By Raxit Jariwalla
Dear Devotees,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
The first Monthly Sankirtana Festival of 2012, entitled “Sri Nityananda Trayodasi MSF of Getting to Know Each Other” was held at Iskcon of Silicon Valley (ISV) in honor of Lord Nityananda’s divine appearance day. It was concluded on February 15th, on which day the MSF results were offered to Srila Prabhupada and their Lordships during the Wednesday night Gita class at the ISV temple in San Jose, California. The official MSF was held during the weekend of Feb 10 through 12th.
Goals
The main Team ISV goal was ‘get to know at least one person whom you had never met before’. A second goal was to ‘complete an ISV 2012 Calendar’. We are pleased to report that both goals were met.
In keeping with the theme of this MSF, everyone was asked to meet as many devotees who had executed different activities and to personally associate with them to get to know one another. ISV’s Gandharvika Mataji prepared a form for devotees to fill out. Many devotees reached out to others by giving special attention to them and obtaining their autographs next to activities they had performed.
All together 18 devotees turned in their forms. Names of those who had submitted these sheets by the time of offering were acknowledged by Malini devi-dasi. Among these participants, the top 3 winners who reached out to a maximum number of devotees were little Balaram, Yash Doshi and Trishab Prabhu.
Harinaam and Book Distribution
In the spirit of Nityananda Prabhu’s unlimited compassion, ISV devotees also held their first Harinaam Sankirtana performance of the year in Palo Alto on Friday, February 10 and participated in book distribution throughout that weekend. Members of the college preaching team and some ISV devotees also conducted book distribution during weekends preceding the MSF weekend.
Books were distributed door-to-door in Foster City and San Jose, at India Cash & Carry stores in Sunnyvale and Fremont, during house programs in San Francisco and Fremont, and at other venues in the Bay area. In addition, books in different languages were shipped to devotees residing in distant places, Spanish books were distributed locally through the ISV temple, children’s books were distributed to their friends, and Bhagavad Gitas were delivered for placement in a motel.
Summary of Scores
Here is a summary of the book distribution results:
At least 29 devotees participated in book distribution
They distributed in total 1661 books and
They collected $2789 in Laxmi points (including MotelGita collection)
On behalf of ISV, we thank all participants and donors, including the ISV Sankirtana team and the Sankirtana leaders.
MSF for Lord Nityananda Trayodasi ki Jaya!
Yours in service,
Raxit Jariwalla
ISV, San Jose, CA