Author Archives: Keshav

One of the key elements of our philosophy as Hare Krishnas is the care, protection and worship of the cow.  Last year, during Janmastami celebrations, small wooden cows were sponsored by devotees and the temple indicated that part of the proceeds from the donations for those small cows were going to be put towards cow protection.

Now, a year later, we are excited to announce that the temple will be saving a cow which will be rescued from slaughter. This cow will then be brought to Govardhana Farms where she will be cared for until the end of her natural life, never to be slaughtered. Under the protection of the soon-to-be-charitable organization, ISKCON Govinda’s Herd (part of Govardhana Farms), this cow will have sufficient grazing grounds, shelter, food, medical care and lots of love.

However, there is one thing that she is missing and that is a name! We are therefore proud to launch the “Name the Temple Cow Contest”.

Up until November 8th, 2015, devotees will all have the opportunity to participate in the process of giving the temple cow her very special name.  The name of the cow will be revealed during the Sunday Feast on November 8, 2015.

How to Participate?
A ballot box will be placed at the ISKCON Toronto reception desk. Printed cards with five different name options will be provided. All you have to do is fill out the ballet by choosing one of the names as your favorite and placing it in the box.   You can also vote online by using the form at the bottom of this post!

When and Where will the Temple Cow’s Name be Revealed?
The grand festival will occur at the ISKCON Toronto temple during the November 8th Sunday feast from 6pm to 8:30pm.

Who can Participate?
Everyone!  Please note, the online votes below will be added to the votes submitted in person at the Temple Reception Desk.

Name the Temple Cow!

This past Sunday, September 27, 2015, the management of the Toronto Hare Krishna Temple – the Temple Council – hosted their latest “Community Town Hall”.  Pitched as an opportunity for our congregation to hear about accomplishments, challenges and financial updates since the last Community Town Hall, the attendance was small but solid.

When the presentation opened up to the attendees to share ideas, concerns, suggestions and more, a wonderfully lively conversation ensued with highlights including, among other things:

• suggestions about improving seating in the Prasadam Hall and Green Room
• requests for regular financial updates
• feedback about recent Janmastami celebrations
• suggestions for better flower storage
• feedback about our Ratha-Yatra festival and more!

Check out some pics below:

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Janmastami Celebrated in Grand Fashion at Toronto Hare Krishna Temple!
Festival Report by: Smruthi Venkateshan
Recordings by: Hitesh Patel
Pictures by: Sahil Srivastava

On Saturday, September 5th, the Hare Krishna Temple celebrated the biggest birthday bash of the year, Sri Krishna Janmastami. This is one of the most auspicious days in the Vaishnava calendar as it marks the birthday of Lord Sri Krishna.

As the guests started pouring in from all over the Greater Toronto Area, the festivities began with more enthusiasm than ever before. In the evening there were many performances, bhajans and lectures given by many devotees. During the festivities a beautiful abhisheka (bathing ceremony of small Deities) was performed with an ecstatic kirtan by the Radha Murari group from ISKCON Scarborough.  Following the abhisheka, Bhaktimarga Swami put on a brilliant play highlighting all the wonderful qualities of Lord Krishna. All the performers received rave reviews from the audience with a thunderous applause.

The mood was set and all the devotees were eager to see their Lordships Sri Sri Radha Ksira-Chora Gopinatha for the annual tradition of the special midnight darshan! When the clock struck midnight, the doors opened to reveal the gorgeous Deities of Sri Sri Radha Ksira-Chora Gopinatha, decorated in their dazzling flower outfits! All those gathered enjoyed this joyous occasion by popping balloons, having a shower of flowers and singing their hearts out for the kirtan.

This was truly the biggest birthday bash of the year, and it is marked by the excitement that still lingers in the air. Hare Krishna!

Recordings of Kirtans from Janmastami:

Pictures from the Festival:

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UPDATE – The Town Hall will NOT be broadcast live online in an effort to promote better in-person attendance.

