Iskcon can hold yatra at Shivaji Park only this year

Asian Age: The Bombay high court on Thursday informed the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (Iskcon) group that it would permit it to hold its annual yatra at Shivaji Park on the condition that it would not hold its rally at the ground next time onwards.
A division bench of Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice Anoop Mohta was hearing an appeal filed by the Iskcon, seeking permission to hold its annual Jagannath Rath Yatra at Shivaji Park from January 8 to 13.
The city civic body had refused to grant it permission as the park is a silence zone.
Shivaji Park was declared a silence zone after a litigation was filed in the court seeking the same. Since then, the court received several such appeals from various political parties, schools and other organisations to hold an event there.
The court informed Iskcon that it would grant it permission to hold the yatra if the organisation gave an undertaking that it would not seek such permission henceforth, and would not conduct the event in Shivaji Park again.
The organisation agreed to do so and stated that it would submit an undertaking by Friday.

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Akshaya Patra on Doordarshan

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ISKCON Bangalore' Sankalp New Year Celebrations 2013

Grooving, jumping, dancing and shaking a leg to the tap of drum-beats! Well! Could you have asked for an easier and ‘cool’ form of meditation!? Yes! This was what the 500 youth that gathered in the ‘Open Air Theatre’ of ISKCON Bangalore temple on ‘Hare Krishna Hill’ performed through the night and into the dawn of New Year. As the clock ticked away into 2013, the boys danced away to the mystical tunes of ‘Yugadharma’ band! As the temple bell rang twelve, the chanters welcomed 2013 with ‘Hare Krishna’ and cutting cake maha-prasadam!

‘Yuga Dharma’ continued to take us around the world playing us ‘Hare Krishna’ in different genres ranging from the Indian classical ‘Hindustani’ to reggae, rock-n-roll, pop, jazz and pure rock music! But the genre that topped the charts and was the clear ‘Once More-Twice More-Thrice More’ cheered one was from the Middle-East- ‘Hare Krishna Mantra in Turkish tune’! As the Yugadharma Lead Vocalist sang in typical Arabic style, the boys of MMC and FOLK were ecstatic literally ‘belly-dancing’ to the music! After the ‘once more’ performance of the Turkish genre, Yugadharma lead vocalist rightly quipped, “We must be all going to the middle-east and singing ‘Hare Krishna’ in there! That would surely end the terrorism there and in the world!”

But then, Rohith wasn’t joking after all! The MC of SANKALP Sri Sampati Prabhu enlightened the audience on what they were into on the New Year eve night. He explained, “Just as the people of the bygone ages of Satya Yuga had to attain perfection by silent meditation or ‘Dhyaan’, people of Treta Yuga attained it by performing elaborate sacrifices (Yajna,homa etc), and the people of Dvapara Yuga attained perfection by building exquisite temples in glory of Lord, all this perfection is attained in this age of Kali Yuga just by singing aloud and dancing along to the words of the holy name-Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare! Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare! This is meditation- sound meditation-Mantra Meditation! And it’s rocking!”

And The MMC’ians was the best who did that! The boys of ‘Mantra Meditation Circle’ were clearly enjoying themselves in this new form of mantra meditation, dancing away to the sound and words of holy name in different genres of ‘Yugadharma’ band! They were clearly the outstanding dancers of the SANKALP night and as they danced, they put many of the veteran FOLKs to shame! 

It appeared ‘Yugadharma’ this time relived the memories of SANKALP-2009 with the second time performances from then, but Amit Anand had a surprise in store for us with his new instrument ‘Melodica’ which looked much like a kid’s ‘peepi’! and the lead vocalist Rohith rightly quipped, “He stole it from his two-year old cousin!”
But before all these song-n-dance began, the new-year bash started in a typical gala party style! As the FOLKs entered in with freshly adorned white ‘SANKALP’ t-shirts, they were greeted by FOLK Guides with a warm welcome and surprising new-year gift of a silver locket with Lakshmi-Narasimha and Hare Krishna mantra etched on it! The FOLKs prepared for the night’s events with a welcome drink and exchange of spiritual gifts with their new year buddies.
 

And then there was the BIG BANG! The Special Guest of SANKALP 2013 was led into the arena in grand style! Srila Prabhupada, the commander in chief of Lord Chaitanya’s army marched in regally atop a grand palanquin carried by His beloved disciples to the accompaniment of special glorifications of ‘Jaya Srila Prabhupada-vande guroh sri caranaravindam!’ It was one of those most exciting moments that His disciples had gone through on innumerable Srila Prabhupada airport arrivals, and to sum up the significance of this reception, Srila Prabhupada’s Los Angeles 1970 airport arrival played on the giant screens! Srila Prabhupada’s beloved disciple and the President of Srila Prabhupada’s ISKCON Bangalore Sri Madhu Pandit Prabhu garlanded Him both by flowers and then by words!

