Ask, Discover, Explore!

Festival of India presents a wide variety of opportunities for festival attendees to dive into the incredible spiritual depth and wisdom of the ancient east. With renowned guest speakers hailing from all over the world, we are proud to present a lineup of seminars and topics that will surely inspire you! Don’t pass up the opportunity to interact and ask questions with our host of learned, spiritual scholars. 

Pavilion Guests

HH Candramauli Swami

HH Candramauli Swami hails from the USA and has been practicing the bhakti tradition since the early 70s. He leads the ISKCON Prison Ministry and in over thirty years of operation, the lives of hundreds of inmates have changed due to the practice of Krishna consciousness and the support received by devotees and practitioners of Krishna Consciousness. Candramauli Swami also offers spiritual guidance around Europe, the U.S. and India.He has also authored a book called Holy Jail which is a touching compilation of the activities of the ISKCON Prison Ministries.

HH Bhakti Anugraha Janardana Swami

HH Bhakti Anugraha Janardana Swami hails from the Philippines and has been practicing the bhakti tradition since the early 80s.

HH Bhakti Anugraha Janardana Swami main area of travelling and spreading the glories of the Bhakti Tradition is New Delhi, Vrindavan and Philippines.

HH Sundar Chaitanya Goswami Maharaj

His Holiness Sundara Chaitanya Goswami Maharaj is an international motivational speaker, leadership trainer, and a renowned youth preacher. He is specialized in spiriting and empowering people to realize their true selves. As a keynote speaker, thousands of people have discovered a new light from his energetic workshops worldwide.

His Holiness is currently working on books to review the roots of the Krishna Consciousness Movement in Mauritius. He is popular for ecstatic kirtan and awakening lectures.

HG Sankarshan Das Adhikari

His Grace Sriman Sankarshan Das Adhikari, is an author of over 10 books. He is a disciple of His Divine Grace Srila A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada since 1971. Having served in Srila Prabhupada’s ISKCON for over 50 years, he has rendered many valuable services. Today he serves as an Initiating Guru within ISKCON. His ultimate Self Realization Course features a daily thought, a Q&A, weekly lesson on the Bhagavad Gita, and the Bhagavata Online Academy, and has over 29,000 subscribers worldwide. The course is translated into various languages including Hindi, Gujarati, Tamil, Russian, Lithuanian, and Spanish. It is the longest running Internet course in the Bhakti Community Worldwide.

HG Vishnu Priya Devi Dasi

Vishnupriya Mataji, affectionately addressed as “Gurumataji” by students and disciples around the world, became interested in Krishna Consciousness as a schoolgirl in the early seventies. She met the devotees in Fiji and started chanting Hare Krishna immediately after. Even though she joined before 1977, she could only get initiated by one of Srila Prabhupada’s disciples Tamal Krishna Goswami.

She has spent over five decades in honing her own Krishna Consciousness and is passing on her realizations around the world through classes, practical instructions and leading by example. Especially, working alongside her as an assistant, many have learned core skills in spiritual life. Thousands of souls have benefited from her simple candid honesty. She acts as a primary instructing spiritual master, Shiksha Guru to thousands around the world.

Very much like Krishna Consciousness, she’s simple for the simple and difficult for the crooked.

HG Hari Lila Das

HG Hari Lila Das is a Mechanical Engineer by qualification.

He has conducted many spiritual and philosophical dramas with adults and children as incharge of cultural committee.

He is a scholar who teaches various courses that delve deep into the ancient Indian scriptures all over India as well as in the Middle East to temple congregations as well as monks.

He is especially known for presenting spiritual knowledge and ancient philosophy in a simple and practical manner.

HG Mahabhagavat Das

HG Mahabhagavat Das is a disciple of His Grace Sriman Sankarshan Das Adhikari. He started his adult life as an atheist and only started reading the Bhagavad Gita As It Is to prove it all wrong. He lives in Toronto and serves in the GTA community since 2004, together with his wife and son. He cooks for Krishna, distributes books on the street, goes out regularly on Harinam and mentors many devotees around the world. His professional background is in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and he works as the Chief Technology Officer at an Insurance Company. He is a Grihastha and lives with his wife Aruna Keshavi Devi Dasi and their son Vitthal Bhakta. He serves souls on the Internet via dasadas.com.