We are very excited to announce that ISKCON Toronto will be hosting our next Town Hall on Sunday, September 27, 2015 from 4:00pm to 6:00pm in Govinda’s Dining Hall.  This Town Hall will present an opportunity for our vibrant Hare Krishna community to come forward and engage in a productive, two-way dialogue about our Hare Krishna temple and community at large.

The Town Hall will begin with a small presentation from the ISKCON Toronto Temple Council, highlighting the successes, challenges and financial developments over the last several months.  After this, we will open up the dialogue to our entire community to share their thoughts, dreams, concerns and suggestions about how we can continue to grow our temple and community.

Please accept this as a warm invitation for you to come and attend our Town Hall.  We continue to host these Town Halls every three months in an attempt to increase the communication between the temple management and our dear congregation.

If you are unable to make it to the Town Hall, but would like to share some ideas, suggestions or feedback, please feel free to fill out our form by clicking here or email us at templecouncil@torontokrishna.com.  You can also visit the Temple Council’s website at templecouncil.torontokrishna.com.

We hope to see you on Sunday, September 27, 2015 – please feel free to pass along this warm invitation to your devotee friends!  Hare Krishna!

Sincerely,
The ISKCON Toronto Temple Council
templecouncil@torontokrishna.com
www.torontokrishna.com

ISKCON Toronto’s 2015 Congregational Vyasa Puja Book

Hare Krishna,

Please accept our humble obeisances.    All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

The appearance day of Srila Prabhupada is a very special occasion for all ISKCON devotees.    Srila Prabhupada appeared on Nandotsava – the day that Nanda Maharaja had a big festival to celebrate the birth of Lord Krsna (Sri Krsna Janmastami).   This year, Srila Prabhupada’s Vyasa Puja falls on Sunday, September 6th, 2015 and celebrations will be from 11am-3pm at ISKCON Toronto and will continue through to the Sunday Feast (6pm to 9pm).

This day is known as Vyasa Puja because the spiritual master is a representative of Srila Vyasadeva who is the author of the Srimad Bhagavatam.    Vyasa Puja offerings are made by devotees who write and present personal messages to the spiritual master.   The Governing Body Commission (GBC) for ISKCON has stated that every devotee in ISKCON should write an offering to Srila Prabhupada on Vyasa Puja.

We would like to encourage all devotees in our community to write a personal letter, in the form of an offering to Srila Prabhupada for this year’s festival and, to further facilitate this process, we will be making a special ISKCON Toronto Vyasa Puja Book for 2015.   This book will be presented to Srila Prabhupada on the day of Vyasa Puja.   Following the program, the book will be on display for devotees to read all the offerings by devotees of our community.  Please note – doe to time constraints during the festival, we will not be able to have everyone read out their offerings during the main festivities.  However, devotees are welcome to privately do so before or after the festival.

In order to facilitate this whole process, pre-printed pages have been prepared and we are asking devotees to hand write offerings onto these specially-designed pages.   The maximum length of the offering is one page per person.   If you wish to type your offering, you can use our Vyasa Puja online form at: http://tinyurl.com/SPOfferings2015 (form is also embedded below) – typed offerings must be emailed by 8:00am on September 6th.  We will print out these offerings for you.

The hand-written offerings can be submitted in person at the temple, in the designated drop box, up until 11:00am on September 6th. Hand written offerings are encouraged.

We humbly encourage you to please take this opportunity to honour Srila Prabhupada with a personal offering!  Hare Krsna!

