Bangkok Ratha-Yatra

Photos from Swami B.V.V. Narasimha

Posted Oct 3, 2005

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Christmas Eve
in Hong Kong

By Umapati Swami

Posted January 11, 2005

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New Temple in Fiji
From Ananda Tirtha das
Posted October 9, 2004

Dear devotees,

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

Sorry for the late reporting of the opening of the new temple in Fiji last week. The installation and opening was highly successful with thousands of guests and devotees from all over Fiji and other countries. Media coverage was widespread in both the print and television media.

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Bangkok Ratha Yatra
Posted July 4, 2004

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Temple Opening
in New Zealand
From Prananatha das
Posted April 22, 2004

Dear Devotees,

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

In January this year, a most wonderful three-day celebration took place in our ISKCON society. It was the grand opening of the Sri Sri Radha Giridhari Temple in Auckland, New Zealand.

This project, started in 1987 with the ground-breaking ceremony attended by New Zealand's Prime Minister David Lange, has been a labor of love for the Auckland community. Countless hours of hard work by a small army of devotees over a period of 17 years has culminated in this beautiful temple and community center.

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Haribol! Jaya Jagannatha, Baladeva, and Srimati Subhadra devi!

On Sunday, 23rd day of November 2003, Lord Jagannatha (Lord of the Universe) graced the Garden City with His divine darshan (presence), to the sounds of the conch and enthusiastic kirtan by the devotees here. The Rathayatra was incorporated as a float in the Christchurch Santa Parade held annually prior to the festive season. A local, passing by with his family, commented that it was the best of all the floats. No question!

And a city official, announcing the floats as they passed his location, very enthusiastically announced the Hare Krishna float and said that it had been missed last year (it wasn't in last year's parade because of technical reasons).

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Rathayatra in Bangkok
By Mahavaraha Dasa
Posted July 16, 2003

Dear devotees,

Bangkok City was blessed by Their Lordships Sri Jagannath, Sri Baladev, and Sri Subhadra Devi on the 29th of June. HH Bhakti Vigna Vinasha Nrshima Maharaj, who has been preaching there for a couple of years, was one of the main organizers of this wonderful chariot festival in the streets of Bangkok.

The local devotees and some Nepalis who are working there gave a lot of support and help to make this festival a great success. A chariot about 1.75 meters high was built and well decorated with colorful flowers and cloth by the local devotees.

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Grand Opening of the All New International Yoga Institute, Hong Kong
By Sravaniya DiPecoraro, Director
Posted January 4, 2003

After two months of renovation of the premises, Saturday, November 2, 2002, marked the celebration of our Grand Opening. Attending the festivities were His Holiness Ritadhvaja Swami, Hong Kong government employees, lawyers from the High Court, local Chinese folk, new-age energy healers, fitness-club owners, Buddhists, Indian congregation young and old, yoga teachers from various schools and their students, our students, and devotees. Here are some pictures of the fire sacrifice and other goings on, plus the text of my opening address, which explains more about the Institute and its mission.

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Dear Devotees,

Dandavat Pranams

We had an extraordinary Harinam to celebrate the end of 2002 and welcome 2003 with chanting the Mahamantra in the main street of the Tsim Sha Tsui district in Kowloon, Hong Kong.

Devotees had started preparing prasadam in the early hours and putting it in small plastic bags for mass distribution during the chanting of the Hare Krsna Mahamantra in the streets of this great city.

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It seems that Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu is often trying to remind me of the importance of Harinam sankirtan (public chanting).

Recently in Tokyo, Audarya Prabhu, an Israeli devotee, was distributing books, and he met a gentleman who had seen the chanting party in London 30 years ago. He had a good memory and took a book.

Yesterday in Bangkok, we went to the park for our Sunday kirtan. There was an elderly Thai gentleman, 61 years old, who had seen the kirtan party, including His Divine Grace AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, while living in New York from 1969 till 1974. Recently he saw Guru Kripa and Vaisesikha Prabhus chanting on the streets of Bangkok. He received a songbook from them and is studying it. He also has a clicker and showed me that he had chanted 1740 mantras the previous day. "More than sixteen rounds," he pointed out.

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