ISKCON Halifax

Writ­ten by Bhak­tin Heidi

Once again last minute travel plans were tossed into place so I could have the asso­ci­a­tion of devo­tees from far and wide at the 2011 Fes­ti­val of India on Toronto’s beau­ti­ful Cen­tre Island.This fes­ti­val his­tor­i­cally cel­e­brates the jour­ney that Lord Jagan­nath, Lord Balarama and Lady Sub­hadra take together to their aunt’s tem­ple. This is the only time of the year that the deities are taken out of the tem­ple and paraded on lav­ishly dec­o­rated char­i­ots down city streets. Rath Yatra is cer­tainly a great time to strengthen and deepen one’s ser­vice and devo­tion and to aid one in their quest for spir­i­tual advance­ment. There are so many great things I could say about this past week­end but if I was to focus on the high­lights it would be the fol­low­ing: I was very pleased that I was able to see and be of ser­vice to my future spir­i­tual mas­ter His Holi­ness Bhak­ti­marga Swami and it was also an honor forme to meet Her Grace Malati Devi Dasi. I deeply admire Malati for her ser­vice, espe­cially where female devo­tees are con­cerned. She was worked tire­lessly for spir­i­tual equal­ity and has given so much sup­port to women who are serv­ing in ISKCON. Meet­ing Malati could not have come at a bet­ter time as dur­ing the fes­ti­val I dis­cov­ered the impor­tance of sis­ter­hood within the female ashram. I had the oppor­tu­nity to recon­nect with some female devo­tees that I had met pre­vi­ously and had the chance to deepen my rela­tion­ship with them. I also got to meet some new faces and future god­sis­ters whose kind­ness, strength and humil­ity left an ever­last­ing impres­sion on me. By hav­ing the asso­ci­a­tion of these won­der­ful devo­tees, I can see that there is an impor­tant place for women in ser­vice and by work­ing con­struc­tively with the greater com­mu­nity we can all equally please Krishna with our devo­tional activities.

- Bhak­tin Heidi July 23, 2011

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