Senior ISKCON leaders join other devotees for the inauguration of ISKCON’s Festival Tent in Ayodhya.

As hundreds of thousands descend on Ayodhya for the grand opening of the Ayodhya Ram Janmabhoomi Temple on January 22, ISKCON has formerly inaugurated its festival tent in ceremonies and celebrations today in the presence or several senior ISKCON members.

The program commenced with invocation of mantras, offering of an arati to the Padayatra Deities of Sri Sri Gaura Nitai and Srila Prabhupada.

This was followed by the opening of the month long yajnashala (fire sacrifice). Later all the leaders officially offered the sacred fire into the stoves in the kitchen which are named after Lord Rama and his associates.

The team of devotees who have come from different parts of India and the world along with the volunteers have begun prasadam distribution, equipped to feed up to 5,000 daily. Book distribution led by Bhakti Vijaya Bhagavat Swami is successfully sharing spiritual literature to all the many visitors to Ayodhya, the birthplace of Lord Rama.

“The whole mood in Ayodhya and the country is spiritualized and the receiption for the message of Lord Rama is being well received. The public and officials are very appreciative of ISKCON’s efforts,” said Yudhistir Govinda Das, National Director of Communications of ISKCON India and the Convenor of the ISKCON Ayodhya Festival Committee.

In a short interview, Bhakti Vijaya Bhagavat Swami summarized the service in Ayodhya, “We are doing three things: distributing prasadam, distributing books, and distributing harinam.”