October 2011 Dedicated to His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Founder-Acharya of the International Society for Krishna 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 the guardian 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 Ahimsa 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 Radhanath Swami, 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 Aldenham, 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 Yatra in Brighton marked the last leg of Lord ‘Mechanical Man’ which symbolised the soul Jagannath’s UK tour this year. being different from the body. Page 2 Bhaktivedanta Manor Newsletter October 2011 Serving the Divine Couple Every morning during the annual five- day swing festival of Jhulan Yatra, the deities of Sri Sri Radha 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 Jayadvaita Swami and His four days cooking the large fruit cakes. Holiness Bhakti Caru Swami. Then Anuradha dasi gathered a team of “My favourite day of the year” Srila Prabhupada’s Vyasa Puja 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 compassion 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 Hertfordshire 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. Page 5 Bhaktivedanta Manor Newsletter October 2011 The beast rises by Krishna Dharma 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.