Janmastami Celebrations went off in a very grand way at the Hare Krishna Temple yesterday! Thousands of people streamed in through the doors all throughout the night and the festival reached its peak with roaring Kirtan as the doors opened at midnight to unveil the gorgeous flower outfit! Stay tuned for pictures and an official report of the festival.
Today, we celebrate the appearance of His Divine Grace A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the founder of ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness). It is by Srila Prabhupada’s mercy that we are able to celebrate Janmastami in such a grand way in the western world.
Srila Prabhupada came to west in 1965 at the advanced age of 69 to share the message of Krishna Consciousness and Bhakti Yoga which would help people to find true happiness. ISKCON was established in 1966 with a small storefront in New York. Since then, till Srila Prabhupada’s departure in 1977, there were over 100 centres around the world (including the Toronto temple!) established with thousands of followers! Today ISKCON has grown into a world wide confederation of almost 400 centres and tens of thousands follow these teachings of Srila Prabhupada. To find out more about Srila Prabhupada’s life, please click here.
Today, we will be honouring Srila Prabhupada with a special program starting at 6pm at the Hare Krishna Temple. The program will feature an arati to the spiritual master, offerings and memories shared by senior disciples of his, kirtan and sumptous prasadam (vegetarian dinner) after that. Please join us as we celebrate the appearance of this revolutionary monk!