Author Archives: H.H. Ramai Swami

Sunday afternoons at North Sydney temple are always packed out with enthusiastic devotees and guests coming from 5pm right through to 9pm. There is a Sunday school for the kids and prasadam is served continuously. Sometimes there are two lectures … Continue reading →

The Sydney devotee community is looking forward to building another temple at Vineyard in the western part of the city. They have named it Sri Sri Radha Govinda Mandir. To help realise their goal, the temple management has organised fund … Continue reading →

Some of our Brisbane devotees live in the Logan Shire area. Recently they organised a Rathayatra parade as part of the Logan Multicultural Festival. The Ratha cart made it’s way through the market area where everyone was buying vegetables and … Continue reading →

“Cooly Rocks on Street Parade” is part of festival that’s been celebrated for decades at Coolangatta on the Gold Coast. This year’s theme was the 50’s and 60’s. The devotees were invited to bring the smaller Rathayatra cart and Their … Continue reading →

The Leaders in New Zealand met at New Varshan in Auckland for the annual general meeting.

Apart from discussions about management and preaching activities around the country, they took part in classes, harinama and kirtan at the temple.

Our school here in New Zealand is situated in beautiful, peaceful surroundings just 100 metres away from the Radha Giridhari temple in North West Auckland.    Started in 1982, the Hare Krishna School is New Zealand’s only Primary and Intermediate school based … Continue reading →

    Nirjala (no water) Ekadasi is also known as Pandava Bhima Ekadasi, or Pandava Nirjala Ekadasi. This name is derived from Bhima, the second and strongest of the five Pandava brothers. The Brahma Vaivata Purana narrates the story behind the Nirjala Ekadasi vrata vow. Bhima, … Continue reading →

Wellington has two centres – one in the city called the Bhakti Lounge, which is run by disciples of HH Devamrta Maharaja, and the other at Newlands road Newlands. This temple has been open for more than 20 years and … Continue reading →

The last day of the 40th anniversary of Melbourne temple was just as ecstatic as the others. After hearing Srila Prabhupada give class on video, remembrances of the event were shared for nearly 2 hours. Later on in the morning … Continue reading →

In May 1975 Srila Prabhupada came to Melbourne and opened the new temple on Danks Street, Albert Park. He also installed Sri Sri Gaura Nitai. This year many devotees attended the 40th anniversary and celebrated that joyous occasion. On the … Continue reading →

The Australian leaders had their annual general meeting at Govinda Valley, which is situated in a beautiful valley south of Sydney at Otford NSW. In all there were around twenty to twenty-five attendees over a four day period. Apart from … Continue reading →

Lord Jagannatha’s Rathayatra is a festival that is celebrated by devotees all over the world. Srila Prabhupada first inaugurated it at San Fransisco in 1967. This year in Brisbane, Their Lordships, Jagannatha, Baladeva and Subhadra Devi enjoyed riding on Their … Continue reading →

Lord Narasimha is fourth of Lord Vishnu’s ten incarnations. He is especially worshiped for protection as He appeared to protect his dear devotee Bhakta Prahlada from the asura Hiranyakashipu. Hiranyakashipu had tried many ways to kill his son, Prahlada, but … Continue reading →

The Snana Yatra of Lord Jagannatha was celebrated at Brisbane temple a little early this year. This was because the only date the devotees could book the Civic Square for the Rathayatra was in early May. It is said that … Continue reading →

In Melbourne there are 14 Bhakti Vrksa groups who regularly meet in various parts of the city. Jada Bharata das and Sruti Devi Dasi recently bought a house in the western suburbs and plan to have regular programs. Recently they … Continue reading →

On a floor above our downtown Crossways restaurant, the Urban Yoga program continues nicely.

There are many new guests, along with regulars who come for kirtan, topical Krsna Conscious discussion and prasadam.

Deepak prabhu and Nitu mataji from Perth participate in a Bhakti Vrksa program. Occasionally, they also invite devotees to their house for arati, kirtan and prasadam. Recently, there was a meeting of the Bhakti Vrksa groups at the Perth temple. … Continue reading →

Around 1980 Prema Manjari’s mother and father attended a book fair and met the devotees. They became interested in Krsna Consciousness and shared that interest with their daughter. Later Prema Manjari married Sundarananda das and he became the first temple … Continue reading →

Sukadeva das and Radharani devi dasi were brahmacari and brahmacarini living in the temple ashrams for years. Around ten years ago they got married and now have two beautiful girls. To maintain their family life they run a jewellery shop … Continue reading →

In Bali there are at least 5 or 6 home programs going on in any week of the year. The devotee community is mainly grhastha and they live all over the island. Yudhamanyu das and Sundari devi dasi are both … Continue reading →

