Hare Krishna,

Canberra’s first Maha Kirtan was a big success, we had many visitors from around the country that dedicated their time and effort to supporting the Canberra yatra.

We started the special day with a Siksastam led by the children, they sang with their hearts, and was a great way to start the event. The first kirtan was led by Ranganath Prabhu, the temple president, followed by Canberra temple devotees Vedavyasa prabhu and Swarupa prabhu.

Some of the highlights of the day were the Kirtans by the Brisbane devotees, Krishnapada prabhu and Sita Pati prabhu, then ofcourse there was the fantastic kirtans by the Sydney devotees and the Melbourne devotees, completely rocked the devotees where it eventually led up to devotees in ecstatic dancing. Carmella “Gitanjali” Baynie came from Sydney and sang some very peaceful and meditating kirtan.

We also had Atul Kumar prabhu from Canberra who has trained and sang with the popular classical singer Jagjit Singh attend the event and sing a wonderful kirtan.

One of the major highlights of the event was the devotees from Sydney and Melbourne meeting each other for the first time and bonding, which is what Kirtan is all about, to help us advance we need the association of other Kirtaniyas! The aboriginal meaning of Canberra is “Meeting place” Which was proven true at the Maha Kirtan.

There was great kirtans and as was mentioned by a few of the devotees it was all very “real”, everyone participated in the Kirtans and sang until a grand finale plus an encore which finished at 9:30pm.

After a wonderful prasad cooked by the temple devotees and congregation, everyone had left and retired for the night. We started packing up the sound equipment, and were pleasantly surprised to see devotees from Sydney and Melbourne singing an intimate kirtan, which we savoured as it brought out some very emotional singing from the devotees which went until midnight.

Ultimately it was a great success and we look forward to the next Kirtan festival which is taking place in July. It’s going to be even bigger then this one with Amala Kirtan prabhu from America coming to tour Australia for the first time. So to all the devotees that missed out this time we hope to see you at the the upcoming event in July. Details for which will be posted in the near future.

In conclusion I’d personally like to thank all the devotees who took the time and effort to attend, without your support this special event wouldn’t have been possible.

The kirtan from the day will be available for download on the site in the next few days.

Hare Krishna

Naveen