Your Servants,
The Toronto Hare Krishna Temple

Guidelines for Your Written Offering:

• Write your offering in the mood of a personal letter to Srila Prabhupada.  Write in a style as if you are addressing Srila Prabhupada directly (e.g. “Srila Prabhupada, it is by your mercy that I have come to Krsna consciousness.”)
• The Vyasa Puja offering is meant for glorifying the spiritual master.    So offerings need to be made in that mood and not be used as a platform for airing one’s grievances.  
• You may wish to read the previous year’s Vyasa Puja offerings made to Srila Prabhupada by various senior devotees around ISKCON.    It may give you some ideas of how to express yourself.   These can be found here: http://prabhupada.krishna.com/homages
• It is a courtesy to start your offering with Srila Prabhupada’s pranama mantras; we have already printed these onto the official pages.   A suggested opening is as follows: “Dear Srila Prabhupada, Please accept my humble obeisances.   All glories to you on this auspicious occasion of your Vyasa Puja.” 
• The main content of the offering should glorify the role that Srila Prabhupada is playing in your life as well as express your indebtedness to him.   You may also include reports about your spiritual growth, how you are meeting challenges and how you are carrying out his orders.    
• To end the offering it would be nice to show one’s appreciation and desire to please, by some nice phrase such as “Your Humble Servant” or something similar.
• If you have any questions, concerns or challenges, feel free to write to us at SPofferings@torontokrishna.com 
• Please note, the temple reserves the right to not publish an offering if it is deemed inappropriate.

Submission Requirements and Deadlines

• Hand-written offerings must be submitted no later than 11:00am at ISKCON Toronto on Sunday, September 6, 2015
• Typed offerings must be submitted via http://tinyurl.com/SPOfferings2015  (form is also embedded below) no later than 8:00am on Sunday, September 6, 2015

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We are very excited to announce the official schedule for the 12-Hour Kirtan!  There is no other better way to prepare for the 43rd Annual Festival of India (Ratha-Yatra) than singing and dancing the famous Hare Krsna mantra for 12 straight hours along with other devotees. Don’t forget to invite your friends and family to join the 12-Hour Kirtan with us!  We are very delighted and anxiously looking forward to seeing you there.

9:45am to 10:00am      HG Dravida Prabhu
10:00am to 10:45am    HH BhaktiMarga Swami
10:45am to 11:30pm    Youth Bus Tour
11:30pm to 12:00pm   HH Candramauli Swami
12:00pm to 12:30pm   Radha Murari Band
12:30pm to 1:00pm    Shiv Prabhu
1:00pm to 1:30pm    Jagannath Priya Das
1:30pm to 2:00pm    Tara
2:00pm to 2:30pm    Sugosh Berg
2:30pm to 3:00pm    Jittu
3:00pm to 3:45pm    Balarama Tirtha das
3:45pm to 4:15pm    Dhira Grahi das
4:15pm to 5:00pm    Krishna Kishore Muralidhara Das
5:00pm to 6:00pm    Ajamila das
6:00pm to 7:00pm    Amala Kirtan das
7:00pm to 8:00pm    Agnideva das
8:00pm to 10:00pm     Madhava

Srila Prabhupada’s mercy continues to bless and nourish our international movement in a myriad of ways, and the global Ratha-Yatras are indeed a prime example of but one such benediction.  Srila Prabhupada’s grace has transformed the once-rare opportunity to pull the ropes of the beautiful chariots of Lord Jagannatha, Lord Baladeva, and Lady Subhadra into an international phenomenon for devotees the world over.

We in Toronto’s Hare Krishna community are exceedingly fortunate to have had the opportunity to present this Ratha-Yatra festival for the past four decades where thousands enjoy the festival amidst the association of great Vaisnavas and ecstatic kirtans.

We would like to humbly invite everyone to join us this year, on July 18th-19th, 2015 for our 43rd Annual Ratha-Yatra here in Toronto.

Festivities will kick off on Friday, July 17th as we celebrate a 12-Hour Kirtan, featuring Madhava Prabhu, Agnideva das, Amala Kirtan das and more!  We will be blowing the roof off New Remuna Dhama (ISKCON Toronto) with this 12-hour kirtan marathon. Once again, the special event is planned for Friday, July 17th from 10:00am to 10:00pm. This kirtan event is not to be missed!

