Gundica Cleanup and Snana-Yatra this Sunday!

A sure sign that the annual Festival of India (Ratha-Yatra) is just around the corner are the annual Gundica Cleanup and Snana-Yatra festivals! This Sunday, we will be celebrating Gundica Cleanup (Temple cleanup) and Snana-Yatra (Bathing festival).

Every year, before the Ratha-Yatra festival, the temple is lovingly cleaned by the devotees. This is following the example set by Caitanya Mahaprabhu, who held the first Gundica Cleanup some 500 years ago. The famous Ratha-Yatra parade in Jagannatha Puri begins at the Jagannatha Puri temple and proceeds all the way till the Gundica Temple. Preparing for the arrival of Lord Jagannatha, Caitanya Mahaprabhu with His associates personally cleaned the entire temple.

The clean-up will start at 9:30am in the temple room and will continue till 3:30pm. Special Lunch (prasadam) will be provided for those who come out to help clean!

After immersing yourself in cleaning the temple, join us celebrate Snana-Yatra, a wonderful festival, wherein Lord Jagannatha, Lord Balarama and Lady Subhadra will be bathed amidst amazing kirtan and chanting!

After the bathing ceremony (Snana-Yatra), Lord Jagannātha apparently becomes sick. He is therefore removed to His private quarters, where no one can see Him. Actually, during this period the body of the Jagannātha Deity is repainted, this is called nava-yauvana.

During the Ratha-Yatra Festival on July 17, Lord Jagannātha will once again come before the public. Thus for thirteen days after the bathing ceremony, Lord Jagannātha is not visible to any visitors!

A warm invitation goes out to you and your family to join in the wonderful celebrations of Gundica Cleanup and Snana-Yatra festivals this upcoming Sunday!

Don't miss out this last opportunity to see Lord Jagannatha before his grand Ratha-Yatra festival!

Maha-Harinama on Canada Day!!!

Let's celebrate Canada's day in our fun Vaisnava way!!!

This Thursday, devotees will get together to share the Holy Name, prasadam and books with the public during Canada Day festivities in downtown Toronto. This will also be an amazing way to let people know about the upcoming annual Ratha-Yatra festival as we will be handing out as many cards as possible!

We will meet at the temple at 3pm and then head downtown for the harinama accompanied by drumming, singing and even an accordion! We will be back at the temple by 6pm where delicious prasadam will await us!

A special request goes out to ALL devotees to dress as colourfully as possible, in full devotional attire, as we want to amaze Torontonians with the beauty of Krsna consciousness, both with our appearance and with our smiles!

We're looking forward to seeing you there!

Deity Darshan: Sunday, June 27, 2010

Toronto Sankirtan Team's First Anniversary!

Sankirtan is a Sanskrit term which means the congregational chanting and sharing of the names and glories of Krishna, which is the recommended process for spiritual success. In the Hare Krishna tradition, sankirtan is associated with sharing our spiritual culture with the public via the timeless books, translated by Srila Prabhupada.

For the past one year, the Toronto Sankirtan Team has been organizing monthly sankirtan festivals (MSF), where enthusiastic Bhakti Yoga Practitioners go out on the streets to share spiritual books, prasadam (karma-free food) and the holy name. This month marks the one year anniversary of the MSF, and on this special occasion, Toronto Sankirtan Team invites you to join in for a memorable sankirtan outing at Niagara Falls on July 3rd, 2010.

Tentative Schedule:
7:45am Srimad Bhagavatam Class
9:00am Depart from temple
10:30am Arrive at Niagara Falls
11:00am-2:00pm – Street Sankirtan
2:00pm – Lunch Prasadam
4:00pm – Drive back to temple

A nominal contribution of $15/person applicable if transportation is required.Pre-registration is mandatory (deadline: June 30, Wednesday). For registration / questions, please fill the form or email toronto.sankirtan@gmail.com. In the email, please specify if you would require transportation.

We look forward to seeing you on the 3rd!

Sunday Feast Recording - June 27, 2010

The Sunday Feast recording can be viewed by clicking the image below. As a reminder, the recordings from our weekly live web broadcasts are stored on our ISKCON Toronto Video Archive Blog.

Bhagavad Gita Class Rescheduled!

The Bhagavad Gita Class by Uttama Sloka das for today,Friday June 25, has been rescheduled to tomorrow, Saturday June 26, from 10am - 12pm. This will be Chapter 17.

The concluding class on Chapter 18, will be on Sunday June 27, from 2pm - 4pm.

We hope to see you at these seminars!

Niagara Falls Sankirtan Festival - Postponed to July 3rd!

Recently we informed our blog readers about the one year anniversary celebrations for our Toronto Sankirtan Team, who have organized monthly sankirtan festivals, where bhakti yogis go out on the streets and share books, cookies, the holy name and a smile!

