“Vaishnav Songs!”, a new app for Android smartphones, promises to bring users deeper into the meaning of prayers written by our Vaishnava Acharyas. The app was created by Jay Prakash, who completed his Bachelor of Technology at IIT Bombay, one of the most prestigious institutes in India. He also led the tech team at Housing.com, one of India’s leading startups of 2012.

A unique type of event for ISKCON devotees, the Bhakti Yoga Health Retreat from September 11^th to 18^th this year in Bulgaria will care for participants’ physical health as well as their spiritual wellbeing. The retreat will be held at the Vita Rama Health Center, a clinic run by two devotee brothers – Lokaguru Das and Sudama Das – along with their father, dietician Georgi Slavov.

About 140 devotees from Spain, Portugal, Holland, the UK and Russia bonded in calling out to Lord Krishna during the third annual Holy Name Festival in Spain this summer. The festival ran from August 11^th 14^th in Srila Prabhupada’s Gardens at the New Vrajamandala farm.

To mark the magnanimous occasion of Sri Krishna Janamashtami ISKCON Punjabi Bagh temple is organizing an article-writing and a photography contest. The purpose of these contests is to share the “Joy of Devotion” by writing about or visually capturing a personal or a communal experience related to the spiritual bliss generated by bhakti.

Running from July 13th to 16th this year, Krishna’s Village is an ISKCON success story, one of the biggest outreach efforts in the world. It’s been part of Woodstock since the music festival’s inception 22 years ago in 1994, when organizer and renowned philanthropist Jurek Owsiak saw a similar vision in traveling preacher Indradyumna Swami.

ISKCON's temple in the city of Chandigarh, the capital of Punjab and Haryana, celebrated ISKCON's incorporation as a week-long festival from 11th July to 17th July 2016. On 17th July, many senior devotees at ISKCON Chandigarh made gratitude offerings to Srila Prabhupada. This was followed by the staging of a special play released by the 50th Anniversary Committee, called 'Swamiji at sea'.

As it outgrows its current facilities, the Mayapur Institute is beginning to build a new campus on ten acres at ISKCON’s headquarters in Mayapur, West Bengal. Manager Anantashesh Das says that the new campus for the Institute – which trains ISKCON devotees in the systematic study of Srila Prabhupada’s books – will be located fifteen minutes from Mayapur’s main ISKCON campus, in a serene and beautiful spot.

 As a part of Incorporation Day celebrations, the Bhaktivedanta Manor hosted esteemed members of various religious organisations for a discussion about devotion (bhakti) in Vaishnavism and Christianity.  On July 14^th, individuals from BAPS Swaminarayan, the Interfaith Network UK, the Board of Deputies of British Jews, and various churches from around the region, gathered at Srila Prabhupada theatre to hear guest speakers Rev Kumar Rajagopalan, from the London Baptist Association and Saunaka Rsi Das from the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies.

Over  fifty years ago in September 1965, an elderly Indian monk stepped off the piers of New York harbour wearing orange Indian robes and sporting a dignified vaishnava tilak mark on his forehead. He was carrying just seven dollars, a few sets of clothes and two trunk-loads of books.  The aristocratic looking monk was A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, who had been sent by his spiritual master from India to preach the message of the Bhagavad-gita to the western world.