Author Archives: Madhava Smullen

What Now? is a New Zealand institution. The children’s television program has been running for nearly forty years and is one of the top ten most popular shows in the country.

The Jaguar’s Story, a children’s book written by Kosa Ely (Kosarupa Dasi) and beautifully illustrated by Radhe Gendron, has received two prestigious awards this week. 

At MAN-tra, ISKCON’s first ever men’s retreat last weekend, devotee men bonded and dedicated themselves to self-improvement. They learned how to find themselves, become stronger, happier and more productive in society, balance Kri…

Seventy-two women, ranging in age all the way from 12 to 76, attended the Vaishnavi Retreat in Lake County, California from October 5thto 7th. Amongst them were 23 Srila Prabhupada disciples, and many second generation devotees and new bhakti…

“New Vrindaban is not your average temple – it’s a very big and complex project, because it has so many departments to take care of,” says search committee chairperson Vrindavan Das. “So instead of having one tem…

Balarama Tirtha Das of kirtan group The Mayapuris, better known as “Bali,” is set to release his first solo hip-hop single “Three Eyes Wide” on the well-chosen date of 10-08 (October 8th). 

This year, from July until Bhadra Purnima on September 24th-25th, a wave of ecstatic energy to bless homes with the Srimad-Bhagavatam engulfed the entire world.

Professional BMX freestyle rider Joris Coulomb always chased adventure. He didn’t realize that one day it would take him to a place of deep meaning where all his questions about life would be answered.

Performing arts company Natya Nectar is set to deliver the wisdom of the Bhagavad-gita to audiences across India – before going to Broadway in New York and beyond.

About thirty high school students and college freshmen, along with their parents, attended a College and Career Conference at the ISKCON Towaco temple in New Jersey on September 8th.

Radha Krishna Records – quite possibly the only record label owned by a temple – is nearing its tenth anniversary, which will be celebrated in July 2019 during the 50thanniversary of Sri Sri Radha Londonisvara at the Radha Krishna…

After 24 years, it’s the end of an era for the longest-running North American festival concert tour; and the biggest venue for distribution of Prabhupada’s books on the continent. Every year since 1995, The Vans Warped Tour s…

Maha-Mantra Das is a busy family man and software developer in Washington D.C. In his spare time, he and his wife and children have taught about 60,000 people how to chant the Hare Krishna mantra on beads over the last decade.

The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust is filled with extraordinary devotees continuing Srila Prabhupada’s legacy and bringing us the works of the acaryas. Translator Mukunda Datta Das is now working on the Sat-Sandarbhas and Bhakti-Rasamrit…

Teachers at ISKCON’s schools work very hard, often with little support – so the chance to connect and collaborate with fellow educators from all over North America at the fifth annual ISKCON Education Conference was a blessing.
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Excitement is ramping up for “MAN-tra,” ISKCON’s first ever Men’s Retreat, to be held in New Vrindaban and headlined by Bhaktimarga Swami, Gaura Vani, and comedian Yadunath Das. The event is subtitled “Being a KC…

He was 69 years old, and was BTG’s longest-running servant, having worked with Srila Prabhupada’s beloved magazine for 42 years. Yamaraja spent his final days meeting with devotees, hearing how they came to Krishna consciousn…

The founder and director of Care for Cows expired due to cancer in 2015 at the age of 67. But the organization he started continues to support and care for destitute and abandoned cows in Lord Krishna’s holy land of Vrindavana, India.
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The event was organized by Braja Govinda Das, a Sydney-based disciple of Tamal Krishna Goswami, who wanted to give Fijian devotees the kind of international kirtan experience they hadn’t had before.

