Janamastami - Book Lounge!

An exciting innovation of the Festival Organising Team at ISKCON Toronto, led the Sankirtan Team to a Book Lounge in Govinda's! What followed, was an exciting and very encouraging Sankirtan experience after many years at a festival as packed as Janamastami!

The Book Lounge, setup in the Govinda's along with two other booths (one by ISKCON Cinema and another with Gopidots and Tilaka) had facilities to display books for sale as well as for guests to sit around and read the books available. Our enthusiastic team distributed books way past midnight, our highlights were the special Krsna book sale and also 3 small books for $5.
The Sankirtn Team distributed 35 different titles sold, for a total of 112 books, including 29 Krsna Books (highest count / book) and 1 Krsna Art book for a total collection of $767.25 laxmi points!

We're Back!

After having been away for a while, we're back to blogging again! What you may ask, were we upto in all these days/months!

Well, well summer is time for activity everywhere...and so the Sankirtan Team has also been buzzing with heightened activity in the last little while. The Anniversary MSF trip to Niagara Falls, Receiving and processing the humoungous book order and finally preparing and executing the Ratha Yatra Sankirtan Plan. While the fun doesn't end here, we thought we should update you on the happenings nevertheless. Stay tuned for reports on these very exciting events that just happened.

Also coming up next:-

1. CDM - Ceto Darpan Marjanam - Organized cleaning of the temple - July 24th

12-4pm

Lets clean the temple of Sri Sri Radha KsicoraGopinath in the association of like-minded people and relish yummy pizza after!

2. Vaisesika Prabhu returns to ISKCON Toronto August 12-16th - More info coming up soon

10th MSF - Bringing Sita Back to Ram

Saturday, March 27th marked the 10th MSF with the theme "Bringing Sita Back to Rama". Befitting the theme, this MSF was one with many challenges – some of our major team members were missing and the weather was surprisingly harsh. However, by the mercy of Srila Prabhupada, 22 devotees were able to go
out to distribute about 56 books and 1200 pieces of prasad!

This MSF also marked the launch of GTA's Wal-Mart Sankirtana. A display table was set up at a Wal-Mart in Scarborough from 10:30am - 5:00pm, with three devotees manning the table. The devotees met many interested people and distributed 700 prasad candies and 24 books for a total of 170 laxmi points! All the
participating devotees were visibly enlivened and had many wonderful experiences to share.

Meanwhile, downtown the sankirtana team was at its regular spot at Yonge & Dundas. Unshaken by the cold winds and missing team members, the sankirtana warriors distributed about 500 pieces of prasad and 31 small books for 70 laxmi points! The team also happily discovered two amazing kirtaneers in Sing Lung and
Anshul Prabhus! After the sankirtana, all participating devotees went back to the temple to honor prasad and share their realizations.

Krsna - Akincana vrta : property of the materially impoverished

Submitted by:- Mangal Arti dd

Standing near Yonge and Finch I wasn't able to do much but I was trying to remember Vaisesika prabhu who said you cant do more than what you can do. So I was just praying that i could be properly aligned when this young lady stopped.I asked her if she had tried yoga or meditation and she said no but she wanted to try. I first showed her a Beyond Birth and Death, she seemed interested. I asked on if she had ever thought of questions in life around spirituality or who we are and where we come from. She agreed, I then asked her what her life was like - she said i have had a very tough life and I had almost given up sometime ago. She looked so young to be saying that - so i asked her why. Then right there in the middle of the street she shared with he her story - how her mother didnt do much and she has been on her own since she was 15 - , then she was in an abusive relationship and she had to save herself. Then her mother borrowed all her savings and just never returned - and now mother had abandoned younger sister so she was caring for her - and on top of all this she lost her job last year and thats when she was ready to give up. I was - at a loss of words. So I took out a Bhagavad Gita and introduced her to Srila Prabhupada's picture and told her here in this book is a secret - a secret that Krishna or God is 'Akincana vrta'...or the property of the materially impoverished. The fact that she has had such struggles implies that she is meant for something special. She expressed her desire to read Bhagavad Gita and I promised to assist her. She talked to me for a while and more she spoke more I was horrified to hear stuff. She didnt really look very old, I wondered how old she was. She said she was 23 - my jaw dropped. Please pray that this girl reads Srila Prabhupada's Bhagavad Gita and comes to his shelter.