Author Archives: H.H. Ramai Swami

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 →

  For the last couple of years, devotees from Govindas Asrama have gone to the walk tunnel underneath Central Railway Station, Sydney. They sit down bhajan style and chant for a couple of hours while morning commuters go to work, … Continue reading →

The brahmacaris traveling on the world harinama party stayed on New Govardhana for a few days before leaving for New Zealand. One day they led “Yoga Kirtana” with about 30 or 40 Woofers who are staying at the farm. Srila … Continue reading →

    The New Govardhana Summer Festival was held between Jan 9th to 11th. Many devotees came even though on the last day the weather was a little wild with wind and rain. There was much kirtan, drama, cow feeding … Continue reading →

Every year, Sydney devotees, Pratapana das and Jayasri dd, organise a gathering and dinner for all the Prabhupada disciples and senior devotees in the area. There were veteran devotees such as Kurma das, Camari dasi, Dvaipayana das, Sri Prahlada das, … Continue reading →

Around the world people celebrate New Years Eve by partying and fireworks. The devotees taking advantage of this situation usually go out on harinama, book and prasadam distribution. The world harinama party, consisting of brahmacaris who travel around from country … Continue reading →

Urban Yoga advertised the title of my lecture, “Spiritual Life in the Modern Age,” for another night at the centre, which has now been beautifully renovated. This was on a Tuesday night but still many new people came. Some were … Continue reading →

On the first Saturday of every month the devotees at Urban Yoga, Melbourne, advertise a big kirtan night followed by wonderful prasadam. It is especially geared to attract westerners and usually there’s a good attendance. The mantras are projected onto … Continue reading →

New Gokula farm looks very beautiful due to the amount of rain that has fallen recently. The cows are happy and devotees are growing vegetables and cultivating gardens. Also, the new preaching centre in Newcastle, the Bhakti Tree, is nearing … Continue reading →

Perth is a spread out city and the growing temple community lives far and wide in various suburbs. Abhiseka das and Dasikha devi dasi are two devotees from India who now live in Perth. Every Saturday evening they organise Kirtan … Continue reading →

The Baywater Council allowed Devaprastha das to cultivate non-residential land near his house into an orchard and vegetable garden. Produce is available free to the local community. He calls it the Prema Culture Gardens and every Monday night there is … Continue reading →

Padma das and Mahabhakti devi dasi are active members of the Bali Sanur area devotees. For a while Padma was the general manager of the Jagannatha Gauranga temple. Now he actively goes out on book distribution all over Bali and … Continue reading →