{"id":3231,"date":"2007-04-07T15:14:00","date_gmt":"2007-04-07T14:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=3231"},"modified":"2007-04-07T15:14:45","modified_gmt":"2007-04-07T14:14:45","slug":"south-america-festival-of-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=3231","title":{"rendered":"South America Festival of india"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Ekanath Gaura das<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dear Maharaja’s GBC’s, devotees, and friends!<\/p>\n

During this year’s Festival of India tour over 40 young devotees have been traveling to the main cities of Peru and Bolivia. We have been to Cusco, Puno, Uros Iland, La Paz, Oruro, and Cochabamba.<\/p>\n

The Festival of India program started three years ago in South America and was immediately a huge success. Organized by youths from all over South America in a spirit of devotion, the festival travels to many countries, preaching Krishna Consciousness in a cultural way, focusing on “World Peace” and preaching against drug abuse.
\nSome of our achievements:<\/p>\n

* Over 50 thousand plates of free meals have been distributed, and
\n * Over 15 thousand literatures of Srila Prabhupada;
\n * We have been on the main TV- and Radio-channels of the visited countries;
\n * We have been participating in a meeting with the mayor of Cusco, one of the main tourist cities of the world;
\n * Five devotional seminars were held;
\n * Among the participating youths and our selfless donors, over 80,000 U$ have been invested in these festivals!<\/p>\n

Beginning from the year 2008, the Festival of India will work more closely with ISKCON’s Congregational Development Ministry, making available our database of over 10,000 new contacts per year, so they can be cultivated by different yatras. By the year 2012 we hope to have 70,000 new contacts! The Festival of India Cultural Bus Tour is planning to help with donations towards paying devotees who will be cultivating those new contacts.<\/p>\n

Temples like La Paz, Puno, and Cochabamba declared that, due to this program, over 100 new people began to participate in their temple programs. In Cochabamba, per example, 60 new people started to attend the Sunday-feast.<\/p>\n

After participatin in this program, many young devotees decided to take first or second initiation. We want to congratulate, Devaki mayi dd, Viracandra Nitai das, Vrajesvari Vijaya dd (Bhakti Sastri, MIHE with honors), Madhavi Kamla dd, Nitai das, Radha Kishori Sundari dd, Radha Kunja dd and Tulasi Kunja dd, some of our young devotees who demonstrated a lot of responsibility and have been inspired by this tour.<\/p>\n

These festivals inspired young devotees to create a ministry in South America, participate in regular meetings, and help each other.<\/p>\n

The Festival of India, together with all the young devotees, supported the Congregational Development Ministry’s festivals in South America (2005\/06) with different stage-programs.<\/p>\n

We would like to express our special thanks to Divya priya dd, Visnu Gopala das, Tirtharaja das, Tirthatma Nitai das, Eka Gauranga das, the devotees from Balaram-desh, Manu das (ISKCON Youth Ministry), Sarva Sakti dd, and all the other devotees who help to make these festivals a success every year.<\/p>\n

Our new Web Site www.indiacultura.org have been possible with the help of Tirtharaja das (Asutralian GBC & Reginal Secretary for Chile), Eka Gauranga das, Bhakti dd, and Tirthatma Nitai das. At this web site you can see pirctures of all the festivals and videos of the tour.
\nDevotees’ comments :<\/p>\n

I think more than one dropped a tear to see how the atmosphere was becoming magical, to feel how Krishna was taking us from our hands, and to see the attitude of the people; it was paramatma in the hearts of all, jumping out of joy.<\/p>\n

Amala Saci dd<\/p>\n

Really, this Bus Tour was a “sadhu-sanga” experience, association with the devotees, where eveyone of us felt very inspired and strenghtened to do sincere and enthusiastic service.<\/p>\n

Rasa-Sundari devi dai<\/p>\n

Particularly this bus tour has been of great help for my spiritual life. I also learned how to be more responsible, tolerant and to organize festivals (hehehe..)<\/p>\n

Radha Kisori Sundari dd<\/p>\n

Before I didn’t wear devotional clothes, I didn’t chant my rounds, and didn’t go to the temple vey often. Now all that has changed and with the help of Viracandra, a young devotee who joined us in the tour up to Blue Mountain beach, we are working on a cultural program in the temple of Miraflores, where we have the deities of Lord Jaganath, Balarama and Subhadra. We are conscious of the importance of finding more youngsters and to show them that service to Lord Krishna is not boring, but full of joy and enthusiasm.<\/p>\n

Bhakta Ezio<\/p>\n

Thanks to Krishna I joined the Bus Tour and it was really auspicious, the association, harinams, prasadam, everything, everything, everything was GREAT!!! Krishna giving me the chance to do sankirtan WAS NECTAR! I learnt a lot form the devotees, the most amazing thing was to hear the people chanting Hare Krishna on the theatres, and see them complementing taking prasadam!<\/p>\n

Devarsi das<\/p>\n

I want to tell you that, due to the blessings of all of you, now here in La Paz we have a permanent place in the Prado Festival every weekend, were we distribute books and prasadam, have bhajans and expositions of the philosophy and, of course, the always present gopi dots (hehehehe) which are helping us to collect, so we all can go to the next Bus Tour. The young devotees here are very enthusiastic, stronger in their spiritual lives, goign to the temple; participating in the programs and feeling part of this great trassure Srila Prabhupada inherited to us. Now there are lots of new people at the preaching center, among them some very interested people.<\/p>\n

Vrajesvari vijaya dd<\/p>\n

The best part of the tour was when the devotees taught me the way to sell books, to preach to people. I felt really happy when I sold my first book in Cuzco. The truth is that I hadn’t sold one since I was 7 years old. I also learned a couple of songs for Krishna on the harmonium. It was the best!!!!<\/p>\n

Govinda dd<\/p>\n

It is amazing to see so many devotees who were insecure about their spiritual practices, and after taking part in the Bus Tour, they are so ecstatic, convinced that Krishna consciousness really works, after they came back. Now they look very happy to be Krishna devotees.<\/p>\n

Kanu pandit das (TP, ISKCON Peru)<\/p>\n

I’m really happy because the BUS TOUR was a total success, all thanks to the mercy of our beloved Lord Krishna and to the great endeavor of all the devotees!!!!!!!!!!!<\/p>\n

Devaki Mayi dd<\/p>\n

To read more, go to our web site: www.indiacultura.org<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"HareBy Ekanath Gaura das<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is amazing to see so many devotees who were insecure about their spiritual practices, and after taking part in the Bus Tour, they are so ecstatic, convinced that Krishna consciousness really works, after they came back. Now they look very happy to be Krishna devotees.<\/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-3231","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\/3231","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=3231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3231\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}