Author Archives: ISKCON News

The Sri Sri Doyal Nitai Sacisuta temple in Moscow has announced, with deep sorrow, the passing of His Grace Brahmananda Puri Das due to COVID-19 complications.   About two weeks ago, Brahmananda Puri, one of the seniormost Russian-speaking Vaishna…

What if your 11-year-old son comes home one day and says he wants to cut off his sika? Or your teenage daughter doesn’t want to wear neck beads because they ruin her look? How about if your kids want to spend time over at the homes of friends who are n…

Devotees around the world are aiming to distribute at least two million Bhagavad-gitas during the last quarter of 2020, as part of the Prabhupada marathon and the Live to Give campaign. The campaign will culminate with World Gita Day (also known as Git…

  We sometimes get allured by the promise of free entertainment on the Internet. Because it seems free, we may spend far more time than what we might have otherwise spend on it. For example, we may watch mediocre movies that we would never spend money …

After many years residing on the third floor of Sri Sri Radha Vrindaban Chandra’s temple, Tulasi Devi at the New Vrindaban farm community in West Virginia has been offered a beautiful new dedicated greenhouse to provide her with a high standard o…

Perhaps one of the saddest parts about growing up is learning that Father Christmas is not real. I recall a few years ago hearing how a teacher had been hauled across the coals for revealing this terrible truth to his class of six year olds, after outr…

In 1971, as a young devotee in Calcutta, Giriraja Swami approached Srila Prabhupada, “I have been trying to understand what your desire is, and two things seem to please you the most: distributing your books and building the big temple in Mayapur.” Pra…

Many of us have heard the story before: In the summer of 1966, ISKCON founder Srila Prabhupada acquired a storefront space in New York’s Bowery neighborhood with the help of a couple disciples. It had previously been a curio shop, the name of whi…

“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation) there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely …

ISKCON Temple of Greater Chicago is based in Naperville, a growing suburb of Chicago, Illinois, USA. The temple moved to its current location a few years back and since then, the community has been growing exponentially. Looking at the growth, there is…

  The coronavirus pandemic, which has now claimed over 276,000 lives in the United States, and 1.5 million around the world, continues to be a major health threat. And ISKCON temples have not been immune to the challenge.   In addit…

  Perhaps one of the more endearing images in the Bhagavad-gita is Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, driving the chariot of His friend, the warrior Arjuna. When we accept the notion of God as a person then we can begin to ask, what does…

  My phone rang one morning in 2013 and the rest, as they say, is history. My old friend Devi-deva was calling with a question. “Have you heard of a singer named Sir Ivan?” he asked. “He recorded a dance version of the Hare Krish…

Across the world, COVID has, for better or worse, changed the way we do many things in our lives. Countless children have attended school, Sunday school and even ‘camp’ online this year. More than ever before, children live online – m…

An increase in the culture of reading Srila Prabhupada’s books is in the air.  One of the catalysts for this was the 2017 Sanga for Gurus, GBCs and Sannyasis (SGGS) in Mayapur, West Bengal, at which it was felt that there should be a worldwi…

After going part time with his communications service, ISKCON Communications Director for Australasia Bhakta Das is using his free time in “the latter part” of his life to realize an artistic dream years in the making. He’s creating a…

With the UK recording over 1.5 million coronavirus cases and 55,000 COVID-related deaths, the government introduced a second lockdown in England in early November, which is set to lift on December 2nd, although a three-tiered system of regional measure…

Drutakarma Das (Michael Cremo), co-author of Forbidden Archeology, is at work on a new book, tentatively titled “Extreme Human Antiquity.”  The book, Drutakarma says, “Is composed of new cases of archeological evidence that are consistent with Vedic an…

  In celebration of the holy month of Kartika, the Bhaktivedanta Players drama group of Bhaktivedanta Manor, UK, have made a seasonal audio play for children and families to enjoy. The 16-minute drama with voices by many actors, beautiful sound ef…