iskcon pune today

Newsletter Vol 11 / Issue: 10 (Monthly) / October 2013 / Price: ` 1/-

Celebrating the Culture of

Spiritual India
On 28th August, ISKCON devotees celebrated the first
Janmashtami festival in the New Vedic Cultural Centre
(NVCC). Over one lakh pilgrims took darshan of the
presiding deities Sri Sri Radha Vrindavanchandra. The
deities, altar, temple hall and the entire NVCC complex was beautifully decorated by devotees, giving a
soothing spiritual ambience to all visitors. Many families stayed back in the temple whole day, engaging in
japa, kirtan and unlimited seva to benefit on the auspicious day of the Lord's appearance.
Lotus VOICE (Vedic Oasis for Inspiration, Culture and Education), the cultural wing of NVCC, organized many events on this
day. The large Annadan hall was transformed into a cultural
auditorium complete with a mini-stage, projectors, screens and
sound systems. Children from the Bhaktivedanta Model School
put up four dance shows, depicting different pastimes from
Krishna lila. Children also enacted pastimes from Srila Prabhupada's life, as he travelled all over the world spreading Krishna
bhakti. These expertly directed dramas had Srila Prabhupada's
voice in the background, giving the audience a feel of the
personal presence of Srila Prabhupada. "Dramatic performances
can move the audience. The children, who were dressed so beautifully, enacted Krishna lila naturally, filling our hearts with devotional emotions," explained Hemangi Gopi devi, who helped
direct some of the performances. The Teenage Girls VOICE
group put up three traditional Bharatanatyam dances. Their

synchronized
moves
and
expressions combined with
melodious bhajans mesmerized
everyone.
Congregation devotee teams
organized mega dramas in the
festival. The first was on the life
of Kanaka das, a great devotee of
Udupi Krishna in Karnataka,
South India. The drama titled "If
I can go, then I may go", taught
the essential principle of leaving
the false ego "I", to be eligible to
enter the spiritual world.

The second drama was the

much awaited "Oh My God,
Returns." The drama depicted a
high-court room dialogue that
answered many challenging
questions and doubts raised
about India's spiritual culture, in
a recently released popular
Bollywood movie. The drama
unfolded events in the life of
Kanjibhai, which eventually lead
him to heart-satisfying answers
on worship, faith, karma,

religion and forms of God. "The

drama is not just entertainment, but a big eye-opener for
all of us, who were affected by
the craze created by misleading
Bollywood movies," said Bhadravati Devi, a lawyer by profession, who saw the performance
in NVCC. "The actors, all
young devotees from the Teenage VOICE group, have
performed in Pune, Hinjewadi
IT Park and Saswad and plan to
take it all over India. The
response has been very
encouraging. For us, it is most
heartening to see the faith of
people restored in the correct
spiritual practices," explained
the
co-director
Radha
Vrindavanchadra Das, who
works as a sales manager with
Aster Building Solutions.
Youth devotees enrolled for the
year-long Personality Development Course in NVCC organized the third mega drama on
Brahma-Vimohana Lila, the
famous pastime of Lord
Brahma's bewilderment on
seeing Lord Krishna's intimate
dealings with His cowherd
boyfriends.
Continued on pg 3

ISKCON Pune Today | October 2013

From
From the
the President's
President's Desk:
Desk:

108 Steps to Happiness

Every year we celebrate the
Holy Name week, when we
reach out the Holy Names of
Hare Krishna Mahamantra -Hare Krishna Hare Krishna,
Krishna Krishna Hare Hare,
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama
Rama Hare Hare -- to Puneites
on a large scale through variety
programs. Visitors to NVCC
love participating in standing
on 108 platforms and chanting
this Mahamantra prayer with
devotion. Many take japa malas,
DVDs and stickers and resolve
to chant a fixed number of
rounds of Hare Krishna
everyday. Harinama sankirtana
is conducted every week in
different parts of Pune by
devotees to distribute the Holy
Names to the mass of people.
While environmentalists are
busy cleaning up pollution,
devotees of Lord Krishna keep
themselves busy cleaning their
hearts and others' hearts by
chanting and propagating the
chanting of Hare Krishna
mantra.

