Our Prison Preaching Incharge, Jankinath Prabhu, decided to take out a Traveling Sankirtan Party for the summer. In their travels they reached Prabhupada Ashram in Uddhampur in Jummu, where HH Navayogendra Maharaja made very comfortable arrangements for their stay. From there they decided to go to Srinagar in Kashmir where they had the address of a disciple of HH Gopal Krishna Maharaja Arjun Shyam Prabhu, who would provide them nice facilities for staying and preaching

May 17th Vaisakha Purnima was the auspicious appearance day of the self-manifest Deity, Sri Radharaman Lalji, one of the most important and beloved Deities of Vrindavan who was served by Gopala Bhatta Goswami. It was celebrated with great pomp and ceremony with an incredible abhisheka with more than 2,000 liters of milk!

Next month marks the auspicious 8th Anniversary of Vrinda Kunda Temple opening! To celebrate we are organizing special parikramas to the Holy Places of Braja, culminating with our famous Kalash Yatra, an ecstatic Sankirtan procession with the ladies carrying water pots with coconuts on their heads

Taking advantage of the Vrindavan Kumbha Mela on 20th March, Jankinatha Prabhu organized a Sadhu Sammelan in Krishna Balaram Mandir on the topic of the 500th anniversary of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's Sannyas.

Seven years ago on Varaha Dwadasi, we opened the Vrinda Kunda Temple. To celebrate we had a special program of parikramas to the Holy Places of Radha and Krishna's divine pastimes.

One day, one devotee, who wishes not to be named, came to see me. He said he had a large donation and he wanted to see Sanatan Goswami's Samadhi repaired and wanted to know if I could do it. I was completely amazed as just the day before I was thinking about this.

Everyone was anticipating when we would get darshan of the original Kunda excavated by Srimati Radharani and Her sakhis with their golden bangles, kankans. However the pumps that were pumping out the water were getting clogged with mud and each time they got close, they would break down.

He always used to tell us some amusing Bengali stories, some of which were a little strange, but always amusing. Eventually Daivishakti Mataji, published a small book, called "Dadu Tells a Story" even though he was adamant in his own humble way that his name not come on the book

Everyone kept coming to us and profusely thanking us for this wonderful festival and asking why we didn't do it before. We told them it was Radha Shyamsundar's desire, they were tired of seeing Their devotees pushed and shoved in a crowded temple room and They wanted to come to the Yamuna where everyone could peacefully participate.

On Sunday we had the ecstatic grand finale of the 6th anniversary of Vrinda Kunda Temple. All the devotees gathered beside Pavana Sarovar and after a nice hot breakfast of kichari, we began the preparations for the famous Kalash Yatra.

Yesterday, our Prison Preaching team went for their regular program in the Bharatpur Jail, just 40 km. from Vrindavan in Rajasthan. They were very wonderfully surprised when they reached the jail, the prisoners were having Srimad Bhagavatam class.

This is one of the best times of the year as the weather is very pleasant and it is not so hot like after Mayapur Festival. Since our festival ends on the 22nd, then everyone has time to reach Mayapur for the Maha-abhisheka on Feb. 25th.

During the Ardha Kumbha Mela a couple of years ago, I reported how we invited all the Vaisnava Mahants to come to our ISKCON pandal and take prasadam. This was a great victory for Srila Prabhupada as they accepted us as being in a bonafide sampradaya.

In the first picture, you can appreciate the size of the silver elephant and the beautiful throne carried on his back. Next you can get darshan of Sri Sri Radharamanji gloriously sitting on His colorful throne. Then you can relish a nice close up of His Lordship.

I'm attaching a beautiful picture of Vamana Deva that is just near Kameshvara Mahadeva in Kamyavan. This is in front of the Panca Pandava temple on the way to Dharma Kunda where the Yaksa Prashna pastime of Mahabharat took place.

This year for the first time, the devotees organized a wonderful Vyasa Puja Celebration in the evening, inviting may leading citizens of Vrindavan to come and offer their homage to Srila Prabhupada on his appearance day.

After greeting the the devotees with garlands, headed by our Prison Preaching incharge, Jankinath, the prisoners escorted the devotees with their own kirtan party to the stage set up in the large field in the middle of the jail.

ISKCON had been invited to participate in a two days conference, "Faith in Action"- A Hindu Leaders caucus on HIV/AIDS, organized by UNAIDS and others. They were warmly received by the organizers, who upon seeing the devotees, exclaimed, "Oh! ISKCON sadhus have arrived!"

Yesterday morning during the auspicious brahma muhurta at 3:40 AM Nrsimha Devi, disciple of Srila Prabhupada and HH Tamal Krishna Maharaja, peacefully passed from this world in the Krishna Balaram Guesthouse in Sri Vrindavan Dham.

Not many people know about it, but every year on Ganga Dashera and Pandava Nirjala Ekadasi there are Phul Bangalas (Flower Palaces) and Kavi Sanmelans (Poetry Recitals) in Varsana and Nandagram respectively.

Out of his kindness and mercy, Sri Radha Govinda Maharaja agreed to do 3 days of Bhagwat Katha in Agra Central Jail last week. All the prisoners and jail authorities thouroughly appreciated Maharaja's lectures and the ecstatic kirtana of the ISKCON devotees.

This is one of the best times of the year as the weather is very pleasant and it is not so hot like after Mayapur Festival especially this year as it will be late.

