ISKCON Manchester - Activities                                << Page 1 2 >>

Nama-hatta

Nama-hatta literally means “market place of the holy name” or a place where one buys the Hare Krishna maha-mantra! The purchasing currency is simply one’s faith and, according to how much faith one has, that much spiritual benefit one will get from the chanting.

The term nama-hatta is used in ISKCON to describe a group of devotees and interested persons who regularly gather to chant and discuss Srila Prabhupada’s books together

For more information please contact temple Nama-hatta team  team

Book Distribution 

You just cant keep it to yourself´you have to share it with others.

This transcendental literature is distributed worldwide in over 50 languages and the distribution team, here at the Manchester temple, we give these books to the people come to the temple and also distribute at the streets.

Manchester ISKCON team is very aggressive during the Prabhupada book Distribution Marathon period, the glorious time of year when there is an intense focus on the distribution of our jewels of wisdom, Srila Prabhupada’s books.

Srila Prabhupada's Quotes about Book Distribution

1.    Book Distribution is the greatest welfare activity to this world.    

2.    What is the use of your 2 minutes preaching. The person will hear and go away. If you distribute one book to him means, he will be eternally benefitted.    

3.    Book distribution is brhat mrdunga (biggest mrdunga).    

4.    Chanting Hare Krishna Mahamantra is Kirtana. Book Distribution is also kirtana.    

5.    If we do kirtan means it will hear within this room. But if we do book distribution means it will hear home to home, country to country, community to community.    

6.    My books are time bombs. We have to drop these millions of millions of these bombs (books) on the lap of conditioned souls.    

For more information please contact temple Book Distribution  team

Celebrating The Festivals

Festivals are to celebrate a significant event in the life of a deity (e.g. Janmashtami is Krishna's birthday) or to celebrate a significant event in the life of a holy person (e.g. appearance day of Srila Prabhupad) or to celebrate a seasonal customs.

Festivals are celebrated with great enthusiasm and pomp @ ISKCON Manchester centre .  The main purpose of festivals are to create a special atmosphere, diverting the mind from worldly concerns and joyfully focusing on spiritual matters, also to forge a healthy sense of belonging by peacefully bringing together individuals, families and communities. Festivals invoke the soul's natural qualities by creating an environment replete with auspiciousness and the abundant gifts of nature. Festivals gives people spiritual momentum and inspiration, which helps them perform their daily duties.

Some of the main practises while celebrating these festivals are cleaning and decorating the temple, deity worship, glorification of God (by kirtan, story recitals, dance and drama), taking deities on procession, preparing and distributing prasadam , fasting and feasting and Giving in charity (to temples, saints, the poor, etc)

For more information please contact temple Festivals  team

Dramas

ISKCON Manchester’s Drama team is one of the best in UK working hard towards fulfilling Srila Prabhupada’s wish to to perform dramas during every Sunday programs at each ISKCON centres in the world.

“ The common people would be very entertained by the performances of dramas, and yatra parties played wonderfully on the superhuman activities of the Lord, and thus even the illiterate agriculturist would be a participant in the knowledge of Vedic literature, despite a considerable lack of academic qualifications. Therefore, expert players in drama, dancers, singers, speakers, etc., are required for the spiritual enlightenment of the common man.”–Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.11.20, purport.

In this purport, Srila Prabhupada set high standards for actors:

“Dramatic performances were also enacted during the presence of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, but the players who took part in such dramas were all pure devotees; no outsiders were allowed. The members of ISKCON should follow this example. Whenever they stage dramatic performances about the lives of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu or Lord Krishna, the players must be pure devotees. Professional players and dramatic actors have no sense of devotional service, and therefore although they can perform very artistically, there is no life in such performances. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura used to refer to such an actor as yatra-dale narada, which means “farcical Narada.” Sometimes an actor in a drama plays the part of Narada Muni, although in his private life he is not at all like Narada Muni because he is not a devotee. Such actors are not needed in dramatic performances about the lives of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Lord Krishna.”

Ratha Yatra

Rathayatra is a huge festival for Lord Krishna and His devotees. An extraordinary chariot festival that originates in Jagannatha Puri on the east coast of India and dates back over 2,000 years.  

Everyone chants the Hare Krishna maha-mantra and dances in ecstacy as Krishna in His most merciful form of Jagannatha is pulled along on a huge wooden cart.

Rathayatra is now celebrated by devotees of Lord Krishna all over the world after being introduced to the west in 1967 in San Franscisco by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada and his first American disciples. Rathayatra is the International Society for Krishna Consciousness‘biggest street festival – it features huge wooden chariots pulled by hand.

All throughout the festival there is constant singing, chanting, drums, cymbals and dancing. The procession ends with a stage show, festival and delicious vegetarian prasadam feast.

ISKCON Manchester is celebrating the Rathayatra festival every year @ Cathedral Gardens. Manchester Rathayatra 2010 was a big success..our Rathayatra team works hard throughout the year to make this event a big success.