11th

Wednesday 28th

Performed a first outing ceremony for the son of community members and mentees Bhakta Maxim and Bhaktin Nelly.

Performed a wellbeing ceremony at the home of Damayanti devi dasi.

Friday 30th

Hosted an online meeting for his men’s mentee group.

Performed a first outing ceremony at ISKCONLondon for the baby of community members in Crawley.

Thursday 15th

Saturday 31st

Wednesday 14th

Chaired an ISKCON South London Trustees meeting.

Friday 16th

Had a one-to-one meeting with grihastha mentees Bhakta Matt and Bhaktin Priya at their home with Bhava Bhakti devi dasi.

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Temple President’s Activities

Performed a first outing ceremony at ISKCONLondon for the twin baby boys of community member Raghupati Raghava dasa.

Afterwards attended two yoga festivals, one in Battersea and one in Henley-on-Thames. At the festivals Jai Nitai dasa played bass guitar with a kirtan band led by Radhika Ranjana dasa and Radha Londonisvara dasa to an audience of hundreds of western young people.

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT Krishna Club

Online sessions continued to take place on Zoom on Sundays for the Krishna Club children.

The children are learning teachings from the chapters of the Bhagavad-Gita each week.

Saudamani Radhika devi dasi taught the children during June to July.

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Community Development

FESTIVALS Snana Yatra - Sunday 25th July This year, Snana Yatra was celebrated at Bhaktivedanta Manor, in the new Haveli, where devotees gathered from both communities to jointly bathe Lord Jagannatha, Lord Baladeva and Subhadra Devi with great festivities and wonderful kirtan.

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Festivals

HARINAMA

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Harinama

ISKCON EDUCATIONAL SERVICES Kings College London Students visit ISKCONLondon

In June, a group of Kings College London students studying Religion visited ISKCON-London and were given a tour of the Temple Room, took part in the arati ceremony, heard an introductory talk on bhakti yoga, and took part in a question and answer session with Ladies Ashram leader Jhulan Lila devi dasi. The successful visit ended with each student taking a Bhagavad-Gita, flyer and some maha-prasadam home with them.

Rathayatra Celebrations at Avanti Court Primary School

The conclusion of the week was the pulling of the chariot itself. The resident brahmacaris from ISKCON-London came to the school and enlivened the day with glorious harinama. Four processions took place throughout the day to keep in line with Government guidance and to keep the children safe. Overall, 700 children and all staff took part in the chanting and dancing whist they set out onto the streets singing the Hare Krishna Maha Mantra and dancing with great joy for all local residents and parents gleefully singing along. The children cannot wait for the devotees to visit again for more harinama soon.

If you are interested in organising a student visit to ISKCON-London or would like a visit made to your educational institution, please contact: jhulanlila@iskcon.london

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“The Rathayatra festival this year was just a delight, a real treat to see the smiles, the enjoyment and pleasure on so many children and adults’ faces. Everyone dressed in amazing clothes really entering into the spirit of the festival, dancing and singing their hearts out.”

John Loeber, School Caretaker

“At Avanti Court Primary School, we have been learning about Rathayatra and how significant it is to those of the Hindu faith. Being from a different faith, it truly was a remarkable sight to see everyone wholeheartedly enjoy this special festival remembering Krishna.”

Miss Nazrul, Teacher at Avanti Court Primary School

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ISKCON Educational Services

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After a difficult academic year with the pandemic, Lord Jagannatha came to the children of Avanti Court Primary School in Barkingside, East London.

On Wednesday 7th July, the children had a special day of festivities as they invited the Lord of the Universe into their school and hearts. The school hosted week-long festivities to learn about the significance of Rathayatra, which included its historical background from Orissa, Puri, the arts and drama that surround it, and much more.

LONDON COLLEGE OF VEDIC STUDIES Caitanya Caritamrta Compact

On Saturday 12th June, Murli Manohara dasa started teaching an eight-week online course about the pastimes and teachings of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, titled ‘Caitanya Caritamrta Compact’.

This course is a breakdown of the key pastimes and philosophy within the Caitanya-Caritamrta text and gives devotees a helping hand to get started on better understanding this important text for Gaudiya Vaishnavas. This course was developed by the School of Bhakti.

