Websites from the ISKCON Universe
ISKCON Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, India, welcomed a life-size mechanical elephant named Ranga during its Sharad Purnima celebrations on October 25, introducing an alternative to using live elephants in temple ceremonies. Donated by Indian actor Adivi Sesh in collaboration with PETA India, the elephant is the first of its kind introduced in the state. Devotees […]
The post ISKCON Visakhapatnam Welcomes Mechanical Elephant for Festivals appeared first on ISKCON News.
Mayapur Academy formally inaugurated its International Diploma in Deity Worship on October 23, 2026, welcoming students from around the world for systematic training in Deity worship. According to the Academy’s Facebook announcement, Jananivas Dasa, Pancaratna Dasa, and other senior devotees attended the inauguration, shared realizations, and offered encouragement and blessings to the incoming students. Established […]
The post Mayapur Academy Inaugurates International Deity Worship Diploma appeared first on ISKCON News.
So these file cabinets here that are the photographic ones, they’re full of images that have been generated over the decades by the BBT. It started out as a simple file cabinet with just a few black and white pictures. The photographs were essentially generated for Back to Godhead magazine. So they were mostly in black and white and then later on as color was developed.
So in this area we have in the ISKCON pictures we have the magazines, the books, other publications that were used for the photographs.
There are log books that explain the data, the metadata on certain parts of the photographic collection. So it has expanded greatly from just a couple file cabinets to this many.
So the film needs to be preserved in a cool to freezing environment depending on the kind of film. We’ll see that last in the photo vault.
Here we have, for example, the art transparencies that were used for the books, and we’re re-leving them to something like this from something like this. You can see this is all dogeared and everything. So put it on pause while I put it back.
Channel: Charles Payne
Nitya Trpta DD shows how she handles Prabhupada's legacy, Transcript Follow along using the transcript. Show transcript Charles Payne 18 subscribers Videos About Show less
After installing our new commercial freezer/ refrigerator to preserve the original images of Srila Prabhupada and early ISKCON, the Bhakti- vedanta Archives now needs a backup power generator to maintain temperature and humidity control. A 200-amp SE-rated automatic transfer switch will disengage the main power supply, allowing the generator to take over if the main power supply is interrupted (power outage). The genera- tor will run on propane from our already installed 500-gallon tank.
The article by Dr. Nitaisevini Mataji explores the importance of respecting the trust someone places in us when they share their weaknesses or struggles. It offers valuable insights into compassion, confidentiality, and the responsibility we have to protect others’ trust and respond with kindness rather than judgment.
Hare Krishna. This year Sri Govardhan Puja at Sri Sri Radha Giridhari temple will be celebrated on Sunday 15th November from 11am onwards. All are welcome to participate. Please see poster for festival schedule.
Srila Prabhupada's Disappearance Day will be commemorated on Friday 13th November 2026. A sacred day observed worldwide by devotees and well-wishers to honour the divine departure and remember the eternal legacy of ISKCON Founder Acharya: His Divine Grace A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.
Indradyumna Swami: Today marked the joyful beginning of our Kartik parikrama! We walked together to the beautiful Padma Behari Temple, a pristine setting for a morning immersed in hearing and chanting. We opened with uplifting kirtan followed by a class on the mood with which we should approach the transcendental abode of Vrindavan. It was especially wonderful to reconnect with devotees who have gathered from around the world.
