EDITOR'S NOTE
Dear devotees, friends and well-wishers of ISKCON Zagreb of the Nova Jaladuta temple,
Please accept our humble obeisance,
All glory to Srila Prabhupada!
In front of you is the 21st issue of the Bulletin for March. This month was not much more special than all the other special months, at least in terms of the variety of events. However, in this month, on the full moon, Lord Caitanya, the Redeemer of the whole world, has appeared, about which you will have the opportunity to read soon.
Your servants from Nova Jaladuta
The wider Zagreb yatra got a new member who, thanks to his pious supplies and devotional credit from past lives, by the grace of Krishna, appeared in the family of bhn Nikolina and bh Damir Dvoršćak. The parents of this beautiful sweetheart named him Tan.
May Sri Sri Gaura Nitai bless little Tan and his family with pure devotional service!
Organized by the ‘Nitai Gaura Team’ for Congregational Deity Worship, Mayapur-lila devi dasi held the second and third parts, out of a total of five parts, of an interactive deity worship seminar at the temple.
The second part discussed the qualifications a person needs to have in order to approach deity worship at all. Who is a pujari and what are his qualities, qualifications and duties? Who is the pujari helper and what is his important role in worship? Finally, the two most important aspects of worship were discussed, and that is purity and accuracy.
During the seminar, the devotees also encouraged an interesting discussion on how pujari should host Vaisnavas and guests when they visit the temple to see the deities.
The practical part consisted of the offer of the arotic Sri Sri Gaura Nitai. It was very inspiring to see about 30 devotees worshiping Gauranga and Nityananda at the same time. As part of this practical part, Sadhumati-sakhi devi dasi devotees demonstrated how bhoga is offered at the altar of Gaura Nitai.
The seminar ended with another very practical performance of worship in the form of eating prasadam - food lovingly offered to Krishna. This was made possible by Subhadra devi dasi and Vrndavan-bihari das, Krsna-kanta das, Sadhumati-sakhi devi dasi and Mayapur-lila devi dasi.
The third part of the seminar included an introduction to five aspects of Arcana and 64 ingredients for worship. Participants were able to learn how everything - from waking up early, brushing teeth, bathing, wearing clean clothes, chanting, meditating on one's original identity and Krishna, serving Vaishnavas, Tulasi-devi and more - is associated with deity worship.
There was also an interesting discussion about how this svadyaya, that is the service of Vaishnavas, shastras, Tulasi-devi, prasadams, the holy name and the holy place, really helps us in worshiping the deity?
In the practical part of the seminar, Sadhumati-sakhi devi dasi demonstrated to devotees how pujari prepares Sri Sri Gaura Nitai for sleep. Also, a practical demonstration of abhisek was held.
The delicious prasadam was finally taken care of by Surya-kanya devi dasi and Avadhuta-nitai das, bhn. Tatjana and Dharmavatsala das te Gaura-mitra das.
This month we can’t boast of any particular frequency of going out to harinam during the week, but that’s why we at least managed to keep up the enthusiasm for harinam on Saturdays and it was very successful by many criteria: The response of devotees from the congregation, the receptivity of the people outside and the willingness to join (which you can see in the pictures below) and of course the number of biscuits and books distributed.
It is worth to say that one of the harinams, just over a week, on the Day of Mourning for the late Mayor of Zagreb, was held in Velika Gorica near the City Market. Interestingly, although there was no “world” on the street, 35 transcendental books were distributed!
Our devotee Matko, being a true Vaishnava, as such is ready to perform all ritualistic ceremonies and even those of the “other faith”. With a few fashion and cosmetic corrections, he fit in perfectly as Father Matko from the Church of St. Bhaktivedanta Swami and held a farewell mass for the late Enisa, the mother of bhn Silvija from Split. With his knowledge of the immortality of the soul, Father Matko amazed the local priests who almost became his disciples (more luck the second time).
We would also mention how bhn Silvija and bh Buck on that occasion sponsored the festival feast for Gaura-purnim. May Sri Sri Gaura Nitai bless Mataji Enis with pure devotional service!
