iskcon london (uk)-2008 04-april newsletter

8/14/2019 ISKCON London (UK)-2008 04-April Newsletter

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IS

KCONL

ondon

NEWSLETTER

APRIL 2008

HARE KRISHNA HARE KRISHNAKRISHNA KRISHNAHARE HARE

HARE RAMA HARE RAMARAMA RAMA HARE HARE


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Providing knowledge of Krishna to All

International Society for Krishna ConsciousnessFounder-acharya His Divine Grace

A.C. Bhaktivenanda Swami Srila Prabhupada

RADHA KRISHNA TEMPLE10 Soho Street,

LondonW1D 3DL

T:0207 4373662W:www.iskcon-london.org


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The celebrations ofRamanavami were wellattended this year withapproximately 300 guests.The festivities began at7.00am with Deity greetings

followed by morning classwhich was given byRamanuja dasa.HH Bhakti VisrambhaMadhava Swami led a hari-nam party of 40 enthusiasticdevotees through the busystreets of London. They

arrived back to the Temple just in time for abhiseka of

Lord Rama inthe form of as a l a g r a m asila. By nowthe atmos-phere in the

Temple roomwas blissfuldue to thebhajans ledby GopiBhava devidasi.

The evening class was givenby HH Bhakti VisrambaMadhava Swami.

The fast was broken at7.30pm with prasadamcooked by Bhakta Chips andteam. There were three sit-tings in the seminar roomsand one sitting in theTemple room.

The celebrations ended inthe evening with ecstatic

kirtans continuing up until11.00pm.

Srila Prabhupada

said

"This life of material

existence is just like hard

wood, and if we carve

Krsna out of it, that is the

success of our life."

(Srila Prabhupada in aletter dated 26.1.1968)

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April 2008

THE GLORIES OF

SANKIRTANA

Have you ever thoughtabout book distribution?Backed out as it seemed toohard? Too shy? Not surewhat the fuss is all about?Well read on!

This month I interview HGRadha Raman dasa - a truesankirtana veteran. RadhaRaman dasa was only 22years old when he movedinto the bramacari ashramat ISKCON London and wenton to become sankirtanaleader for 7 years.

Bhava Bhakti dd - HareKrsna Prabhu! So when didyou first come to KrsnaConsciousness and how?

Radha Raman dasa - Well,my story began when I wasabout nine years old. I sawthe harinama party inLeicester square. Didn't real-ize what it was. But it had itseffect. Then I bought a book

from a devotee on OxfordStreet-don't know who itwas, before finally meetingRadha Charan Prabhu out-side the HMV on OxfordStreet, who sold me morebooks. But the differencebetween this time and theprevious one was that meet-ing him and talking to himactually inspired me to readthe books because I couldfeel something differentabout him from other peo-ple I was meeting. It may beof interest to know that hewas distributing books withthe board as a lot of ourstreet distributors still do,and introduced to me thework he was doing at the

temple etc. Anyway,thought I'd mention thisbecause it shows that itsnot the methodology ofBook Distribution that isimportant (as long as itshonest).Rather its the quali-ty of the exchange, basedon that devotee i.e. the dis-tributor being enlivened in

Krishna Consciousness.Bhava Bhakti dd - How longhave you been involved inthe distribution of Srila

Prabhupada's books?

Radha Raman dasa - I joinedthe temple at the end of1990, went out full timeform 1991, and becamesankirtana administrator in

1994 and sankirtana leaderin 1996, a service which Idid until I had to retire dueto ill health in 2003. Now Itry to do whatever I can tohelp the cause, which isn'tvery much. But I have thisidea and conviction that ifeveryone who has everbeen involved in book distri-bution stays involved some-how, even if its just in thebackground it would makeISKCON and the world a bet-ter place. Just imagine ifeveryone who was everinvolved in this activity wasstill doing a little something.We probably would havetaken over the world bynow!!!

Bhava Bhakti dd - How candistributing books help meadvance on the path ofKrsna Consciousness?

