Author Archives: Madhava Smullen

At least 1,200 children in North America are enrolled in official ISKCON Sunday Schools every week. Sunday School educators are set to gather for a Sunday School and Youth Education Conference at ISKCON Baltimore from May 29th to 31…

“For me, the mridanga has always been a special companion,” says Thakura. “So I like to share with students that they’re starting this new relationship they’re going to have for their entire life.”

ISKCON India Communications Director Yudhistir Govinda Das and Vakreshvar Pran Das developed the idea, meeting with the Railway Minister and officials to discuss it.

A new ISKCON temple is set to open in the historic town of Velletri in the Castelli Romani hills, Italy, about an hour south of Rome city center.

From letters Srila Prabhupada wrote to his disciples, we know that he envisioned New Vrindaban as, among other things, a holy place of pilgrimage in North America, where devotees could gather for spiritual education.

Narada Das (Nathan Hartley) appeared on the BBC’s regional Bristol radio station to share a spiritual message of equality with 135,000 listeners on February 20th, quoting the Bhagavad-gita and Srila Prabhupada.

The Temple of the Vedic Planetarium has just reached a major milestone with the grand opening on February 13th of its massive 100,000 square-foot pujari seva facility to serve Sri Sri Radha Madhava.

Villa Vrindavana Yoga Center is providing yoga enthusiasts an authentic experience in a spiritual community, as well as a non-judgemental, pressure-free zone where they can decide how deep they want to dive.

In the U.K., devotees from ISKCON Leicester’s congregation joined a total of nearly twenty families for a groundbreaking scheme called ‘Come Dine Together,’ designed to build friendships and understanding between Hindus and …

To avoid the bumpy, risky roads and pollution when traveling to the Mayapur Gaura Purnima festival this year, travelers can instead book the Jaladuta boat service organized by the Mayapur Tourism department and enjoy a relaxing cruise down th…

A new project, The Pilgrimage, is providing luxury spiritual retreats and online education for corporate clients, while also offering ISKCON devotees the chance to earn a living amongst Vaishnava peers.

For devotees and spiritual people looking for devotional music in a different genre than kirtan, but just as transformational, Russian husband-and-wife duo Nilambary’s debut album, the lush film-score-like “Eternal Prayers,”…

First established by Brahmananda Das in the 1970s, ISKCON of Tallahassee, Florida closed down before restarting in a new building in the 1990s. After struggling with financial and organizational challenges in more recent times, the center is …

Back in 2009, when devotees in Radhadesh, Belgium held a small kirtan weekend with Sivarama Swami and Madhava, just 100 people attended. It was a similarly intimate group the next year, when festival coordinator Manu Magnin, then 19 years old…

When 13-year-old Josh Menheere first noticed graffiti around the surf town where he grew up in Queensland, Australia, and learned techniques from his cousin who was dating a graffiti artist, he didn’t know that one day his own street ar…

The Living Name Retreat is a unique experience focused on reigniting one’s relationship with the Holy Name.

The Bhakti Center’s community is what its team are most proud of, fostering incredible transformation. Its latest report, shares several “Bhakti Journey” stories from everyday New Yorkers who were searching for something mor…

Starting at London’s Radha Krishna Temple, and now based in Croatia, Akrura has coached more than one thousand devotees over the past twenty years.

TV Asia was the first coast-to-coast entertainment and information channel for the South Asian community settled in the U.S. It airs regularly scheduled programs in Hindi, English, Gujarati and other regional languages 24 hours a day, seven d…

A popular Zoom conference, Wisdom of the Sages, has gone public and become a daily podcast, delivering transformational wisdom, Bhakti-yoga philosophy, and profound stories with fun and energy on Youtube, Instagram and most podcast platforms….

The latest tour by ISKCON Youth Ministry saw youth help put on four Rathayatras in the Caribbean, and some become inspired to take on active roles in the Hare Krishna Movement.

If you’re looking for mantra music beyond traditional kirtan – say, a fun, sunny mix of soft rock, folk, and funk via the French Riviera and the Pacific Rim – you might want to try out Confused Soul’s new single &ldquo…

The podcast is facilitated by the BBT’s Marketing, Communications and Innovations dept and was conceived by the department’s director Vaisesika Das as a way to make sankirtan (book distribution and harinama) relevant to a younger …

Starting in September last year, bush fires have been causing widespread devastation in Australia, particularly in New South Wales. According to ISKCON Australia Communications Director Bhakta Das, no devotees have been injured, as the f…

The exhilarating experience has been a tradition for ISKCON Ireland for over three decades, and is well known to the Dublin public. 

Seventeen children and youth, aged two to eighteen, took three months to complete the movie and worked on every part of the production from set building, special effects, and lighting, to voices, puppeteering, filming and editing. The film pr…

Vaisesika shares why goals are important in Krishna consciousness and in other aspects of life; and how to set your New Year’s Resolution goals effectively in a way that will lead to success.

A new ISKCON-endorsed online training program, Karuna Care Education, is equipping devotees with the basic tools to offer  compassionate care in hospitals, hospices, prisons, airport chapels, homeless shelters, and more.

ISKCON devotees in Bolivia threw a Christmas party with a twist when they held Bhakti Yoga Fest on December 22nd. 

This Christmas season, students from Alachua’s Bhaktivedanta Academy (BANA) participated in “Outreach Week” from December 16th to 20th, distributing books and prasadam cakes to local businesses.

“More consultation, dialogue and interaction can be conducive to better, wiser and more acceptable decisions,” the group writes in its manifesto.  The idea stemmed from the GBC’s own Organizational Development Committee…

Historically, ISKCON Brooklyn, New York, was perhaps the greatest center of book distribution in the world. The huge amounts of books distributed from Brooklyn, meanwhile, contributed much of the funds to build flagship ISKCON centers such as…

Saskia Jones, 23, a much-beloved student who had befriended London ISKCON devotees, was killed in the London Bridge terrorist attack on November 29th. 

In West Virginia, the first frost can hit in Fall and the last in late Spring, halting the growing season all the way from October to May. But devotees in New Vrindaban, ISKCON’s first farm community have just introduced three high tunn…

Students of Govardhana Academy in Saranagati, Canada have baked and distributed 5,500 prasadam cookies to businesses, services and friends in the surrounding towns as a gesture of goodwill this Christmas season.

On November 16th, devotees in London celebrated the life of one of Srila Prabhupada’s greatest warriors, who continues to inspire and motivate ISKCON members to this day – Tribhuvanatha Das, who passed away in 2001.

About 100 people, including local devotees, parents and family they had invited, and members of the Indian community attended this year’s Thanksgiving program at ISKCON’s New Goloka Dham in Hillsborough, North Carolina.

A new paperback edition of “Hope This Meets You in Good Health,” a book by ISKCON guru and Prabhupada disciple Prahladananda Swami, is now available on Amazon.com and on Barnes & Noble’s website in English. The book has …

Over the Thanksgiving weekend, devotees at ISKCON Boise, Idaho launched a new annual “Festival of Gratitude” this year, with the motto: “Appreciating Deity, Devotee, Nama, Dhama, Bhagavatam.”

The second annual Diwali celebration at the Bhakti Center in New York City not only drew around 350 festivalgoers including 200 new guests, but was also covered by the CBS News New York television station.