Another success and the glorious undertaking of the ‘Nitai Gaura Team’ for the congregational worship of the deity shone as a thorough cleansing of the temple one Sunday. Nandisvara das gathered and led to a dozen devotees, whom we thank on this occasion for this service.
Surya-kanya devi dasi and Avadhuta-nitai das have prepared especially delicious pizzas for diligent devotees from the mobile bread oven, so we would like to thank them for their valuable inspiration and example to all.
And this year we are starting with gardening parties. They say that a picture speaks a thousand words so that we don't prolong it ...
We would only mention that this is the merit of Jayanti devi dasi and Vijaya-gauranga dasa and bh Matko.
Divya-prabandha das held the first part of a seminar on Vedic cosmology - multidimensional space and perception. The 16 present, most of whom were "new people", had the opportunity to learn many interesting things, but also to question practically the entire narrative of the modern science of the origin and arrangement of the universe. A sequel that we are all looking forward to is coming soon!
Krsna-premi devi dasi, the wife of Divya-prabandha dasa, prepared fantastic dairy delicacies from their farm in Daruvar for all seminar participants.
We would like to remind you that you can order a lot of healthy, nutritious, organically grown and non-violent products from them, which you can even pick up on your doorstep if you order a slightly larger quantity. Contact: 091 / 349-2470.
One Thursday, a special program "for young people" was held in the temple. About ten of us gathered. We weren’t all young, but we will be soon. Bhajans was led by Prema-samputa das, and a brief inspiration on "Why is it important to understand who we are?" held by bh Matko. In the end, we had a joint Gaura-arati kirtan and were treated to a light snack-prasadam with extensions of the discussion of atma-tattva.
The planned and already organized two-day festival to celebrate the Day of the Appearance of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu in the temple at Bizek unfortunately, due to suspicion of the presence of the covid in the temple, had to be canceled at the last minute.
However, in the end, despite everything, with bhajans, abhisek, lectures, kirtan and rich prasadam, we celebrated this special day with a closed-type celebration. It was small but sweet!
The Bhajans were led by Markandeya-rsi das and Hema-gauri devi dasi, Suvarna-bindu das and Isvara-puri das took care of the abhisek, the occasional lecture was given by Vaikuntha-murti das, and he also prepared a great feast.
We would like to point out that four people visited the temple for the first time that day!
We would like to take this opportunity to thank in particular the exceptional organizational efforts of the Festival Committee led by Dinadayadri devi dasi who have done many services and involved many devotees. Only for flower arrangements, 2000 kn (!!!) was collected.
Lord Caitanya, thanks to Sundari devi dasi from Lika, got a beautiful new suit and jewelry for his 535th birthday, and Lord Nityananda also got his own.
Many thanks to all the devotees and well-wishers who made the festival possible in any way.
Alen Crnčan bh for the earrings, a gift for Gaura Nitai and a donation for the festival.
Ayodhya-deva d for all services of counseling, interrogation and care for devotees. He gave up so much that he had to switch to another tariff!
Bhagavat d for washing large pots after the festival. Some of the pots were even bigger than him!
Božena bhn for help in the kitchen for the festival and many services as pujari assistant throughout the week.
Caitanya-mali d for milk from their farm.
Devarsi Narada d for a night in the temple, common chanting and all services related to the maintenance of temple projects.
Dhanvantari d for regularly cleaning the kitchen and helping with the preparation of prasadam and donating a good portion of bhoga to make it.
Dinadayadri dd for coordinating and organizing services before the festival and participating in harinams on Saturdays.
Dinadayadri dd, Hema-gauri dd, Božena bhn and Fani for decorating the temple room for the festival.
Dražen bh and bh Neno for regular maintenance of stoves, sawing / splitting wood, firewood, keeping woodshed clean, etc.
Gaura-mitra d for cooking Sunday feasts and preparing delicious ladus for the youth program. Thanks also to him for donating a large amount of cheese for the festival.
