October 2011

Dedicated to His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Founder- of the International Society for Consciousness Lord Krishna’s Birthday Extravaganza During a very overcast month Bhaktivedanta Manor was blessed with two sunny days during the annual Janmastami festival. Around 60,000 pilgrims joined in the celebrations, with the majority present on the actual day itself, Monday 22 August. With a whole host of colourful performances and activities on offer, it was a field Srila Prabhupada: day for media - with hours of coverage across BBC, Sky News, ITN London “In the material world there Tonight, Radio 4, Radio Five Live and is keen competition between Channel 4. animal and animal, man Krishna is famous as of and man, community and cows and appropriately, this year's community, nation and festival featured the official launch of nation. But the devotees of the Dairy Foundation (ADF). the Lord rise above such Ahimsa means "not to harm", and ADF has established a herd of cows in Kent competitions. They do not which is known as the Ahimsa herd. compete with the materialist The cows produce milk for delivery because they are on the path and are protected from harms way and back to Godhead where slaughter. life is eternal and blissful. The Janmashtami festival was open to His Holiness , author Such transcendentalists are everyone and guests spent their time in of The Journey Home, joined us for nonenvious and pure in several areas over the festival site. Kids the entire festival and commented, "No heart.” visited Krishna Land, would-be chefs celebration of Janmastami in the world tested their culinary skills in Veggie compares with Bhaktivedanta Manor's." SB. 1.1.2 Purport Steady Cook and youth staged their ....continued on page 4 own version of The Apprentice.

Celebrating Srila Prabhupada’s arrival in UK

On Saturday 10th September forty initiated disciples of Srila Prabhupada, along with many others who had chanted and rendered service together in ISKCON’s formative 1970’s era assembled outside 7 Bury Place, Bloomsbury, London. That was the site of the first ISKCON temple in the UK, established by Srila Prabhupada on 14th September 1969. With a palpable sense of anticipation the devotees, some of whom hadn’t seen each other for over 30 years, proceeded to chant and dance through the West End. Stopping in Cambridge Circus they drew a huge crowd of smiling (and sometimes dancing) members of the public. Most of them seemed already familiar with the sight of devotees but not so accustomed to such a large assembly from the senior generation! Bhaktivedanta Manor Newsletter October 2011

Local Fayre At the specific request of Rev Robert Fletcher, vicar of St John the Baptist Church in , the Temple provided bullock-cart rides and face- painting as popular features of Aldenham Fayre.

University Challenge Guests from the University of the Third Age (U3A) enjoyed their experience at Bhaktivedanta Manor and had a multitude of questions! Battle of Britain Anniversary In his capacity of Chaplain to the Mayor of Harrow, Srutidharma das joined dignitaries including ex-servicemen and cadets who packed into St John’s Evangelist Church to mark the anniversary of the Battle of Britain.

From Film Set to Krishna Temple! from left: Srutidharma das, Cllr Mrinal Choudhury the Mayor of Harrow, Anjana Patel and Harrow’s Deputy Film enthusiasts gathered from across the country for a nostalgic visit to Lieutenant John Purnell Bhaktivedanta Manor. The Manor estate was used as a film location for popular TV shows including episodes of The Avengers, Department S and Randall and Hopkirk Deceased. Fear in the Night, which included the late Peter Cushing and Joan Collins, was the last film made at the Manor prior to 1973, before the devotees moved in! Green Shoots The Green Shoots Festival near Chepstow in Wales was blessed by good weather and devotees gathered from across the country to take part. There was hardly a punter on site who wasn't confronted with Parasuram"s rickshaw- distributing vegetarian delights, and chanting echoed from early morning to midnight. Special exhibitions included ‘Changing Bodies’ which explained reincarnation and

Ratha in Brighton marked the last leg of Lord ‘Mechanical Man’ which symbolised the soul ’s UK tour this year. being different from the body.

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Serving the Divine Couple

Every morning during the annual five- day swing festival of Jhulan Yatra, the deities of Sri Sri Gokulananda were placed on a beautifully decorated Celebrating Radhastami with Skill and Devotion swing in the temple room. Devotees Radhastami marks the birth of Lord artistically talented ladies who spent the showered Them with flower petals and Krishna’s tenderhearted feminine next three days painting and decorating took the opportunity to gently pull the counterpart, Radharani. This year’s them with sugar patty and coloured swing. celebrations marked the 10th year that marzipan. Bhaktivedanta Manor’s deity department During the day, devotees took the has been making beautifully decorated opportunity to sponsor various items cakes. as a gift to Srimati Radharani. The gifts “Each cake represents each of the 25 included kitchen utensils, jewellery and qualities of Radharani,” explained Head arati paraphernalia, and will be used Pujari Gadadhara das, “Bhaktivedanta over the course of the next year. Manor is the only Temple to celebrate This year's celebrations were particularly Radhastami in this way.” Gadadhara special due to the presence of His das and his wife Anuradha dasi spent Holiness and His four days cooking the large fruit cakes. Holiness Caru Swami. Then Anuradha dasi gathered a team of

