European Sankirtan Newsletter

Dear Prabhus,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
June was a very good month for Sankirtan with the UK still on top. Of course, they had the special advantage of the personal association of H.H. Vaisesika prabhu for 10 days, who brought them up to another level. They are also leading the Bhadra campaign with 176 Srimad Bhagawatam sets.
Here in continental Europe things also went very well with Italy doing much better than last month leading the way with over double the score of Germany in second place, and France and Hungary right behind. Of course, the most amazing scores are from Ukraine with Kyiv doing the best. I just talked with H.H. Niranjana Maharaja, and he told me that in Kyiv missiles and drones are coming in daily with sirens going off all the time. All glories to the Ukrainian devotees!!! So, all the devotees in the other countries should take full advantage of the nice opportunity to distribute Srila Prabhupada’s. Of course, there is danger everywhere, but the devotees are never discouraged in any situation.

This is from the Krsna book at the end of the 41st chapter “By this, it is clear that a devotee of the Lord in Krsna consciousness should not be satisfied simply by his own advancement in devotional service; he must be willing to work for the welfare of all others. This example was followed by the Six Goswamis of Vrndavana. It is therefore stated in a prayer about them, lokanam hita-karinau: Vaisnavas, or devotees of the Lord, are not selfish. Whatever benefits they derive from the Supreme Personality of Godhead as benedictions they want to distribute to all other people. That is the greatest of all humanitarian activities.” This is the point, a devotee is not selfish, he wants to share the gifts he has received but he has to endeavor to get those gifts more and more by following the instructions of the spiritual master by always hearing and chanting about Krsna especially from the Srimad Bhagawatam. This is from the Caitanya Caritamrta Adi lila chapter 7 end of purport verse 73 “One can overcome all misconceptions and entanglement in the material world by practicing bhakti yoga, and therefore Vyasadeva, acting on the instruction of Sri Narada, has very kindly introduced Srimad Bhagawatam to relieve the conditioned souls from the clutches of maya. Lord Caitanya’s spiritual master instructed Him, therefore, that one must read Srimad Bhagawatam regularly and with scrutiny to gradually become attached to the chanting of the Hare Krsna maha-mantra.” Lord Caitanya is asking the world to read Srimad Bhagawatam as the topmost scripture in the universe and it is our duty to deliver the Srimad Bhagawatam to every person on this planet in service to Lord Caitanya. One last quote from the Srimad Bhagawatam 10th canto chapter 11 purport of verse 58 “Vyasadeva has given this literature so that everyone may understand one’s transcendental position simply by discussing Bhagawat katha. Even at the present moment, everyone everywhere can be happy and free from material tribulations by following Srimad Bhagawatam. There is no need for austerity and penances, which in this age are very difficult to perform. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu has therefore declared, sarvatma snapanam param vijayate sri-Krsna-Sankirtanam. By our Krsna consciousness movement, we are trying to distribute Srimad Bhagawatam so that anyone in any part of the world can be absorbed in the Krsna consciousness movement by chanting and hearing about the activities of Krsna and be free from all material tribulations.” So, this is our mission, to distribute the Srimad Bhagawatam far and wide and give everyone a chance to hear and chant about Krsna and actually become happy.

We will be holding our European Sankirtan festival in villagio Hare Krsna near Milano in Italy from July the 24th to July the 26th, which means arriving on the 23rd and leaving on the 27th. Everyone is welcome, but please contact me right away to organize accommodation.

We will have our usual Sankirtan meeting on Monday evening, September 14th, at 19:00 CET, 18:00 UK time, given by His Grace Trai Das Prabhu, Sankirtan Minister for Europe.

Your servant,

Trai Das

Sankirtan Scores Continental Europe

Sankirtan Scores United Kingdom

Sankirtan Charts

Sankirtan stories

The Nectar of Sankirtan
SRILA PRABHUPADA SAID, “Oh, behold the power of the Holy Name.”

Amarendra Dasa:
Before the 1972 New Vrindavan Festival, I went to Miami Beach for the Republican National Convention, and Mahavir and I organized a prasada program for all the protesters who had camped out in Miami Beach at a place called Flamingo Park. Every day we brought prasada to all the protesters who were there to disrupt the Republican National Convention. We became very popular, and one evening we performed a street sankirtan in front of the convention center. It was getting dark, and we were walking single file through the crowd—eight or nine of us—when suddenly, out of the darkness, the lights of the television studio came on. As we looked around, we saw on one side thousands of angry anti-war protesters preparing to storm the convention center. And on the other side were hundreds of police officers, National Guardsmen, and State Police in riot gear, armed with shotguns. We were right in the middle, between these two sides. When we realized the situation, the entire sankirtan group leaped three or four feet into the air and began chanting for our lives. We feared we would be trapped in the middle of that clash. We began chanting, and the crowd calmed down a bit. Allen Ginsberg was there and began chanting with us. At that point, the leaders of the anti-war demonstration approached, furious. Indignant, they told us, “You’re ruining everything for us! You must stop chanting your [Hare Krishna] slogans! You must leave!” They were chanting anti-war slogans and had inflamed the crowd with their sound vibrations; but with our chanting, we neutralized the impact of their vibrations with the maha-mantra. Soon, more and more people joined us, dancing and chanting with us. At that point, a Miami police detective approached us and asked, “Could you please escort these people to the park?” We returned to the park, and the crowd followed us. Later that evening, the same detective came back to us, bought a book, made a donation, and told us, “There was a riot about to break out, and you stopped it.” I told that story to Prabhupada during another darshan, and he said, “Oh, look at the power of the Holy Name.”

(from Memoirs, vol. 4)

Hungary

My day started out very difficult, with many things troubling my mind. I was struggling to stop people, until I saw a man who seemed very spiritual, so I tried approaching him.
He was almost out of breath, telling me that he is in a huge rush, but he quickly showed his arm to me, before I could even say anything, and said: “Look!”
He had something tattooed on his arm in Devanagari, so I tried to impress him by saying: “I can read that!”
He pulled his sleeve up and told me to read it quickly. I started reading out loud:

“mām ekam śaranam vraja, aham tvam sarva pāpebhyo…”

I didn’t continue because I guessed the rest of the verse, so I just stood there baffled. He asked me, do you know what this means?
I nodded shyly, and then he said: “Just surrender onto me. From BG… I have to go now. Bye!”

He ran away, and I understood that even though I am unable to hear Krsna speak to me through my heart, He still has his ways to tell me what He thinks. I continued the rest of the day, meditating on His message to me.

Śyāma-gaurī D.D. Budapest

United Kingdom

Hare Krishna, dear devotees.
Just recently, I approached a person on the street with books, and after my first sentence, he stopped me and he is saying, "Wait, wait, I have to show you something." - And he's pulling out a book from his backpack.
"I was given this book 10 years ago on this very spot" -he said.. the book was Chant and be happy !
Can you imagine, how much value it has to have for a person, to carry one small book for 10 years around ?! 😮
( Surely I updated him with the Bhagavat gita and invite for Rathayatra)