This newsletter can be viewed at http://www.iskcon.org.au/news_events.asp

Catering Programs

Thanks to those devotees who came and helped out at the Livid Festival catering. A big effort was put in by everyone, and the day turned out to be a big success with more than a thousand people taking prasadam.

The next big catering festival is on Sunday the 23rd of November at the West End Festival. It is sure to be a big day too with serving from 12 midday until 10 pm. If you'd like to come along and help out on the day please send us an e-mail and I'll get back to you with more details.

Here is your virtual darshan of Their Lordships Sri Sri Gaura Nitai from this morning.

GITA JAYANTI - December 4, 2003

On this day the Holiest of books, the Srimad Bhagavad-gita was sung by Lord Krishna Himself, to his dear devotee Arjuna.

By giving sastra-dhana on this day, one attains the Lord's favour, and the chance to render service to His lotus feet, in eternal bliss. We encourage everyone to take part in this day by either taking to the streets to distribute Srila Prabhupada's books, or sponsoring some books for placement in public areas. For more details contact us onbrisbane@pamho.net

New Temple Project

Last week we received the Development Approval Notice from the BCC, which gives the green light for our modified Master Plan of the Hare Krishna Cultural Centre Project. The original DA was modified to allow for a staged construction schedule, as well as to better serve the needs of the community.

The Project Development Committee has approved the first stage of the project to go ahead to Building Approval stage, which consists of the Temple Hall and amenities/administration block. The Temple Hall will be built in such a way that it will have a basic design and be fully functional from the beginning, but will have lots of scope to add decorative features to realise the vision of a fully fledged Vedic style temple as funds allow.

As yet no construction date has been set, but our professionals are working hard to complete all the documentation required to move into the construction stage, and they inform us that we should be beginning construction sometime early in the new year.

Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityananda in Brisbane Dham today

The next ekadasi is Thursday the 20 November.

Thanks to all the devotees who came and shared with us Srila Prabhupada's Disappearance Day celebration, it was very enlivening to hear everyone's realisations of their relationship with Srila Prabhupada. Events such as this are an essential part of our devotional process, and allow us to become fully immersed in thoughts of the Lord, His devotional service and His pure devotees. Let us all pray that we can carry this mood of appreciation, reverence and dedication to Srila Prabhupada throughout the coming year.

Thanks also to the Festival Committee for organising a nice Divali celebration. The night was marked with many nice cultural events including solo singing and Bharat Natyam dance.

Please note the temple e-mail address is now:

brisbane@pamho.net

Hare Krishna.

your servant,

Deva Gaura Hari das
Temple President