Deena Bandhu Das: We began our Karttika Parikrama 2026 with a visit to the local temples in Vrindavan. After circumambulating Srila Prabhupada at his samadhi, we made our way to the Bhaktivedanta Swami Goshala, which was personally established by His Divine Grace. Next, we headed to Kaliya Ghat, the site where Krishna subdued Kaliya. Behind Kaliya Ghat we paid our respects at the Samadhi of Srila Prabodhananda Goswami. Our journey then took us to the New Madan Mohan Temple, built after the original temple was desecrated. Close by, we took darshan of Srila Sanatan Goswami’s Samadhi Mandir at the Lotus Feet of Madan Mohan. We also visited the original Madan Mohan Mandir established by Sanatan Goswami. Behind the temple, we explored Dvadasa Aditya Tila and the bhajan kutir of Sanatan Goswami. We then visited Adwaita Vat, the banyan tree where Adwaita Prabhu found Madana Gopal (Madan Mohan) and took darshan of the lovely Sri Sri Radha Madana Gopal where an astounding lila was being depicted. Additionally, we stopped by the gorgeous Asta-sakhi Mandir and the most auspicious Imli-tala.
The auspicious month of Kartik is a special opportunity to deepen our devotion to Sri Sri Radha-Krishna through दीपदान (offering lamps), chanting the Hare Krishna Mahamantra, hearing the glories of the Lord, and performing devotional service. Let us embrace this sacred month with sincere prayers, a loving heart, and renewed dedication to Krishna consciousness.
May Sri Sri Radha-Damodara bless us all with pure devotion and the desire to serve Krishna eternally. Hare Krishna!
Devotees of ISKCON Taiwan organized an event from October 9 to 11, 2026, to celebrate the 60th anniversary of ISKCON’s founding in 1966 by its Founder-Acharya, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada. Around 100 devotees from Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the Philippines attended this joyful event at a beautiful mountain resort near Taichung […]
The post ISKCON Celebrates 60th Anniversary in Taiwan appeared first on ISKCON News.
Health Update of HH. Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja Bengaluru | 27th October 2026 | 9:00 PM IST Dear devotees, disciples, and well-wishers of HH. Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja, Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda. By the mercy of Śrī Śrī Guru-Gaurāṅga and the sincere prayers and blessings of devotees worldwide, Guru Mahārāja continues […]
The post Health Update: Jayapataka Swami Stands for First Time in Four Months appeared first on ISKCON News.
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From Govardhan Eco-Village I traveled to Sri Radha Govinda Temple, Noida, Delhi, which is a planned city in India’s northern state of Uttar Pradesh. Now it has grown to immense levels from when I first visited at the opening 10 or 12 years ago.
The temple is seven stories and has huge numbers of visitors coming, especially in the evening and on weekends. Devotees tell me that for Janmastami, the police block off the streets because the crowd is close to five hundred thousand.
I led kirtana and gave class and the devotees looked after me wonderfully. With the new motorway the temple is under two hours from our Krishna Balaram temple in Vrindavan so many devotees visit here.
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Channel:
The Secret to Powerful Book Distribution | Faith, Fear & Srila Prabhupada’s Mission | EP-12 What does it take to distribute spiritual books with faith, courage, and conviction? … more
Bringing Mahaprabhu’s Life to a New Generation:
A Biography for Seekers and Devotees
by Punya-sravana dasa
More than five centuries after Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu began his sankirtan movement in Bengal, his life continues to offer a compelling answer to a question that confronts devotees today: How can the teachings of bhakti reach people who have never encountered the Vaishnava tradition? A new biography, The Mystical Journey of Chaitanya: Revolutionary Pioneer of Bhakti Yoga, scheduled for worldwide publication in February 2027, seeks to make that life accessible to readers both within and beyond ISKCON.
Written by Yogesvara dasa (Joshua M. Greene), a disciple of Srila Prabhupada since 1970, the book will be published by Mandala Publishing/Insight Editions and distributed by Simon & Schuster. Yogesvara is the author of numerous books, with more than half a million copies sold. This new work is designed as a narrative biography: a sustained account of Mahaprabhu as a person moving through a recognizable human world, while respecting the devotional understanding of his divine identity.
For Gaudiya Vaishnavas, Sri Chaitanya is revered as Krishna himself, appearing in the mood and devotion of Srimati Radharani. His teachings direct attention to the holy name, to loving service, and to the soul’s eternal relationship with Krishna. Yet the events of his life, when presented in literary non-fiction form, also give a newcomer an immediate way to understand what those claims meant in practice.
