Unfortunately, this time there aren’t too many nice pictures of the Pretoria stay instead there is a nice article by Manasi Ganga devi dasi describing the programs in detail!

After an ecstatic Ratha Yatra festival in Phoenix (Durban), Maharaja arrived in Pretoria on Monday.

On Tuesday he gave morning and evening classes at the temple. The evening program was well attended and developed into a second Sunday feast for the week and concluded with loads of nice prasadam.

On Wednesday, Maharaja gave his time to new devotees and students from the local universities while sitting outside in the winter sun for several hours. Two of the interviews were about Maharaja’s own youth, his kirtana, and his preaching aspirations for an upcoming e-zine (magazine) to be published by BBT Africa which promises to be a fantastic outreach tool. By the late afternoon, the temple devotees and many guests assembled and traveled by shuttle to a combined house-warming / youth party, which exceeded everyone’s expectations.

The enthusiasm ran high, sitting space ran low, and the nectar of kirtan flowed like a powerful current. Maharaja’s voice was still a little hoarse from the Ratha Yatra so he relished creating a spontaneous choral symphony of different sections of kirtaniyas – some boldly baritone, some sweetly soprano, and all hilariously yet gracefully conducted with a lead pencil by Vraja Vallabha Prabhu, Pretoria’s jolly Temple President. Somehow all the fun only focused the entire room even more deeply on the Holy Name.

After the kirtana, Maharaja gave an amazing class about the shortcomings of this material world. He described how ridiculous human society is at spoiling every inch of nourishment provided by nature and how thorough Krsna Conciousness, we can come back to a simple lifestyle that can improve the whole world’s situation.

Enjoy the pictures!

If you cannot view the slideshow below, please visit flickr.

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