We had a small summer marathon last week with International Yoga Day Celebrations and HH Sivarama Swami’s visit to Istanbul. In Turkey we attended 2nd IYD Celebrations which was held in public in a campus of one of the most prestigious Universities of Turkey. Event was very well organized and Indian Consulate in Turkey also supported it as they do all over the world. You might know that Istanbul is a huge city. From one side to another city is 270 km long. So, there was many IYD events in different parts of Istanbul simultaneously. We participated in most organized one as Goranga Yoga and at the end of all yoga programs we introduced kirtan yoga to Turkish audience. Before kirtan we had a stand with books and devotional items and devotees were in devotional clothes blissfully preaching Krishna Consciousness, distributing Srila Prabhupada’s books & prasadam all day. Finally when we were at the stage for chanting Maha Mantra devotees got so excited. I made a small talk about consciousness, self-realization and the nature of soul. Then we started chanting. Firstly, our matajis took people up to dance and hundreds were in bliss by the mercy of Caitanya Mahaprabhu in a very short time. We chanted and danced for 40 minutes long. Goranga Yoga team was appreciated by organizers and audience very much. We met many new sincere souls looking for the Absolute Truth. So it was a real success for us. You can see the video of many Turkish people chanting & dancing at this link: https://youtu.be/g70jEDm4uc8
After IYD organization we had HH Sivarama Swami visiting Istanbul for 4 days from 24th to 27th Jun. We had very wonderful 5 programs with Maharaja. Many new guests visdited for the first time our center. We had 3 programs in Goranga Yoga center and Maharaja was speaking about Srimad Bhagavatam 1st Canto. He covered all first Canto in 3 days. We had blissful kirtans and after classes Maharaja went to another room to do Q&A sessions with guests and visitors as he usually does. Maharaja was speaking every day 3-4 hours enthusiastically. We were going back home to take rest almost midnight every day. In the mornings Maharaja was giving lectures to only devotees about Vaisnava Saddhacara. There was initiation ceremony on Sunday and HH Sivarama Maharaja initiated 2 of our devotees and their new spiritual names are Gitasri devi dasi and Sadbhuj devi dasi. Ceremony was held by Maharaja’s himself and it was full of emotions. In Maharaja’s presence all devotees felt secure, confident and very enthusiastic. There was a blissful kirtan after ceremony.
Some pictures of these programs can be seen at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/20744130@N05/sets/72157669267278450/
Some of Lectures and Q&A Sessions:
Our yatra is not big, we don’t have big temples or income however we have very sincere devotees with big hearts trying to please Srila Prabhupada, Guru & Gauranga. May this spirit never goes away!
HH Sivarama Swami ki Jaya!
HDG Srila Prabhupada ki Jaya!
P.S. There was a blast at the Ataturk Airport yesterday just after Maharaja left from, same airport almost 24h ago. Krsna is always protecting his devotees and by Krsna’s grace all of us are safe here in Istanbul.
Your servant, Nrsimha Krsna das
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