Radha Raman dasa - I feelthat distributing SrilaPrabhupadas books stronglyconnects us with Srila

Prabhupada and the sankir-tana movement, and espe-cially the mood of sacrificeor selflessness in the service

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of Guru and Krishna. SrilaPrabhupada personally sac-rificed so much throughouthis life to give us and thewhole world these books

because his conviction,based on the instructions ofhis own spiritual master wasthat Book Distribution is themost effective and fastestway to spread KrishnaConsciousness. SrilaPrabhupada also had notedhow the communist revolu-tion had been spread soeffectively by distribution of

propaganda and could seethat if we could have massdistribution of transcenden-tal literature, then we couldhave a Krishna Consciousrevolution. And this is thedesire of the spiritual masteri.e. to inundate the worldwith Krishna Consciousness,so that everyone can have

the opportunity to take toKrishna Consciousness.Because this is Krishna'sdesire (see 18th chapterBhagavad Gita and 9thchapter Adi Lila of CaitanyaCaritamrta,) and the bona-fide spiritual master likeSrila Prabhupada and his sin-cere followers who are con-

tinuing their disciplic linehave no other desire than tofulfil Krishna's desires.Bhava Bhakti dd - If I am too

shy to distribute on thestreet what other ways can Idistribute books?

Radha Raman dasa - So

many ways, shops, servicestations, sponsoring booksor getting books sponsoredand then placing them inlibraries, schools, collegesetc. The Jehovahs Witnessesand other groups distribute somany of their literatures .Onedevotee once said that their(i.e. the JehovahsWitnesses) literature distri-

bution is forty or fifty timesgreater than ours. And Idon't believe they arereliant on street distributionat all. They go mainly doorto door.

Also, as I said before, we canalso help out in some way. Just like when World

Enlightenment Day firststarted in 1996.We had asuccessful day. Our best dayof Book Distribution formany years. And one thingthat I remember being a keyingredient of our successwas the wonderful breakfastcould by my friend Prema-Sindhu Caitanya Prabhu with

his wife Bhaktin Shachee. AsSrila Prabhupada said, anarmy marches on its stom-ach. So one way or another

we can either take partdirectly and/or support theeffort to distribute SrilaPrabhupada's books.

Bhava Bhakti dd - What tipsdo you have for perseveringin book distribution?

Radha Raman dasa - Stayenlivened in KrishnaConsciousness. If our appre-ciation of this matchless giftgiven to us by SrilaPrabhupada is increasingyear after year, we will

remain more and moreinspired to give KrishnaConsciousness. Mainly itcomes down to how wechant the Holy Name, howenlivened we are to readand discuss these books andhow we associate withdevotees AND if we regular-ly read Caitanya Caritamrta,

we will constantly bereminded of the importanceof chanting, associating withdevotees and distributingKrishna Consciousness. Anddon't forget if we rememberLord Caitanya and the PancaTattva, by Their mercy evendifficult things become easy.So however devotees are

distributing books in theforthcoming Nrsimhadevamarathon, there is no betterway of becoming enlivened

THE GLORIES OF

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than to read the sankirtanapastimes of Sri CaitanyaMahaprabhu. We used toread them on the train back-wards and forwards fromsankirtana.

And if you want to be reallyfired up, then perhaps find

some time in the evenings toreread the first volume ofSrila Prabhupada Lilamrita. Ofcourse, the whole thing isinspiring, but how can wenot be inspired to distributeSrila Prabhupada's bookshearing about the strugglethat Srila Prabhupada wentthrough to publish the first

canto of the Bhagavatamand to distribute it.

And one more thing, alwayscarry a little Bhagavad- Gitawith you. Nothing better todo in a difficult moment onsankirtana or even in gener-al life than to take out ourBhagavad-Gita and read a

verse and a purport. Forexample in the Bhagavad -Gita 2nd chapter whenKrishna advises Arjuna totolerate happiness and dis-tress in the discharge of hisKrishna Conscious duty, its somuch like the battle we face

when we go out onsankirtana and have totry to overcome all the

different obstacles. If weturn to Bhagavad-Gita in

the difficult moments, wewill find Sri Krishna to be thegreatest life coach of themall!!!!

Bhava Bhakti dd - Please canyou tell us about a favouritesankirtana moment?

Radha Raman dasa - onething that comes to mind isone day in Guildford where Iwas determined to carry onall day even though I wasfinding it tough. Especially inthe afternoon, I wasn't ableto distribute a single book,even though I tried so hardto carry on and be unflinch-

ing in my efforts. I had hearso many stories aboutsankirtana devotees tryinghard all day and then finally,Krishna reciprocates byallowing them to distributemany books just at the endwhen they were almostready to give up. You thinkof the story of Draupadi and

how Krishna came through just when she was desper-ate and totally dependenton His mercy.

