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

Tags: affection, appreciation, bhagavad-gita, bhaktimarga swami, consciousness, Devotion, freedom, gratitude, halifax meditation, happy family, hare krishna, india, iskcon halifax, kirtan, personal, ratha yatra, self realization, Srila Prabhupada, theatre, vegetarian, warmth, yoga

Writ­ten by Heidi Hlu­bina

This is a long over­due entry about our trip that we took back in Feb­ru­ary to Bramp­ton Ontario to attend the first annual Ash­tapra­har 24 Hour Kir­tan Fes­ti­val. Five of us Hal­i­fax devo­tees decided on a whim to rent a car and dare the icy win­ter roads for this won­der­fully cap­ti­vat­ing event. Our trek began from Hal­i­fax at 5am and we booted it to the Mon­treal tem­ple and made it there by 8pm where we were warmly greeted by devo­tees and was able to lis­ten to a read­ing about Lord Chai­tanya. After hav­ing an overnight rest we attended the morn­ing Mangala-arati and then we con­tin­ued our trav­els to Ontario where we had intended to go directly to the Toronto tem­ple, only hav­ing acci­dently ended up at the Kir­tan due to won­der­ful map read­ing skills by yours truly. After spend­ing a short time at the Kir­tan we made our way to the Toronto tem­ple, mak­ing a lovely left handed turn into a tram tun­nel along the way! Hav­ing recov­ered from that with­out inci­dent, we were very warmly received by the tem­ple pres­i­dent Mad­haven­dra Puri Das and got to meet some devo­tees see friends while hav­ing a deli­cious meal at the tem­ples own Govin­das Restau­rant.

Dur­ing our meal we were intro­duced to Ras­min who expressed inter­est in com­ing along to the Kir­tan with us, so the six of us piled into the car and drove back to Bramp­ton where the Kir­tan was tak­ing place. When we arrived we were blown away by just how many peo­ple came out to chant and take part in such a bliss­ful expe­ri­ence. Through­out the evening the mood kept get­ting more ener­gized as peo­ple became more engaged in chant­ing the Maha Mantra (Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare!). We even observed one par­tic­u­lar soul in the crowd who danced non­stop for the six hours we were there, being com­pletely entranced and spir­i­tu­ally ele­vated by the whole event.

This trip was a fan­tas­tic expe­ri­ence because we got to meet some really won­der­ful devo­tees in Toronto and Mon­treal, and it also brought us Hal­i­fax devo­tees closer. I per­son­ally real­ized the ben­e­fits of chant­ing and saw how it can reveal true hap­pi­ness from within and how it can have a pos­i­tive effect on all those who par­tic­i­pate. Chant­ing gives one the free­dom to dis­cover the purity that love can offer to every­one in a world that is over­whelmed with anx­i­ety, frus­tra­tion and dis­sat­is­fac­tion. With reg­u­lar prac­tice, it can help lib­er­ate us from these unpleas­ant feelings.

See for your­self with the video footage we took while at the Kir­tan in the link below!

Click Here

“In a gen­tle way, you can shake the world.” — Mohan­das Gandhi

Tags: 24 hour kirtan, appreciation, bhagavad-gita, consciousness, Devotion, friendship, halifax meditation, happy family, hare krishna, hare krsna, iskcon halifax, kirtan, late, maha mantra, meditation, personal, self realization, sound, warmth, yoga

I would like to share with our read­ers some of the expe­ri­ences I have had with the Sun­day Feast in Hal­i­fax, and to spread the word of our grow­ing community.

Read the rest of this entry »Tags: affection, appreciation, book distribution, consciousness, Devotion, freedom, halifax meditation, happy family, hare krishna, mantra meditation, meditation, self realization, yoga

On Fri­day we drove out of Van­cou­ver about an hour to Stawa­mus Provin­cial Park.  Keith, Cory, and I hiked up about 750 m to the high­est peak in the area.  It took about 3 hours.  It was steep.  There were chains and iron lad­ders at some spots.  Along the way we met Chris who was hik­ing bare foot.  Ini­tially I was think­ing, boy this guy is austere! 

Read the rest of this entry »Tags: consciousness, fearlessness, mantra meditation, self realization