{"id":2594,"date":"2007-01-01T14:49:09","date_gmt":"2007-01-01T13:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=2594"},"modified":"2007-01-06T23:39:53","modified_gmt":"2007-01-06T22:39:53","slug":"bhagavat-katha-in-pune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=2594","title":{"rendered":"Bhagavat Katha In Pune"},"content":{"rendered":"

By krishnabhakta das<\/strong><\/p>\n

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.<\/p>\n

The end of December is the time when most people around the world are remembering Santa Claus, but the fortunate devotees of Pune, Maharashtra were remembering Lord Nrsimhadeva (The fierce half man\/ half lion form of Lord Krishna)!<\/p>\n

For 7 nights – From 22 to 28 December His Holiness Lokanath Swami Maharaja narrated the full ten chapters of the 7th Canto of the Srimad Bhagavatam depicting the pastimes of Lord Nrsimhadeva, His devotee Prahlad Maharaja, and the king of the demons – Hiranyakasipu. Also, each morning, Maharaja was narrating the pastimes of Lord Caitanya during His tour of South India at the Sri Sri Radha Kunjabihari Temple ISKCON, Pune.<\/p>\n

Every night, the most prestigious hall in Pune (often called the “Oxford of the East”), the Ganesh Kala Krida Manch was filled with upwards of 3000 to 3500 people. Backed up by a band of professional musicians, along with super excellent devotee singers, Maharaja began each night with the sweet soulful kirtans and bhajans that have made him world famous. The entire event was recorded on both audio and video and we hope to have the final edited productions ready soon.<\/p>\n

There was a multimedia aspect to the presentation. Slides of the verses Maharaja was quoting as well as pictures of the pastimes appeared on large screens on each side of the stage by H.G.Anantshesha Pr.<\/p>\n

The response was overwhelming After the Katha, Maharaja was signing books for hours. He was swarmed with fans – all reaching out with their books and pens for his autograph. The amount of Bhagavad Gitas and other books distributed far exceeded last year’s scores.<\/p>\n

Additional highlights of the festival included the dramas presented each night organized by the Pune devotees. The excellent pre-recorded soundtracks made the dramas appear as if produced by professionals.<\/p>\n

On the last night of the festival, a Mantra Rock Concert was put on for the pleasure of the crowd. “The Rock Sadhus” or “Sadhus” for short gave a one hour performance featuring Gaura Krishna Das from Denmark on drums, Visvambhara from USA on electric guitar and lead vocals, Bhakta Robert from Poland on Keyboards, and Gungadevi (Visvambhara’s sister) and her friend Sudevi Dasi from Mumbai on backup vocals. Of course, Ekalavya Pr.was blowing his most popular trumpet. Maharaja seemed to enjoy the concert and stayed for the entire performance. The audience rose from their seats and danced with wild abandon during the chanting of the Hare Krishna Maha Mantra.<\/p>\n

After the concert, Maharaja was asked how he liked the performance, Maharaja said, “Very much”. He added that more concerts in the future were “Welcome”. He also indicated that he would also be willing to sing on the stage with the band! “I have already done this in the past.” , he said.<\/p>\n

It is a beautiful way of using music to spread Krishna consciousness.<\/p>\n

This was the first time I heard such discourses.<\/p>\n

Dinner prasadam was served to all that attended the program.<\/p>\n

Lord Nrisimhadeva Ki Jaya! Grantaraja Srimad Bhagavatam Ki Jaya! Srila Prabhupada Ki Jaya!<\/p>\n

Thank you very much.<\/p>\n

Hare Krishna.<\/p>\n

Always hoping to remain,<\/p>\n

servant of the servant of your servants, krishnabhakta das.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"HareBy krishna – bhakta das<\/strong><\/p>\n

Additional highlights of the festival included the dramas presented each night organized by the Pune devotees. The excellent pre-recorded soundtracks made the dramas appear as if produced by professionals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-iskcon-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2594\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}