Lord Ramacandra exemplifies an incarnation of Godhead who descends for the mission of, “paritranaya sadhunam vinasaya ca duskrtam”— protecting the devotees and destroying the miscreants.   In Bali our five main temples all celebrated Rama Navami, the appearance day of Lord Rama. … Continue reading →

Agastya Muni das and his wife Gaurangi devi dasi have been devotees in Bali since the early 80’s. Both were students studying at university and like many other students at the time became attracted to Krsna Consciousness. They now have … Continue reading →

The day before Nyepi or “Silent Day” many devotees from Bali joined devotees from Lombok, another island in Indonesia, to have Rathayatra in a local hindu parade. Although there were other floats, the organisers were pleased with Lord Jagannatha’s Rathayatra … Continue reading →

Nyepi Day, or, “Silent Day” is a holiday in Bali where all activities, whether business, school, travel or pleasure come to a complete standstill. It’s a public holiday and everyone stays at home. It is supposed to be a day … Continue reading →

Atulya Krsna das and Anuradha devi dasi are members of the Canberra devotee community. They have lived in Australia for over 10 years. On Saturday night they observed the one year anniversary of having Gaura Nitai in their home. The … Continue reading →

The Brisbane Sunday program at Govindas downtown mainly attracts young western people.

Vrajadhama Prabhu, the restaurant manager and expert kirtan leader, has been heading it up and says it continues to grow in popularity.

After an absence of more than fifteen years, Hare Krsna Food For Life has reopened in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane. Raktak das said that only after few months the word has got out and now they get about 60 people a … Continue reading →

The inauguration of the Bhakti Tree Centre in Newcastle was very enlivening. Over 250 plates of prasadam was distributed on the night. Jayadeva prabhu gave a wonderful performance and Sri Prahlad led an hour long blissfull kirtan. Everyone was impressed … Continue reading →

C.C Adi 14.1 kathancana smrte yasmin duskaram sukaram bhavet vismrte viparitam syat sri-caitanyam namami tam “Things that are very difficult to do become easy to execute if one somehow or other simply remembers Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu. But if one does not remember … Continue reading →

The Sridham Mayapur International School has been operating for more than10 years and has over 220 students enrolled. Parents and GBCs were invited for lunch prasadam at school “open” day and also saw the students perform nice dramas and kirtan.

Part of the Mayapur festival was dedicated to the Kirtan Mela and through out the day devotees assembled in the Panca Tattva temple hall for kirtan. Most of the time it was so packed you could hardly get in, especially … Continue reading →

The full GBC body met over a period of seven days for their annual meeting in Sridham Mayapur. The meetings were extensive covering issues from around the ISKCON world. Apart from attending the morning program and festivals like Srila Bhaktisiddhanta … Continue reading →

The Strategic Planning Network, headed by Gopal Bhatta das, once again organised devotees from around the world to meet in Sridham Mayapur. The committees continued their work and discussed initiatives for expanding in areas such as, outreach preaching, organisational development, … Continue reading →

The Mayapur ToVP design team have produced a temporary mock-up showing how the Deities and Altars will appear in the new temple.   The Guru-Paramapara up to the six Gosvamis are placed on the left Altar, the Panca-tattva are on the … Continue reading →

The “SGGS” short for the Sannyasi, Guru, GBC, Sanga meeting in Mayapur was attended by 60 or 70 senior devotees from around the world. Braja Bihari das led everyone through sessions where ISKCON in the 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s, and … Continue reading →

On a public holiday in Auckland, the temple organised a kirtan picnic at Mission Bay. Many families and children came and the Harinama Ruci brahmacaris led ecstatic chanting through the market stall area. At the end we had a sit … Continue reading →

  Home programs and Bhakti Vrksa programs are going on nicely in Wellington. The Temple President, Jagjivan Prabhu, hosted one in his house for my visit. The next morning the devotees from the Bhakti Lounge joined everyone for the morning … Continue reading →

The Harinama Ruci brahmacaris visited Wellington and invited devotees from the Newlands Centre and Bhakti Lounge Centre on kirtan downtown. Everyone went for chanting and prasadam distribution at Frank Kitts park at the bottom of the city on the bay. … Continue reading →

The devotees in Christchurch have finally got resource consent from the city council to rebuild the temple, which had to be demolished a few years ago after the earthquake.  Hopefully, by the end of the year it will be up … Continue reading →

Saturday nights at the Lotus Room, Sydney, have now switched to the Govindas Asrama and even though it’s smaller, somehow the same amount of guests squeeze in. Kirtans are usually led by expert devotees accompanied by drum and other instruments. … Continue reading →