Of course, this precedes the big weekend!  Toronto’s Ratha-Yatra has the unique distinction of being accredited by Madhuha das, the organizer of the traveling Festival of India tour, as being the largest Ratha-Yatra in North America with close to 40,000 people in attendance and a veritable plethora of Srila Prabhupada’s books sold each year!

Some of the unique features of Toronto’s Ratha-Yatra include:

• A Parade Right Through Downtown Toronto
• A “Bhajan Kutir” with Non-Stop Kirtan
• “Yoga Meltdown” – A Mini Yoga Festival
• Live Cooking Demonstrations
• Internationally-Acclaimed Arts & Entertainment and much more!

Most significantly, Toronto’s Ratha-Yatra presents a unique and wonderful outreach opportunity. Thousands of Torontonians observe the parade as it proceeds down Yonge Street and dance with us when the kirtan reaches its climax in the famous “Toronto Tunnel”.

Immediately following the parade, festival-goers enjoy a kirtan-filled ferry ride over to Centre Island, where celebrations continue for the rest of the weekend. While on Centre Island devotees will be able to enjoy the association of a number of distinguished personalities including: HH Bhaktimarga Swami, HH Candramauli Swami, HG Dravida Prabhu, HH Bhakti Vinod Swami, HG Krsnanadini Prabhu, HG Madhava Prabhu and many more! The Centre Island festival-pavilion will also host a children’s area featuring fun and wholesome, Vedic-themed activities and events.  All in all, Toronto’s Ratha-Yatra will offer everyone a chance to experience a unique festival promoting simple-living and high-thinking, with kirtan on the streets, underground, and on the water!

We hope to see you at the big event!  Hare Krishna!!!

This week, Toronto’s Hare Krishna community is excited to welcome HG Eklavya das!  He will be conducting various programs around the GTA and will be conducting the Sunday Feast this upcoming Sunday, May 24th!

Eklavya Das was born in New York City, USA in 1965. By the time he entered the Berklee College of Music in Boston, in 1982 at the age of 19, he had already learned sixteen different instruments and played in orchestras, jazz big bands, brass quartets and rock bands in prestigious venues like New York Carnegie Hall and the Cool Jazz Festival. In 1987, Eklavya received his degree from Berklee College of Music in Recording Engineering and Production.

Eklavya Das joined ISKCON at the age of 26 in Ireland, Europe. At 27, during a meeting in Spain with his spiritual master, His Holiness Lokanath Swami Maharaja, he received the instruction to go to India where he remains based today, in Sri Pandharpur Dhama.

He was appointed, by ISKCON’s highest managerial body, the GBC, to join a team of HH Lokanath Swami Maharaja and HH Janananda Goswami Maharaja in promoting World Holy Name Day all over the world. Eklavya is a well known traveling preacher in the world of international ISKCON visiting USA, France, England, Spain, Germany, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Italy, Croatia, Slovenia, Guyana, Trinidad, Russia, Dubai, Oman, Kuwait, Abu Dabi and Sharjah.

Toronto’s Hare Krishna Temple is excited to share a “once in a lifetime” transcendental opportunity for you and your family!

Our beloved founder, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada desired to establish a massive temple and planetarium that depicts the universe as described in the Vedic scriptures in Mayapur, West Bengal, India.  Particularly, he directed that the planetarium be based on the descriptions given in the Srimad Bhagavatam and other Puranas, as well as the Brahma Samhita.

HG Ambarisa Prabhu is the main Chairman of the entire TOVP project and will be visiting Toronto as one of the few temples that he will personally be visiting in North America. Along with him will be HG Jananivas Prabhu, who has not stepped out of India for 45 years, but has now done so. He has brought with him Lord Nityananda’s shoes and Lord Narasimha’s helmet from Mayapur. Together, they are leading a team of devotees on a tour and ISKCON Toronto will be one of their main stops and we will be welcoming them on Sunday, May 31, 2015 for our weekly Sunday Feast.

We humbly invite you and your families and friends to join us and take full advantage to participate and give full support in this “once in a lifetime” opportunity.  Your generous donations will qualify for a valid Canadian income tax receipt.