Take advantage of the fact that Gaura Purnima is late this year come and early to Vrindavan for parikramas of the Holy Dhama and join the annual Vrinda Kunda Festival.

Usually we can't really report about this type of preaching, but due to the nature of this tour, it was already highly publicized in the media and the authorities in Pakistan were also closely monitoring, so it is no secret.

Probably most of the younger devotees who come to Vrindavan knew nothing about him as for the last several years his legs did not allow him to come out of his room. He was so humble he didn't want to trouble anyone to carry him for darshan either.

Just about two weeks ago, there was a quite rare event in the ISKCON Bhaktivedanta Swami Goshala established by Srila Prabhupada. A beautiful black cow named Arati gave birth to twin bull calves.

At one point he was making the point that part of the process of purifying the heart is eating only prasadam. Seeing a small temple to the right of the stage, he suggested that whatever they cook should be offered first to the Lord and then the prasadam served to the inmates. This met with very enthusiastic applause.

A couple of days ago, while I was studying for giving Bhagavatam Class, one of the members of the Vrindavan Municipality called me. He informed me that there were 25,000 people from all over India walking by foot from Gwalior to New Delhi.

After opening the gates, they were greeted by about 20 prisoners doing kirtan with one playing dholak and another with harmonium strung over his shoulders. Aindra Prabhu was very impressed with the unique village melody they were chanting.

Since I wrote about Van Bihar Parikrama and mentioned how there used to be so many lotus flowers in Rohini Kunda in Nandagram, a few devotees have written asking how they can help. So I walked over to Rohini Kunda to see what has to be done.

Every year on the second day of the moon after Nrsimha Caturdasi there is a special parikrama of Vrindavan called Van Bihar Parikrama. All the Brajavasis do parikrama of Vrindavan at night.

More than 450 years ago on the day of Nrsimha Caturdasi, one wealthy merchant came and was giving dresses and jewelry to the different Goswamis in Vrindavana to use in the service of their Deities.

Everywhere there were South Indian brahamanas mostly with their distinctive sikhas where they shave about two inches back from the forhead and around the ears and tie all their hair in a bun at the back.

The Brahma-vaivarta Purana explains why Sarasvati no longer exists in her full glory: When Ganga-devi cursed Sarasvati-devi to become a river here on Mrtyuloka, one of the conditions was that she would only remain on earth as long as rishis and other great sages performed tapasya on her banks.

Since in Ujjain Kumbha Mela in 2004, Lokanatha Swami became a Sri Mahant of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness Prabhupada Khalsa, we now have our official place in the Shahi Snanas.

February marks the Fourth Anniversary of the opening of the Vrinda Kunda Temple in Nandagram. To celebrate we will be having a special program of parikramas to the Holy Places of Radha and Krishna's divine pastimes from Feb 5 - 15. The main event will be what has become an unforgettable experience for all who have participated, the Kalash Yatra.

From Feb 5th to Feb 15th there will be the Fourth Anniversary of Vrinda Devi Temple at Vrinda Kunda. There will be parikramas going out almost every day from Krishna Balaram Mandir to the different holy places of Krishna's divine pastimes.

You can download maharaj's last composed and last recorded song and a new archive has been set up for him at www.tdsingh.net and soon more spiritual material will be uploaded there.

After aratika, Padmalocana Goswami surprised us all by taking the Salagram Silas in an ornate silver cart on a Rathayatra circumambulating Sri Radharamanji. Unfortunately, he was moving too fast for us to get a good photo of the Rathayatra. The photos presented here were taken by a Swedish disciple of Devamrita Swami named Karunapurna Devi Dasi, who is on her first visit to the Holy Dhama, Sri Vrindavan.

Then bringing Maharaja carefully down the steps of the temple, the devotees took him on parikrama of Sri Sri Krishna Balaram Mandir three times. His disciples sweetly chanted a nice Manipuri melody of Hare Krishna Mahamantra. The procession moved very slowly and reverentially around the parikrama path. After the third round, Maharaja was taken to the Samadhi Museum and there was a huge surge and rush.

Because of this feast, one sadhu in Vrindavan, Hari Shankar, who is the president of the Vrindavan Sadhu Board, became so inspired, that he insisted that ISKCON have its own mahant and own place in the Kumbha Mela Procession. He worked tirelessly to make Lokanatha Swami the Sri Mahant of our new ISKCON Akhara.

Suddenly all we heard was explosions and firecrackers in the distance and this was almost midnight. I couldn’t figure out what was going on and, seeing the puzzled look on my face, Laxmimoni said, “Pakistan lost.” Everyone was rolling with laughter. That’s why no one was on parikrama, they were all watching cricket!

Last week we were honored by the visit of Jnana Dasa, President of the All India Akhara Association, to Sri Sri Krishna Balaram Mandir. This is the association that governs all the sadhus in India as well as the Kumbha Melas. Two years ago in Ujjain, he approved His Holiness Lokanatha Swami to become Mahant, thus giving us our own ISKCON Akhara and our place in the Royal Procession at the Kumbha Melas.

Even in temple and other religious gatherings I have seldom seen the type of welcome we received. Sri Dangi himself entered our names and particulars in the register, a formality that we always have to do before entering any jail. They have these huge wooden doors and inside is like a vestibule with offices on either side and then another set of huge wooden doors.