The plan was to have a memorable festival at Niagara Falls on June 26th, 2010. However, due to the G-20 happening that weekend there are numerous road closures and significant delays on all major highways. In lieu of that, the Toronto Sankirtan Team has decided to postpone this festival till July 3rd.

We will still be going to Niagara Falls and the plan stays the same, just a change in the date! We request those of you who registered for the even on June 26th to please register again by filling the form or sending an email to toronto.sankirtan@gmail.com

We apologize for the inconvenience and we hope to see you on July 3rd!

Pandava-Nirjala Ekadasi - Today!

Devout followers of the Hare Krishna tradition are used to the idea of enthusiastically celebrating their spirituality through chanting, dancing and feasting! The feasting is such an important part of our tradition, that we have become known as the "kitchen religion"!

Now every fortnight, we observe Ekadasi, a day of prayer and meditation. On this day we fast (or simplify our meals and abstain from grains and beans), and spend extra time reading the scriptures and chanting the auspicious Hare Krishna mantra.

Once a year, we honour Pandava-Nirjala Ekadasi wherein, on this auspicious day, devotees do a complete fast from all food, even from water! The purpose of this day is to spend more time in focusing on feeding our spiritual needs! On this auspicious day of Pandava-Nirajala Ekadasi, we encourage you all to come to the temple for sometime and spend time in chanting and praying! We also encourage you to come out for the Bhagavad Gita Seminar tonight and enjoy learning about the practical applications of the Bhagavad Gita!

Happy Pandava-Nirjala Ekadasi!

Bhagavad-Gita Course Starting Monday!

The Hare Krishna temple is very excited to announce that HG Uttama Sloka das will be once again visiting our temple to conduct the third and final part of his Bhagavad Gita Course. Uttama Sloka das has visited Toronto in the last two years and facilitated courses that were attended by over 50 devotees!

He is a disciple of HH Indradyumna Swami and serves part time as Maharaja's traveling assistant, secretary and translator. Apart from his personal services to Indradyumna Swami, he spends his time conducting educational and training courses covering 20 countries on four continents. He is qualified as a Bhakti Sastri teacher, mediator and counsellor. This will be his fourth visit to Canada.

Uttama Sloka prabhu will be teaching a week-long seminar on the Bhagavad Gita particularly on Chapters 13-18. Normally, Bhagavad Gita courses and seminars focus on studying the deep intricacies of the ancient spiritual text. The unique feature of this course is that it will focus on real-life applications of the Bhagavad Gita! Imagine learning real lessons from the Gita about leadership, time management and empowerment!

The course will go on from Monday, June 21st till Sunday, June 27th. The course timings are:

Monday, June 21st, 2010 - 6:30pm - 9:00pm

Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010 - 6:30pm - 9:00pm

Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010 - 6:30pm - 9:00pm

Thursday, June 24th, 2010 - 6:30pm - 9:00pm

Sunday, June 27th, 2010 - 10:00am - 4:00pm

All programs will be followed by dinner prasadam and will be held in ISKCON Toronto. If you like to get a glimpse of what to expect at the seminars. please come for the Sunday Feast and listen to Uttama Shloka das give class!

Please click here to register for the seminar. Feel free to email us if you have any questions! We look forward to seeing you at these seminars!

No Sunday Feast Recording this week :(

Due to technical difficulties with the temple internet connection, we were unable to broadcast or record our live broadcast of the Sunday Feast and so we are unable to post a recording this week. We apologize for any inconvenience as many devotees wanted to listen to Uttama Shloka das's amazing class again! However, if you want to listen to him again, come out for the Bhagavad Gita Seminars starting today!

We hope to resolve the problem and to resume with live broadcasts and videos with the upcoming Sunday Feasts!

Deity Darshan: Sunday, June 20, 2010

Festival of India Postering and Card Distribution!

There is a lot of excitement in the air with Festival of India (Ratha-Yatra) just a month away! But how many Torontonians know about this wonderful festival? This is what the "Lord Baladeva's Invitation Crew" will set out to do from now until the festival by personally inviting people and putting up posters throughout the city!

Postering and inviting people personally are among our more extensive and important tasks as we need to constantly keep the public informed of the festival and one of the best ways is to hit the streets and put up our beautiful posters. This effort will continue between now and the festival with volunteers meeting every weekend, hitting the streets armed with tape, staple guns and posters!

Volunteers will meet at the Hare Krishna Temple (243 Avenue Rd.) at 1:00pm every weekend. Please wear appropriate clothing and footwear for walking. As a special surprise, there are always scrumptious snacks and refreshments waiting for everyone once we are finished our "postering missions"! If any of the volunteers with a car would like to help transport volunteers to postering sites please let us know. Please email volunteers@feedyoursoul.to if you have any questions or concerns.

If you would like to sign up to be part of the team, please click here!

Sunday Feast Recording - June 13, 2010

The Sunday Feast (Pani Hati Festival) recording of can be viewed by clicking the image below. As a reminder, the recordings from our weekly live web broadcasts are stored on our ISKCON Toronto Video Archive Blog.