Gaura-sakti d for repairing the temple car, procuring bhoga and other necessities, coming to the temple on Sundays, chanting together and many other things.
Hema-gauri dd and Bhagavat d for many things: donating a new spice grinder, donating ghee, butter, juices, etc. and for all their other services in and around the temple.
Jayanti dd and Vijaya Gauranga d for evening service at the altar and cooking.
Jayanti dd and Vijay-gauranga d, Seva-kunja dd, Sumitra dd, bhn Lidija, Hema-gauri dd, Vrindavan-bihari d, Lila-sakti dd, bhn Bozena, Dhipati d and bhn Tamara, Madhucanda d, bhn Ivana Uremović Gašić, bh Ivan Armano, bhn Romana, bhn Dijana and Patita-pavana d, bhn Katarina Laković, Rasodadhi-hari d, Mathuranath d, Saradiya-candrika dd, Deva d, Tulasi-priya dd and Dina-dayal d, Syama-anandini dd, Nitya-lila dd and Bhagavata d , Adi-gopi dd for generous donations for the Gaura-purnima festival.
Juraj bh for providing a parking space in the center for the needs of going out in harinam and sankirtan.
Karuna dd and Deva-pran d for donating bhoga and helping to resolve misunderstandings between sankirtan devotees and neighbors. "No harassment, no preaching."
Kristina bhn for caring for youth preaching, large donations to the temple, and regular support for harinams by singing and dancing.
Krpalu Krsna d for all web design services including the technical support of this Bulletin.
Krsna-kanta d for the teaching of devotees at the altar services as well as all his services in coordinating Nitai Gaura Tim.
Ljerka bhn for many things: Constant care for Tulasi-devi, making flower arrangements, running a Food for Life project, delivering new outfits for the festival and many other beautiful things.
The cats around the temple to keep the temple free of mice and rats. In their next incarnation, a place awaits them in the brahmacari ashram, just let them leave behind enough heirs in the rodent control department.
Mario Cimperšak bh for help in the kitchen, thorough cleaning of the bhoga room, painting, spending the night in the temple, chanting together, donations.
Marko bh for all maintenance services.
Marko Kokolić bh for a large donation for deities related to the worship of the deity.
Nenad Hajsek bh for milk delivery and donation.
Osijek yatra for hosting Suvarna-bindu dasa and donation. He will come again!
Prema-murti d for participating in harinams and caring for preaching to young people.
Prema-samputa d for regular worship on Thursdays.
Revati dd for altar services, cooking, making sandesh for offerings and pancakes for sankirtan devotees.
Sandra Nekić for fruit garlands.
Saša Đikić bh and dad bh Damir for cleaning services for the festival.
Saša from Ploče for the transport service of Suvarna-bindu d.
Savitri dd for making homemade pies for one Sunday Feast.
Seva-kunja dd for participation in harinams.
Silvija bhn and bh Buck from Split on a generous donation for the festival on the occasion of leaving the body of Silvia's mother Enisa.
Subhadra dd and Vrindavan-bihari d for cooking Sri Sri Gaura Nitai dinner, donating bhoga and altar services.
Sumitra dd and Tirtha-sevana d for a ghee donation.
Tea bhn and bh Marko for planting flowers around the temple.
Tulasi-nath d and Govinda-hari d for measuring deity room.
Vaisnava-seva d for constant worship on Sundays.
Zdravko Sadžak bh for honey for Krishna.
Željko bh and bh Ivan Armano for coming to the mangala-arati and chanting one ekadashi together.
We most humbly apologize if we have, and certainly have, forgotten someone, because their service and contribution are not so visible at the moment and that is why they have slipped "under the radar". They won’t reveal themselves, but you can report them yourself!
We remind you that you can also pay donations via Paypal, email: zagreb@iskcon.hr
Donations for the temple or for Club 108 can be paid at IBAN: HR1123400091110102369.
Donations for construction of parking or other capital projects can be paid to IBAN: HR5623400091510955126.
THANK YOU
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