London Manor Media Release - Janmasthami 2005 Tony Blair

[Guest guest]

Media Release - Janmasthami 2005

 

75,000 to gather in Watford near London for the largest Hindu gathering outside India

 

Music, dance, costumes, games and food to add colour and spice

 

Over 75,000 Hindu pilgrims and others will gather at the sleepy parish of Aldenham, just north of London on Friday 26th and Sunday 28th August to celebrate the 5000 year-old Hindu festival of Janmashtami at the famous Bhaktivedanta Manor Hare Krishna temple. The festival at Bhaktivedanta Manor, which is a Manor house donated by former Beatle George Harrison, includes lively plays, traditional Indian dances, melodious singing, food stalls, multi-media shows, elaborate worship, meditation and chanting, youth tents, games, children's areas, bullock-wagon rides and much more. Everyone is welcome.

 

Pilgrims and visitors queue up for two hours to finally be able to offer worship at the main altar. All 75,000 visitors will be given a free vegetarian meal specially sanctified by a sacred offering to Lord Krishna.

 

The entire festival is managed and run by volunteers from the community who gather every evening after work for a month prior to the event and put in countless hours of hard work for the occasion.

 

Prime Minister Tony Blair in a special message to the organisers said, "I am delighted to send my best wishes to everyone attending the Janmashtami festival at the ISKCON Bhaktivedanta Manor Temple. Janmashtami, the celebration during which there is a focus on the values of family, the importance of community, and the significance of faith. I understand that the celebration of Janmashtami at the Bhaktivedanta Manor Temple is the largest such gathering outside India. As such it is a tribute to the hard work of the organisers and the strength of the Hindu community in this country."

 

"The festival is a special occasion to encourage the core values of devotion to God, commitment to family values and inspiration to serve others,"

explained Gauri Dasa, President of Bhaktivedanta Manor. "It is a chance for everyone to give something back to the community, but do it in a way that is fun and very productive."

 

The festival is expected to draw pilgrims from all over UK and attracts many Ministers, MPs, diplomats, business leaders, faith representatives and other dignitaries, as well as messages of support from the leaders of the three main political parties.

 

[gHari]

 

I wonder whether the message was "said", "written" or "written by staff and signed by Mr. Blair"? The message was nice though, I must say.

 

We need Tony there at midnight. Then the world will be blessed.

 

[Guest guest]

I got this flyer at the Manor on Sunday

 

 

HINDUS BANNED FROM MANOR

Did you know that some Hindus are not allowed to worship and take darshan of the Lord at Bhaktivedanta Manor Hare Krishna temple?

Ravi Patel is one such Hindu. He was Secretary of the Hare Krishna Temple Defence Movement and worked tirelessly for over 10 years in campaigning to keep the Manor open for Hindus like yourselves when it was faced with closure.

Now he and others are banned from worshipping at the temple he helped keep open. Nor can he even enter the car park to bring his family to the temple, who have worshipped there all their lives.

His crime? He simply believes in following a directive sent out to all the leaders of ISKCON – the Governing Body Commission and Temple Presidents - by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the Founder of ISKCON and after whom Bhaktivedanta Manor is named. In this directive Swami Prabhupada states that he alone should be the initiating Guru for ISKCON.

Surely such a belief should not be allowed to ban Hindus from the temple, especially when that temple is open to any other member of the public regardless of their religion - even if they don't believe in God!

Even the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, wrote in a letter to Bhaktivedanta Manor with reference to the Janmasthami festival that: “Importantly, this is a celebration open for all to share” which “teaches us the values of the family and the importance of justice”.

Isn't it ironic that after we Hindus stood side by side for many years fighting to keep Bhaktivedanta Manor open from forced closure, arguing that Hindus must have a place of public worship, this victory is now being used to persecute Hindus and deny them the right to public worship?!

Do not support the Temple using its resources to enforce such an un-Godly ban. Please contact the temple management and your local MP immediately to STOP such injustice!

Gauri Das, Temple President, Bhaktivedanta Manor

Tel: 01923-856848 / 857244 / 856269

Email: Gauri.TKG@pamho.net

 

House of Commons, Westminster, London SW1A 0AA (Tel: 020 7219 3000)

James Clappison MP, Hertsmere Claire Ward MP, Watford

Barry Gardiner MP, Brent North Stephen Pound MP, Ealing North

Piara S. Khabra MP, Ealing,Southall David Burrowes MP, Enfield,

Tony McNulty MP, Harrow Andrew Dismore MP, Hendon

Lee Scott, MP, Ilford North Keith Vaz MP, Leicester East

Kelvin Hopkins MP, Luton North

For further information please contact:

Mr Ravi Patel

Tel: 07946-206924 / Email: Ravipatel@mail2world.com

 

 

What Does ISKCON’s Guru Srila Prabhupada Say?

