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July 2001

Carnival of the Chariots' attracts record media attention

London Rathayatra was celebrated again this year in blazing sunshine. As the cart beating the Deities of Jaganath, Baladeva and Subhadra commenced the journey from Hyde Park to Trafalgar Square, pulled by hundreds of willing devotees, Labour party whip Tony McNulty MP officially swept the street, accompanied by the Indian High Commissioner.

During his speech from Nelsons Column, Tony McNulty, MP for Brent North, explained that he felt very honoured to perform this service which was traditionally reserved for the King of Puri.

Rathayatra 2001, renamed for the media as the 'Carnival of the Chariots' attracted the most media attention it has ever had in its history. This was achieved by a dedicated team who tirelessly, and very professionally, worked all the media avenues: Nima Suchak, who works as a journalist, our in-house communications networker Varshana dasi, and Romapada dasa who works as PA in a large corporation.

National newspapers that covered the event included the Guardian, Independent, and Financial Times. The `Carnival of the Chariots' also appeared many times on local television and BBC News 24, a satellite service that covers the world.

Further Rathayatras involving the main 'Rath' will be taking place in Leicester on July 22, and Birmingham on July 29. Smaller, but no less sweet, Rathayatras will be happening in Bristol and Glastonbury.

Do Not read this if you are under 30!

This year's Seventies Concert to raise money for a sacred site in India will be "the biggest ever", claims organiser and performer Jayadeva das.

"Seventies popstars Boney M and the New Seekers will be joining the line-up for this year. There will also be Middle of the Road, Alvin Stardust, and The Rebutted, " he said, "that will make it the biggest ever show of seventies artists in England."

All the bands will be performing for free, and all the proceeds will go towards the preservation and restoration of the Danda-Bhanga sacred site where the bamboo sanyasa staff of Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was broken by Nityananda Prabhu and thrown into the nearby river.

The site has a deep meaning for vaishnava theologians and was all but lost to the world until a short time ago. Funds raised will purchase the site for posterity and help towards the cost of creating an ashram there. The site is eight miles from Jaganath Puri, the holy town in the state of Orissa, on the eastern coast of India.

Last year Jayadeva and his band, The Rubettes, toured with three other bands: Suzi Quatro, Showaddywaddy, and Alvin Stardust. Together they put on shows in Glasgow, Sheffield and Wembley, playing to crowds of 3-4,000. Their Christmas show raised funds for the children's charity Barnardo's.

This year Jayadeva has been touring with other acts, all former charttoppers, in Belgium, France, Holland, and Germany. Crowds have been up to 15,000 in some places, a tribute to the lasting affection for pop music of that decade. "Promotion on the continent is very good, and people have been coming in large numbers," explained Jayadeva, " It's been a lot of fun, although I must say that now, as a devotee, its just not the same thrill being in front of any size of crowd. I've been able to use my time in service to Krishna by writing a pop song based on a verse from the Gita, 'You are Amazing', and we perform it on stage. People seem to like it.

"I have also been able to tell the other bands something of Krishna consciousness without being boring or too 'preachy'. It usually starts by me reading their palm or offering some healing. After that the conversation turns to spiritual things and I usually have a book or two in my luggage to hand out! The group Boney M are all serious Christians and read their Bibles together every day; but still they've agreed to come along and help out by performing for free."

The Seventies Stars Night takes place at the Brentwood Centre in Brentwood, Essex on November 2. This is a much larger venue than last year. The Booking Office has already started selling tickets (starting price £13.50) and you can contact them on 01277-262616 / 01277-200300

Thankyou!

I want to thank the many readers who have written to me over the past few months. Your letters of appreciation for this newsletter are always encouraging to me, especially when you say that you look forward to receiving it.

Thank you all for taking a few minutes to write and put your thoughts down on paper. And thanks to all of you who send donations, either regularly or from time to time. This month, particular thanks go out to Rhiannon Williams of Southampton, Pete Walker of Manchester, Shane of Swindon, Mrs Lovely Chaudry, and Mr. R. Dasgupta.

Sankirtan Stories

Several weeks ago, a new devotee from the Portland, Oregon temple was distributing books at a public place. He saw the actor Bruce Willis. He called out to him, "Bruce!"

To his surprise, Bruce Willis stopped and looked at him. This devotee, taken by surprise, hesitated and finally said, "Are you from Portland or out of town?" Bruce Willis answered and they started speaking.

Then the actor said, "Can you come to my car over there in the parking lot?" The devotee followed him, and near his car, they discussed for one full half hour. Bruce Willis told him that since the film, "The Sixth Sense," he had been thinking a lot about spirituality and the meaning of life. He gave the devotee a large donation and took several books of Srila Prabhupada.

Also recently, in Oxford St. in central London, Dharmasetu das noticed 'Ali G' filming. He took advantage of the situation and when the filming had stopped, walked up to him and gave him a Bhagavad gita.

Correction

In the last newsletter we stated that the annual gathering would be taking place at Buckland Hall on the 19-21 of October. This is incorrect. The actual dates are 5-7" October. You should all have received your information about the weekend by now. Please let me know if you haven't. At the time of writing this, 24 readers have already booked their places and sent deposits, so please consider whether you'd like to come and let me know.

Cambridge

An evening programme was held on Friday May 22nd, at the 'Bharat Bhavan' in Cambridge, an Indian community centre established on the site of the old library in Mill Road. Several Indian families attended and devotees from the Manor staged a short play. Talks were given in Hindi and Gujarati.

On June 2nd, Michelle, Gopal, Devaprastha and Maharani-vrinda manned a stall at the annual Strawberry Fair. They sold fresh juices and hot pakoras fried on the spot.

