Related sites: See also Mayapur Festival Schedule

Mayapur Festival Fee Abolished for 2001
By Hari Sauri das

At a recent meeting of the Mayapur Gaura Purnima Festival committee a new approach to organizing the Mayapur Gaura Purnima festival was decided upon. The most significant change is that the traditional festival fee has been abolished.

Visitors to the festival will now only pay for their accommodations and prasadam. Whereas at previous festivals devotees were required to pay a special festival fee to enable the provision of the various facilities that pilgrims enjoy, from now on there will be no extra charges. (Please note that the Navadvipa mandala Parikrama is funded separately and regular charges will apply for this).

It was Srila Prabhupada's strong desire that devotees from all the temples around the world come to Mayapur once a year to bathe both in the purifying waters of the Ganga and also the purifying association of devotees in the holy birth place of Sri Caitanya MahaPrabhu. In this way they could return to their places of service refreshed and invigorated. Srila Prabhupada saw this as an essential part of the devotional life of his followers.

Although last year's festival was one of the most enlivening and well managed in recent years, for various reasons attendance from America and Europe was less than in previous years. The festival committee feels that abolishing the festival fee will go a long way towards making devotees fell more welcome and make the festival more attractive to overseas devotees.

It is the keen desire of the residents of ISKCON Mayapur to serve the desire of Srila Prabhupada and the international community of devotees and to this end it is hoped that the number of devotees attending Mayapur Gaura Purnima festival will increase by this recent decision.

Where will the funding come from?

Of course, it does cost many thousands of dollars to put on the festival and with the removal of the festival fee there will be a projected shortfall of funds to provide for the visitors.

Despite this, in the spirit of depending on Krsna, the festival committee feels that the deficit can be made up by the spontaneous contributions of devotees who want to serve the holy dhama and the international community by sponsoring various aspects of the festival.

The Mayapur festival committee therefore would like to humbly invite devotees to sponsor the festival and contribute their laxmi or services so that we can make it increasingly more and more attractive.

Further information will be provided as to how to sponsor the festival and devotees can find out more about the 2001 festival by checking the Mayapur Project website at http://www.mayapur.org or contacting ISKCON Mayapur.

Bookings for the 2001 festival

Information on room availability and prices will be made available shortly. As usual, group bookings and transport facilities will be available.

Enquiries can be directed to the festival secretary Radhasyamasundara dasa Radhasyamasundara.JPS@pamho.net or the guest house manager Narugopalananda dasa Naru-Gopal.JPS@pamho.net.

We advise all devotees planning to come to the festival to pre-book to avoid disappointment.

We look forward to serving all the devotees at the upcoming Gaura Purnima festival,

Your humble servant, Hari-sauri dasa 
For the Mayapur Festival Committee

© CHAKRA 29-November-2000

Go to the “Mayapur Page”

Related sites: See also Mayapur Festival Schedule