The World Holy Name Festival was celebrated all over the world with great enthusiasm by ISKCON temples under the guidance of Srila Loknath Swami Maharaj, the Minister of the Harinam Sankirtan Ministry of International Society of Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON). In this program which lasted for a whole week, every day from 8 am to 9.30 am, senior saints preached Shrimad Bhagwat, Then, every day Japa Retreat, Kirtan Mela, and many programs were also held on the glory of Harinam from 5 pm to 9 pm. H.G. Jagannath Kirtananand Das from London (UK) was Master of Ceremoney.
ISKCON Harinam Sankirtan Ministry’s spokesperson, Dr. Shyamsunder Sharma, said that the Japathon (Vishwa Jap Mhayagya) took place on the last day of the program. In this, devotees of all ISKCON temples of the world chanted Hare Krishna Mahamantra for 24 hours.
Apart from this, 1,31,031 people from many parts of the whole world who were not connected with ISKCON, also contributed in a unique way in this Japa Mahayagya. These people made videos in which they stated their names, city names, state names and names of their countries and said “I am dedicating this Hare Krishna Mahamantra for love and world peace. Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare. Hare Ram Hare Ram Ram Ram Hare Hare. ” By Saying this, they prepared a video of their own and uploaded it to the website fortunate-people.com through more than 700 ISKCON embassadors.
The above given number is only of the last day of the program. We are still receiving the videos. In the Shrimad Bhagavad Gita Lord Shri Krishna has said that in all types of Yagyas I am the Japa Yagya. Hence so many people are taking part in this Yagya.
Global Kirtan Connect” was the center of attraction of the entire program. This program stared at ISKCON Auckland (New Zealand) with Kirtan at 12 noon. The devotees of other countries that fall in the same time zone also started kirtan at the same time.
The event went on till one o’clock in the afternoon. After that it was followed by Brisbane (Australia), Tokyo (Japan), Penang (Malaysia), Bangkok (Thailand), Kathmandu (Nepal), Mayapur, Vrindavan (India), Dubai (U.A.E. ), Moscow (Russia), Rijeka (Croatia), London (UK), Ghana (West Africa), Vancouver (Canada), Sao Pulo (Brazil), Alachua (U.S.), Washington, Dallas, Denver , Silicon Valley, New York, Houston, Honolulu and finally it concluded at 12 noon in the American Minor Islands. The Global Connect program ended at 1 pm.
In every country, the famous ISKCON personalities led the program. The special feature of this 24-hour program was that there was no sunset during the entire program.
To make this event a success, the president of all the ISKCON temples, the secretary of ISKCON Sankirtan ministry Eklavya Das, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Das, Parampara Vani Das, Dinanukampa Devi Dasi, Krishna Bhakta Das, Padmamali Das, Madhavi Gauri Devi Dasi, Swaroopananda Das, Govind Charan Das took efforts.