Prabhupada Priya Devi Dasi

Prabhupada Priya Devi Dasi has been a full-time devotee in ISKCON since 1992. Born in the USA, she completed her university education with a BA in Human Ecology in 1991, and first met devotees in Penang, Malaysia while on an international research project. Soon later, she joined the brahmacarini-ashram at London Soho Street temple and was initiated in 1993. After several years of distributing books and leading women’s traveling sankirtan parties in the UK, she transitioned to gṛhastha-ashram and moved to India, spending 10 years in Vrindavan and another 9 years in Mayapur, raising her two daughters, teaching at Sri Mayapur International School, distributing books, and writing. She is author of two books: Rising Above it All: Higher Consciousness, Happier Life, an introductory book aimed at outreach preaching, and The Living Gita, soon to be published. In 2018, she entered vanaprastha-ashram, returned to the USA, and currently resides at Krishna House in Gainesville, Florida, where she serves as a Board member and Educational Director, teaching and planning curriculum for new devotee training and education. She is a certified Bhakti Shastri teacher, a Bhakti-vaibhava graduate from MI, and soon to complete the Bhaktivedanta Course with VIHE. She is also a registered teacher of the ISKCON Disciples Course, a graduate of and teacher for the GBC College for Leadership Training, and a member of the ISKCON North American Council.

Rupanuga Das

Rupanuga Das was born and raised in family practicing Bhakti and has worked in the IT industry in a variety of technical, management and executive roles, finally retiring with IBM.

He currently resides in Toronto, Canada and serves our Toronto community. Some of his services include facilitating classes on Bhagavad-Gita, Srimad Bhagavatam, providing mentorship and counseling for youths and families across Canada.

Deva Madhava Das

Deva Madhava Das is the community director of The Harmony Collective, Ypsilanti in Michigan USA where they have a farm, restaurant and community center. He is also the founder of the Bodhaka project. Professionally, he shares practices of Bhakti in secular environments with his business Ananta Wellness, and he is a member of the GBC SPT. He began practicing Krishna consciousness in 2010 when he met devotees at ISKCON Detroit.

Ananda Murari Das

Ananda Murari left college in Flagstaff, Az at age 20 to live at a yoga monastery in Denver Colorado for 5 years. Graduating the ashrama he felt strengthened internally and clear about what he wanted to do in the world. He finished his degree in psychology and got certified in transformative communication as well. He and his wife now live in Michigan and he has built a career supporting people around the globe as they learn to build a sacred container for their own life. Ananda believes in everyone’s personal story and is passionate about helping people write the best one possible.

Seminars

Time Topic Speaker
  Saturday, July 15
2:00pm-3:00pm The Significance of the Festival of Chariots HG Mahabhagavat Das
3:00pm-4:00pm The Modes of Material Nature HG Sankarshan Das Adhikari
4:00pm-5:00pm The Source of Unlimited Pleasure HG Padmanayan Das
5:00pm-6:00pm The Yoga of Love HG Ananda Murari Das
6:00pm-7:00pm The Vital Force of the Universe HG Rupanuga Das
7:00pm-8:00pm Returning to Our Natural Consciousness HH Candramauli Swami
  Sunday, July 16
12:30pm-1:30pm No God, No Peace. Know God, Know Peace HG Prabhupada Priya Devi Dasi
1:30pm-2:30pm The Power of Mantra Meditation HG Deva Madhava Das
2:30pm-3:30pm The Science of the Soul HH Bhakti Anugraha Janardana Swami
3:30pm-4:30pm Spiritual Attachment and Material Detachment HH Sundar Chaitanya Goswami

 

Q & A

Time Topic Speaker
  Saturday, July 15
2:00pm-3:00pm Finding Spiritual Solutions to Material Problems HG Prabhupada Priya Devi Dasi
3:00pm-4:00pm Mastering the Mind and Senses HH Candramauli Swami
4:00pm-5:00pm What is the Most Wonderful Thing Within this World? HG Deva Madhava Das
5:00pm-6:00pm Where Does Life Come From? HG Vishnu Priya Devi Dasi
6:00pm-7:00pm What is the Ultimate Goal of Life? HH Sundar Chaitanya Goswami
7:00pm-8:00pm The Sky Beyond the Universe HH Bhakti Anugraha Janardana Swami
  Sunday, July 16
12:30pm-1:30pm The Perfect Society: Social and Spiritual Classes of Humans HG Rupanuga Das
1:30pm-2:30pm Practicing Spiritual Life in the Modern Age HG Ananda Murari Das
2:30pm-3:30pm Karma, Destiny and Free Will HG Mahabhagavat Das
3:30pm-4:30pm Life and Afterlife: Does Modern Science Have it Right? HG Padmanayan Das