Mahaprabhu’s public chanting brought spiritual practice out of private settings and into the streets. In the traditional accounts of his life, people of different backgrounds found themselves joined in kirtan. The significance was that the sankirtan movement proclaimed that access to devotion did not depend on social privilege, learning, or material standing. The holy name could be taken up by anyone.
That message remains especially relevant when religious communities are asked how they respond to divisions of class, background, and belief. The Mystical Journey of Chaitanya is intended to show how Mahaprabhu’s life set an example of diplomacy and interfaith dialogue that can be an inspiration to peacekeepers today.
The story begins with Nimai, the brilliant young scholar of Navadvip. His intellectual gifts are part of the drama, but they are not the final measure of his greatness. His transformation into a leader of ecstatic devotion invites readers to consider the difference between knowledge as achievement and knowledge that changes the heart.
The accounts of his public sankirtan and confrontation with opposition to chanting reveal another dimension: courage joined with compassion. The biography presents Mahaprabhu’s example of devotion as a force that can shape public life. His response to resistance is of particular interest to modern readers familiar with questions of conscience, community, and nonviolent action.
His later renunciation introduces a more difficult theme. Traditional narratives allow devotees to see both the intensity of his spiritual purpose and the pain of those who loved him. For readers unfamiliar with sannyasa, that human cost may be the doorway to understanding the extraordinary seriousness of his mission.
The journeys that follow—to Jagannath Puri and other sacred places—extend the story beyond Bengal. They also introduce the extraordinary devotional experiences preserved in Vaishnava literature: the transforming power of the holy name, Mahaprabhu’s absorption in Krishna, and the depth of separation that characterizes the highest expressions of bhakti. A contemporary biography must present such episodes faithfully without assuming every reader begins with the same convictions.
Srila Prabhupada brought Mahaprabhu’s message to a worldwide audience through books, personal teaching, and the public practice of harinama-sankirtan. For many people, however, the first encounter with a spiritual tradition may be a life story: a person whose choices provoke curiosity and whose example raises questions that deserve further study.
This is where a carefully told biography can complement, rather than replace, Srila Prabhupada’s books. Readers moved by Mahaprabhu’s life may wish to explore the Bhagavad-gita, Srimad-Bhagavatam, and Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita. Devotees engaged in outreach can use the biography as a conversation starter with friends, students, book-club members, and people who would not ordinarily enter a temple or attend a lecture.
The book’s potential contribution to book distribution lies in that bridge.
A visitor who is hesitant to begin with unfamiliar Sanskrit terminology may feel comfortable opening an accessible biography. A university student interested in religion and social change may respond to Mahaprabhu’s public life. A reader of historical biography may be drawn in by the setting, characters, and emotional stakes. None of these entry points diminishes the philosophy; each may make a deeper encounter possible.
A publication and outreach effort
The 300-page hardcover includes 22 original illustrations by Vrindavan artist Partha Sarthi Mallick. The publication plans also include an audiobook and Hindi and Bengali editions. An international campaign is being developed with bookstore and temple appearances, interviews, digital outreach, and short animated episodes adapted from the biography. Publicist Kim Dower is coordinating media outreach.
Several Vaishnava leaders have endorsed the book. Jayapataka Swami said that as he continued reading, the chapters became increasingly engaging and he did not want to stop. Sacinandana Swami described it as a “living book.” Indradyumna Swami observed that it could deepen devotees’ appreciation of Mahaprabhu’s mission while offering thoughtful newcomers a doorway into the tradition.
The project team is inviting ISKCON temples and communities to help introduce the book to their local audiences. Possible activities include stocking copies through a special temple-ordering program, featuring the publication in newsletters or Sunday programs, hosting author events, and sharing the animated videos when they become available.