The ISKCON Ministry for Cow Protection and Agriculture (IMCPA) is busy bringing Krishna conscious farm projects around the world together to share best practices in a series of regional conferences. They hope to hold gatherings in six contine…

The newly-launched Bhaktivedanta Vedic Library, offers audiobooks of ISKCON Founder-Acharya Srila Prabhupada’s works for free, to stream or download onto your laptop, smartphone or other electronic device. It also offers helpful introdu…

“The Stolen River,” which deals with an issue that has been of deep concern to devotees as well as environmentalists for years now, about the pollution of the Yamuna river, received its world premiere in India in October 2015. Sin…

The project is inspired by Srila Prabhupada’s statement in multiple different purports and lectures that if just one per cent of the population becomes Krishna conscious, “then the whole world will be peaceful.” 

Lovers of spiritual inspiration may want to set a weekend aside this summer for the Heart of Yoga retreat, to be offered in New York for the sixth time from June 1st to 3rd. The event grew out of the Bhagavad-gita classes senior Prabhupa…

w website, http://www.iskcondisciplecourse.com/, has been launched for the ISKCON Disciples Course. Throughout the world, the course has been inspiring a family togetherness amongst devotees, as well as a strong dedication to Srila Prabh…

“One of our main inspirations was the book Life’s Final Exam: Death and Dying from a Vedic Perspective, edited by Giriraja Swami,” says Tarini Ganga. “It describes how in hospitals and hospices people are suffering so …

Agnideva received double bypass surgery, and was then kept in an induced coma for some time. Just over a week ago, he was moved from the hospital to a rehabilitation center, where he received 5 hours of physiology therapy per day.

Charity organization Food For All, run by Parasurama Das and other ISKCON devotees, is set to move out of its previous home at Bhaktivedanta Manor and into two purpose-built kitchens in London. The move will see Food For All triple its prasad…

With yoga’s popularity ever on the rise, there’s a huge potential audience for the book. Enter Inner Yoga author Jayananda Das (Janne Kontala), a practitioner of ashtanga-vinyasa yoga since 1992 and an experienced y…

Krishna consciousness in Portugal is surprisingly recent. Although there were several attempts by devotees to preach there in the 1970s and 1980s, ISKCON Lisbon was born as late as 1996, as a gift to Srila Prabhupada for his Centennial.

It’s not every day that you can say you went to hear a vegan Hare Krishna bodybuilder speak, but that’s exactly what students at the University of Southern California got to experience on November 13th.

Since 2007, the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust’s training center for new book distributors – Colegio Bhaktivedanta in Mexico – has been gradually strengthening book distribution culture in Latin America. Now, with visible results …

Around 125 people from both traditions attended the third annual Hindu-Catholic Dialogue, held at the Shiva Vishnu temple in suburban Washington D.C. on Saturday November 11th.Participants included Catholic bishops, priests and several dozen …

On October 15th the Mayapur Institute of ISKCON opened its first classroom kutir, or hut, which creates the perfect atmosphere for study of the Vedic scriptures. Built with natural, environmentally-friendly local materials like bamb…

Srila Prabhupada disciple and popular Venezuelan musician Havi Das (Ilan Chester) delivered a deep and powerful Krishna conscious message while receiving a Latin Grammy award recently. The speech and its message of substance, amidst more typi…

A delegation from the Hindu Forum of Belgium (HFB), including two ISKCON devotees, met with the King and Queen of Belgium as well as many influential Indian politicians last week in Delhi, India. Their aim was to gain support to make Hinduism…

Braja Vallabhi Dasi, a beloved second-generation devotee who helped organize many youth and outreach programs, passed away in a tragic car accident while on her way to attend a seminar at Govardhana Hill in Vrindavan, India, on November 11th….

Married couple and ISKCON devotees Vadim Eremeev and Kira Sergeeva delivered a beautiful, soaring acoustic performance of the Hare Krishna Maha-Mantra, the bhajan “Jaya Radha Madhava,” and the chant “Sarva Mangalam” at…

Set in the beautiful Ardennes region of Belgium, next to Radhadesh’s picturesque Chateau temple, the College’s scenic, secluded campus is ideal for the study and meditation required of a yoga course.

Originally starting out under the name “CIT (Caitanya’s Instant Theater)” in the early 1970s, the group became known as the Bhaktivedanta Players in 1976. Devotees were inspired to focus on the service when Srila Prabhupada …