Braj Gupta and Girish Parikh:
ISKCON Hare Krishna Temple of Washington D.C., located in Potomac, Maryland, celebrated Dasera on a grand scale on Sunday, October 21, 2007.
Dasera, also known as Vijayadashami, is the celebration of Lord Rama’s victory in a battle with Ravana who had kidnapped Sita, Rama’s wife. About 5,000 devotees from the all over America attended this exciting program with great enthusiasm. The underlying message of the festival is: Truth triumphs over evil.
The program included Ramalila drama with burning of huge 25 feet high Ravana effigy, ecstatic bhajans and kirtans, discourse on Ramayan, magnificent arati, Moon bouncer, children’s games, classical dance, and sumptuous prasadam feast.
The priest Shri Caitanya Nitai Das, Shri Chaitnaya Bhagwan Das, Shri Uttam Sloka, other fellow devotees of the temple, and volunteers made this event a great success.
ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness) was founded by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada in 1966 in New
York. Its home center is in Mayapur, India (where Sri Chaitanya was born), and its branches are in many parts of the world.
ISKCON Temple of Washington D.C. is located at 10310 Oaklyn Drive, Potomac, MD 20854; USA (Telephone: 301-299-2100 Web site: www.iskcondc.org)