Five Topics of the Bhagavad-Gita

On Saturday 31st July, Shyam Govinda dasa started teaching the ‘Five Topics of the Bhagavad-Gita’ course, aimed at introducing newcomers to the five main topics described by Srila Prabhupada in the Introduction of the Bhagavad-Gita As It Is. These include atma – the science of the soul, Isvara – God, does He exist?, karma – the science of action and reaction, prakriti – the material nature, and kala – the science of time.

The Mood and Mission of Srila Prabhupada Retreat

On Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th July, LCVS organised an online retreat to celebrate the 125th Appearance Anniversary of Srila Prabhupada. The theme of this retreat was ‘The Mood and Mission of Srila Prabhupada’ and speakers including Janananda Goswami, Tribhangananda dasa, Urmila devi dasi and Keshav Anand dasa, spoke on areas relating to this theme.

New Udemy Harmonium Course Launched

Recording from the retreat can be found here: https://bit.ly/moodmissionsp-playlist

LCVS have launched the ‘How to play Harmonium for beginners with Vaishnava Bhajans’ course with classically trained teacher and community member Radha London Isvara dasa. Learn how to play the harmonium from the comfort of your home and in your own time by downloading this online course from the Udemy website. Learn how to play harmonium for the bhajans, ‘Jaya Radha Madhava’, ‘Sri Krishna Caitanya Prabhu’, ‘Je Anilo Prema Dhana’, ‘Damodarastakam’ and ‘Jagannatha Astakam’.

For more details and to get a 25% discount visit: https://bit.ly/odc-harmonium-0821

View all the LCVS Udemy courses available here: http://bit.ly/lcvs-udemy

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LCVS

Student Feedback

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“Ever since I was serving the TOVP and Sri Dham Mayapur, I always wanted to study the Caitanya-Caritamrta. When I saw the advert on ISKCON-London Instagram, I immediately enrolled. The course was a great inspiration for me to read Caitanya-Caritamrta as I was doing the course. It was so informative and at a very comfortable pace and level of study. Murli Prabhu was absolutely inspiring as a teacher. The course put together by Sutapa Prabhu is of sheer brilliance.

I recommend this course to anyone wanting to learn more about Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Vaishnava culture and etiquette.”

Sukanti Radha devi dasi, London

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“I found the course immensely helpful in furthering my understanding and appreciation of Sri Caitanya-Caritamrta. I now feel a greater focus to make further, deeper in-roads into this beautiful scripture. The highly structured way in which it was delivered whilst being presented in a very gentle way by the long, experienced and personable style of Murli Manohara Prabhu made this highly complex subject more and more approachable. This format has begun to make the whole lifetime pastimes of the Lord somehow more tangible to my mind.”

Hare Krishna devi dasi, Nottingham

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“The Caitanya-Caritamrta Compact course was well presented, engaging and informative - I will definitely recommend to friends.

Unfortunately I was only able to attend some classes ‘live’ but catching up on recordings was a great resource and I am grateful for the recorded option. Supporting materials are very useful. My only regret is that didn’t ask more questions when having the chance!”

Sudevi dasi, Brighton

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“The course was structured in an excellent way. A good overview of the Caitanya Caritamrta was provided which has sparked an interest to learn more. The facilitator was welcoming, exceptionally knowledgeable and very kind. I would like to attend similar courses in the future. Thank you to the London College of Vedic Studies for facilitating the spread of transcendental knowledge by making it easily accessible.”

Prathna Singh, Dubai

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OUTREACH New Outreach Initiative STUDIO 108

After a few months of hard work to refurbish the new space, our new outreach centre is finally taking off! A wonderful team of devotees led

by Dayal Mora dasa, Rajiv and Keli helped to bring STUDIO 108 to life and it’s like a dream come true.

STUDIO 108 is located on Margaret Street, near Oxford Circus Station, and it hosts three events a week for the youth of London, namely Wisdom Wednesdays, Mantra Fridays and Soulful Sundays.

The programmes are hosted by Shyam Govinda dasa for Wisdom Wednesydays, Jai Murari devi dasi for Mantra Fridays and Syama Kisora dasa for Soulful Sundays. At each programme newcomers are introduced to meditation, chanting Hare Krishna kirtan and a spiritual talk.

Great attention has been put on the quality of the prasadam, a first class vegan meal cooked at the Temple by Italian chef Isvara Krishna dasa. Renowned guest speakers are currently booked to feature at Wisdom Wednesdays, excellent kirtaneers at Mantra Fridays and artists and local youth are taking part at Soulful Sundays. The atmosphere is vibrant, youthful and inspiring.

