JANMASTAMI
Mayapur: Around 63,000 people attended Janmastami festival in Mayapur.
Vrndavana: For the first time Srila Prabhupada Vyasa-puja was celebrated in the evening, with many leading citizens of Vrndavana offering their homage to Srila Prabhupada on his appearance day.
Delhi: Janmastami festival was covered live from ISKCON New Delhi temple on many leading TV channels. On 20 August DD1 National Channel aired a program related to Lord Krsna, highlighting the Vedic Expo, Robotic Show (Dialogue between Krsna and Arjuna in Hindi), darSana of Sri Sri Radha- Parthasarathi, and the paintings on the parikrama path.
Designer outfits for Sri Sri Radha Rasabihari: Sri Sri Radha Rasabihari, the presiding Deities of ISKCON temple in Juhu, Mumbai were offered outfits designed by the wellknown fashion designer Manish Malhotra. In 2007, Manish had designed outfits for the Lordships on the occasion of Radhastami. For Janmastami, Manish used red silk and velvet with heavy gold sequin work and hand embroidery. He mentioned that this was his present to the Lord on His appearance day.
Agra: Janmastami was celebrated in the Agra Central Jail with almost three thousand inmates participating in kirtana and honoring prasada.
Ludhiana: 1008 bhoga were offered to Their Lordships on Janmastami. Every visitor got an opportunity to do abhiseka. About 15,000 people participated in japa meditation on beads. A painting competition was organized for children in which 80 students from seven schools participated.
Batala, Punjab: A harinaàa procession was held on eve of Janmastami. 500 devotees from Amritsar, Delhi, Rajpura, and Jharkhand participated.
UK: Over 50,000 people attended the first day of the two-day Janmastami festival at Bhaktivedanta Manor. 14,000 cars were parked inside the temple campus. Kitchen staff worked 24 hours with 400 volunteers and distributed 50,000 plates of prasada.
Alachua, USA: The New Raman Reti Temple celebrated Janmastami by building a miniature replica of Vrndavana with the seven major temples and holy places.
The Houston Chronicle, the only daily newspaper in Houston, published pictures from Janmastami on the front page of their online religion section.
Belgaum, Karnataka: Over 20,000 visitors came to the temple during the three day Janmastami festival. For Srila Prabhupada’s vyasa-puja celebration the devotees converted Srila Prabhupada’s vyasa-asana into a model of the ship Jaladuta on which Srila Prabhupada sailed to the USA.
Over 700 students from 25 schools participated in competitions on bhakti songs, recitation of Gita verses, rangoli art, and fancy dress.
RATHA-YATRA
Leicester: For the first time, the 14- year old Ratha-yatra festival in Leicester was celebrated with three chariots in the parade. The Lord Mayor, Manjula Sood, and other Councilors attended the festival, along with over 7000 revelers.
Dublin: 800 people witnessed the Ratha-yatra where the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Cllr Eibhlín Byrne, started the festival procession by sweeping the ground in front of the chariot.
SEATTLE
A new temple and Vedic Cultural Center opened in Seattle, USA.
GURUKULI REUNION
Around 400 gurukulis from several countries attended this year’s European Kuli Mela in Radhadesh, Belgium.
MTV FILMS DALLAS TEMPLE
MTV filmed the Sunday temple program in Dallas. The story line (for real) was about MTV following a 17 year old film student’s visit to three religious places she had never gone to before. The film student went to the Dallas Buddhist temple, the Bahai temple, and the Dallas Hare Krsna temple. The segment will air on MTV in September- January.
Reports by Dinabandhu Dasa, Vrajendra Nandana Dasa, Parijata Devi Dasi, Kaplish, Bhaktisiddhanta Dasa, and Radha Mohan Dasa.