Author Archives: Madhava Smullen

On Saturday May 4th, a unique Rathayatra festival will take place in Texarkana, a city that sits on the state line between Arkansas and Texas

“In April 2020, we will break ground and start construction,” says ISKCON Columbus temple council member Premvilas Das. “By May 2021 we will begin getting the building ready for the Deities. And in July we hope to actually m…

Around 150 devotees are expected to travel in from all over the USA as well as from Europe and other locations for the retreat, which will run Mother’s Day Weekend from May 10th to 12th.

As well as the kirtan procession, some fifteen boats filled with devotees glided across the Yamuna to Sringar Vat as the sun began to set. 

Since 2016, the ISKCON Ministry for Cow Protection and Agriculture has been organizing farm conferences all over the world, to share best practices, create networks, and inspire new projects. Now the fruits are starting to show, with more exc…

In total, over fourteen thousand DVDs in the four North Indian languages have been distributed since January. 

“The principle of Prabhupada’s time was that everybody had the hope – even the expectation – that every moment could be magical in Krishna’s service.”

Today there is a proliferation of different kirtan festivals all over the ISKCON world. But Germany’s Kirtan Simha is unique: a mystical experience centered around the Lord’s half-man, half-lion avatar Narasimhadeva.

“Kirtan is very popular in the culture right now and is continuing to grow, but a lot of people aren’t clear on the history,” Doyal Gauranga says. “We also want to let people know that there are a lot of different ways…

The ISKCON of D.C. temple in Potomac, Maryland will be one of twelve faith-based organizations to receive grant funding from the Faith-based Facilities Security Operating Grants program.

On Saturday March 16th, just a few days before Gaura Purnima (Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s Appearance Day), around 250 people visited Manhattan’s Bhakti Center for the Roots of Kirtan festival – described as “dynamic, cr…

Previously, Rathayatra in Dallas was a small scale affair, with ISKCON Dallas devotees pulling Lord Jagannath’s chariot through their local neighborhood. But last Spring saw them partner with the Dallas Arts District to put on “Fe…

In his grand vision for New Vrindaban, Srila Prabhupada regularly described cow protection and local agriculture as the “main business” for its residents.

Twenty-six such leaders attended the most recent presentation of the GBC-recommended course, offered from March 5th to 8th in the Chaitanya Bhavan building in Mayapur, West Bengal, India.

Parabhakti Das, President of ISKCON’s Villa Vrindavana community near Florence, Italy, presented at a panel discussion on preserving authenticity in yoga during the European Academy of Religion’s annual conference this spring.

The New York Times Style Magazine’s first digital cover story, published on February 14th,  features Hare Krishna devotees from ISKCON’s Radha-Krishna Temple chanting on the streets of London.

In response to the current superhero craze, the album will be called “The Original Superheroes” and will feature songs about spiritual personalities and role models.

One of the largest international awards for independent books published by small or academic presses, the Eric Hoffer Book Award is given in honor of the American philosopher Eric Hoffer, who reflected on the human condition.

Food For All took it over two years ago. “I began giving out free meals every Monday, and it became very popular,” says Parasurama. “130 homeless people came the first time. 

Construction on the 520,000-square-foot temple is now in the final phase after decades of development and nearly ten years of work onsite. 

Cow protection has been going on at Australia’s thousand-acre farm in some form since its establishment in 1979.

A new textbook for schools in the Telegu language, entitled “Bhagavad-gita for Complete Success in Life,” has been written by an ISKCON devotee and published by the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD), the organization that manage…

Between fifteen and thirty devotees are expected to take the course, which will run from May 29th to June 6th this year. Participants will hail from the US, Canada and Mexico and will comprise of current and aspiring ISKCON temple p…

Dubbed “The Astounding Bhagavad-gita,” the book measures 2.80 x 2.00 meters (9 x 6.5 ft) and is billed by its creators at the Mediterranean branch of the BBT as “the largest principle sacred text ever printed.”

On Nityananda Trayodasi in 2002, when Internet in India was still very poor and it took three to five minutes to download a 10MB file, Vaishnava Seva started his first website, iskcondesiretree.com.

School authorities explained that the children were often depressed and unhappy, and invited Champaka lata to give them weekly classes on moral values, which they felt might help. 

Kumbha Mela is the largest public gathering and collective act of faith in the world, and drew about 120 million pilgrims – nearly double the population of the UK or France – this year. 

Participating were about seventy congregation members – many of them young students – as well as pastors from the Catholic, Quaker, LDS and Wesley United Methodist churches, the Jewish campus organization Hillel, and of course Kri…

The Food Festival, a brand new event capitalizing on people’s love for Hare Krishna Food, came on Saturday February 9th. A beautiful blue summer’s day in New Zealand, it saw blue and white tents, a stage and colorful flags dotted …

The attendees concentrated on how they wanted to work together, what resources they needed to better serve their temples and where to find them, and how they wanted the relationship between temple presidents and GBCs to look and feel.

Thirty-five devotees participated, including communications directors from various states and cities, temple presidents, and volunteers from the “Midday Meal” school food relief program.

Debroy is the Chairman of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Economic Advisory Council, and is one of India’s most famous Indologists. He previously translated the Bhagavad-gita, Ramayana, and Harivamsa Purana to wide acclaim.
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Around 550 devotees from all over Eastern Europe and beyond gathered for the Vaishnava Winter Festival in Lithuania this year, warming their hearts with a steady diet of nectarean seminars, ecstatic kirtans and delicious prasadam.

At the ISKCON North American Temple Presidents’ Meeting this January, one of the major points of focus was Integrating the Next Generation Youth, with practical steps taken to involve the next generation in ISKCON temples at all levels….

This was devotees’ second year participating in the parade, which is part of the massive Gasparilla Pirate Festival with a host of events themed around the legend of mythical Spanish Pirate José Gaspar.

A devotee-owned company, Ra Vino Industries, based in Mumbai has created a line of personal and home care products with Ayurvedic properties, using the panchagavyas – milk, ghee, curd, dung and urine – of indigenous cows.

“I chose to take the oath of office with my personal copy of the Bhagavad-gita because its teachings have inspired me to strive to be a servant-leader, dedicating my life in the service of others and to my country,” said Gabbard a…

Surfers Paradise, a suburb of the city of Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia, is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. A vivid blue sky reflects in glass skyscrapers rising behind a beach of golden sand. Sparkling turquoise waves crash as…

When the category 4 Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico on September 20th, 2017, the U.S. territory’s only ISKCON temple, in Gurabo, was almost completely destroyed. For nearly a year after, devotees did not have electricity or running w…

In 2016, ISKCON centers all around the world celebrated the 50thanniversary of the society’s incorporation on July 13th, 1966 by Founder-Acharya Srila Prabhupada. Now, ISKCON UK is set to celebrate the 50thanniversary of its own incorpo…