By Madhava Smullen
Devotees are set to hold a prestigious conference in celebration of Srila Prabhupada and ISKCON’s 50th anniversary at the Italian Parliament in Rome on October 5th. “Last year, this was just a dream of mine, but I was confident that Krishna would help me find a way to do something relevant for this historical anniversary,” says Villa Vrindavana President Parabhakti Das. “Sure enough, my dear friend Narada Muni Prabhu, a famous musician who is well acquainted with many influential people, came along and offered his help and that opened the doors to the Parliament.” At first, Parabhakti and Narada Muni thought that they would have to go with a more universal topic for their event to make it easily digestible for such a public institution. But when they spoke about the idea with Ugo Papi, a member of the Foreign Affairs Ministry and friend of devotees, he encouraged them: “Why don’t you go directly to your real goal – to celebrate ISKCON’s 50th anniversary and Srila Prabhupada?” When they ran with this idea, rather than the obstacles they thought they might have faced, they found nothing but support from various leaders.