“My favourite day of the year” Srila Prabhupada’s By Sakshi Gopal das Srila Prabhupada belongs to a During this day devotees lineage wherein each successive throughout the world honour and teacher is a transparent via media remember His Divine Grace A.C. to the previous acarya, that is, a Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. pure devotee of the Lord. Devotees make written or verbal The äcärya is the external offerings of prayers, glorifications, representative of Paramätmä, the some recollecting memories all-pervasive Supersoul within. He and personal exchanges, but all dispenses God’s grace wherever he infused with heartfelt sentiments is and to whomsoever is willing to of love, gratitude, wonder and accept it. But we must never forget appreciation. They bear testament that he is not obliged to do so. He to the incontrovertible fact that does so out of alone. Srila Prabhupada’s appearance has Srila Prabhupada himself was, and certainly changed our perceptions, remains, the perfect example to our aspirations and our lives us all. beyond measure.

Page 3 Lord Krishna’s Birthday Festival of Peace for Guardian of the Cows continued fron page 1 In the main marquee, the audience was treated to an awesome performance from Jojio Hirota and the Taiko Drummers, who then joined Kripamoya das and a host of other artists to perform 'Cakram' - a collection of devotional songs from their newly released album. With the involvement of several community youth, the Bhaktivedanta Players performed a thrilling, action-packed drama from the Mahabharat. At the centre of the festival, Sri Sri Radha Gokulananda presided in the main shrine. They graced all the pilgrims with Their spectacular darshan (viewing) in an atmosphere filled with heartfelt song. A full complimentary vegetarian feast (prasad) was served to everyone. Bhaktivedanta Manor NewsletterI would like to thank you and your colleagues October 2011 for your kindness, hospitality and warmth on our visit to the great Janmashtami. We had heard that this was one of the great spiritual and family events and we were much impressed by what we saw. Lord Charles Cecil, High Sheriff of

I am very lucky to have had the opportunity to come for a second year to the Janmashtami festival. We enjoyed looking around the different stalls, seeing the gardens and seeing your new attractions. My mother also enjoyed talking to the cows! It was wonderful to see so many people enjoying themselves - it was a great atmosphere. Cllr Lisa Rutter, Mayor of Barnet

Thank you for making us feel so welcome and taking the time to show us around. We really enjoyed our visit and meeting many of your other guests, It was good to meet the London Mayors there as well. Cllr Peter Knell, Mayor of Hertsmere Our deepest gratitude The entire festival is managed and run by over 1500 volunteers from the community who gather every evening for a month prior to the event putting in countless hours of hard work. Without the volunteers this spectacular festival would simply not be possible.

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The beast rises by Krishna das

