By Subhang Balaram Das
On 27 September 2015 His Holiness Lokanath Swami was invited by High Highness Divyasinghdev Gajapati Maharaj, the current king of Jagannath Puri to celebrate the 100th birth anniversary of Swami Chidanand Sarasvati. More than 8,000 people had gathered from all over India to attend this festival in the land of Lord Jagannath. Moreover, it was a wonderful preaching opportunity to represent Krishna’s holy name in front of a large religious assembly. There were many organisations such as the Ramakrishna Math, Divine Life Society and Chinmaya Mission.
All sannyasis were asked to speak on ‘Vedic renaissance for a better world’. While most of the guests emphasised the practice of a Vedic life, they proposed solutions were vague and impersonalistic.
Lokanath Swami mentioned that Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had predicted that the holy name of Krishna will be chanted in every village and town on earth. That prediction has been fulfilled through Srila Prabhupada’s establishment of ISKCON, thus spearheading a true and concrete Vedic renaissance in every part of the world. He quoted the Newsweek as saying that the fastest growing religion in the former Soviet Union is “Hare Krishna”, with 700,000 adherents. The audience burst into an applause on hearing this. Maharaja also emphasized that there is no dharma in the Age of Kali other than the chanting the holy name of Krishna.
Click the following link to watch a video of Maharaja’s speech in Hindi in this assembly: https://youtu.be/4vqRNiLm4PQ