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ISKCON Melbourne
Founder: Acharya A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Founder: Acharya A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
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About Us
This site is currently a work in progress. It is managed by Aniruddha Dasa the Temple President of the Melbourne Hare Krishna Community.
Our physical address is:
ISKCON Melbourne
197 Danks St
Albert Park VIC 3206
Australia
Ph. +613 (03) 9699 5122
Fax +613 (03) 9690 4093
email iskconmelb@in.com.au
Our aim is to develop a news site for our members with editors of different sections, much like any newspaper. If you want to contribute or have any suggestions we'd love to hear from you.
You can contact me here:
Aniruddha Dasa
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News Departments
Festivals
Kurma Prabhu's written three reports from Janmastami this weekend. Here's number two... It's Sri Krishna Janmastami and I'm having a ball here in Melbourne. Our first big celebration of the day was mangala arati, the joyous chanting commencing at 4.30 am. The temple was so packed that it was very difficult to get inside. There must have been 300 attendees, which is a record for such an early-hour Melbourne Temple event. He's also posted some great shots. Here are some shots of Sri-Sri Gaura-Nitai's abhiseka this evening (Friday
March 21) (from Rasanandini dasi) ;newWindow.focus())
Bhanu Swami serving Gaura-Nitai
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Gaura-Nitai's juice bath
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Gaura-Nitai accepting abhisekha
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Gaura-Nitai waiting for Their bath
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Gaura-Nitai taking bath
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Gaura-Nitai accept towels
Here's a humourous account of one devotee's prasadam distribution experience at the Big Day Out... Big Day Out is Australia's biggest touring musical festival and is a big hit with teenagers and young university/college kids. It has every thing they want - loud music in many varieties, beautiful people every where, plenty of alcohol, school holidays and nice hot summer day.With pictures... Since this nectar-filled festival falls on Good Friday this year, we are planning a gigantic celebration of Lord Caitanya's Appearance. ;newWindow.focus())
Gaura Purnima celebrations
We've got a solid line up of special guests and events over the weekend. Bhanu Swami and Devamrta Swami will be in Melbourne for the occasion. The feast menus are all prepared. Our festivities will begin with kirtana and arati for the Deities at 4:30 pm. At 5:00 pm. our priests will perform a special yajna. 6:00 pm. will see our special guests bring you a blissful class about this most merciful of all Krishna’s incarnations. Arati and an elaborate abhiseka (bathing ceremony) for Mahaprabhu follow at 7:00 pm. To top the festival off, at 8:00pm. we will offer you a delicious break-fast feast! You will also be able to offer individual arati trays to Sri Caitanya from 5:00 pm. Prasada will be available to all our guests from 6:00 pm. (Those who wish may fast till moon rise at 5:43pm.) Please come and join us for the fun! Today was the anniversary of our param guru Srila Bhaktisiddhanta
Prabhupada’s Appearance. We began celebrating the day by fasting and
hearing about his pure Vaisnava qualities from Keshava Prabhu. Then -
after we received the Deities’ darshan at 12:30pm - we offered
Bhaktisiddhanta Prabhupada pushpanjali and guru-puja. The devotees also
offered Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati a beautiful cake, which was
distributed to many eager devotees as special mercy. The cake accompanied
Sri-Sri Radha-Vallabha’s raja-bhoga prasadam, which had been prepared with
extra opulence in his honour. ‘In 1972, in a Nectar of Devotion class in Vrndavana, Srila Prabhupada commented, "…we develop Krishna consciousness by association with devotees, as Narottama dasa Thakura says, 'One's aim of life should be to serve the acaryas: acaryopasanam.'”…The acaryas in our line are all in the position of worshipable siksa-gurus for us. That is a fact. Once a child takes birth, or a disciple takes diksa, he automatically has direct, affectionate dealings with other family members. This is especially true in spiritual relationships which are transcendental and may be carried on with either the vapu or vani forms of those personalities, unlike material relationships which are limited in so many ways.’ (Rupa Vilasa dasa, Ray of Visnu: Preface.) Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Prabhupada ki jaya! ;newWindow.focus())
Class on Bhaktisddhanata Prabhupada
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Devotees hearing class this morning
This year's event schedule is starting to fill up. ;newWindow.focus())
Krishna Bandana
On Saturday 12th of April Nupur Australia introduces acclaimed dancer Joyoti Das who will present an evening Odissi Dance Experience at the Besen Centre 87-89 Station St Burwood at 7.30 pm. The proceeds from this event will go to Hare Krishna Food for Life. If you'd like to book tickets you can do so by emailing here.