In the aftermath of last month’s riots was right. It was the ugly face of Without spiritual practice we are all opinions were divided as to their cause. selfishness run amok as people grabbed victims of the same desires; all of us “Existing criminals on the rampage,” whatever they could while the going was becoming thieves of God’s property to pronounced Justice Secretary Kenneth good. Obviously it was also rampant feed a lust that knows no satisfaction. Clarke, while, in a display of party criminality, as Mr Clarke pointed out, Fair enough, most of us have enough disunity, Work and Pensions Secretary but in the Vedic analysis anyone not control to not rush out and seize Iain Duncan-Smith declared the problem God conscious is a criminal to a greater everything in sight when the opportunity to be “selfish bankers and MP’s ignoring or lesser degree, stealing the Lord’s presents itself, but as long as we remain the plight of the poor.” property. fixated on material enjoyment who Whatever the cause, the riots certainly Naked came we to the world and naked knows what we might be capable of made for some shocking footage with we shall depart. Whatever we think we doing if the going gets tough enough? the police apparently losing control of own was here before us and will remain Even those at the top of the heap have our streets. Fires blazed everywhere, after we are gone. We falsely claim shown themselves to be quite capable of shop fronts were kicked in and cars ownership for a brief period before profligate seizure, as the recent banker’s turned over as marauding gangs realised everything is snatched away by death. bonuses and MP’s expenses debacles that no one was going to stop them. Really it belongs to its creator and demonstrated. Personal violence was also meted out maintainer, and that is Krishna or God. Unless we find some way of increasing with a number of brutal incidents being Spiritual practise aims to awaken this genuine spiritual consciousness in our reported. perception and its consequent gentle society soon we can surely expect the I felt a deep sense of sadness at seeing all behaviour of using all property in divine madness to continue, from top to bottom. this, but I was not particularly surprised. service while taking for ourselves only Vedic knowledge points out that a man what we need, that which is ordained for lacking spiritual practice will eventually us by God. Peace Walk in the tend toward brutish behavior and the Ever increasing consumerism and the number of non-practitioners in society all out pursuit of wealth stand in stark wake of the Riots is certainly considerable. If it’s anything opposition to this godly paradigm, but Armed with nothing but leaflets and to go by, less than 5% of the UK now does our present society direct people attends church, for example. toward anything else? Who are our heroes a chariot, 40 devotees held a Peace March from Wembley The define the distinction between and role models, for example? Film man and animal as the former’s quest for stars, musicians and football players, to Southall via Ealing in the wake religious meaning and truth. Sensual for the most part, all of them flaunting of August’s violence across London. gratification is common to all species obscene quantities of disposable income During the infamous riots, Ealing and quite often a converse degree of but only humans can practice religion. High Street was subject to mobs morality. Saints and sages hardly get a Such genuine practice, according to the torching buildings and cars, looting Srimad Bhagavatam, will ultimately look in, with religion generally making shops and breaking into homes. imbue a person with “all the qualities the media only when it is time to decry of the gods,” while its absence results the fanatics. Someone was even killed. in one losing all gentility and becoming Hardly surprising then that we should "We chanted for peace, which is a danger to everyone including himself. see godless behaviour breaking out all very important after all that had Given the right set of circumstances, over. Especially when we add to the happened,” organiser Parasuram das such as we saw recently, this tendency mix the fact that society is producing an informed the local press. rapidly rises to the surface. underclass of people for whom hope and Animals take whatever they want as and opportunity simply do not exist. Two Later that night, the Peace Walk when they can, restricted only by their and a half million are now unemployed; concluded in Southall and the next power, and a person without spiritual nearly half of them young people, many day devotes took part in the local guidelines will likely act similarly. The coming from families where no one has Rathayatra. The huge event was only restriction will be one’s personal a job or any realistic hope of getting one. graced by the Indian, Nepali and But like everyone else they have been capabilities and opportunities, or the Fijian ambassadors, and is supported programmed with consumer society’s constraints of law, which as we have just by the entire Sikh community, as seen do not always work. ideal of having it all now, and are continually tantalized by an all powerful well as many other members of the Iain Duncan-Smith’s suggestion that marketing machine driven by insatiable public. selfishness lay at the root of the riots corporate greed.

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He had amazing spiritual insight into all Because of his pioneering preaching of life’s situations. When I hear from his spirit of taking his festivals all over the classes, I feel flooded with firm desire UK, the Welsh Yatra was formed. We in to progress strongly in spiritual life. Wales owe him a great deal of gratitude. He was real, accessible, approachable, Tarakanatha das (Swansea) and full of raw spiritual energy and enthusiasm. Ingenuous and ingenious. Without honours and titles, he was probably the Bhuta Bhavana das (London) most endearing and influential devotee He embodied the very core of spiritual in the UK. As Lord Siva is worship by attraction, the nectar of learning, never both the aristocratic and the derelict, pious or distant, he stayed on the bottom we all gathered around him, competing rung even though he was on the top..He for a little of his company. He saw us stayed there to help us who needed the without discrimination, and busied us in extra guidance... Krishna consciousness. He had a hard life himself, so there was no question of Glen Hansard (Ireland) facade. To this day he has made an impression Gauri das (Bhaktivedanta Manor) in my heart and mind that inspires and propels me forward in my spiritual life. His motto was our lives are meant for A Relentless, selfless, unflinching, fully serving others and he certainly did till Tribhuvannatha das enthusiastic, sincere and dedicated his last breath. He was always thinking endeavour in everything he did. how to encourage others to take to Tribhuvannatha das joined ISKCON in spiritual life. 1969 in London and naturally took to a Jai (London) Srutidharma das (Bhaktivedanta Manor) leadership role early on in Bury Place He had a burning desire to please Srila in London (the first ISKCON Temple Prabhupada and genuine compassion An overflowing mine of blissful in the UK) and Bhaktivedanta Manor. for people. His austerities never caused enthusiasm and dedication to lovingly He got the translated him to be judgmental or proud, and serving Srila Prabhupada and his into Arabic and distributed it across he was so loved because he had the mission. Just by seeing him or hearing the Middle East. He organised festivals rare ability to immediately connect with his words, or remembering his friendship over the UK, Ireland and East Africa. whoever he met and make that person and qualities it’s hard not to be infected Yet he was a simple person, whatever feel special. with Krishna Consciousness. he did was out of deep love for his Isani Davis (Ireland) Tribhangananda Das (Manchester) spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada and He inspired me by his broad mind & His deep love for Srila Prabhupada, a fearless spirit to serve him. If you broad heart. He was strict & orthodox ecstatic and preaching met Tribhuvannatha, whoever you were yet so non-judgmental and liberal when worldwide. A lover of the devotees and regardless of stature or background, he required. He realistically encourage a friend to all, with that brilliant smile, would disarm you with his huge smile someone from the weakest most he is irreplaceable. I miss him so much! and warm heart. On this the 10th year challenging point of hopeless despair to Jyestha dasi (Bhaktivedanta Manor) of his passing away, we wanted to get on their feet with a sober new vision. remember him by hearing from a wide He knew how bad things could get and range of devotees and friends about how to pull through. the qualities he had that inspire them in Giridhari das (National Festival Team) Krishna Consciousness:-