Well maybe I wasn't desper-ate enough or I didn't prayenough. Because I carried onbeyond the point of desper-ation, so it seemed, but I stillcouldn't distribute a single

book. Then I had to go backto the Temple. But then as I

was reading the songs ofBhaktivinoda Thakura andCaitanya Caritamrta on theway back from sankirtana, Iwas humbled enough by myso called failure to distributemany books and in thatstate of mind I could receivethe message of these songs

and Caitanya Caritamrta in away that I never couldbefore.

So Krishna's mercy definitelycame. And it is proof that ourendeavour to distributebooks for pleasure of Guruand Krishna will never be invain and is never a waste of

time. This story shows that itis a great spiritual triumphjust to make it out there andtake part in the wonderfultranscendental adventure ofSrila Prabhupada'sTranscendental BookDistribution Mission.

Srila Prabhupadas

Transcendental BookDistribution KiJaya!!!!NrshmhadevaMarathon 2008 ki Jaya!!!

Bhava Bhakti devi dasiThank you Prabhu!

Iskcon London Monthly Report - Page 6 April 2008

THE GLORIES OF

SANKIRTANA-continued


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newsWHO'S AMAZING?

FOOD FOR LIFE

This month we distributed over 1,260 plates of prasadam.


HARE KRISHNA HARE KRISHNAKRISHNA KRISHNA HARE HARE

HARE RAMA HARE RAMARAMA RAMA HARE HARE

HARINAMAAt least two daily harinamas, including Sundays, with four to ten devotees each,and many more devotees on Saturday evenings.

In this issue we interviewBhava Bhakti devi dasi. Shehas a full time jobwith the Independent PoliceComplaints Commission (inHolborn) and has taken onthe responsibility of ISKCON-London Temple Administrator.She is also a very enthusias-tic and conscientious coun-sellor and has a group of 14counselees, gives regularclasses, organises the week-ly class schedule, co-ordinates

courses at the Temple and is inparticular working to launchBhakti Sastri at ISKCON-Londonthis September.

Who's Amazing? Newsletter:What inspires you to serve atISKCON-London?

Bhava Bhakti devi dasi:Well where do I start?There are so many things!This Temple is a preachingmagnet, we serve SrilaPrabhupadas favouriteDeities, the devotees are allfired up, we have a largevolunteer group made up ofa variety of congregationmembers, the devotees Iserve alongside are greatactually did you know that

my dad first brought me tothis Temple when I wasseven years old? Who wouldhave thought years laterthat I would be given theopportunity to serve in thisspecial place? There are somany wonderful opportuni-ties to just get involved inand serve Srila Prabhupads

mission. Many thanks to ourTemple President who isgiving me more and moreopportunities to take onresponsibility for Krsna.

Who's Amazing? Newsletter:What is your vision for thisTemple? What would it belike - ideally?Bhava Bhakti devi dasi:I would like it to be biggeras I feel the Deities deserveto be served on a granderscale. We always have excit-ing speakers, interestingcourses, and ecstatic festi-vals but alas we tend to bealways crammed to the max if we had a bigger Templethe preaching would beeven more amazing!

Who's Amazing? Newsletter:If you had all the time andresources, what would youdo for ISKCON London?Bhava Bhakti devi dasi:I would continue as I am byoffering my voluntary serv-ices but I would serveMORE and MORE. Not surewhat good this is in the long

run for the Temple but I amdefinitely happy to just keepon serving in this AMAZINGplace ISKCON-London kijay!


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On the 1st April attended an Interfaith conversation about Domestic Violence andFaith in St Ethelburga's Centre for Peace and Reconciliation

On the 2nd April - attended a Westminster Faith Exchange gathering on the subject ofHuman Rights. At the end of the programme Yamuna devi performed a BharatNatyam dance.

On the 3rd April - gave a presentation to three students and their professor from theFlorida State University. They all accepted a Higher Taste each.

On the 4th April - gave a presentation to 18 students and their professor from theUniversity of Notre Dame, USA. They took 12 Bhagavad - Gitas.

On the 8th April - attended a conversation on Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther

King's legacies in St Ethelburga's Centre for Peace and Reconciliation

On the 12th April - gave a presentation to a group of 18 academics headed by EileenBarker. They took 2 Bhagavad-Gitas and 12 Higher Taste books.