 

 

Prabhupada: "Oh. So that we cannot cancel: "These hippies are not admitted." No. We admit everyone. We cannot say that "Such and such person cannot enter into our temple." We cannot say. Everyone is welcome. Everyone is welcome... We cannot say, just like, in some hotels, that "Such and such persons are not admitted." No. We cannot. We admit everyone." (Conversation, 29th April 1969, Boston)

 

 

Prabhupada: "Yes. Temple is open for everyone. Let them come and sit down, chant Hare Krsna, hear Bhagavad-gita. We don't say, "Oh, are you potter? No. You are not allowed." We don't say that. "Are you cobbler? Oh, you are not allowed." No. We don't say that. Everyone is welcome. Come on." (Room conversation, 16th July 1968, Montreal)

 

Prabhupada: "Regarding Narottama das, our policy should be to keep members as much as possible. We should not flatly say 'You must leave.'' That is not our policy." (Srila Prabhupada Letter to Jayapataka, 12th August 1969, Los Angeles)

Prabhupada: "In our Temple all Europeans, Indians, Mohammedans, Christians, everyone is welcome." (Srila Prabhupada Letter to Ksirodakasayi, 29th January 1970)

Prabhupada: "...In this class we do not prohibit anyone to come within the Temple, everyone is welcome." (Srila Prabhupada Letter to Hanuman Prasad Poddar, 5th February 1970)

 

STOP THE BANNINGS OF HINDUS NOW!

 

[gHari]

 

I think the ritviks have their priorities mixed up. These disruptive pamphlets are why they can not come to the temple in the first place. We even see the lies on this pamphlet, leading one initially to believe that any Hindu is barred from the temple. Simply cheating, psychotic fanaticism.

 

[Guest guest]

gHari

 

I was there at the festival the first time in my life as i was visiting the UK.

 

I was saddened to see a lot of people were given these ritvik pamplets.

 

These people were just there to worship Sri Krishna on his Birth day. But instead outside the temple gates they were given these pamplets.

 

I did talk to a few volunters there and as per them there is nothing they can legally do at that point of time.

 

I know of so many hindu relatives and friends of mine, who are not ISKCON initiated, but none the less, worked hard for more than a month to make this a success. They took a week of full leave in the week of janmastami to make this a success.

 

Just to give you an idea, there were 50 big sacs of potatos peeled by these volunters for the festival. There were people taking 3-4 special classes on hygene and get certified in order to be able to serve prasad at the stalls.

 

So much all of them did and sacificed, to glorify Krishna and Srila Prabhupada and now some rivtiks do this to discourage this effort and future efforts as well.

 

Let's see what happens next year!

[Guest guest]

"I was saddened to see a lot of people were given these ritvik pamplets."

 

so only the ones who give disturbance has to be punished with banning (if there's no other way).. not someone who is identified with some cathegory or ideologic position

 

that's the problem of iskcon, not that there's no right to defend a temple from disturbance

 

[Kulapavana]

"He simply believes in following a directive sent out to all the leaders of ISKCON – the Governing Body Commission and Temple Presidents - by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the Founder of ISKCON and after whom Bhaktivedanta Manor is named. In this directive Swami Prabhupada states that he alone should be the initiating Guru for ISKCON."

 

yes, the directive was there when SP was physically present. when he left - the parampara continues (for better or worse). it is amazing how dense you have to be to deny the basic meaning to the system of parampara...

 

creating a disturbance by passing literature promoting such idiocy on temple grounds should certainly have consequences.

 

 

[Guest guest]

"creating a disturbance by passing literature promoting such idiocy on temple grounds should certainly have consequences."

 

Agreed, but he wasn't doing so on the temple grounds at any time. Surely he is entitled to his beliefs whether you agree or not?

 

Also people were there who actively promote - HH Narayana Maharaja or Guru Nanak or Swami Narayana - but they are not banned for their beliefs. Yet these beliefs are also antithetic to the current ISKCON paradigm.

 

The situation looks like this to Ravi.

The Manor bans Ravi & friends for their beliefs, beats them up, then the Manor complain when Ravi protests at the rough treatment!

[Kulapavana]

"Also people were there who actively promote - HH Narayana Maharaja or Guru Nanak or Swami Narayana - but they are not banned for their beliefs. Yet these beliefs are also antithetic to the current ISKCON paradigm."

 

Ritvik philosophy is outright offensive to the Vedic parampara system. That is the opinion of not just Iskcon, but the above mentioned organizations as well.

 

Look, I do not agree with banning people from the temples on a whim, but Manor's options were limited, as this devotee does not seem to take "no" for an answer.