We had an exciting day of celebrating the Lord Jagannath's Ratha-Yatra 2008. Lord Jagannatha looked very happy.We gathered all the devotees at 139 Swanton Street, Melbourne (Gopal's Pure Vegetarian Restaurant) in morning at 10:30 AM. The devotees were very enthusiastic. Thanks for the shots Sanjoy. Preparations for our 2007 Snana Yatra festivities are well underway. ;newWindow.focus())
Snana Yatra celebrates Maharaja Indradumnya's installation of Jagannatha, Balarama and Subhadra's Deity forms in Puri in the far distant past. We commemorate the installation in our own Melbourne summer so Their Lordships will relish a cooling bath. During the Hati-vesha arati following Their bath, we offer Lord Jagannatha, Balarama, and Subhadra special preparations made from flat rice and yoghurt (or condensed milk) with sweet fruits, berries, nuts or a spicy salad combination. Usually this special Mahaprasadam is auctioned off to the highest bidding devotee. However this year, we are planning to pre-sell each pot with a stunning handpainted picture on it. Anandini Mataji is looking for enthusiastic volunteers to help with the painting of the pots. She will also be looking for sponsors who will be the fortunate recipients of Their Lordships special Mahaprasadam remnants. Keep an eye out at upcoming Sunday Feasts for Anandini. She will be manning a stall to show off the beautiful devotional pots, and to accept offers from sponsors. The pots will be presented to donors during Snana Yatra on the 26th of December after the abhisheka and arati. Here are some of the wonderful pots already painted by Parvarti devi dasi. ;newWindow.focus())
Offering Pots
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Makhan-cora
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Advent of the Bhagavad-gita
4.30 pm Arati & kirtana 5.00 pm Yajna and chanting of the Gita 6.00 pm Feast 7.00 pm Arati I usually like to post a report on Govardhana Puja each year but couldn't be in Melbourne for the event. Fortunately Bhakta Dave put some shots on his blog. Check them out. Krsna Katha tells me Ramai Swami led a great kirtana as is evidenced by Dave... "Then I went to the govardhana hill festival. That is a huge pile of sweets you can see. Yes it does. Thankyou. ;newWindow.focus())
Prabhupada's Disappearance
This year Prabhupada's Disappearance falls on the actual solar calendar day itoccurred in 1977. Our celebration of the event takes place mostly in the evening. There will be a puspanjali, Guru-puja and arati at midday.
We started offering candles for Kartika today on the full moon. ;newWindow.focus())
Damodara Lila
The first day of the month of Kartika is officially tomorrow, Pratipat. We will be offering candles in honour of Lord Damodara's childhood pastimes at 7.00 am and 7.00 pm every day throughout the whole month till Sunday 24th November. Govardhana Puja is one of my favourite festivals in Melbourne. ;newWindow.focus())
Worshipping Govardhana Hill
It usually means a long kirtana topped off with sumptuous prasadam from the hill.
The next major festival on our calendar. ;newWindow.focus())
The Homecoming of Lord Rama
This year Diwali and GovardhanaPuja are to be held on Saturday and Sunday respectively. It's going to be a big weekend.
I just received these great shots from the installation of Sri Sri Krishna
Balaram and Sri Sri Radha Krishna on Sri Radhastami at ISKCON Punjabi Bagh,
West New Delhi. By Basu Ghosh Das On the most auspicious day of Sri Radhastami, September 20, 2007, the transcendental appearance day of Srimati Radharani, ISKCON at Punjabi Bagh in the Western part of New Delhi performed the "pranpratishtha" of Their Lordships Sri Sri Krishna Balaram and Sri Sri Radha Radhika Raman. ;newWindow.focus())
Krsna-balarama
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Abhiseka
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Puspa abhiseka
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Juices
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Middle of abhiseka
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Sesame paste
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Krsna abhiseka
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Radharani abhiseka
A huge amount of effort went into making the flower sets for Radhastami.
