Art Exhibition Opens at ISKCON Nairobi
On July 8th 2017, ISKCON Nairobi’s premises were a hive of activity. Over 800 new people were exposed to Krishna-consciousness via an art exhibition featuring the work of over 360 students from various primary and secondary schools of Nairobi.
Hare Krishna! The Mantra, the Movement, and the Swami Who Started It All had its world premiere in June, at the Illuminate film festival in Sedona, in the USA. At the time of writing, the well-known movie review site Rottentamatoes.com, was reporting that 92% of their visitors who rated the movie liked it. The professional critics are not so sure, giving it only 14% on the Tomatometer.
The App is currently available for iPad and iPhone, with an Android version being planned. It contains the full text of Srila Prabhupada’s Bhagavad-gita as it is. You can make notes. You can adjust the font type and size, search the text to find what you need and choose between scrolling or swiping pages.
For decades, Bada Hari has been singing kirtan, teaching others, and mentoring young devotees. And for the past five years, he has been touring non-stop with Indradyumna Swami, averaging 13 countries a year and trying to serve people by connecting them with the Holy Name. Listeners say all this experience, service attitude and austerity can be felt in what some are calling “his finest work to date.”
A 2-minute short film entitled “Transit Point” featuring Hungarian ISKCON devotees taking care of refugees arriving from war-torn Syria is among the best ten in the video contest run by Faith Counts, an American multi-faith organization with mission is to promote the value of faith.
Artists at all levels who want to connect with their creative and devotional sides, and experience bhakti through art, are welcome to attend the upcoming Transcendental Art Seminar at Bhaktivedanta College, Radhadesh. Running from August 21st to September 2nd, the seminar will be taught by classically trained husband and wife team Dhriti Dasi and Ram Das Abhirama Das.
Most editions of the epic devotional classic the Ramayana that you pick up will give a major focus only on the male characters, such as Rama, Lakshman and Hanuman. Author Vrinda Sheth, whose book Queen of the Elements – the second in her Sita’s Fire trilogy – is out on August 8th, wanted to give readers a female perspective too.
The Museum of Sacred Art (MOSA) in Radhadesh, Belgium, is exhibiting the works of famous Indian mandala painter Om Prakash Sharma, whose meeting with Srila Prabhupada left an impact on him. Now 85 years old, Om Prakash has had a long and productive career including serving as Dean at the Delhi College of Art for over a decade. He met Srila Prabhupada at Dr. Mishra’s yoga studio in New York in 1965.
This book by Bhurijana Das contains the essence of his years of teaching experience and his study of Srila Prabhupada’s instructions on education. Included are such topics as the importance of the mode of goodness in teachers and students, how to become self-disciplined, principles of organization and management, ideas for setting and achieving objectives, how to lead discussions, ask effective questions, listen, and counsel.
Documentary film Hare Krishna!, about the life and achievements of ISKCON Founder Srila Prabhupada, has won the coveted Jury Prize for Best Picture at Illuminate, the world’s premier conscious film festival. The festival ran from May 31st to June 4th in Sedona, Arizona.
A new book is being released this summer featuring the individual voices of 108 women in the Bhakti tradition. Over the last three years, Krishna Kanta Dasi—founder of the Vaishnavi Voices Poetry Project—has been collecting the poetry of vaishnavis, or female practitioners of bhakti, from all over the world to produce Bhakti Blossoms: A Collection of Contemporary Vaishnavi Poetry.
At the 2017 Religion Communicators Council (RCC) annual DeRose-Hinkhouse Memorial Awards ceremony in Chicago, Illinois on March 30th, ISKCON Communications won several awards for excellence in religion communications, including a Best of Class award for “The Joy of Devotion” film. “The Hare Krishnas: Celebrating 50 Years” magazine also won an award for excellence in overall design and a merit award for single-issue periodicals.
The 7thannual VIHE International Vaishnavi Retreat at Govardhana (India) concluded on March 26. The 6-day program, dedicated to celebrating Srila Prabhupada’s mercy upon womankind, had as its special theme “Windows to the Spiritual World”. The Bal Krsna Bhawan hall in the village of Jatipura, home of the original Gopala Temple of Srila Madhavendra Puri, was duly transformed to host an exhibition of over 60 reproductions of paintings and drawings by various vaishnavi artists from the world over, ranging from well-known BBT artists to young devotees from the St. Petersburg Art University.
Shri Radhe, the opening track of charity kirtan album “Bhakti Without Borders,” has been listed by Yoga Journal as one of the “10 Best Yoga Tunes of the Year.” The uplifting track, by second gen devotees Madi Das and Chaytanya, appears in the major magazine’s Spotify Playlist along with Tina Malia, Simrit, Deva Premal and others.
Jai Uttal, one of today’s best-loved and most popular kirtan artists, has released his latest album Roots Rock Rama! with Mantralogy, an ISKCON devotee-run record company that has also worked with The Mayapuris, Jahnavi Harrison, Gaura Vani and more.
Nineteen-year-old Kathak dancer Shyam Dattani, a devotee who attends Bhaktivedanta Manor, has won the South Asian category in the BBC Younger Dancer competition on BBC Four. Born and bred in London but of Gujarati origin, Shyam started learning Kathak at the astonishingly young age of two when he followed his older sister into class. “I’ve never stopped since,” he says. “I literally grew up with the art form, and use it as a language to express myself.”
Feedback is now flooding in from audiences around the world who have watched the first comprehensive documentary film made about ISKCON in 30 years – “The Joy of Devotion,” released on December 10th for Gita Jayanti. In the 86-minute feature, 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 trying to make a difference in the world. Viewing it has made a deep impression on many. So far it has been screened in twelve countries.
The film HARE KRISHNA! — formerly titled ACHARYA—the 90 minute feature length documentary on the life of Srila Prabhupada is nearly finished. Post-production in Los Angeles is winding down and the film should be finished by the end of this month, thus coming to a close 3 years of production work. The film’s official world theatrical has been locked in for mid June 2017 in New York City.
The Mayapuris were one of the original second generation ISKCON groups to bring Gaudiya Vaishnava kirtan to the forefront of the burgeoning mainstream kirtan scene. Since their debut, others have continued to forge the path, with Madi Das and his Bhakti Without Borders charity album winning a Grammy nomination. Inspired by Madi’s achievement, the Mayapuris hope that with their second album, they can bring kirtan further into the mainstream, to places it hasn’t been before.
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 with readers. A second-generation devotee who grew up in the ISKCON community in Alachua, Florida, Rukmini received a B.A. in graphic design from the University of Florida, where she learned to work in digital mediums on logo design and marketing.
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 U.S., beginning with New York City.
On Thursday 5th January 2017, ISKCON London and Bhaktivedanta Manor, co-hosted the UK film premiere of The Joy of Devotion at the Camden Centre in central London to a large and enthusiastic turnout of approximately 300 leaders, community members and those who have recently taken an interest in the ISKCON movement, as well as those who participated in the film.
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 spiritual world.” “Avatar Art: Neo-Vedic Paintings Celebrating Life” includes 104 BBT paintings, some vintage and some newer, with supporting text that takes readers on a tour through Srimad-Bhagavatam, Krishna Book, and the Caitanya-caritamrta.
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. The forty-minute film premiered at Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati’s disappearance day at the Saranagati temple on December 17th, and was very well received. It is now available to view for free on Youtube, and the children’s stunning dedication, hard work and love for Prabhupada is evident in every frame.
“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 Krishna Kshetra Swami (Dr. Kenneth Valpey), a research fellow at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, as he interviews fellow academics and visits key places in India relevant to the Bhagavatam.