Festival of India Launch Party!
Date: Sunday, June 7th, 2015
Time: 12:00pm to 10:00pm
Location: Yonge-Dundas Square (southeast corner of Yonge and Dundas)
TTC Subway: Dundas Station

To kick off the official countdown to the 43rd Annual Festival of India, a special day-long launch party will be held at Yonge-Dundas Square. The festival will include a cavalcade of activities, attractions and performances, including live art, vegetarian cooking demonstrations, free yoga classes, a South Asian bazaar, delicious food from Govinda’s, henna tattoos, face-painting, dress-in-a-saree booths, and more.

Also, be sure to stay until the evening to participate in an incredible, interactive mantra concert (kirtan) in which ancient sounds from the east will reverberate and grace Toronto’s busiest corner!

On Saturday, April 11, 2015, the Toronto Hare Krishna temple will welcome HH Devamrita Swami for a special morning class which will take place from 7:45am to 9:00am.  Devamrita Swami will be giving a special morning class on the topic of: “Bhakti-bhava: The Emotional Dynamics of a Devotee” which will feature topics including:

• the future for your heart and its longings in bhakti
• can you train your emotions how to feel?
• the psychology of insecurity and insufficiency
• the battle with the envy monster

****Breakfast prasadam will be served afterwards****

About Devamrita Swami
Devamrita Swami took initiation in 1974 from Srila Prabhupada and devoted his life to sharing his guru’s teachings, distributing his books and serving at the BBT. In 1982 Devamrita Swami took sannyas initiation and in 2002 began serving as an initiating spiritual master in ISKCON.

A member of ISKCON’s governing body since 2001 he has occupied the responsible posts of GBC vice chairman and later, chairman. His current regional responsibilities include Australia and New Zealand, as well as South Africa, Brazil and the Gita-nagari Farm Project in Pennsylvania. Beyond those areas of spiritual leadership, he travels far and wide, especially in North America, Europe and India.

Please come and grab this opportunity to hear from Devamrita Swami – a world renowned teacher in the Krishna Consciousness movement.

The Toronto Hare Krishna Temple is currently looking for devotees who are interested in traveling, as a group, to the 2015 Festival of Inspiration, taking place at New Vrndavan in West Virginia!  The main information is as follows:

FESTIVAL OF INSPIRATION 2015
NEW VRNDAVAN BUS TOUR
MAY 8-10

All the transportation, accommodation,  prasadam, kirtan, uplifting Krishna katha and association you can get!

• Just the right mix of enlightening presentations by ISKCON’s best speakers
• top-quality entertainment from dramas to stand-up comedy
• rip-roaring kirtans
• and mouth-watering prasad and so much more…

Limited seats available.  If interested, please contact Uttamananda Krishna das or Bhakta Nick today!  Phone: 416-922-5415. Email: unkdjps@yahoo.com

On Sunday, February 8, 2015, the Hare Krishna Temple will be hosting a one-day seminar on the Nectar of Instruction.

Across five centuries comes this incredible guidebook of essential spiritual teachings. How to choose a guru, how to practice yoga, even where to live — you’ll find it all in Nectar of Instruction, originally written in Sanskrit by Rupa Goswami, the greatest spiritual genius of medieval India.  Translated and illuminated by Srila Prabhupada, the Nectar of Instruction is the key to enlightenment for all seekers on the path of spiritual perfection.

From 10am to 3pm, everyone is invited to come to the to Hare Krishna Temple for a special course which will unpack the wisdom from the Nectar of Instruction.  Lunch prasadam will be served, hence the request for participants to register – so that we can plan for lunch.  The course will be facilitated by Uttamananda Krsna das, our resident scholar and brahmacari!  His recent travels took him to India wherein he completed his Bhakti Sastri degree from the Vrndavan Institute for Higher Education (VIHE),

The course is free of cost but donations are accepted!  If you would like to attend this course, please complete the course registration form below:

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