Each flower was glued to a cotton backing that made up the various pieces of
clothing for each set. Veda-priya and the girls, some of whom only got a few
hours of sleep Wednesday night spent all day gluing each flower onto the
patterns. It was a great demonstration of cooperation and team work plus the
cumulation of quite a few years of practice. We've kind of worked out what
arrangements of flowers and colours work and don't work. The end result as
you would have seen was stunning. Radhastami was a huge success this year. Jagattarini Mataji laid the foundation of our daily mediation with a detailed introductory morning class and Bhurijana Prabhu held everyone's attention in the evening with a fascinating description of the intimate mood of the residents of Vrndavana led by Srimati Radharani. It is interesting to note we received quite a few significant donations on the night which was unexpected but which helped top off a wonderful day. Thanks to Rasanandini for the pictures. ;newWindow.focus())
Flower dress creation
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One at a time
This is the first time we've dressed everyone in a flower set for Radhastami. There were a lot of late nights last night in order to get this done. Thanks to Bhakti who coordinated the decorations and Veda-priya who designed and coordinated the dresses we had a wonderful darsana this morning. Bhurijana Prabhu will be giving this evening's class before the feast is served at 6.00 pm. ;newWindow.focus())
Gaura-nitai
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Radha-vallabha full altar
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Radha-vallabha
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Chota Radha-krsna
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Jagannatha Balarama & Subhadra
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Radha-vallabha close
Jasmine is Srimati Radhika's favourite flower. we need a lot of jasmine for Radhastami. If you have a jasmine vine at home or near your house or know someone that has a vine could you please bring a big bag or two or three of jasmine vines to the temple Wednesday morning 19th September. Please leave it in the reception. Thanks to Candra Vallabhi for some close ups of the night set on Janmastami. I'd like to thank everyone for the effort put into making this year's Janmastami celebration the success it was. I do have a small problem I'd like some help with. Each year we gather a list of items to be used in the following year so we can improve our next year's festival. That's where you come in. Please consider helping us by doing the following. Can you prepare a list of what you thought worked this year and what you thought needed improvement? I'd also like to know of anything you thought was interesting that either occurred or you were inspired by in this year's celebrations. If you can put your lists in the comments to this post, I'd appreciate it. I'll compile all the lists and post them on the web site so we can use it as a reference for improving next year's festival. If you have some shots you'd like to share of this year's Janmastami please let me know. I'll post them on the site plus keep them for future reference. 001.jpg', '', 'width=1024,height=768,toolbar=0,location=0,directories=0,status=0,menuBar=0,scrollBars=1,resizable=1' );newWindow.focus())
Jagannatha, Baladeva & Subhadra
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Gaura-nitai
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Radha-vallabha
Here's this year's Janmastami cultural program to be presented in the Prasadam Hall above the temple room. We are starting at 6.45 pm so kindly be seated by 6.30PM to avoid disappointment. 6.55 PM Invocation Bharatnatayam - Miss Shurti and Miss Roja 7.10 PM Bharatnatyam from Revati, Dance from Yalini Dance School 7.30 PM Carnatic Classical Music By Smt Dwaina Venkat (Senior Student of SMTP Shophar Shophar) Surya Radians on Mridangam 7.40 PM Play Gopakumara Search For Krishna Performed By Children - By Smt Leela Mayi This story is from the Brhad Bhagavadamrita by Sanatana Goswami. First Gopakumara is searching Krsna in Vrindavan and Jagannath Puri. In Vrindavan Krishna comes in the form as his spiritual master Jayanta and initiates him. Gopakumara with the help of the mantra travels all over the universe and at last reaches Goloka Vrindavan where he finds Krsna. 