Make sure you don’t miss the official STUDIO 108 launch event on Friday 3rd September.

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Outreach

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Outreach

Padayatra

Dayal Mora dasa and a number of ashram devotees were out on one day Padayatra days in June and July. Places that they walked included 10 miles from the Seven Sisters cliffs to Eastbourne and 8 miles from Reculver to Whitstable. There was plenty of sun shine and a heavy dose of the Hare Krishna mantra filled the air.

www.facebook.com/bhaktiyogalondon

www.instagram.com/bhaktiyogalondon

PROJECT GROW The ISKCON-London community continued to share their home grown devotional offerings in the form of flowers, fruits and vegetables for Their Lordships in June and July. Lots of beautiful flowers were used in the garlands, turbans and decorations for Their Lordships.

Engaging the community in personal service to Their Lordships from home

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“Recently, during my garlands service for Sri Sri Radha-Londonisvara, I felt inspired to use flowers such as beautiful hydrangeas, marigolds and spray carnations that my mum devotedly and lovingly grows in her garden, in the garlands and also to make bouquets, flower crowns and other floral ornaments for Srimati Radharani.

Although the garden has so many beautiful and colourful flowers, as Their Lordships wear the flower offerings the next day, I select the flowers that will not wilt so soon. My mum is unable to visit the Temple often and especially so since the lockdown so am grateful that an initiative such as Project Grow has allowed her to personally serve Their Lordships from home in a way that she is inspired to serve – growing and offering flowers to the Lord!”

Devaki devi dasi

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Feeling inspired to grow something for Their Lordships? Well, join the Project Grow team and get regular updates, tips and advice and share your progress with our community of growers by: • Following our Instagram page @projectgrowiskconlondon • Joining our Facebook group www.facebook.com/iskconlondonprojectgrow • Joining our Telegram channel t.me/projectgrow

www.facebook.com/iskconlondonprojectgrow

www.instagram.com/projectgrowiskconlondon

REGIONAL The following regional areas have regular Krishna conscious programmes taking place which are supported by ISKCON-London. For further information, contact details for each centre can be found at the end of this section.

North Kent Sanga

On the evening of the 30th June, North Kent Sanga had their first meeting back at the Friends Meeting House in Rochester. There was kirtan, a spiritual talk by Mukunda Kishore dasa, followed by prasadam. The devotees felt good getting back to some sort of normality in terms of holding programmes.

ATMA LOUNGE

BHAKTI YOGA CENTRE

www.atmalounge.com

www.facebook.com/iskconcrawley

info@atmalounge.com

info@iskconcrawley.co.uk

CANTERBURY

NORTH KENT

BRIGHTON www.harekrishnabrighton.com

WIMBLEDON

www.harekrishnacanterbury.com

www.iskconnorthkent.org

harekrishnacanterbury@gmail.com

northkentsanga@gmail.com

wimbledon@iskcon.london

www.facebook.com/canterburykrishna/

www.facebook.com/northkentsanga

www.instagram.com/iskcon.wimbledon

www.facebook.com/iskcon.wimbledon

SANKIRTAN Devotees meet Sir Paul McCartney from The Beatles

ISKCON-London sankirtan devotees bumped into Sir Paul McCartney while out distributing books in London who was pleased to see them from his car and waved at them and told them to carry on the good work. He even took a book!

Book Distribution in June and July

During June, the Sankirtan team were out almost every day on Oxford Circus from 11.00am to 1.00pm. The team were pleased that they were joined by Bhakta Eden who was going out every day to teach people about Krishna consciousness.

In July Syama Kisora dasa returned from Kent, and joined the team again in going out every day to distribute books! During this month the Sankirtan team went out to new locations such as East London, exploring new spots and trying different types of Sankirtan such as door-to-door book distribution. They also visited Bethnal Green, Brixton, Hackney, Islington, London Fields and Walthamstow Central.

New Monthly Sankirtan Festivals

The Sankirtan team organized the first Monthly Sankirtan Festival (MSF) on Saturday 26th June which was attended by over 30 devotees. This festival involved local devotees coming together to do kirtan, honour prasadam at Studio 108, go on book distribution at Oxford Circus and sharing reflections afterwards, evening prasadam and a Maha Harinama to finish the day! Several devotees contributed by cooking prasadam, performing kirtan and distributing books. Another successful MSF was also held on Saturday 31st July with over 20 devotees taking part!