Deity Darshan: Sunday, June 13, 2010

Panihati Festival - This Sunday!!!

This Sunday, Toronto's Hare Krishna Temple is very excited to announce that we will be celebrating our second Panihati festival at New Remua Dhama!

Panihati is located on the banks of the Ganges 10 miles North of Calcutta, in West Bengal India. It is the site of many wonderful spiritual pastimes of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and His close personal associates. In this region at this time of year June, pre-monsoon it is so hot, often up in the mid-to-high 40 C. The most cooling of foods in such a temperature is yogurt, cool yogurt (dahi). This pastime of the Lord is about how the devotees pleased Lord Chaitanya and how the Lord reciprocated with the devotees in a very wonderful and pleasing festival called the Panihati Cida-Dadhi Mahotsav. (you can read more about the festival by clicking here)

In order to celebrate this festival of love and appreciation, we have a full day of festivity planned at the Hare Krishna Temple!

Sunday Morning, senior monk, Devamrita Swami will be giving the morning Srimad Bhagavatam class at 7:30am at the Hare Krishna Temple. Initiated by Srila Prabhupada in January 1974, since the past 35 years he has traveled extensively on every continent of the world sharing his realizations of Krishna Consciousness. He is very well reputed in the academic circles for his insightful presentations on contemporary topics like Spiritual Economics, Sustainability, Yoga of Money etc. However, those of us who have heard him lead kirtan, know that his kirtans can have devotees dancing in pure joy! He is currently based in New Zealand but is a frequent visitor to Toronto and we are very happy to have him give a very special class on the occasion of the Panihati Festival.

Our Sunday Feast from 5:45pm till 8:30pm will be made special by the presence of two very special VIPs! The program will feature a lively discourse, amazing kirtans and a vegetarian feast including the famous Cida-Dadhi (chipped rice in yogurt)!

Jayapataka Swami, one of ISKCON senior monks will be amidst us for this festival. Famous around the world for his Pani Hati Festivals, it is definitely going to be a special treat for all of us to have him in Toronto. Jayapataka Swami, one of Srila Prabhupada's early disciples, joined the movement in 1968 and was initiated in Montreal. Later, on the instructions of his spiritual master, he came to Toronto in 1969 and was among the first few devotees to start the Hare Krishna movement in Toronto. Known for his lively classes, and rocking Kirtans with huge "whompers", Jayapataka Swami has tried to make Toronto a regular stop in his world tours. In October 2008, he suffered from a major stroke due to hemorrhage of his stem cell and was in coma for several months. Due to the prayers of well-wishers around the world, he recovered and is traveling to share this message of Bhakti Yoga. We are extremely honoured to have Jayapataka Swami in Toronto as this will be his first visit to Canada since his stroke. Please don't miss the opportunity to hear about the importance of Panihati festival from him!

If you attended the last Sunday feast and stayed for the 8pm arati, we are sure you'll understand when we say that Bada Hari das's kirtans are amazing! After leading us in an unbelievably rocking kirtan that went on till 9:30 last weekend, he will also be leading the kirtans on Sunday! Based in Gainesville, Florida, he is a celebrated Kirtan singer who travels internationally presenting seminars on Vaishnava songs and devotional practices. Those of you who missed it last Sunday, this week is your chance to come and experience kirtan bliss, and those of you who were here last week, come again and experience the bliss all over again!!!

A lot is happening this Sunday at the Hare Krishna Temple and we hope to see you with your family and friends there this weekend!

Flashback Photo - Beverley St.

This edition of ISKCON Toronto's Flashback Photos features a very special sannyasi (monk). It shouldn't be too hard for many of us to guess who this is, but we still encourage comments for those who would like to venture a guess!

HINT: It was on the instruction of Srila Prabhupada that he came to Toronto to open the first center here. This was the beginnings of our first Temple on Beverley St. which is shown in the above picture.

Dinner & Entertainment at Govinda's!

Govinda's Dining Hall proudly presents the second installment of their new monthly program, where once a month your dining experience will be accompanied by live entertainment!

The event will be taking place on Saturday, June 26th, 2010. In addition to Govinda's famous vegetarian buffet, the evening will feature a musical performance by Saawun. Saawun is focused on presenting Indian Classical music in its pure format and setting, but using western instruments in place of India’s traditional instruments.

The performance will begin at 6:30 pm at Govinda's Dining Hall, $12.00 per person includes vegetarian buffet.

Future monthly programs will feature classical Indian dances, dramas based on classical Indian literature and more!

Deity Darshan: Sunday, June 6, 2010

Sunday Feast Recording - June 6, 2010

The Sunday Feast recording can be viewed by clicking the image below. As a reminder, the recordings from our weekly live web broadcasts are stored on our ISKCON Toronto Video Archive Blog.