8.25 PM Dance - Moha Chedha Na - Dance from the Mayi Nachungi Dance Company Participants are Pri, Mary Heaton, Nayana, Vandana and Soni - Choregraphed by Soni and Pushpa This is a dance form where Radha asking Lord Krishna not to annoy her. Krishna says that I am Lord Of Braja and I already part of Radha-rani.9.00 PM Presentation by Aniruddha Prabhu 9.15 PM Play - Advent Of Lord Sri Krishna - A Bumble Bee Production – By Krsna-mayi Participants are Adam, Amrita , Anjali, Bernadette, Bhakta, Giri, Jitendria, Karvesh, Krishna, Krsna-carana, Lalita, Lovela, Shreyas, Pavan, Vibhav, Vrindaranya and Krsna-mayi 9.40 PM Dance - Mayi Yashoda - Dance from the Mayi Nachungi Dance Company by Ms Soni This form of dance traces Krishna who is troubling Mayi Yashoda. Ma Yashoda is showing all love for Krishna and also all the attention Krishna is seeking from Mother Yashoda. 9.50 PM Dance - Woh he Krsna- Dance from the Mayi Nachungi Dance Company Participants are Pri Mary Heaton, Nayana, Radhika and Vandana - Choregraphed by Pushpa This dance is based on a description of Krsna’s six opulences - wealth, beauty, renunciation, fame, strength and knowledge and a description of how beautiful Radharani is.9.55 PM Dance - Ka he Chedha Muhe - By Priyanka Lal This dance depicts the pastime of Lord Krishna‘s great fear of Mother Yasoda’s punishment for breaking her yogurt pots and stealing the fresh butter from the gopi’s. Upon breaking the pots Krsna becomes terrified and starts crying. But on purpose the Gopi’s want him to steal butter so that they can have His darshan and also at the same time complain to Mother Yasoda that he is troubling them.10.00 PM Dance - School of Bharatha Choodamani Dance School Artistic Director – Naramatha Ravichandran Participants – Anvita, Narochime, Nayani, Meena, Manoshay 10.10 PM Carnatic Classical music By Miss Vaidehai ( Student of Smt Shobha Shekhar) Sri Hari on Harimonium 11.00PM - Bhajanas Jhulana Yatra finishes tonight. If you want to have a last swing of Radha-krsna then tonight's the night. We are also celebrating Lord Balarama's birthday today so come early for the lecture by Devamrta Swami at 5.00 pm and then the feast at 6.00pm. Gopala Guru is cooking his last feast before he returns to Kiwi. These shots were taken a couple of nights ago by Rasanandini. We are also starting the second month of Caturmasya which means spinach pies are back on the menu but yoghurt is off. 001.jpg', '', 'width=1024,height=768,toolbar=0,location=0,directories=0,status=0,menuBar=0,scrollBars=1,resizable=1' );newWindow.focus())
Up
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Up
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and Away Wednesday 5th September The Appearance Day of His Divine Grace AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada,the Founder-Acharya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. 10.00 am Readings and Homages 12.00 pm Offering 12.30 pm Puspanjali and Guru Puja 1.00 pm Feast ;newWindow.focus())
Summertime in the UK... London will host the 39th 'Ratha-yatra Carnival of Chariots' on July 29. The annual Hare Krishna festival will be a colourful display of Indian culture and spirituality in the city. Satananda Krsna was recently married in Mumbai to Yasoda Dasi. It looks like
Satananda Krsna has met his match. Thanks Adi Purusa Krsna Prabhu for sending the pictures. All the best to the handsome couple. Dear Aniruddha Prabhu, Pamho. AgtSP. Herewith sending some wedding pictures of Satananda and Yasoda for your pleasure. Your servant, Adi Purusa Krsna dasa ;newWindow.focus())
Jayapataka Swami and Bhaktisiddhanta Swami
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Purna-huti
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Family shot
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Yasoda with her Sister and Mother
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Serious instructions to be followed
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Exchanging garlands
Ratha-yatra in Sofia, Bulgaria... Followers of the Krishna movement marched along one of Sofia's main boulevards on Saturday to celebrate a major religious holiday - Rathayatra. It's hard to believe I compiled this article six years ago to commemorate Jayananda's disappearance... This article, letter and interview appeared in the July 1977 issue of Back To Godhead magazine.Jason posted a comment three years ago which gives some insight into the nature of his devotion. |
