Author Archives: Madhava Smullen

ISKCON Houston’s Goswami Academy, an elementary school from pre-K to fifth grade, is already a success, teaching students from its own large congregation as well as ISKCON children from other states. But now the school, established in 2…

Two South African devotees – brahmachari Narottam Das and his friend Mukharavinda Das, both from ISKCON Sandton – have walked 654 kilometers from Johannesburg to Durban, to raise funds for a new sankirtana bus. Because they are hu…

A new solo exhibition opened at the Museum of Sacred Art (MOSA) in Radhadesh, Belgium on January 28th, during the Radhadesh Mellows kirtan festival, entitled “The Many Colors of Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami.” Satsvarupa Maharaja’…

With mouth-watering flavors and gorgeously artistic and realistic scenes, Anuradha Dasi’s cakes – made for devotee life events and festivals at Bhaktivedanta Manor, UK – are astonishing, and have to be seen to be believed. A…

The new Govinda’s restaurant at the ISKCON temple complex in Houston, Texas is set to receive a grand opening on March 11th, just before Gaura Purnima, with local TV channels, newspapers and radio stations to get a free meal and tour. G…

New Vrindaban is set to host the second annual ISKCON North America Farm Conference from October 13th to 15th this year. The GBC Ministry for Cow Protection and Agriculture, which organized conferences on simple living in four conti…

On Saturday January 14th, Sura Das of ISKCON Los Angeles was invited to speak at Culver City’s 12th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration in Culver City Hall.  Sura serves as the secretary and treasurer of the Interfai…

Pujaris from all over North America gathered in New Vrindaban, West Virginia in January to gain inspiration, support and training from two events organized by the ISKCON Deity Worship Ministry: the inaugural North American Head Pujari Sanga, …

World Holy Name Week celebrated the 50th anniversary of ISKCON this year in style, running for closer to two-and-a-half weeks, from July 28th to August 14th. The celebration, organized by Lokanath Swami, Janananda Goswami, and Ekala…

On Sunday January 29th in a special program at the New Govardhana Farm in Murwillambah, Australia, Mukunda Goswami shared memories of the Mantra-Rock Dance he helped organize fifty years ago on January 29th 1967. The Mantra-Rock Dan…

For the past ten years, the Mayapur Academy – run by the ISKCON Deity Worship Ministry – has offered devotees a four-month intensive training course that equips them with all the knowledge, skills and values they need to serve as …

Rukmini Priya Poddar’s book 100 Obscure Emotions, about the complicated variety of feelings in the human experience, and her new illustrated advice column series – currently blowing up social media – are deeply resonating wi…

The eco farm is run by Bhakti yogis. Director Vaishnava Das studied natural building at the California Institute of Earth architecture, while his wife, coordinator Draupadi Dasi, worked as an ecological anthropologist. “I&rsqu…

From the beginning, Ananda-Lila was enchanted by Indian and Vaishnava clothing, and wanted some for her daughters Jamuna, 10, and Tulasi Priya, 2. But she had never been to India, and it was hard to find something comfortable, attractive and …

An ambitious new ninety-minute documentary film about the life of ISKCON Founder Srila Prabhupada is set to be released in June this summer, and will be a historic event. It will be released in art theaters in twenty key cities throughout the…

You might not have heard of Jaya Caitanya Das, the thirty-year-old who’s been the number one book distributor in the U.S. for the past two years. Even if he sold 85,000 of Prabhupada’s books this year alone. That’s because u…

Divya’s Kitchen, New York City’s first authentic Ayurvedic restaurant, cares not just about your taste buds – although it rewards them very well – but also about your health and wellbeing. Whether you’re a New Yo…

Now, the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust (BBT) has released an art book for the general public, written to provide people with a cultural experience and to attract them to take a closer look at Krishna consciousness through its “windows to the…

With a sudden boom of new Krishna conscious farm projects in Central Canada, their leaders gathered to discuss how they could collaborate with each other at the first ever Central Canada Farm Conference on December 17th. Canadian GBC Bhaktima…

Elementary and some secondary school students at the Govardhan Academy in Saranagati, B.C., Canada have produced an inspirational and heartfelt puppet show film of how Srila Prabhupada founded ISKCON for ISKCON’s 50th anniversary. …

