Regional

The following regional areas have regular Krishna Conscious programmes taking place which are supported by ISKCON-London: Folkestone (Atma Lounge), Crawley (Bhakti Yoga Centre), Brighton, Canterbury, Margate, North Kent and Wimbledon. The contact details for each centre can be found at the bottom of this section if you would like to get involved.

ATMA LOUNGE

Since it did not look like the COVID-19 restrictions would ease any time soon, the Atma Lounge team decided to return to online preaching programmes with full force!

They are now running nine programmes each week, including a Bhagavad-Gita discussion group, weekly Srila Prabhupada lecture on Facebook and WhatsApp, Srimad-Bhagavatam readings five mornings a week, a live morning meditation at the Atma Lounge (with social distancing measures in place) and not to forget the highlight of the week, the Zoom special Sunday Feast with takeaways from the Magic Kitchen! Radha Ramana dasa has also kindly been giving several ISKCON Disciple Course supplement classes.

The Secrets of India Gift Shop is open five days a week (dependent on Government guidelines) and now blessing everyone with darshan from a beautiful new Krishna Deity, arriving on Janmastami from Belgium.

During December, Atma Lounge was in full spirits for Srila Prabhupada’s book marathon with several book tables, street sankirtana, and books flying out of the shop as well. Congregation members, Sandy and her ten-year old son Josh won the prize for most creative book distribution method by making a festive book advent calendar!

Catastrophe struck when the Government announced the introduction of Tier 4 restrictions, half an hour before the shop closed on the last Saturday before Christmas, closing the shop during what is usually the busiest week of the year. However, that did not stop Srila Prabhupada’s book distribution in Folkestone, as the devotees had a book table outside the shop for passers-by to pick up a “lockdown” book and give donations through the letterbox or online. 13 Bhagavad-Gitas were distributed on Gita Jayanti.

ISKCON Canterbury organised a big book distribution initiative at the University of Kent, distributing transcendental books on campus, in flats of students, and by inviting students for programmes and sharing transcendental knowledge.

Many University students have been cooped up inside their halls of residence since the start of term and so Mantra Caitanya dasa and his student team enthusiastically reached out to students to give them the tools they needed not only to survive the pandemic, but to thrive in it; chanting the Hare Krishna Maha Mantra and reading transcendental books is the best way to do that!

Over the three Saturdays in October they have distributed just over 1,000 transcendental books on campus, and have invited at least as many students to their free meditation sessions which take place both at the University and online. ISKCON Canterbury has also set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for distributing books to students. If you would like to donate, please click on the link here: gf.me/u/yw7sw3

ATMA LOUNGE

www.atmalounge.com info@atmalounge.com

BHAKTI YOGA CENTRE

www.facebook.com/iskconcrawley info@iskconcrawley.co.uk

BRIGHTON

www.harekrishnabrighton.com

www.iskconnorthkent.org WIMBLEDON www.facebook.com/iskcon.wimbledon wimbledon@iskcon.london www.instagram.com/iskcon.wimbledon

CANTERBURY

www.harekrishnacanterbury.com harekrishnacanterbury@gmail.com www.facebook.com/canterburykrishna/

NORTH KENT

northkentsanga@gmail.com

MARGATE

www.facebook.com/meditate.margate