Body, Mind and Spirit Festival in London

Although the stall was the smallest you could hire, devotees decorated it colourfully with pipli from India and did a great trade in samosas and chutney, selling 300 on many days for 75 pence a time.

Books were sold but the unique attraction was the 'Mantra Meditation Workshop' where visitors could sit cross-legged behind a curtain on the stall, and have a lesson in the philosophy and practice of japa.

For £2.50 they got ten minutes of undiverted attention from the 'resident teacher' in a mini-workshop space, and also got to walk away with a free set of wooden japa beads. On busy days there was even a queue! The festival continued for eight days and attracted thousands of people from all over the country.

Over 150 people experienced japa in depth for the first time and signed up to receive further information from devotees. The stall, costing £1,800, was organised by Abhimanyu and Adiguru and devotees on various days included Avadhuta Priya, Subhangada, Gandharvika, Sweeney and Kripamoya.

House of Fraser complaints upheld

The Advertising Standards Authority, a body which rarely upholds complaints from the public about offensive media ads, announced their decision that the House of Fraser's advertisement for a new range of clothes was "offensive" and "ridiculed religious minorities". The advertising watchdog welcomed a promise by House of Fraser not to repeat the advertisement.

McDonalds and their non-veg chips

McDonalds USA has just been dragged into a multi-million dollar lawsuit thanks to Seattle lawyer Harish Bharti. The reason?

For years McDonalds has touted its 'fries' (that's chips to me and you) as cooked in 100% vegetable oil and therefore suitable for vegetarians. But behind the scenes, in a non-descript cooking step, they've been secretly adding a miniscule amount of beef tallow to 'preserve the flavour'.

So what?' says McDonalds, 'we never said our fries were pure vegetarian, just fried in 100% vegetable oil; besides, we are obeying all the laws on ingredient disclosure'.

Mr. Bharti claims this is just not good enough, that the company has engaged in deceptive business practises, and did in fact launch a huge campaign in 1990 advertising their fries as suitable for vegetarians.

Bharti has filed the suit on behalf of the USA's 1 million Hindus, and the country's 15 million nonHindu vegetarians. That ought to wipe the smile off Ronald the clowns face - for a few moments at least.

Spoken Sanskrit tour begins in Kiev, Ukraine

Acharya Samskritananda Hari and Basu Ghosh Das (an American-born disciple of Srila Prabhupada who has been serving in India for the past 27 years), temple President of ISKCON-Baroda, inaugurated the first of several Spoken Sanskrit seminars at Kiev, Ukraine, on 9 May 2001, to a group of more than twenty devotees of ISKCON from Kiev and various other places in the Ukraine.

The aim of the seminars is to help devotees and friends of ISKCON to develop, in the shortest amount of time, a working knowledge of this most beautiful language of the Vedas.

The event inaugerated a three-month tour of Europe and America. The Oxford Centre for Vaishnava and Hindu Studies hosted the teachers; Oxford is one of a very few universities that still teach Sanskrit.

Youth Volunteers awarded in Northern Ireland

Four Hare Krishna youths were awarded the Millenium Volunteers Award of Excellence by ministers in Northern Ireland.

he programme recognises the voluntary contribution of young people 16-25 years of age and is run through the Department of Education of Northern Ireland.

All the Krishna youths signed up as volunteers through the Fermanagh Volunteer Bureau, a local community support agency based in Enniskillen and managed by local devotee and mum Anandamaya dasi.

The four were Kalindi dasi, 17, who worked in the local bureau office and picked flowers each day for the local Deities on the island; Amogha Lila dasa, 19, who did pujari service and Deity cooking, Gaura Hari dasa, 19, who assisted in cow protection; and Gayatri dasi, 22, who did cooking and garland making, and also painted a mural in the local Womens Aid refuge centre.

When the presentations were being made by Minister of Education Martin McGuiness MLA, Amogha Lila dasa, in dhoti and tilak, addressed the crowd of 350, speaking about the perceptions of Krishna devotees and about the opportunity to be given recognition for volunteering in his own culture. The awards were signed by David Trimble MLA, then First Minister, and Seamus Mallon MLA, the Second Minister.

More festivals to come...

Even though Tribhuvanath prabhu is very ill, still the work of his festival team continues. Here are some of the places they will be slapping up posters, doing street chanting, hiring halls and staging festivals this year:

AUGUST 2nd - Ilford Town Hall; 18/19th - Virgin 2001 Music Festival near Chelmsford.

SEPTEMBER 1st - Croydon in south London; 14 th - Brighton.

NOVEMBER 10th - Bloomsbury Theatre in London near King's Cross station.

And Rathayatras...

Leicester Rathayatra is on July 22nd and Birmingham on the 29th.

Bristol Rathayatra is on August 4th commencing at 2.00pm from the lay-by of Bristol Zoo entrance which is on Clifton downs. It proceeds through Clifton Whiteladies Rd to the city centre and on to Castle Park for kirtan and prasadam on the grass.

Glastonbury Rathayatra is on August 5th at 1.30 pm from the car park behind the High Street, proceeds through town to Chalice Well and on to Glastonbury Tor finishing at St. Dunstan school hall for an afternoon of entertainment.

A Midsummer Night's Kirtan

15,000 solstice revellers got more than the rising sun on June 22 at Stonehenge.

Invited by English Heritage, Parasurama das and his Food for Life team were there handing out breakfast prasadam of subji, drinks, bread and cakes for a straight five and a half hours.

Sakhyarasa prema das arrived at two in the morning and began kirtan, shortly followed by an energetic brahmacari crew of some twenty devotees who chanted until way past dawn (they do it every morning!)

Now the folks who eat with us at different festivals are seeing us all over the place and wondering just how many Krishnas there really are! (They'd be surprised)