Sun
17
May
2009
Dear friends,
Please accept our most respectful Obeisances,
All Glories to Srila Prabhupada.
We are sending out this most urgent appeal in the hope that a Sankirtana project here in Montreal can be saved. To put the whole thing to context it is helpful for all concerned that we briefly
give its history, the present situtiation and what the devotees involved in this project hope to accomplish in the next few years ahead.
Some years back a group of devotees opened up a restaurant with an upstairs preaching centre. It was at that time under the name Govinda Jaya Jaya. It was very much instrumental in reaching out to the Montreal public and in time was a well known restaurant and bhakti-yoga centre.
Later however the project faced great financial difficulties and was sold off to a member of that then existing project. In co-operation with a few other devotees he bought the property and thus Krsna Conscious preaching activities were sustained for another year under the name Radha Damodara Temple. Sadly it was again sold due to the same financial difficulties and the Radha Damodara project was then moved into an apartment for another 6 months. During that one and a half years of struggle a few devotees have been cultivated, a Bhakti-yoga club registered in one of the main colleges in Montreal, daily Sankirtana activities and also Sunday Love feasts and other festivals as introduced to us by Srila Prabhupada regularly conducted. At one point at least 20 new hippy people, who have never heard of Krishna before attended one of our festivals and joined in the kirtan for the pleasure of Srila Prabhupada.
Montreal has a great booking system for subway musicians, where devotees can chant daily without disturbance from police and distribute the most important ingredient of Lord Caitanya's movement
–the Hare Krsna mahamantra. The subway is such a great spot that sometimes hundreds of living entities can hear the Lord's name in one session. Many of them dance and also chant if they're very pious
spontaneosly without knowing why.
The present situation is that the members meet whenever possible and by Srila Prabhupada's mercy Sankirtana still continues by weekly harinams in the subway and occasional prasadam and Srila
Prabhupada's original book distribution and preaching at university. However, the mission has suffered a lot and it is sad but Montreal, which is the third major city Srila Prabhupada established his
movement in has no bona fide Hare Krishna temple anymore.
Despite these testing times we are still hopeful for the future. We are in search of a modest size storefront in the Montreal city to facilitate the
preaching activities and also with the expressed hope of having Srila Prabhupada's sound vibration installed at the centre 24 hours along with a complete set of his original books. In essence the
members(presently 5 in number) seek to preserve Srila Prabhupada's original teachings and be instrumental in helping to spread the original mission of His Divine Grace. The members of the Radha
Damodara project advocate Srila Prabhupada in the centre as the sole Initiating Spiritual Master as per his July 9 th Policy Document issued 1977 a few months before his departure.
A part of our plan is therefore to open a new bhakta program for aspring devotees, who want to get an experience of joining a Prabhupada centered temple and encourage them to open a center in their respective town if they have an independent spirit. We feel that by providing a temple to join, we could very soon see new fresh devotees, who might be desiring to join right now, but are unwilling to submit themselves to the deviant lines. It is estimated that the minimum amount to cover rent on a storefront is $3000 monthly. This appeal is to anyone sympathetic enough to step forward and volunteer to be a steady monthly contributor. We are going to attempt to get a charity status from the Canadian government, so if you're interested your donations could be tax-reductable too. Whatever amount anyone would feel comfortable with on a monthly basis is most welcomed. In this way a centre can be maintained, the activities expanded and devotees invited to join in the bliss. Our plan in this manner is to invite the prospective donors for our festivals, which could be a great opportunity for old and new devotees to meet and share nice realizations of Srila Prabhupada. We would also appreciate books donations or any other input from sympathetic devotees. Please, do not hesitate to contact us at radhadamodar@gmail.com and get to know us better.
Yours in the Service of Srila Prabhupada
The Prabhupadanugas