Such efforts need not be limited to a single launch season. A biography can be used in reading circles, interfaith conversations, campus outreach, and introductory programs over time. It may also offer devotees a fresh way to speak about Mahaprabhu with relatives and friends who are curious about Krishna consciousness but unfamiliar with its vocabulary.
From Govardhan Eco-Village I traveled to Sri Radha Govinda Temple, Noida, Delhi, which is a planned city in India’s northern state of Uttar Pradesh. Now it has grown to immense levels from when I first visited at the opening 10 or 12 years ago.
The temple is seven stories and has huge numbers of visitors coming, especially in the evening and on weekends. Devotees tell me that for Janmastami, the police block off the streets because the crowd is close to five hundred thousand.
I led kirtana and gave class and the devotees looked after me wonderfully. With the new motorway the temple is under two hours from our Krishna Balaram temple in Vrindavan so many devotees visit here.
After 25 years of monastic life, S.B. Keshava Swami returned to the classroom in a bid to deepen his knowledge and further empower his endeavors to share wisdom that breathes. Earlier this year, Keshava Swami addressed Harvard Divinity School’s Dean’s Leadership Forum in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on leaders’ inner lives. The venue carried significance: the Cader […]
The post From Ashram to Harvard, Monk Explores Leadership Beyond Campus appeared first on ISKCON News.
Statement from the ISKCON Governing Body Commission on Srila Prabhupada and the Role of Gurus in ISKCON The ISKCON Governing Body Commission (GBC) passed several resolutions during its Mid-Term General Meeting 2026 regarding the need to better educate ISKCON devotees with “a clearer understanding and articulation of, the qualification and service of all gurus, and […]
The post GBC Releases Statement on Srila Prabhupada and the Role of Gurus in ISKCON appeared first on ISKCON News.
By Madhusudana Visnu Das
There are some pastimes of Krishna that astonish us by their grandeur.
There are others that quietly and softly enter the heart.
The meeting of Krishna and His childhood friend Sudama belongs to the second kind.
There is no battlefield. No demon is slain. No mountain is lifted.
A poor brahmana simply walks to Dvaraka carrying a small bundle of chipped rice.
And Krishna receives him.
Yet within that seemingly simple meeting, the Srimad-Bhagavatam reveals something extraordinary about the heart of the Supreme Lord.
What could he possibly bring Krishna?
Sudama had studied with Krishna years earlier in the gurukula of Sandipani Muni. Life had taken the two friends in very different directions.
Krishna was now living amid the extraordinary opulence of Dvaraka. Sudama possessed almost nothing.
When his wife encouraged him to visit his old friend, Sudama agreed—not because he wished to ask Krishna for wealth, but because he longed to see Him again.
There remained one difficulty.
How does one visit a friend without bringing a gift?
And what could Sudama possibly offer Krishna?
His wife went to the neighbouring brahmanas and managed to obtain four handfuls of chipped rice. She tied them in a worn piece of cloth and gave the little bundle to her husband.
Materially, it was almost nothing. For Sudama, it was almost everything.
Perhaps this is where the pastime begins to become our own story. Most of us know the feeling of standing before Krishna and wondering whether what we have to offer is enough.
Our chanting could be better.
Our attention wanders.
Our service seems small compared with the service of others.
Our heart is not as pure as we wish it were.
Sometimes we may even become embarrassed by the poverty of what we bring before Krishna.
Sudama knew something of that embarrassment. When Krishna asked what he had brought, Sudama hesitated to show Him the humble bundle.
Krishna, however, was not interested in its market value. He was interested in the love with which it had come.
Krishna sees differently
This is one of the most beautiful truths running through the Krishna–Sudama pastime.
The world evaluates according to quantity, position, appearance and achievement. Krishna evaluates differently.
In the Bhagavad-gita, Krishna tells us that He accepts even a leaf, a flower, a fruit or some water when it is offered to Him with devotion.
