MSF of Loving Exchanges 2011

Dear Devotees,

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

dadati pratigrhnati

guhyam akhyati prcchati

bhunkte bhojayate caiva

sad-vidham priti-laksanam

“Offering gifts in charity, accepting charitable gifts, revealing one’s mind in confidence, inquiring confidentially, accepting prasada and offering prasada are the six symptoms of love shared by one devotee and another” (Nectar of Instruction, Text 4)

The Monthly Sankirtana Festival (MSF) of Loving Exchanges 2011, based on the six-fold loving reciprocations mentioned in the above verse, was concluded yesterday and the final results offered to their Lordships and to Srila Prabhupada during the Wednesday night Gita class held at the ISV temple in San Jose.

Goals Accomplished

To facilitate loving exchanges among devotees and to carry out the goals of this MSF, members of team ISV:

·      Wrote about the importance of loving exchanges and glorification of various ISV departments/services and presented their paragraphs at the Wednesday night Gita class

·      Acknowledged the college preaching program and devotees for their service to ISV and the Sankirtana movement, which include: conducting weekly Bhagavad Gita/vegetarian cooking classes at San Jose State and Stanford Universities, arranging lectures and programs with esteemed speakers and visiting Acharyas, developing the 'ISV Bhakti Center' near the college campus for students, offering services during festival times, conducting corporate seminars, and participating in book distribution and MSF;

·      Held a meeting with department heads and leaders to: (a) set a book distribution goal (of 32,000 books) through the end of the year for the annual marathon and (b) brain stormed improvements to our sankirtana program making it more fun and easy to carry out.

Book Distribution Results

In addition, Team ISV held an ecstatic Hari Nama Sankirtana performance in Palo Alto on September 8 with improvements added to our ways of preaching, broadcasting the holy names and distributing books and prasadam. During the same weekend, devotees also went out to spots in San Jose including the Spanish market where they distributed many books. Book distribution also occurred at other spots during the Radhastami festival (Sept 3-4) weekend, the preceding weekend, and through smart boxes placed in various stores and establishments.

In this book distribution effort:

• At least 29 devotees participated
• 1046 books were distributed 

On behalf of Team ISV, we are grateful to devotees for their participation, Sankirtana leaders for their planning, and donors for their contributions.

MSF of Loving Exchanges ki Jaya!

Yours in service,

Raxit Jariwalla