Author Archives: ISKCON News

Facing the challenges of the pandemic, ISKCON devotees have created an ever-increasing host of online sanga opportunities, which continually reveal new treasures.  One particularly sweet offering, which has been running since late April but may st…

The Radha Krishna Temple in Spanish Fork is world-famous for its huge festivals drawing tens of thousands of visitors to the Utah attraction, but COVID-19 changed everything.  “Our Festival of Colors (Holi) has been going on for 25 year…

  ‘Contentment’ is one of the niyamas, the set of five personal observances that Patanjali lists in the second chapter of his Yoga-sutras. It’s also a state of being that can be very hard to attain. How do we find real conte…

  “Therefore, O Arjuna, / Sever the doubts in your heart / With the sword of knowledge. / Armed with yoga, rise up and fight.” (Bhagavad-gita 4.42) The hero of India’s epic Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna, is …

Juan Pablo Roldan officer of the Argentine Federal Police, was killed during the performance of his duty. The Hare Krishna Community has received the news with shock and sadness. Bhakta Pablo, as the devotees affectionately called him, was a good devot…

For the first time the “Graduate Course on Book Distribution” is available now as a free online course. Two hours of videos, a comprehensive student handbook and lots of resource materials bring this course to life on your home screen. In t…

A letter was recently sent to the president of Bhaktivedanta Manor, Visakha dasi, from Her Majesty the Queen of England, via her Private Secretary’s Office. The letter thanked Vishaka for her recent Back To Godhead article about the Que…

Nitai Chaitanya Goswami of Ukraine, Lithuania and Russia is currently in the Intensive Care Unit with Coronavirus. According to reports he is in a serious condition and has lost 75% of his lung capacity. Doctors say the outcome is unpredictable. Nitai …

It is a humbling experience to sit in a room (or a Zoom call) full of devout Christian scholar-practitioners who have studied and read Vaishnava texts with the same ferocity and sincere devotion as their own. This was my experience as a novice attendee…

A new 10-session course on Bengali Learning – Beginner Level will be offered online on Zoom or Google classroom by the Bhaktivedanta Research Centre (BRC); the course will run Monday to Friday for two weeks from September 28th to October 9th 2020…

Radha devi dasi, ISKCON’s GBC Vaishnavi Minister, recently announced the appointment of regional ministers in South Africa, the UK, Brazil and Mexico. Regional ministers serve as the liaisons for the Vaishnavi Ministry and develop programs for th…

Suppose someone we work with lies to us frequently, claiming either that they can do things they can’t or that they can’t do things they can. Being repeatedly misled by them, we will eventually realize they are unreliable.  Won’t…

With genuine spiritual advancement comes the capacity and capability to have friendly relationships with one and all. Equipped with spiritual vision that penetrates beyond externals, one remains undisturbed by annoying idiosyncrasies, ideological diffe…

Recently I received an email from a devotee I had known in France in the 1970s. We haven’t had contact since then. It turns out that in the years since we were last together he discovered he is the grandchild of Jewish Polish survivors of Hitler&…

As soon as you press play on the title track of Supersoul’s new EP “He Can Dance,” and hear the irresistibly catchy melody, funky rhythms, brass, and smooth harmonies, you’re likely to find that you yourself, and possibly your w…

His Holiness Chaitanya Chandra Charan Prabhu, a spiritual teacher for Russian-speaking devotees and a member of the GBC, and his wife Gourachandrika Devi, have been ill with coronavirus for a few days. They are already feeling better and recovering.&#1…

At the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, ISKCON temples around the world closed their doors, and many found challenges in maintaining themselves without traditional in-person outreach activities. By June, some had begun to reopen, with locally mandated …

On July 4th, 2020, the world has lost one of its most inspiring spiritual leaders, Bhakti Charu Swami, to COVID-19. The shock and the loss made thousands of his followers numb, while others expressed their pain by posting their…

2020 is bringing in new things for ISKCON North America (NA) Communications Department: new management, with the appointment of Madan Gopal Das as Director and Kumari Kunti Dasi as Administrative Director, as well as back-to-back events to boost the No…

International Shravanam Week, run by the ISKCON Ministry of Education from September 3rd to 9th, has facilitated and encouraged devotees worldwide to regularly read ISKCON Founder-Acarya Srila Prabhupada’s books by providing resources, inspiratio…

  (Things I am learning while on the job)  When our children grow into teens, many of us find that inspiring them in Krishna consciousness becomes much harder. They are no longer enthusiastic to imitate us or join in with the devotional activ…

After a period of repeated fevers, late August it had been confirmed that Gopal Krishna Goswami tested positive for Covid-19 and was admitted to a hospital in New Delhi — making the worldwide ISKCON community very worried.    However, G…