All posts by isconwpd-ca
Vyasa Pooja 2014
New Temple Project
ISKCON temple in Sri Lanka was established in 1976 at Colombo the capital city of Sri Lanka and since then day by day, devotees joined and made presence till date. The deities of the temple are Sri Radha Rajagopal, Jagannath, Balaram, Subathra and Gaur Nithai.
At present a new temple for ISKCON – Sri Lanka is being constructed at the same place and is a prominent place in Colombo city. Once the temple is constructed, it will be a landmark in this area and will operate as the headquarters for ISKCON in Sri Lanka.
This construction project was initiated with the blessings of H.H Jayapataka Swami and H.H. Bhanu Swami the Governing Body Commissioners.
It is estimated that the cost to complete the temple will be over US $ 1.2 million.
It is being planned to have the new temple inauguration in 2016 for the 50th Anniversary of ISKCON.
Devotees who wish to contribute to this project can contact the temple via email (iskcon@slt.lk) or visit the temple website (www.iskcon.lk) for more information.
Food For Life Program
A short video on the food for life program conducted by the Iskcon Sri Lanka Temple
Ratha Yatra 2013
‘Snana Pumima’ marks the beginning of this festival. On this day the three deities – Lord Jagannath, Lord Balabhadra and Devi Subhadra take prolonged bath on an open platform known as ‘Snana Bedi’, Then they retire for 15 days popularly called the period of ‘Anabasara’ and remain in isolation. During this period, no public worship is performed. After 15 days of isolation, the Gods come out of the temple in a colourful procession to board their respective Chariots and thereafter begins the journey known as “Ratha Jatra’.
The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) in Sri Lanka celebrated the Ratha Yatra Festival for the 14thconsecutive time on Sunday the 30th, October 2012.
H.H.Jayapataka Swami and H.H.Bhanu Swami also attended the festival. The Ratha left the temple at 7am from the Radha Krishna Temple and reached Ramakrishna Mission Hall, Wellawatte and remained there until 2nd October on which date started the journey to Sri Sri Radha Krishna Temple.
Thousands of devotees from all over Colombo participated enthusiastically and received the blessings from Lord Jagannath, Baladev and Subadhra.
There was chanting and dancing by the Mayapur devotees and prasadam distribution. Many school children and the Hare Krishna religious school children also were in the procession.
Sri Krishna Janmastami Festival – 2014
The annual festival celebrating the appearance day of Lord Krishna was held on 18th August 2014 at the Sri Sri Radha Krishna Temple, Kotahena with the participation of a large number of devotees.
Among the participants were devotees who were fortunate enough to bathe Baby Krishna personally with Valampuris of milk and holy water collected from a number of sacred spots in India.
Among the attractions at the festival were Nagara Sankirtana and the procession of Baby Krishna .The cultural program presented by the students of Hare Krishna College of Music and Bhajan and Kirtana by the children of Gokulam were two programs that added colour to the festival
Also there was a Krishna fancy dress competition where children were dressed up as Krishna, Radha, etc and they also came along with procession.
After the 12 midnight abishekam, the program continued till 3 a.m and was concluded with prasadam distribution.
HARINAM SANKIRTANA
Nagara Sankirtana is the procession of devotees chanting and loudly singing the holy names of the Lord accompanied by mrdangas (two headed drums) and kartals (hand cymbals).
Maha Mantra:
HARE KRISHA | HARE KRISHNA | KRISHNA KRISHNA | HARE HARE
HARE RAMA | HARE RAMA | RAMA RAMA | HARE HARE
Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu is the reincarnation of Lord Krishna born as a devotee to Lord Krishna himself to personally propagate sankirtana in Kali yuga.
NAGAR SANKIRTANSankirtana takes the mercy of Krishna’s holy names to the spiritually dull mass of people and indeed, to all living entities, who would otherwise have no exposure to Krishna consciousness.
Just by listening to the Harinam Sankirtan the first time, a person’s soul will realize the purifying effects of Sankirtan after some time and then they will themselves do it with bhava (intense feeling) and shraddha (faith). There is a mysterious power in the name of the Lord Krishna.
Devotees use traditional melodies and instruments, especially in the temple, but you can chant to any melody and use any musical instruments to accompany your chanting. As Lord Chaitanya said, “There are no hard and fast rules for chanting Hare Krishna.”
Take part in Harinam Sankirtana very often for as long as you can and just see the difference in you!
Harley Goes Electric in the Race for New Motorcycle Riders
The name Harley-Davidson (HOG) doesn’t necessarily call to mind quiet efficiency, but a planned rollout of an electric motorcycle is generating a lot of buzz for the Milwaukee-based company.
Bloomberg News highlighted the introductory plugin hogs in an article on Thursday morning, and interest in them quickly swamped the Harley-Davidson website for the electric endeavor known as Project LiveWire. Harley’s plan, in short, is to take 22 of the new bikes on an impromptu tour of the country, to see if they draw enough intrigue to be added to the company’s current line of about 30 models.
Google and Microsoft will include a kill switch in the their smartphone.
The technology allows for a stolen Google (GOOG) Android and Microsoft (MSFT, Tech30) Windows Phone-powered Nokia (NOK) device to be disabled, making it useless to the thief With Google and Microsoft on board, kill switches will be available for 97% of the smartphone market, said New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who made the announcement.
Newer versions of Apple’s iOS currently include a kill switch called Activation Lock and tracking software that requires a password before the iPhone or iPad is reset. In May, Samsung launched a similar system it calls Reactivation Lock.
Schneiderman issued a report citing data that showed the number of smartphone thefts were on the rise, but that thefts of devices with kill switches were decreasing.
Although the technology is spreading, some older phones can’t or likely won’t be updated. “With the majority of phones still without a kill switch, smartphone-related thefts and violence remain a tragic reality,” Schneiderman’s office said. “Criminals now target devices not likely to be equipped with a kill switch, increasing the importance of immediately implementing the life-saving technology across all manufacturers.”
Cybersecurity: How safe are you?
P.F. Chang’s acknowledged that a “security compromise” of customers’ credit and debit card data occurred at some of its restaurants.
“We have concluded that data has been compromised,” said CEO Rick Federico, in a prepared statement. The admission comes just days after cybersecurity journalist Brian Krebs claimed that thousands of credit card and debit card numbers that appeared to have been stolen from P.F. Chang’s restaurants earlier this year had gone up for sale.
Federico said that P.F. Chang’s learned of the “security compromise” on June 10. Related: Simple tips to avoid getting hacked
He said an investigation with the U.S. Secret Service and “a team of third-party forensics experts” is ongoing. Meanwhile, Federico said the company has moved to a manual credit card imprinting system for all of its U.S. restaurants.