First Hare Krishna Festival at Croome Over 100 devotees from across the UK and 2,350 local guests attended the August Bank Holiday Weekend Hare Krishna festival at Croome Court in Worcestershire. When Croome was run by ISKCON from 1979- 1984 it was known as Caitanya College and during that time it housed the largest devotee community in the UK. The National Trust, the current owners of Croome, worked shoulder- to-shoulder with devotees to organise the event held within the beautiful 700-acre estate. Visitors met the devotees and experienced dramas, “meet-the-monks”, meditation workshops, face painting and “trying on saris”. In the Court itself senior devotees gave seminars and the Long Gallery exhibition was notably popular. One room in particular, known as the Fruit Room or Dining Room, was also used for exhibitions because it still retains the colour scheme introduced by the devotees over thirty years ago.

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National Day expands As part of this year’s annual Seva Day, ’s YMCA. volunteers from the Manor community “On Seva Day, thousands of good-hearted picked litter and removed fly-tipping people across the world come together from Composers Park in Elstree. to perform voluntary Seva (service) to Tulasi Harrison: Meanwhile, 150 volunteers of all the community and experience the joy Delivering Little Souls ages helped in the harvesting of over of giving in its truest sense,” explained 6 tonnes of potatoes from one of Seva Day Chairman Anup Ganguly Tulasi Harrison, a Manor School Bhaktivedanta Manor’s fields designated during their recent conference held at graduate, was only seven years old when for horticulture. Another Seva Day Bhaktivedanta Manor. “This year people she decided she wanted to become a contribution included a team of devotees from 70 countries will take part in Seva mid-wife. who work for Ernst and Young, Network Day to one degree or another, including As soon as she started her course—a Rail and Barclays Capital, who cooked Indonesia and China”. three-year Bachelor of Science Degree vegetarian meals for the homeless in at London’s City University—she knew it was the right one for her. “I was so thrilled by it,” she explained. at the Palace Working with so many different people, and having to be strong for them, really On Sunday 13th November, Watford suited my nature.” Palace Theatre, Bhaktivedanta Manor and Krishna consciousness helped Tulasi the local community will present Diwali at the Palace. This unforgettable evening deal with the stress of delivering babies will bring the tastes and colours of in a variety of challenging situations. to the Theatre, in a family experience When she did all she could, and things of music, dance and drama to celebrate were out of her control, she understood Diwali. that it was all up to Krishna, and prayed to Him to help the mother and child. Tickets are available from the Watford Palace Theatre Box Office on 01923 Tulasi was popular at the hospital for her 225671, or directly from Jaya Krishna Das. caring, bright and happy nature, much of which she attributes to her upbringing.

October 2011 Tue 11th Disapp of Sri Murari Gupta Fourth month of Caturmasya Bhaktivedanta Manor Wed 12th Month of Kartika begins Dharam Marg · Hilfield Lane Mon 17th Disapp of Srila Narattama Dasa Aldenham · Herts Thakura (for sat-nav only, please use Thur 20th App of Radha Kunda postcode WD25 8DT) Sun 23rd Ekadasi Diwali festival at Manor 01923 851000 Wed 26th Diwali day Thur 27th Govardhana Puja, Annakuta, www.krishnatemple.com Go Puja Sun 30th Disapp of Srila Prabhupada Please send your news, photos November 2011 and comments to Radha 2nd Disapp of Sri Gadadhar das Mohan das at: Gosvami & Sri Srinivasa acarya [email protected] A team of Hertfordshire’s Probation Officers came to Sun 6th Utthana Ekadasi learn about the Manor Farm and how Vaishnava-style music and meditation can bring peace of mind

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