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Sankirtan

Gita Project

The Gita Project has had a great response from the Police Constabularies around the country who have agreed to place books. The Gita Project has also been listed as a resource on the AHPCC (The Association of Hospice and Palliative Care Chaplains) website. Another highlight was Srila Prabhupada’s books being made available in the prayer rooms during the G7 summit!

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The team has had organisations contact them again for more books. This is a quote from one Chaplain who was sent books last year:

“Sometime last year, your organisation very kindly sent some resources that were of use to our prisoners. The prison has embarked on a new project which focuses on rehabilitation from drugs as well as a faith library for all prisoners to access and looking at what you have available, we were asking if we could have some more copies.”

Please see below the books that have been placed by the Gita Project from April to June 2021.

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Sankirtan

JUNE

£8,212 Laxmi Collected

1,692

Books Distributed

12

SB Sets Distributed

JULY

£9,662 Laxmi Collected

2,573

Books Distributed

1

CC Sets Distributed

5

SB Sets Distributed

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Sankirtan

Sankirtan Interview with Ananta Kripa dasa The Community Newsletter team had a chat with Ananta Kripa dasa, a resident brahmacari and Co Sankirtan Leader to find out a bit more about him. He is originally from France, joined ISKCONLondon in 2018 and he was initiated earlier this year!

Community Newsletter Team: Hare Krishna Ananta Kripa dasa! Thank you for speaking to us. How did you first come to Krishna Consciousness?

Ananta Kripa dasa: Hare Krishna! I first came to Krishna Consciousness by volunteering in New Mayapur in France. I was travelling by bicycle in Europe and planning to go to India. After some time passed in France, I went down to Spain where I stayed at ISKCON Malaga for more than six months, doing a lot of different services.

After meeting a few devotees from London, they directed me to go there. I decided to go to the London Rathayatra in 2018 and since then I have never left!

Q) Which Srila Prabhupada book did you get first and how did it help you?

A) The first book I read was “Life Comes From Life” - it really impacted me how Srila Prabhupada was defeating all the scientists’ point of view that we learn in school but is totally wrong, not following Vedic teachings. I was very impressed how strong the words of Srila Prabhupada were.

Q) What inspired you to join the Temple?

A) The whole atmosphere, the friendliness of the devotees and the harinama sankirtana going on everyday!

Q) One of your main services is book distribution - how do you find this? What keeps you motivated for going out on book distribution?

A) Yes book distribution is great, I think everyone should try at least once to perform it. Reading and hearing Srila Prabhupada’s books in the association of devotees on a daily basis is what inspires me to go out.

Q) Is book distribution back to normal now since the lockdown lifted?

A) Yes. Q) Book distribution is very merciful and magical, as you meet lots of interesting people and can see people’s lives getting transformed by getting a book. Can you share with us one of your own Sankirtan stories?

To get involved with sankirtan activities:

A) Sure, one happened recently. A year and a half ago, I met a guy in Bromley and I kept contact with him and we read Bhagavad-Gita during lockdown on the phone for a year. Now recently one weekend, he came and stayed over at the ISKCON-London ashram. He is coming regularly to our programme and wants to come for Rathayatra this year! Just by encouraging people, making friends with them and also reading the books we distribute with them, has helped them a lot to make advancement - it is fantastic to observe.

Q) What other services do you like to do and why?

A)Reading and hearing Srila Prabhupada’s books in the association of devotees, and cleaning the pots and floor.

Q) What is the Monthly Sankirtan Festival? And what is the inspiration behind it?

A) It also stands as “MSF”. It comes straight from Vaisesika Prabhu in America. It’s all about arranging one day in a month where everyone can meet and go out together for sankirtan.

Q) What are the plans for this year’s Bhadra campaign?

A) As it is the 125th year of Srila Prabhupada’s appearance, we more than doubled our goal for this year. We plan to distribute at least 125 SrimadBhagavatam sets this year. We have new sets that have arrived from Germany, they are fantastic and good quality. There are 18 volumes and it’s £175 only! Devotees can exchange their old set for their new one for this price and we will distribute the old one on their behalf to people who can’t afford the price.

So far we are close to 50 sets already distributed.

