EC Encourages Prabhupada Festival In Vrindavan

July 11, 2003

In their July meeting, the Executive Commitee of the GBC passed the following resolution concerning the 25 Years of Service in Separation Festival in Vrindavan:

"Srila Prabhupada Festival in Vrindavan: The EC thanks the Vrindavan devotees for organizing a special 25th anniversary festival for Srila Prabhupada's disappearance day at Krsna Balarama mandir. The EC encourages all followers of Srila Prabhupada to attend this festival."

So again we want to request all devotees, especially those who were present when His Divine Grace entered the eternal pastimes of Radha and Krishna, to start planning now to attend the festival this year in Kartik. Anyone who was present and feels some difficulty to attend may contact us to see if we can work something out to get you here to the Holy Dham for this wonderful occasion.

His Holiness Bhakti Caru Swami and His Holiness Radhanatha Swami have agreed to become the Co-Chairmen for the Festival Commitee. In fact Radhanatha Maharaja has already planned to be here in Vrindavan for two weeks with around 1200 followers.

The Official Festival Dates will be the 6th, 7th and 8th of November. Of course Diwali will be on the 4th and Govardhan Puja will be on the 5th if you want to come early and join us for these festivals also. To facilitate the festival, there is a plan to do the Govardhana Parikrama with Srila Prabhupada's murti on the 4th (Diwali) so that the rest of the dates can be used for hearing and glorifying the merciful pastimes of Srila Prabhupada.

There will be no festival fees, and in fact we are trying to work out a system that those who register for the festival, will be able to have their Guesthouse paid for those 3 days, or at least for the disciples of Srila Prabhupada.

Many devotees have already written that they would like to help out with the festival. Siddhanta Das from ITV wrote that he will be showing his Prabhupada Memories Series, plus taking the opportunity to film more memories to share with the world wide community of devotees. Others have written that even though circumstances do not permit them to attend, they would like to render service to the Vaisnavas by sponsoring different parts of the festival.

So start making your plans now to join with the followers of His Divine Grace from all corners of the earth to meditate on these 25 Years of Service in Separation.

In service of Sri Sri Krishna Balaram,

Deena Bandhu dasa