Sri Madhu Pandit Prabhu enlightened the assembled youth on the position of Srila Prabhupada as follows: “There have been many great spiritual personalities who have started spiritual organizations; and all those organizations carry their name and their legacy. But Srila Prabhupada was an embodiment of humility who never took credit for any of His achievements! He named his society ‘International Society of Krishna Consciousness-ISKCON’, glorifying Lord Krishna and throughout His life and in His works, He only constantly glorified the Supreme Personality of Godhead Lord Sri Krishna! Hence many people have heard and know what is ISKCON but hardly a few know who is Srila Prabhupada! But this duty is now taken up by Lord Krishna Himself to glorify His beloved devotee Srila Prabhupada and spread ‘Prabhupada Consciousness’! The responsibility is on our shoulders! We have to live and embody ‘Prabhupada Consciousness’!”
 

Sri Amitasana Prabhu, Vice-President ISKCON Bangalore led the FOLKS in taking sublime resolutions for the upcoming New Year to ensure a significant and over-all spiritual growth of every FOLK. The FOLKS then offered their New Year resolutions at the Lotus Feet of Srila Prabhupada and headed for the most delicious dinner maha-prasadam of 2012!

The SANKALP night entered the New Year with a typical bash with Srila Prabhupada declaring on the giant screens, “Well, our every day is a New Year. Nava-navayauvana. Our Krishna consciousness is so nice, the more you advance, you see New Year, New Year. That's all. Nothing is old.”

And as the night grew and the tempo rose the FOLKs danced along and Srila Prabhupada joined them from time to time on the giant screens! The program received a fitting finale with a grand pre-dawn Guru puja ceremony to Srila Prabhupada to the accompaniment of ‘Sri Guru Carana Padma…’ followed by the feather in the cap to SANKALP 2013- a contemporary dance performance on Dashavatara by the FOLK Dancers!
 

Surely, anyone who attended SANKALP-2013 could get the feeling of the bright future ahead for Srila Prabhupada’s ISKCON, typically demonstrated by every FOLKs’ eager hands going up when His Grace Madhupandit Dasa inquired, “Who will join Srila Prabhupada’s army?” by a resounding “ME! ME and ME!”

The world can get ready for the second revolution in coming, ‘Prabhupada Consciousness’!

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Cash-starved BBMP may deprive 34,000 kids, elderly of meals

The Times of India: Over 20,000 children and more than 14,000 senior citizens face the possibility of being deprived of midday meals being served in BBMP schools from January 5.

For, Iskcon's Akshaya Patra has threatened to stop serving the midday meals if the cash-strapped BBMP fails to clear its pending bills running up to Rs 1.96 crore. The uncleared bills have piled up over the last six months.

Akshaya Patra serves midday meals at BBMP's 115 schools and over 40 units catering to senior citizens. The threat to stop the service has been mentioned in an Iskcon notice to BBMP.

M Nagaraj, corporator from Nandini Layout, brought the issue to the notice of the BBMP commissioner during the recent council meeting.

"Iskcon is a charitable trust working on laudable activities like midday meals. If the government agencies like BBMP do not pay them at the right time, how will Iskcon continue to do good work? Iskcon representatives met me and said they might not be able to continue the service from January 5 if BBMP failed to clear the pending payment," Nagaraj told TOI.

When the issue was bought to the notice of commissioner Siddaiah, he immediately asked the officials to clear the bills.

"Due to lack of revenue mobilization in previous months, the salaries to be paid to nurses, doctors and link workers are pending. These are workers who are taking care of outsourced work of BBMP. They will be paid in one or two days. The computer operators were not paid for the past two months and their salaries were released today. Iskcon's pending payment will be taken care of. I have already instructed my officials," Siddaiah said.

When contacted, BBMP chief accounts officer Ramachandra Gowda admitted that the Akshaya Patra bills were not yet paid. "We are waiting for the bills to be prepared by the joint commissioner of social welfare wing. As soon as I get the bills, I will clear it," he said.

Iskcon chief Chanchalapathi Dasa was unavailable for comment. An Akshaya Patra spokesperson neither confirmed nor denied the pending bills issue. "We would not like to comment on this," he said.

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