In Sudama’s little bundle of chipped rice, we see that principle come alive.
Krishna does not merely tolerate Sudama’s offering. He delights in it.
The Lord of Dvaraka, surrounded by inconceivable wealth, finds greater pleasure in the poor brahmana’s handful of rice than in all the opulence surrounding Him.
Why?
Because bhakti changes the value of an offering.
Love makes the small great.
More than a story about poverty and wealth
The Krishna–Sudama pastime is often remembered as the story of a poor man whose fortunes were transformed after meeting Krishna.
That is certainly part of what happens.
But if we read the account only as a story about poverty becoming prosperity, we may miss something far more intimate.
Sudama did not go to Krishna because he wanted things from Krishna.
He wanted Krishna.
And Krishna’s response reveals the extraordinary nature of divine friendship.
He welcomes Sudama personally.
He embraces him.
He seats him with honour.
He serves him.
He remembers their years together as students.
The Supreme Lord does not allow the differences between their external circumstances to define their relationship.
One friend has become the king of Dvaraka. The other arrives in worn clothes.
Krishna still sees His friend.
For those of us practising bhakti, that is deeply reassuring. Our relationship with Krishna is not built upon what we can impress Him with. It is built upon sincerity.
Why retell a pastime devotees already know?
This question stayed with us while writing our new book, The Four Handfuls of Love: A Story of Krishna and His Friend.
Many devotees already know the basic story of Krishna and Sudama.
So why tell it again?
Because knowing what happened and entering deeply into what happened are not always the same thing.
Sacred stories can become so familiar that we sometimes pass over them quickly.
We know Sudama was poor.
We know he brought chipped rice.
We know Krishna welcomed him.
We know what happened when Sudama returned home.
But what was happening inside these moments?
What might Sudama have felt as he approached Dvaraka?
What does it mean to stand before someone we love while feeling that what we carry is inadequate?
What can Sudama’s wife teach us about faith?
What does Rukmini Devi’s presence reveal?
What does Krishna’s response tell us about the kind of relationship He wishes to have with His devotees?
These questions inspired us to return to the pastime carefully and try to present it in a form that allows a modern reader to slow down and live within the story.
The Four Handfuls of Love
The Four Handfuls of Love: A Story of Krishna and His Friend is a devotional retelling of the Krishna–Sudama pastime from the Tenth Canto of the Srimad-Bhagavatam.
The book is written by Madhusudana Visnu Das and Premasindhu Gauranga Das, with a foreword by Gauranga Das.
Our intention has been to remain faithful to the scriptural account while allowing the emotional and spiritual dimensions of the pastime to speak directly to contemporary readers.
The book explores friendship, humility, gratitude, dignity, offering, vulnerability, and Krishna’s loving reciprocation with His devotee.
But perhaps the central message can be expressed very simply:
What we bring to Krishna may appear small. When it is offered with love, it is never insignificant.
That truth extends far beyond Sudama’s chipped rice.
A little service.
A distracted but sincere round of japa.
A few moments spent reading Srila Prabhupada’s books.
A meal offered with devotion.
A difficult duty performed for Krishna.
An attempt to forgive another devotee.
A small sacrifice that nobody else notices.
We may see the inadequacy.
Krishna may see the love.
And perhaps that is one reason the story of Krishna and Sudama has remained so dear to devotees for generations.
It reminds us that Krishna is not waiting for us to become wealthy before we approach Him.
Not materially wealthy.
Not spiritually wealthy.
He asks us to come as we are—and bring whatever love we have.
Sometimes even four handfuls are enough.
The Four Handfuls of Love: A Story of Krishna and His Friend
Madhusudana Visnu Das & Premasindhu Gauranga Das
Foreword by Gauranga Das
The book is now available in print and Kindle editions. Further information and ordering details are available through the Simple Vedas Books website.
For reference, the book details are:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.in/dp/8118034305
Website: https://books.simplevedas.com
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