Celebrate Festival of Anartha-nivritti
By Raxit Jariwalla
Dear Devotees,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
The Monthly Sankirtana Festival (MSF) of Anartha-nivritti*, which was held to celebrate the divine appearance of Lord Nrsimhadeva, was concluded yesterday (May 16th) at dusk, at which time the final results from the MSF were read out and offered to their Lordships at the ISV (Iskcon of Silicon Valley) temple in San Jose.
(*Anartha-nivritti is the process of freeing oneself from unwanted desires in the heart and the Lord who is the protector of His devotees helps them in this process).
Highlights Serving in the spirit of Nrsimhadeva’s causeless mercy and following in the footsteps of Prahlada Maharaj, ISV devotees worshipped Lord Nrsimhadeva by participating in two weekends of Sankirtana yagna. On Friday, April 29, they performed Hari Nama Sankirtana in Palo Alto and on successive weekends of April 30-May 1 and May 7-8, they did massive book distribution all over the Bay Area, including door-to-door distribution through several apartment complexes in South and East Bay. Books were also distributed at a Cherry blossom festival held in Cupertino.
During this MSF, ISV Motelgita and their collaborating teams in Texas, Ohio and Boston, dispatched 1385 Bhagavad Gitas in motels all across the US. ISV devotees also distributed books via the Smart Box placed in local establishments and shipped foreign language books to other devotees to facilitate the cause of book distribution. The Sunday school kids distributed 273 books through door-to-door Sankirtana and at other sites (meeting their goal of 250 books). In addition, one of the ISV devotees shipped a Bhagavad Gita and Back-to-Godhead magazine for the benefit of a prisoner.
Goals The Team ISV goals for this MSF were to:
1. Distribute 2500 Books
2. Write a story on Lord Nrsimhadeva for publication and have a flyer which announces our special deities
3. Make a list of new paraphernalia and ornaments for Lord Nrsimhadev and invite devotees to donate
4. Hear the pastimes of Lord Nrsimha via conference call, led by HG Vaisesika Prabhu
On the day of offering (Nrsimha Caturdasi), we were pleased to report that all of these goals were successfully met and we once again surpassed our book distribution target. The readings from the 7th Canto of the Srimad Bhagavatam, conducted by Vaisesika Prabhu, leading to the appearance of Lord Nrsimhadeva, were completed on the same evening.
Summary of Scores Here is a summary of the final results from our book distribution. In all,
• More than 70 devotees participated in book distribution
• Totally 4763 books were distributed and
• $5252 in Laxmi points (including donations) were collected
On behalf of team ISV, these results were offered to Lord Nrsimhadeva and Prahlada Maharaj, with expression of thanks to all devotees who participated in book distribution, to all who provided support services including MSF lunch preparation, and to all donors who contributed to this Sankirtana yagna.
Hare Krishna!
Yours in service, Raxit Jariwalla
