Vedic Education as the Solution to International Water Crisis: ISKCON Richmond Receives Special Guest
On Saturday March 23, 2019, ISKCON of Richmond received an inspiring visit from National Convenor for National Ganga Mission, Dr. Snehal Donde, who gave a talk entitled “The Agony of Rivers”.
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 exciting plans on the way.
The unique feature of this convention will be multiple panelists and presenters with experience in homeschooling.
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.
In February 2019, a Bhaktivedanta Library Seminary was held with a great success in the farm of Nava Gundica dham, Mendoza, Argentina, with the idea of focusing on the service to the scriptures "sastra seva", promoting the vision of bhakti by studying and distributing Srila Prabhupada's books.
Queen Kunti and Prince Karna are the central characters of the drama, which portrays how Queen Kunti gave birth to Karna in her youth and then was forced to send him away and hide his existence. Their paths reunited many years later in the midst of the conflict between Kunti’s other sons, the Pandavas, and their cousins the Kauravas.
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, creative and overflowing with devotion.”
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 “Festival of Joy,” a major cultural event for the entire Dallas area.
Under the organization of Ministry of External Affairs Government of India and Indian Council for Cultural Relations, Prayagraj hosted at least one person from every country at the occasion of the sacred Kumbh festival.
Sannyasa is the renounced order of life accepted by many followers of the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition. Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu Himself accepted sannyasa in order to further the spread of the sankirtana movement.
Throughout the year, ISKCON members are able to submit proposals to the GBC. These proposals go through a review process and are vetted and voted on by GBC Deputies and committees. The final proposals are then submitted to the GBC body for majority voting.
In 1944, on the auspicious appearance day of his spiritual master, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, Srila Prabhupada started the English magazine, Back to Godhead.
The horrific massacre that unfolded in Christchurch New Zealand on Friday 15th March, in which to date 50 human beings have lost their lives, is truly a very dark moment in history, not only for Muslims but for all who treasure the gift of life.
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.
Kirtan is now available for all. But it wasn’t always like this. Before the 15thcentury, the chanting of God’s own holy names was a sacred activity reserved for the highest of ecclesiastic society in the inner sanctums of temples.
People who appreciate proper standards of Deity worship tend to look to ISKCON as an example. Over the years, ISKCON has established a reputation of having high standards of Deity worship. However, the Deity Worship Ministry warned the GBC that if proper care is not taken to maintain and improve standards of worship, this reputation could slip.
Full speech by India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi at ISKCON Delhi on February 26, 2019, at the occassion of unveiling the largest Bhagavad-gita in the world.
The first topic up for discussion in the afternoon March 7th, was ISKCON’s Radha-Govinda Temple in Brooklyn, NY. The last few years have seen conflict over the managerial authority of the temple, prompted by an earlier proposed sale of the property.
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 1977.
Vaisesika Dasa made the presentation on behalf of the BBT’s new Marketing Communications Innovation department. This relatively new area of the BBT focuses on ascertaining how to assist and inspire ISKCON members around the world to distribute books.
Ambarish Dasa, the ToVP Chairman, and other members of the ToVP team presented an hour-and-a-half report on the progress made in the past year and described the plans and projections that will see the ToVP to its grand opening in 2022.
Nearly eighty top ISKCON leaders from around the world met at the society’s global headquarters in West Bengal for three full days, March 4-6, to discuss opportunities and challenges in expanding the ISKCON movement.
It is 60 years ago, on 10th of March 1959, that the MS Jaladuta was launched at its shipbuilding yard in Lubeck Germany. It is this vessel that brought A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada from Calcutta, via Boston, to New York on a journey that started on August 13th 1965, in what did become an astonishing journey and the start of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness.
While recognizing cow protection as an important branch of our Krishna Conscious society, training and working with the oxen remains to many an ideal yet to be achieved. The upcoming Ox Training Seminar to be held in New Vraja Dhama, Hungary between April 17thand 24th, will shed more light on this important, yet less practiced side of cow protection.