On December 12th, Peruvian devotee Bhadra Rupa Das was presented with an honorary doctorate by the National University of Education, Peru at the Peruvian Parliament in Lima. But he quickly turned what was set to be an event in his honor into …

“The Time of the Sages,” a documentary film currently in production, will aim to bring the same kind of worldwide recognition to the Srimad-Bhagavatam as is awarded to the Bhagavad-gita. The hour-long film will follow scholar Kris…

In a sea of inspiring memoirs by ISKCON devotees about Srila Prabhupada and coming to Krishna consciousness, Visakha Dasi’s new book is unique because it’s aimed not internally but at a broad mainstream audience. “The book s…

Dr. Viveck Baluja, a neurologist at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, has begun a study on the effects of the Hare Krishna maha-mantra on the brain that has already yielded exciting findings and impressed hospital staff. Dr. Baluja (Vinaya Gaur…

The U.S. House of Representatives Library in Washington D.C. recently purchased an entire set of Srila Prabhupada’s Srimad-Bhagavatam, during the House’s Diwali celebration on October 31st. The books came from ISKCON Baltimor…

In a new documentary film set to be released on December 10th for Gita Jayanti, the people of the Hare Krishna Movement share how Srila Prabhupada, ISKCON and devotion to Lord Krishna changed their lives, and how in turn they’re tr…

Bhaktivedanta Manor, the largest ISKCON temple in the UK, has stopped accepting a new five pound note that contains traces of tallow, made with animal fat like mutton and beef. Many devotees support the move. Many others, however – whil…

The intrepid explorers are Kesihanta Das, a Prabhupada disciple and co-director of ISKCON Alachua’s Save the Cow program, and Trivikrama Das, bass player for Vaishnava hardcore band 108. The two held the first kirtan in Antarctica and d…

Prapujaka Das (Per Jäderstrand) is just ‘an ordinary guy,’ as he’ll tell you himself. He’s not a Swami or a guru. And he’s not from India, or even America or England, but from Sweden. “Nobody knows whe…

Legendary kirtaniya Agnideva Dasa’s first new album in many years, to be released in January 2017, will be entitled “Prayer to the Lotus Feet of Lord Krishna.” It will sound like “an intimate kirtan with friends,&rdquo…

Eight years after celebrated ISKCON scientist Richard L. Thompson’s (Sadaputa Dasa’s) passing, his former colleagues and some rising young Vaishnava scientists are relaunching the Bhaktivedanta Institute of Gainesville. Their inau…

New website iskconconnection.org hopes to get an accurate count of all ISKCON members for the first time ever, and to help them feel part of an international family by connecting them to all the inspirational activities in ISKCON around the w…

Tivon and Cheyenne are an African American couple in their mid-twenties. She works in a steakhouse, and he’s in marketing. Cybil, in her fifties, is a real estate agent. Jorge is a student. Lauren is a professor of music at Towson Unive…

Vaishnava marriage counselors Partha Das and Uttama Dasi were recently invited, under the recommendation of GBC Bhakti Vijnana Swami, to offer marital and premarital education to devotees in Moscow, Russia, for the first time. The effort was …

Two intrepid devotee explorers are set to travel to the last frontier, and bring kirtan and Srila Prabhupada’s books to Antarctica – the southernmost and coldest continent in the world. The continent is largely uninhabited and 98 …

One thousand Russian devotees gathered to celebrate Diwali in spectacular style in Moscow on Saturday October 29th. The afternoon was a cultural event to commemorate welcoming Lord Rama and his wife Sita Devi back to their capital Ayodhya. Ha…

Govardhana Puja – the sweetest day of the year – celebrates the day when Lord Krishna as a young boy lifted Govardhana Hill with just His little finger, to protect the residents of Vrindavana village from Lord Indra’s furiou…

Reconnection, a 40-minute film written and directed by Siberian devotee couple Shyam Gopal Das and his wife Vijaya Radhika Dasi, has been making a real splash in the film festival world. A cinema verite piece, it tells the story of tech profe…

Dedicated father and pujari Ragunath Das Zaldivar is currently celebrating an incredible 14 consecutive years of Kartik festivals at his and his wife Yamuna Devi’s home in Alachua, Florida. “People like it because of the pers…

ECO-Vrindaban (ECO-V) – which strives to fulfill Srila Prabhupada’s mandates for simple living and cow-protection at New Vrindaban in West Virginia, USA – is on the lookout for a new construction and maintenance person for i…