July 4th and 5th, were the last two days of the North American TOVP Tour, 2015. They were, in fact, record days for our fundraising and visits to devotees homes. During these two days Jananivas prabhu alone visited over 25 devotees’ homes, going from one to the other with the Padukas and Sitari, bringing the blessings of Sri Mayapur Dhama. The crowd of 300+ devotees rose to the occasion, being encouraged to top the charts in pledges. By the end of the program more than $1.2 million was pledged and...

On Sunday, June 28th, we arrived at ISKCON Houston at the home of Advaitachandra and Kalasuddha prabhus. They are leaders in the U.S. of the Bhakti Vrksha programs, helping devotees all across the country to organize their efforts in this regard. Their home was like Vaikuntha; every inch of wall-space was covered by either a photo of some Deities or guru, or a picture of the Lord in one of his incarnations. Their Pancha Tattva Deities were cast from the leftover metal used for the original Pancha Tat...

We arrived in Gita Nagari from New Vrindaban on Friday, May 29th, Pandava Nirjala Ekadasi, only for a few hours to make a presentation at the weekend retreat there with Radhanath Maharaja and Giriraja Swami, attended by 300+ devotees from across the country. There was no time for an abhisheka or puspanjali for the Padukas and Sitari, and after setting up our banners and table, Radhanath Maharaja spoke about the TOVP, glorifying the project and requested devotees to give their financial assistance. Ra...

Currently, work is ongoing at a manufacturing unit in Jaipur, aiming to begin installation on site by August. Buddharam Stone Industries in Jaipur, Rajasthan is one of the foremost carvers available in India, following traditional methodologies, and very meticulous work practices. Vilasini devi dasi (Head Architect) and Anupama Shah (Team Lead – Architects) visited their factory to review the work in progress on Sunday, 14 June 2015 and were very much satisfied with their remarkable work.

The Sadhu Sanga Retreat in Boone, North Carolina is North America’s largest devotee gathering attracting almost 2,000 devotees each year from all across America and Canada for kirtans and lectures by some of ISKCON’s favorite kirtan leaders and senior devotees. We departed from Charlotte, North Carolina by car on Friday, May 22nd for three days at the weekend retreat.

On Monday, May 11th we caught up with office related work and visited two devotee families for prasadam. For breakfast we went to the home of Phanesvari devi dasi and her husband, and in the evening to the home of Bipin Chaturvedi and his family. In the evening we paid a visit to the Shree Temple where the temple had arranged a kirtan program and Radha Jivana made a TOVP presentation, receiving a Silver Gratitude pledge along with other pledges.

New Dwaraka is the North American ISKCON Headquarters and home to Sri Sri Rukmini Dwarakadisha. It is also one of the original temples opened during Srila Prabhupada’s presence and the place of many of his pastimes, including the famous morning walks along Venice Beach. Under the able leadership of Svavas prabhu, who is also the BBT Manager, it continues to be a thriving community of hundreds of devotees.

Never before seen design sketches! The artists and architects have been hard at work designing the temple to make it look more beautiful than any other in the world. Their sketches fill the art room walls with color and wonder, sastric books are stacked high on the large conference table for reference and drawing materials are strewn about as if a tornado hit the room. We have been anxiously waiting for some approved sketches to show all of you what ‘out of this world’ progress is being made, and ...

The San Jose Temple (ISV) is home to some of the biggest book distribution scores in North America. This dedicated team of grhastha devotees living outside the temple, under the inspiration and guidance of His Grace Vaisesika prabhu, distributes almost as many books as some of North America’s full-time book distributors. On the weekend before our arrival they had distributed 14 full sets of Srimad Bhagavatams, along with many other books, and they now have over 150 youngsters going out weekly in t...

On Monday, April 20th the TOVP Team and the Lord’s Padukas visited the home of Kalarupini dasi who, along with Bhaktin Katelin, prepared and served us prasadam. In the evening we were invited to the home of Virendra Sharma where many devotees came to hear Jananivas speak. The Padukas were worshiped along with kirtan and prasadam was served.

