Websites from the ISKCON Universe
Preparations offered first with love and devotion to the Lord. -- Read more › 
Suchindrum is an important pilgrim centre and the site of the famous Thanumalayan Temple in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Our new year started with book distribution. As of now (evening six thirthy) 300 books are distributed already and still going. Hope and want to distribute more Srila Prabhupad's books. -- Read more › (English/Russian)
The post Skype conference with Russian speaking devotees appeared first on SivaramaSwami.com.
Kali Yuga series 15.
The post At the end of this terrible Age Lord Kalki will appear and re-establish religious principles appeared first on SivaramaSwami.com.
The maiden flight of the West Bengal government’s helicopter service to four destinations in the State took off from here on Sunday. The first flight, described by Transport Minister Madan Mitra as the brainchild of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, took off from the Behala Flying Club.
The service was announced by Mr. Mitra on December 27. -- Read more › 
We are shifting the produce paradigm a bit for 2014.
Rather than growing everything centrally, we are going to contract
growers to provide some produce. We will be listing vegetables and
the amounts needed and the cost that will be paid.
As we use tons of tomatoes and plan on freezing sauce the need is open ended so pls advise if you want to grow for guaranteed price of $1.50 a pound for organic tomatoes.
We will specify varieties but open to suggestion of other paste varieties, but not Roma.. We prefer San Marzano, an oblong indeterminate and Bellstar, a smaller early round determinate. We can provide the seed.
We also will have T posts and frames to trellis tomatoes on available to borrow if needed. We can also provide ground to grow them on in the Garden of 7 Gates if you need beds to grow them on.
We would need to know in advance how much you intend to grow so we can coordinate so we don’t get too many but we are open for a lot.
Please contact Madhava Gosh if you are interested.
Big congregation from Iskcon devotees bring the Holy Name to the residents of London that are in the mood of celebrating the new year. -- Read more › Darshan of Sri Sri Radha Gopinath ,ISKCON Temple,Chowpatty,Mumbai; on 27th December 2013
Atheists say that indoctrinating children with beliefs that divide them according to religious identity are abusive. How do we respond?
Please see the link for all photos ….
How important are the most powerful earthly kings for us? How important are all the demigods and sages? How important are countless material opulences, which come and go like the scenery in a dream? How important are even the liberated devotees in the spiritual realm of Vaikuntha, for those of us who have made residing in Vrndavana our only goal of life?
[ Source : Nectarean Glories of Sri Vrndavana-dhama by Srila Prabodhananda Sarasvati Thakura, 1-25 Translation ]
Kadamba Kanana Swami visited South Africa from 12-17 December. Please find below recordings from the various programs that he did.
You may listen online via the media player or to download a file, right-click on the title and “save-target-as”.
KKS_South Africa_Midrand_12 December 2013_Evening Kirtan
KKS_South Africa_Midrand_12 December 2013_Evening Lecture
KKS_South Africa_PTA_13 December 2013_Morning Lecture
KKS_South Africa_PTA_13 December 2013_Evening Kirtan
KKS_South Africa_PTA_13 December 2013_Evening Lecture
KKS_South Africa_PTA_14 December 2013_CC Madhya 9.179-193
KKS_South Africa_Lenasia_15 December 2013_Kirtan
KKS_South Africa_Lenasia_15 December 2013_CC Madhya 14.16
KKS_South Africa_Soweto_15 December 2013_Lecture
KKS_South Africa_Sandton_16 December 2013_Kirtan
KKS_South Africa_Sandton_16 December 2013_SB 1.17.38
Recently there was a picture of Samba on the Brijabasi Spirit Throwback Thursday. Naturally it reminded me of him. What he will be best remembered for is that he was a trucker who hauled in much of the materials that manifest as what most devotees would now recognize as New Vrindaban.
He took initiation from Srila Prabhupada in 1972 and helped build the Palace. All that marble you see at the Palace was hauled in and Samba made frequent trips to New York and other places to pick it up.
He was especially active in the 1980s when the lodge, Sri Sri Radha Vrindaban Candra temple and all the associated building were constructed. We had our own cement mixer for the floors and curbs and a paving brick factory where all the pavers used in the parking lot were made. All that material was hauled in as well as the gravel substrata under the roads. Also a lot of the construction materials that were used to build the structures.
Samba was so dedicated he would be at the gravel place when it opened in the morning. He would haul gravel all day until it closed. He would dump the gravel on a lot we purchased at Rte 88 and 250. Then when the gravel place would close he would reload the materials onto his truck and haul it the rest of the way into New Vrindaban because he could get more done in a day that way.
When the lake by the temple, then called Kaliya Ghat, was being built he was involved. A large hole was excavatedIn order for a lake to hold water it needs a clay liner and the clay on site wasn’t suitable so he was trucking it in. He would dump it and the man (or in this case, kid, our current ECOV director Chaitanya “Chaits” Mangala then age 14 ) on a dozer would smooth it out to make the liner.
BTW other members of the crew were Varsana Maharajah overseeing, Pippalada, grader operator, Murti, truck driver, Kaliya Krishna, trucker, Sarva Saksi back hoe and Samba, son of Hayagriva, also just a kid at age 12, dozer.
They would run in shifts around the clock and a leader at the time said he couldn’t fall asleep unless he heard the equipment running.
Some of Samba’s ashes were spread in the ghat so the next time you watch a Swan Boat Ceremony, remember Samba.
Samba was also a devotee of Tulasi and spent a lot of time caring for Her.
After Srila Prabhupada left the planet and Kirtanananda took over Samba left for a few years. He got cancer and moved back to New Vrindaban to leave his body. He was set up in a room in what is the guest quarters now of the temple.
While there he was chanting furiously, so intently that a prominent leader told him that because he had done so much service and was rightly situated in the temple that he didn’t need to worry so much about chanting so hard. Samba waited until the leader left the room then went right back to chanting furiously.
At the end there was a sannyasi who was visiting and standing next to his bed holding his danda. With his last breath Samba reached out, grabbed the danda , and left his body. Those of us at the time who were hard core householders appreciated that although it is proscribed that at some time we take up the sannyasa life of celibacy, traveling and preaching, Samba only had to endure that for the shortest possible time, one breath, as we figured grabbing the danda was taking sannyasa. It was another thing to admire him for.
