Author Archives: ISKCON News

  A hard, hard year has just ended, Yet many normal things remain suspended Leaving us with problems far greater than we’d conceived Exposing our existence to be frailer than we’d believed There’s light at the end of the tunnel, …

During an especially challenging holiday season, the Food For Life Foundation in Hungary is bringing some care and support with its Christmas Love Feast prasadam distribution effort, from December 8th to 27th. In previous years, Food For Life would hol…

Volunteers have established several Vaishnavas CARE teams each in Argentina, Chile, Mexico, and El Salvador, as well as Spain, after attending the “Art of Caring for Vaishnavas” Zoom webinar by Vaishnavas CARE co-founder Sangita Dasi in Nov…

ISKCON Zurich is searching for new Co-Temple Presidents for the Krishna Temple in Zurich, Switzerland.  After thirteen years as temple president, Krishna Premarupa Das will focus more on his other services within ISKCON from October 2021 onwards. …

Registrations for the Online VIHE Govardhana Retreat 2021 are now open!

Her Grace Tungavidya Devi Dasi, a dedicated pujari and preacher who was much beloved by devotees, passed away due to acute cardiac arrest (reportedly a complication from COVID-19) on December 14th, 2020. She departed at 3:45am during the sacred Brahma …

A devotee farmer near the Gita Nagari farm in Port Royal, Pennsylvania, has received a Farm Ownership Loan from the USDA Farm Service Agency, which offers low rates to help new farmers buy farms. The program offers up to 100% financing on up to $600,00…

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…