Posted September 9th, 2008 by KapilaM
Official News Release from Siberia mela
Hare Krishna, dear friends!
We’re happy to let You know, that the first vaishnava youth Kuli Mela festival took place in Tomsk (Siberia) from 3rd to 7th of July 2008. Filled with intoxicating kirtans, nectar association and selfless service, the occasion turned out to be really inspiring and uniting for young vaishnavas from all over the former Soviet Union. Guests from Tomsk, Moscow, Almaty, Novosibirsk, Novokuznetsk, Krasnoyarsk, Zheleznogorsk, Chernishevsk, Kemerovo, Ulan-Ude and many other regions attended the festival.
All four days of the festival brightly flew by, due to saturated spiritual, cultural and sport programmes. Neither uncertain weather nor power cuts could spoil the festive occasion. The participants got the opportunity to make friends and share their life and spiritual experience (not great, but very important nevertheless), take part in enthusiastic kuli-kirtans and harinamas, charming evening yajnas and ceremonies, visit interesting seminars and workshops, designed for youth specially, and take nectar Bhagavat prasadam, of course!
“Kuli Mela is a family!” – this was the motto of the festival. And all the participants could really feel it. On the last evening no one wanted to leave and all of us stayed up and glorified the devotees, who took part in organizing the event. And then we had an ecstatic kirtan. All of us could feel the mission of Srila Prabhupad, spreading throughout the world, bearing the power of the Holy Name and service. And it inspired everyone to take part in spreading it further.
For instance, the Kazakhstan youth proclaimed that they were ready to organize Kuli Mela 2009 in Almaty! And devotees from Tomsk are full of enthusiasm and plan to make a Kuli Mela festival 2010 in a community, in the Tomsk area, which is being built now.
Cooperating with each other, we can become the power that will change the world! And our numbers grow every year.
The detailed report and photos of the event will soon be available at www.kulimela.ru.
