As they do every year, over eight hundred disciples and congregational devotees celebrated the Vyasa-puja, or birthday, ISKCON guru Bhakti Vikas Swami. This year, Maharaja’s 52nd, the festivities took place on January 3rd. But hospitality from a different branch of Vaishnavaism added a twist. This year's event was hosted by the Madhva Sampradaya and held in Udupi, the south Indian town where Madhvacharya "one of the greatest Vaishnava teachers of all time" lived eight hundred years ago.
US Military Base, Iraq, April 17, 2008 – It’s my fifth year on active duty as a sergeant here in Iraq, and I’m back doing missions, which means long days. But I still rise early, worship my salagram sila deities of the Lord, and chant Hare Krishna as if I can die at any moment – which, here, is a reality.
From changing a dozen dresses a day, to taking His pick from more than 100 cuisines on the menu, Lord Banke Bihari of Mathura has always enjoyed a privileged existence. Now, the baby Krishna has stolen a march over Ram Lalla - the resident deity of Ayodhya - by becoming the first divinity to don a bullet-proof cover.
By Surekha Kadapa Bose for The Hindu on 2007-09-28T00:00:00
Every second Saturday of the month, a small office near the City Light cinema in Mumbai comes alive with peals of laughter, excited chatter and lively discussions. Eighteen women drivers, part of an all-women taxi service called ‘Forsche’, are busy exchanging notes and narrating their experiences of the month gone by over a sumptuous meal.
ISKCON Moscow has celebrated Janmastami since 1988, but this year several local dignitaries expressed their support by attending the celebrations despite the bad weather.
On the 14th of August ISKCON Moscow was visited for the first time by the new administrator of Northern Moscow.
Mongolia. The name conjures up violence and brutality, a long history of barbaric hordes dealing death and destruction wherever they went. Yet a careful study of the country’s entire history reveals this to be a distorted picture painted by early European writers.
Simply Wonderfuls are fudge-like sweets made from butter, sugar, and milk powder. They require no cooking. Combine the ingredients, and the result is simply wonderful!
PREPARATION TIME: 20 minutes, YIELD: about 15 sweets
Self-righteousness is easy. Self-examination is a lot harder. Understanding the difference between the two makes a tremendous change in one’s ability to communicate his or her message to another person.
By Ravindra Svarupa Dasa for So It Happens on 2009-08-13T00:00:00
It is December of 1936. Abhaya Caraṇāravinda Dāsa, a forty-year-old pharmaceutical distributor then in Bombay on business, feels a sudden impulse to write a letter to his spiritual master, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura.
It is December 9, 1968, thirty-two years later. The same disciple—now a renunciant and spiritual master himself—finds himself in the city of Los Angeles where he relates to a gathering of his own disciples the story of his 1936 letter. He is observing with them the “Disappearance Day” of his spiritual master.
By Jeff Diamant/Religion News Service on 1 Jun 2007
Buono, a retired therapist and public school principal, says he decided to become a priest because he wanted to exert his energy in a meaningful, spiritual way after his wife died. And while he liked dating, he did not want to remarry.
How could the first living cell with DNA-based molecular biology have originated by spontaneous chemical processes on the pre-biotic earth? This has been the chicken and egg problem of life’s evolution from chemicals – Which came first, DNA or the protein molecule?
After what was a spectacular Diwali firework display on Sunday 18th October at Bhaktivedanta Manor near London, numerous community leaders and festival revelers released 1000 lanterns into the sky in a bid for world peace.
On the Sunday, 15,000 people attended the Diwali celebrations at the Temple. Other highlights of the festival included colourful dances, plays and free vegetarian meals for everyone.
Last month devotees gathered at ISKCON New York's 1st Avenue center to reunite the small deities of Sri Sri Radha-Murlidhara with Their larger forms after many years of separation. Below is a media presentation that attempts to capture the heartfelt essence of the event.
Today’s world isn’t just hectic and stressful for adults. Youth must juggle school or college, home studying, exams, and part-time jobs while holding on to some semblance of a social life. No surprise that every so often, it’s time for a much needed break. But while some choose drinking, partying and dogged pursuit of casual sex, ISKCON’s Pandava Sena youth group are looking for a true break away from it all this summer: a sample of the simple life.
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Hearing news of the passing of Srimati Rajmata Gayatri Devi, the famous Queen of Jaipur, made me think of the significant contribution Gayatri Devi made to the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. In 1972 Gayatri Devi hosted His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada and an entourage of ISKCON devotees at the King of Jaipur's property, which is also the estate compound where the famous Sri Govindaji, the beloved deity of Srila Rupa Goswami, resides. It was during that stay, which Srila Prabhupada utilized for a Krishna Consciousness festival program for the public, that Rajmata Gayatri Devi magnanimously gave the transcendental gift of Sri Sri Radha Govinda murtis to Srila Prabhupada.
This question has probably caused more people to lose their faith than anything else. Why does God sit peacefully in his cloud or wherever, feet up and smoking his pipe, while we suffer all kinds of grim miseries down here on earth?