On the 14th April - attended an interfaith gathering in honour of the Mayor ofWestminster in the West London Synagogue

From the 21st April to the 26th April - attended an ISKCON CommunicationConference for Europe. The Conference was held in Radhadesh.

LEAVERS.

Bhakta Pasha returned to Russia and Bhakta Joan Marc decided to remain in Mayapur.

Darpana Marjanam devi dasi left her part time morning reception job after nearly 2 years.Formally an ashram resident she has rendered many years of service.

We wish them all well in their future endeavours.Gaura Bhakta Vrinda Ki Jay !

During the month of April, Krishna Pranadhika devi dasi carried out the followingengagements.



HARE KRISHNAHARE KRISHNAKRISHNA KRISHNAHARE HARE

HARE RAMAHARE RAMARAMA RAMAHARE HARE

April saw the last of theKrishna Consciousness talksat Kings College for this aca-demic year, and it all cametogether in a very gloriousway.

Krishna very kindly arranged

for Kings College to begraced by three bramacarisand one Srila Prabhupadadisciple! His Grace GauraPrabhu from Canada gave awonderful short talk aboutthe significance of the HolyName, and read an extractof a conversation betweenGeorge Harrison and

Mukunda Maharaj, whichone person later told methey felt such a connectionwith, bringing them almostto tears. Gaura Prabhu alsosang sweetly, as we all saton the floor, and later wewere dancing with bigsmiles on our faces, becom-ing enthused seeing theecstatic dancing of KrishnaKripa dasa, Jai Nitai dasa andRadha-Londonisvara dasa.

This dancing is all thatstressed-out students need -everyone was beamingafterwards, and then theirstomachs were fully satiatedwith Krishna prasad. Whatmore could a student ask

for? Stress relief + food =happy, healthy student. I

pray that Gaura Nitai willinspire us to always try topush the boundaries withuniversity preaching andattract more and more peo-ple to this gloriousSankirtana movement.

Your servantBhaktin Suriti

UNIVERSITY PREACHING

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On the 2nd April visited the home of Bhakta Kartik & Bhaktin Surabhi.

On the 3rd April and 16th of April visited the home of Jayadev dasa.

On the 5th and 6th April visited ISKCON Manchester with Rasacarya dasa where JaiNitai dasa gave two talks.

On the 7th April attended a UK Management Council meeting at the new NationalOffice location.

On the 12th April gave a talk at the house programme of Mahendra Karr. There were50 devotees in attendance.

On the 17th April attended a meditation workshop at Kings University with RadhaLondonishvara dasa. There were 15 students in attendance.

On the 23rd April gave a talk on the Four principles of freedom at SouthamptonUniversity. There were 20 students in attendance.

On the 24th April gave a talk at Kings University. He was accompanied by RadhaLondonishvara dasa, Gaura dasa and Krishna Kripa dasa.

On the 25th April gave a talk at the home of the Dattani family. There were 25 30devotees in attendance.

On the 27th April attended the house programme of Raj Kundra with RadhaLondonishvara dasa. There were 15 devotees in attendance.

On the 28th April attended a talk at the House of Lords with Krsna Pranadhika devidasi entitled Bringing God back into Religion. This was at the invitation of the mainspeaker - Dr Joy Phillipu.

During the month of April, Jai Nitai dasa carried out the following engagements.


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APPRECIATION

Why I serve at ISKCON-London

I love to serve at ISKCON-London becauseSri Sri Radha-Londonisvara are the mostbeautiful Deities and they make living inLondon (or Hell as Srila Prabhupadadescribed it) bearable. I feel that servinghere my life has some purpose and there

are so many lost souls in this city needingshelter that only Krishna can give.

The devotees here are making greatendeavours to serve Srila Prabhupada andHis movement nicely, I am inspired and

grateful to be part of such efforts.

If by serving ISKCON-London, just one per-son somehow remembers Krishna becauseof something that He allowed me to dohere, then maybe I will make someprogress towards not coming back to thisplace again.

Your servant,Bhaktin Jo(Volunteer in the Congregation andFestivals Dept)

Hari Bol,

I just like cooking and helping people in need so doing FFL service is something that

fulfils it. Krsna knew where to send me for it! :-)

Your servant,Bhaktin Dominika

iskcon london (uk)-2008 04-april newsletter

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