Ahimsa means non-violent. Ahimsa dairies do not confine their herd to a building where they never see the sun and they are allowed natural behaviors such as living in a herd and chewing cud in a pasture. Ahimsa dairies do not slaughter the cow at the end of her milking days. When her milking days are past, she can live out her life in a pasture with other retired dairy cows. Milking is mostly done by hand rather than mechanically and dairy cows are not typically artificially inseminated on ahimsa dairy farms. Calves on ahimsa farms are allowed to stay with their mother and drink some of their mother’s milk rather than the milk substitute fed to calves on industrial farms. These calves are often allowed to naturally wean from their mothers.

After a series of minor scandals, Britain’s dauntless Prime Minister Boris Johnson has just survived a vote of confidence among his colleagues in Parliament. While he has hardly emerged unscathed, with around 40% of MP’s declaring their lack of confidence in his leadership, with his integrity still being questioned in many quarters, he will at least remain in the top job for the time being. Of course, he insists he has done nothing wrong beyond the occasional oversight, but the shadow remains, and it does little to improve public cynicism toward our leaders. 

'Guns don’t kill people. People kill people.' This is the worn-out phrase used by politicians who can’t offer solutions to curtail the level of violence in this country. When mass school shootings started, the politicians were probably hoping that it was just a fluke and that the problem would go away by itself. We are witnessing a leadership that is unable, or unwilling, to do anything about this crisis, and the steadfast refusal of many to seriously discuss the issue.

Are animals persons? And what does it mean to define an animal as a person? Personhood is a legal concept expanding far beyond biological humans. It is broad enough to not only pertain to humans, it also includes natural monuments and corporations. Under the law, animals are considered things, and property, and are provided little to no legal protection from being used by many as a means to an end. For ethical and legal reasons everything is categorized as a person or a thing. Legally a person is subject to duties and appanages, whereas a thing is considered property. Morally a person is valued for their own sake, and a thing is valued for what can be derived from it. So, what about sentient beings who are considered property? These beings are cognizant and feel both fear and joy.

“It is by the goodness of God that we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them,” wrote Mark Twain. Wise words from the esteemed author, although some of us may well doubt their wisdom, among them Mr. Elon Musk, who just purchased Twitter for a spectacular sum, vowing to make it a platform for “free speech”. 

We've been commemorating Earth Day for 52 years every April 22nd to show our support for environmental protection. This month, approximately 1 billion people will celebrate Earth Day, and today alone, scores of people will plant trees, clean rivers, not use single-use plastics, and recycle. Of course, all of this is beneficial, but it will not save the earth. To genuinely be "green," we must eliminate meat consumption from our diets and demonstrate to others that vegetarianism is the finest thing we can do for our planet and our souls.

The TOVP Communications Department has collected a large number of Srila Prabhupada’s known quotes relating to the Mayapur project and the TOVP taken from lectures, conversations, morning walks, his books, and other books. It covers a wide range of topics and illustrates how important and dear ISKCON Mayapur, the World Headquarters of the Hare Krishna Movement was to him. He personally said of Sridham Mayapur, “Mayapur is my place of worship.”

Leading up to the appearance of the original child protector - Lord Nrsimhadeva, this is the perfect time of the year to focus on the Lord as the protector and ourselves as His instruments.

In the city of Videha lived a very beautiful woman Whose profession involved a regular change of linen For almost every day there was a new man No long-term relationships ever began