On the evening of Friday, April 17th we did our TOVP presentation along with kirtan and abhisheka of the Padukas during the Gaura arati. Bala Krishna prabhu, the temple president, introduced the TOVP Team and Radha Jivana spoke in Hindi to the large gathering of Indian guests and devotees. $60,000 in pledges was raised and Bala Krishna promised more from his personal fundraising efforts by going to people’s homes. Prasadam was then served.

On Wednesday, March 8th Jananivas and Sunanda prabhus visited the home of Shyamakund and Ananda Rupa prabhus for prasadam and darshan of their Deities, after which they departed from New Jersey with the Lord’s Padukas for the first stop in Canada, Ottawa, the Nation’s capital. On Thursday, April 9th Jananivas, Vraja Vilas and Sunanda prabhus brought the Padukas to the home of Vanamali prabhu and his family where they also had prasadam. In the evening the Temple President, Shankar prabhu, arrange...

From there we drove back to Towaco, New Jersey for a special blessing by the Padukas of the property where the new temple will be constructed. We then made our way to the Towaco temple for the evening TOVP presentation. Madhupati prabhu introduced the TOVP Team which again included Ambarisa prabhu, and Radha Jivan took over. He and Ambarisa, besides speaking about the TOVP, encouraged the devotees in their new temple project and promised to come back to help fundraise. Jananivas prabhu spoke about Ma...

After kirtan and abhisheka of the Padukas, a few local leaders, including Madhupati prabhu, Temple President of both New Jersey temples, and Devakinandana prabhu, spoke and began the program. Radha Jivan then introduced Ambarisa prabhu who had come for both the New Jersey programs, and together with Jananivas prabhu they urged the 150+ devotees to make a sacrifice for the TOVP despite the large financial burden of the new facilities. Devotees responded enthusiastically and the pledges amounted to ove...

On Monday, March 30th, we drove to Towaco New Jersey for an entire week of evening programs with Jananivas prabhu at both the Towaco and Plainfield, New Jersey temples (March 30 – April 3). Every evening he spoke on subjects such as Deity worship, Mayapur Dhama, the TOVP, etc. On Sunday, March 29th, we made our way by car to the newly purchased temple building in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. A crowd of almost 100 Indian devotees had gathered, including some devotees from Gita Nagari, for the evening c...

$230,000 Raised in New Goloka Dhama, $200,000 Pledged from Denver Temple, $250,000 pledged by Mr. and Mrs. Vora’s friends and many more victories from the traveling TOVP team's tour in North American Temples and Communities. Also Jananivas Prabhu’s 71st Birthday Celebrated and Deity Seva Seminars given.

On Saturday, March 14, the first TOVP program was inaugurated at New Raman Reti Dhama in Alachua, Florida, America’s largest devotee community. A packed temple room of 300+ devotees from all over Florida had come and were engaged in ecstatic kirtan while having darshan of Lord Nityananda’s Padukas and receiving Lord Nrsimhadeva’s Sitari on their heads from Jananivas prabhu’s own hands. After the kirtan Mukhya dasi, the Temple President, welcomed all the devotees and introduced the...

The devotees showed an overwhelming response to the presentation by making pledges toward the temple construction to the tune of $850,000. Next, the team traveled to Dallas, and made a similar presentation at the temple on Sunday. More than 300 people from the congregation attended, with another surprising response of $1,000,000 in collective pledges. The temple president of Dallas, Nityananda Prabhu, was pleasantly surprised by the generosity, since he was expecting us not to collect any more than...

On Thursday, March 12 around 6:30pm the Lord in the form of His Padukas and Sitari arrived at Radha Jivana prabhu’s home to an ecstatic reception kirtan led by devotees from the Gainesville Krishna House. The Padukas and Sitari received an abhishek, and Jananivas prabhu received a foot washing and spoke about Mayapur and the TOVP project to all the assembled devotees.

In the early morning hours on Wednesday, March 12th in Mayapur, Jananivas prabhu and myself (Vraja Vilas), to the nectarine sound of Krishna Kirtan, departed for the U.S. in a grand procession carrying with us the divine Padukas of Lord Nityananda and Sitari of Lord Nrsinghadeva. Celebrating the 50th anniversary of Srila Prabhupada’s arrival in the U.S. in 2015 (also officially pronounced the Year of the TOVP by GBC Chairman Praghosa prabhu), we are scheduled to travel for 108 days to ov...