This Sunday, Toronto’s Hare Krishna Temple is very excited to announce that we will be celebrating our second Panihati festival at New Remua Dhama!
Panihati is located on the banks of the Ganges 10 miles North of Calcutta, in West Bengal India. It is the site of many wonderful spiritual pastimes of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and His close personal associates. In this region at this time of year June, pre-monsoon it is so hot, often up in the mid-to-high 40 C. The most cooling of foods in such a temperature is yogurt, cool yogurt (dahi). This pastime of the Lord is about how the devotees pleased Lord Chaitanya and how the Lord reciprocated with the devotees in a very wonderful and pleasing festival called the Panihati Cida-Dadhi Mahotsav. (you can read more about the festival by clicking here)
In order to celebrate this festival of love and appreciation, we have a full day of festivity planned at the Hare Krishna Temple!
Our Sunday Feast from 5:45pm till 8:30pm will be made special by the presence of two very special VIPs! The program will feature a lively discourse, amazing kirtans and a vegetarian feast including the famous Cida-Dadhi (chipped rice in yogurt)!
Jayapataka Swami, one of ISKCON senior monks will be amidst us for this festival. Famous around the world for his Pani Hati Festivals, it is definitely going to be a special treat for all of us to have him in Toronto. Jayapataka Swami, one of Srila Prabhupada’s early disciples, joined the movement in 1968 and was initiated in Montreal. Later, on the instructions of his spiritual master, he came to Toronto in 1969 and was among the first few devotees to start the Hare Krishna movement in Toronto. Known for his lively classes, and rocking Kirtans with huge “whompers”, Jayapataka Swami has tried to make Toronto a regular stop in his world tours. In October 2008, he suffered from a major stroke due to hemorrhage of his stem cell and was in coma for several months. Due to the prayers of well-wishers around the world, he recovered and is traveling to share this message of Bhakti Yoga. We are extremely honoured to have Jayapataka Swami in Toronto as this will be his first visit to Canada since his stroke. Please don’t miss the opportunity to hear about the importance of Panihati festival from him!
