Sankirtan

During May, the Sankirtan team continued with their different online reading programmes of BhagavadGita, Srimad-Bhagavatam and Caitanya-Caritamrita. They finished the reading of Caitanya-Caritamrita Adi Lila on the 1st of June. As the easing of the lockdown restrictions started, Syama Kisora dasa had the idea to have kirtan in local parks with a book table and some prasadam, keeping the right social distance but allowing the public to come and take books if they were interested. This was a great new opportunity to try this new way of sankirtan.

SANKIRTAN CALLING PARTY

On Saturday 30th May, the Sankirtan team organised the first Sankirtan Calling Party. This was inspired by an idea by Vaisesika dasa, who is famous for his book distribution ideas. How does it work? It’s a simple programme which involves calling the contacts the Sankirtan team have made over the years while distributing books, people that met a guest greeter at the Temple and those that attend the weekly programmes and Temple open days. While calling them, the Sankirtan team and volunteers will enquire how the person is coping during the lockdown, how their mental health is and how is their spiritual life. Most people are very appreciative of the call.

During the call the team also ask if the person would be interested in receiving a Spiritual Care Package, which includes a meditation kit and a Chant and Be Happy book. They also ask for a donation that can be made on the ISKCON-London website. It is quite like what the team usually do while out on the streets distributing books but this time they don’t need to go anywhere, they just need to grab their phone and start calling. The calling takes place at ISKCON-London and online via Zoom every Saturday from 10.30am to 12.30pm. To volunteer, please email Antoine on: antoine@iskcon.london

In the month of June, the Sankirtan team ended the online Caitanya-Caritamrta readings and reduced the Srimad-Bhagavatam reading to twice a week. The Bhagavad-Gita readings with Dayal Mora dasa are continuing every morning from Monday to Friday on Facebook Live.

The Sankirtan team continued the Sankirtan Calling Party every Saturday from 10.30am to 12.30pm each week with more devotees taking part online. During May and June, they have distributed six Srimad-Bhagavatam sets and one CaitanyaCaritamrta set. The Gita Project distributed almost a thousand books during the lockdown to care homes and hospitals with the help of Tribhangananda dasa and Radha dasi.

This new way of sankirtan is enlivening all the devotees and the team have received some encouraging words from devotees from around the world including a letter from Navina Nirada dasa from Switzerland, a famous sankirtan leader:

“London has all the opportunities, so whatever you want to do, just do it! Copy success and build your team. There is every demographic in the greater London area. It’s about creating a ‘team first’ mood. Different people can do different things. A few See the opportunities and adapt to the circumstances. Why not have book tables at all the Food for Life events/places? Low key. Could be good. UK could do a zillion in sponsored books. Main thing is to reach students and youngish crowd who can take up Krishna consciousness and make a difference. So follow up and build the sankirtan team. No spandex and no attitude, keep sectarianism out. Intelligent people will not buy into small-minded stuff. Many of the bigger cities and areas outside of London and the Manor are underdeveloped in Krishna consciousness. A national strategy helps, till then create a team of infected people and work with them. The church will do its thing, the revolution must go on. So many groups of activists who could be infiltrated and affected with Krishna consciousness.

Have specific programmes tailored for specific audiences. Target/sniper mode, have fun keep in touch, follow up is key and creating seva opportunities so people can experience the sankirtan vibe.”

When the weather permits, the team have been going out to Hampstead Heath to broadcast the holy name. They put books on display with maha cookies and lollipops and some people are stopping to ask questions or to just sit and join in the chanting.

There are 65 days left to go to Goloka (the Bhadra Campaign), so the Sankirtan team are inviting everyone to help in the matter of placing SrimadBhagavatam sets, the shining sun of knowledge, the cream of the cream of the Vedas in various places. It is available in different languages: Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Tamil, and of course English!

For further information, please email Antoine on

antoine@iskcon.london

For many devotees the lockdown has given them new ideas on how to continue distributing Srila Prabhupada’s books whilst maintaining the social distancing rules. One book distributor, Nalini devi dasi reported: “This young man I met yesterday is a philosophy student from Sydney. He is here because of the lockdown. He said he’s heard of Vedic philosophy and been searching for BhagavadGita for some time! They only cover western philosophy on his course. He was very interesting, serious and learned for his young age. He was super happy to get these “treasures”, so he can start reading while on lockdown. Will keep in touch.”