Mantra = deliverance

Now what is the purpose

behind this intense spreading of
the Holy Name through Japa
Page 2

and Kirtana? The Holy Names

of the Supreme Lord act like a
healing medicine for the
miserable minds of modern
age, thus freeing them from all
worries, troubles and problems.
One does not need to spend a
single
penny
going
to
psychiatrists to gain relief from
the troubling mind, instead one
can simply chant and be happy!
The word Mantra means that
which delivers the mind from
all problems of the world. This
is made possible because the
Mantra is a spiritual sound
vibration
unlike
ordinary
material sounds.

The virus within

Our mind is like a hard disk of a

computer with various plans
and programs for enjoying life,
experiencing pleasures, future
ambitions, past pleasures and
pains, good and bad thoughts,
etc. Our intelligence is like the
decision maker in a computer,
the processor. And the operator
of this bodily computer is the
soul, atma. Just as sometimes a
computer operator is fed up
with viruses causing the
computer to hang, similarly
people in this world are

ISKCON PUNE TODAY / October2013

frustrated by viruses in the mind

like extreme greed, lust, jealousy,
anger, pride, etc. These viruses in
anyone's mind not only make the
individual miserable, but cause
suffering to others around them.
Just as eco-friendliness is
appreciated in modern times for
a healthy body, ego-friendly
relationships are conducive for a
healthy mind and soul. Chanting
the Hare Krishna maha mantra
makes one ego-friendly with
God, Sri Krishna as well as all
living beings, who are His part
and parcels, by scanning and
removing the viruses from our
minds! It frees us from mental
anxieties, just like a handcuffed
person is freed of iron chains. It
also bestows happiness now and
leads us to a bright future by
offering determination to the
chanter, freeing him of all bad
habits.

Chant and be happy

Chanting of the Hare Krishna

Mahamantra is an easy way to
take shelter of God, Sri Krishna
who is our most worshipable and
loveable Supreme Father. The
beauty of this chant is that it can
be chanted by anybody, be it a
child, man or a woman, be it a

Hindu or Christian or Muslim,

or any nationality. It is simply a
call for God. It can also be
chanted at any time of the day
according to one's convenience,
although early morning hours
are more conducive. Srila
Prabhupada,
the
Founder
Acharya of ISKCON society,
practically proved to the whole
world how even Americans and
Europeans can awaken love of
God and love for all by
performing this chanting. He
made the hippies into happies.
Lord Chaitanya, the Yuga avatar
for the age of Kaliyuga, five
hundred years ago flooded India
with this Hare Krishna chant and
today, by His prediction, the
Holy name is becoming popular
in every town and village all
around the world.
We invite everyone of you to join
this Hare Krishna Japa (chanting
softly) as well as Kirtana
(chanting loudly in chorus), as
this is the Yuga Dharma for this
age of Kaliyuga and live happy
lives now and forever. Hare
Krishna.
-- Radheshyam Das
President, ISKCON Pune

ISKCON Pune Today | October 2013

Famous industrialist
Niraj Bajaj visits
ISKCON NVCC

After offering respects to the Deities Sri Sri Radha Vrindavanchandra,

Sri Sri Jagannatha Baladeva Subhadra, Sri Sri Gaura Nitai and Sri Sri
Venkateshwara Balaji, Mr.Bajaj toured the entire temple, appreciated
the training given to children at the temple, and received a copy of the
book, The Art of Parenting.
Temple President, Radheshyam Das explained the quality of lives of
youth, who are members of VOICE to Niraj Bajaj, and said, "These
young boys rise early in the morning, do mantra meditation, perform
Mangal arati chanting and dancing, go to college and do studies in the
evening very dutifully. They follow the four regulative principles of no
meat-eating, no intoxication, no illicit sex and no gambling, strictly and
lead a life of character, competence and devotion."
Deeply impressed with the vision and mission of the temple, he
remarked, "Yours is not just a temple but an educational center to
inculcate character and values in lives of children and youth. This
beautiful project has come up by the combined effort of the core team
of devotees with the hard endeavor of the larger congregation
community. It is like a miracle come true. It goes to show the
dedication of your people."

