ISV Celebrates Gaura Purnima 2012 with a Sankirtana Festival of Abundant Bhajans
By Raxit Jariwalla
Dear Devotees,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
The Monthly Sankirtana Festival (MSF) of Abundant Bhajans, which was conducted over the last 2 weekends to honor Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, was concluded yesterday (March 7th) on Gaura Purnima, and the final MSF results were offered on this auspicious occasion to Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Srila Prabhupada and their Lordships at the ISKCON of Silicon Valley (ISV) temple in San Jose.
“As stated in the Srimad-Bhagavatam, the incarnation in the age of Kali is Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, who spread the worship of Krsna by the sankirtana movement (congregational chanting of the holy names) and spread Krsna consciousness throughout India. He predicted that this culture of sankirtana would be broadcast all over the world, from town to town and village to village” (Bhagavad-Gita 4.8 Purport).
His formula:
Harer nama harer nama harer namaiva kevalam
Kalau nasty eva nasty eva nasty eva gatir anyatha
“In this age of quarrel and hypocrisy, the only means of deliverance is chanting the holy name of the Lord. There is no other way. There is no other way. There is no other way”.
Our Sankirtana festivals owe a lot to Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, who started this movement with his associates, the Panca Tattva, going from town-to- town and door-to-door to distribute the Holy name.
To continue following in the footsteps of Mahaprabhu, Team ISV organized a Sankirtana yagna of ‘Abundant Bhajans’ to spread the Holy name and Krishna Consciousness throughout the Bay Area.
Goals
The goals of this MSF were:
To distribute at least 4001 transcendental books (including at least 26 Caitanya Caritamrta sets) and
To collect at least $6000 in Laxmi points (in support of sankirtana)
To realize these goals, ISV devotees held two Hari-Nama Sankirtana performances in Palo Alto, chanting the holy names and spreading the sound vibration, and they conducted massive book distribution over two weekends, going out door to door to distribute Caitanya Caritamrta sets and Srila Prabhupada’s books. CC sets were also installed at some homes as also Gaur-Nitai deities, a new addition to our MSF.
Highlights
Both adults from various teams (Team ISV, College preaching, MotelGita and other ISV departments) as well as kids from Sunday school participated in door-to-door book distribution. The Sunday-School kids had pledged to do 15% of the books goal (i.e. 600 books) and succeeded in distributing more than 717 books, 4 CC sets, and 1 set of Gaur-Nitai deities, raising more than $600 total Laxmi. In addition, books were also distributed by the Smart-box team through smart boxes placed in various establishments in the Bay Area. This MSF also saw the distribution of a good number of Bhagavad Gita E-books.
In other efforts, MotelGita associates at Laguna Beach communicated that they had dispatched several hundred Gitas to motels and another associate in Ohio ensured with their congressional delegates that copies of Bhagavad Gitas were distributed to the entire White House staff.
As we made this offering of the MSF results, we were pleased to report that the Books and Laxmi goals had been met and surpassed.
Summary of Scores
Here are the book distribution results.
In all:
More than 76 devotees participated in book distribution
They distributed 6144 books, including 44 CC sets
They raised $7,793 total Laxmi (including donations)
Acknowledgements
We thank all participating devotees, donors and Sankirtana leaders who contributed to this MSF, and last but not least we owe our gratitude to HG Vaisesika Prabhu for inspiring everyone to go out on Sankirtana!
Gaura Purnima MSF of Abundant Bhajans ki Jaya!
Yours in service,
Raxit Jariwalla
ISV, San Jose