Everyone is encouraged to take one, give one to a friend and/or sponsor one. sankirtan@iskcon.london

SPIRITUAL MENTORSHIP SYSTEM Mentee Meetings Update

Chandravali devi dasi’s mentee group and friends gathered together at Hyde Park in June.

They had kirtan and read from Krishna Book.

Everyone brought one dish of prasadam each and they had a wonderful feast!

Bhava Bhakti devi dasi’s ladies mentee group meet twice a month. During June they met in person for the first time since the lockdown in March 2020! They met up in Russell Square Park and had a theme of Krishna and Balaram in Vrindavana. They played charades based on Krishna’s pastimes, the alphabet game based on Krishna’s names and then Krishna’s qualities. They discussed Krishna’s pastimes together and ended with a tug of war game between Krishna (and His gopas) and Balarama (and His gopas) and Krishna’s team won!

Jai Nitai dasa’s mens mentee group meet twice a month. Here is a description of one of those meetings in June: “We met on Zoom and first chanted the Mangalacarana prayers together. We then recited Bhagavad-Gita verse 10.9. We also read the purport to 10.10 and shared reflections and a nice conversation about the analogy of the bhakti lata bija. The topic talk was given by Bhakta Niket on ‘Who is Lord Jagannatha?’ which led to a long group chat about Lord Jagannatha with many questions and answers.”

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Spiritual Mentorship System

The ladies ashram mentee group meet twice a month in the Temple and their mentor is Bhava Bhakti devi dasi. She shared an update for June: “In one of the meetings in June, I facilitated a talk on ‘What is chastity?’ I selected verses from SrimadBhagavatam Canto 9 - quotes from Mandodari and Urvasi. We read and discussed the verses and purports. Nice discussion on independent women versus chastity and submissiveness, the process of selecting a devotee husband, rules of association, and what does shelter look like in a Vaishnava marriage.”

The grihastha mentee group is facilitated by Jai Nitai dasa and Bhava Bhakti devi dasi and they meet twice a month. In June and July, they continued to read and study Srila Prabhupada’s books together and read four pages daily and shared their realisations on a specific WhatsApp group. The books they finished were: ‘The Perfection of Yoga’, ‘Chant and Be Happy’ and ‘Your Ever Well Wisher’. The purpose of the exercise is to ensure devotees are reading and studying Srila Prabhupada’s books daily and in this way developing a taste for such reading.

One of the grihastha mentee meetings in July was turned into a Zoom Court Room drama! Jai Nitai dasa and Bhava Bhakti devi dasi did a presentation on Srimad-Bhagavatam Canto 4 Chapter 19 - “King Prthu’s Hundred Horse Sacrifices”. First everyone took turns to read the verses. They then created a court room scenario whereby each devotee was a character from the chapter and everyone got into character and acted according to the text. The case which was brought to court was ‘Prthu Maharaj vs.

Lord Indra’ as Indra had been taken to court for propagating irreligious practices and disrupting the 100th horse sacrifice. It was a lot of fun and everyone enjoyed getting into character

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Spiritual Mentorship System

DAILY SCHEDULE ARATI TIMES 04:30 05:00 07:00 08:00 12:30 16:15 19:00 21:00

DARSHAN TIMES Although Their Lordships’ arati is taking place as normal as part of the Deity worship, please note ISKCON-London Radha-Krishna Temple, at the time of publication, is closed and only open for darshan during select times on Wednesdays, Sundays and festival days.

Please visit www.iskcon.london for the latest information.

Mangal Arati Tulasi Arati Deity Greetings Dhoopa Arati Raj Bhoga Arati Dhoopa Arati Sundara Arati Sayana Arati

CLASS TIMES 07:30 Srimad-Bhagavatam / Sri Caitanya-Caritamrta At the time of publication, classes in the Temple Room are only taking place in the morning which are available to view via live broadcast. Please visit Bhakti Yoga London, ISKCON-London and London College of Vedic Studies Facebook pages for the latest information on additional online classes, programmes and courses.

These are times when items are offered for the pleasure of Their Lordships.

ISKCON-London Radha-Krishna Temple 10 Soho Street London W1D 3DL

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Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR KRISHNA CONSCIOUSNESS FOUNDER-ACHARYA: HIS DIVINE GRACE A.C. BHAKTIVEDANTA SWAMI PRABHUPADA