Famous industrialist Niraj Bajaj, who is the Chairman and Managing

Director of Mukand Ltd and a board member of Bajaj Auto Ltd
recently visited ISKCON NVCC.
On arrival, Niraj Bajaj was greeted by children from the Bhaktivedanta
Model School, who garlanded him and presented gifts. Later, he saw
presentations of temple activities including Vedic Oasis for Inspirtaion,
Culture and Education (VOICE) and Krishna's Kingdom.

Continued from pg 1

Bal Govind Das, who heads the Lotus Voice,

explained: "Srila Prabhupada writes in the
preface of first canto of Srimad Bhagavatam,
'There is need of a clue as to how humanity
can become one in peace, friendship and
prosperity with a common cause. Srimad
Bhagavatam will fill this need, for it is a
cultural presentation for the respiritualization of the entire human society.' The
Krishna conscious philosophy gives a clear
goal for one's life, and this culture creates the
necessary environment to practice and
advance. The intent of these programs was
to make people aware of their cultural
heritage, and that talented artists get a forum
to express their devotion. The entire sevenhour cultural presentation on Janmashtami
day was so absorbing that devotees didnt feel
the fatigue of observing their full-day fast!

In the past, he has been President of the Indian Merchants' Chamber

and has been felicitated by the World Economic Forum as a Global
Leader. He is a recipient of the Arjuna Award for outstanding
performance in table tennis, captaining the Indian team for over 4
years. He has also been awarded the Shiv Chatrapati Award and the
Maharashtra Gaurav Puraskar award.
--- Chakrapani Krishna Das
M.Tech. (Gold medallist), NIT Surathkal

In addition to the drama performances,

HG Radheshyam Das and HG Mahavirya
Das presented enlightening discourses on
Lord Krishna's pastimes. The 24-hour
Kirtan Mandali held non-stop kirtans in
the temple hall for the pleasure of the Lordships and devotees. Abhishek was
performed by over one thousand devotees
and visitors in the Bhaktivedanta Hall,
below the temple hall.
The Govindas Mahaprasadam and the
Matchless Gifts stalls were flooded with
eager visitors who tasted special
Janmashtami prasadam and bought gifts
for their family members. Hundreds of
parents inquired about the weekend devotional funschool for children at the
Krishna's Kingdom stall. The Discover
Your Self stall explained to visitors about

the need for systematically understanding

the Bhagavad Gita and Vedic philosophy.
Other stalls entertained children and
teenagers with games and themes drawn
from the Vedic teachings. Overall, the
festival of Janmashtami offered a joyous,
spiritual celebration to every single visitor.
--- Chaitanya Prasad Das
ISKCON PUNE TODAY / October2013

Page 3

iskcon pune today

RNI Res. No. 72522/2000

No. L/RNP/PNCE/M-136/2012-2014

Registered Newspaper
ISKCON PUNE TODAY
Posted at GPO, Pune
On.................................................
To,

From:
Editor,

ISKCON PUNE TODAY

4, TARAPORE ROAD, CAMP,

PUNE - 411001 (MS)
Phone: 020-41033222, 41033234

The perfect gift for your loved ones or business associates.

Radha-Krishna and Lord Balaji calendars 2014 with your name on it.

Buy ars
end
50 Ca7l 50/- only
for Rs.
YOUR NAME WILL BE PRINTED HERE

YOUR NAME WILL BE PRINTED HERE

For Booking Contact : 9225545984

ISKCON PUNE TODAY monthly magazine is printed and published by Radheshyam Das for the owner ISKCON-Pune Br. Printed at Yashraj Printers,
5 - Gulmohar Manor, Nagar Road, Pune 6 & Published at 4, Tarapore Road, Camp, Pune 411001. Editor - Mr. Kiran Shinde

International Society for Krishna Consciousness

Founder Acharya : His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

4, Tarapore Rd, Next to Dastur Boys School, Camp, Pune | Phone: 020-41033210 / 22
Mobile: 9225545984 | Email: nvcc@iskconpune.in | www.iskconpune.in
Page 4

ISKCON PUNE TODAY / October 2013