GBC Removes and Replaces ISKCON Brooklyn Temple President
The GBC, ISKCON’s ultimate managing authority, has officially removed Ramabhadra Dasa as president of the ISKCON Sri Sri Radha-Govinda Temple at 305 Schermerhorn Street in Brooklyn.
Yasomati Devi, a co-founder of Kirtan Academy in Mayapur, toured important states such as Delhi and Punjab, in North India to educate devotees about Gaudiya kirtan standards. She explained each standard and also engaged in kirtans with devotees.
The devotees from the TOVP team are developing a project called FullDome. This project will be located on a small piece of land near Srila Prabhupada’s Samadhi. Operation FullDome is a way to give any visiting guest to Sri Dham Mayapur an opportunity to experience the most unique immersive spiritual experience in a spiritual town.
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.
On July 2nd, while driving to Split in Croatia the Harinama Mandir, a European traveling sankirtan party's bus suddenly started to loose the speed and right away stopped. Devotees heroically pullled and pushed the bus to a nearby town, creating quite a site to the passerbyes.
The sannyasa ashram, or renounced order, is extremely influential in ISKCON. A high percentage of the society’s Governing Body Commission (GBC) members are sannyasis; while the majority of ISKCON’s initiating gurus are too. Yet a large proportion have fallen by the wayside over the years, struggling to maintain their monastic vows. In his new book Yadunandana Swami takes an uprecedently honest look at these challenges.
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.
On Tuesday 27th June, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the Netherlands of his three-nation tour after concluding his visit to the United States. During the visit, Prime Minister Modi was meeting the Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, King Willem-Alexander and the Indian Diaspora in The Netherlands.
On June 23rd, Indradyumna Swami, kirtan singer Bada Haridas, Sita Charana Dasi from Macedonia and Saci Sundari Dasi from Bulgaria appeared on two prime time television programs in Skopje, Macedonia. One of the programs was in the morning, at breakfast time. The other, TV Macedonia 24, was at lunch time. Both were watched by over one million people.
The website, created by developer and second-generation devotee Krishna Kirtan Das, is designed to help devotees search, locate, contact and see the current status of all Srila Prabhupada disciples world-wide. The website is also publishing these disciples’ memories of Srila Prabhupada, encouraging them to share them before they pass away, and to be part of an important historical archive.
Demystifying Reincarnation is an engaging read that analyzes how one of humanity’s oldest questions – what happens after death? – is most coherently and empoweringly answered through reincarnation. The book has three major sections: scientific, inter-religious and metaphysical.
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.
Marie Avgeropoulos, one of the stars of popular American sci-fi TV series The 100, recently visited Food For Life Vrindavan’s Sandipani Muni School for underprivileged girls. Her visit marked the beginning of the #SheMustCount campaign, an initiative started and supported by the Lubert family and Without Exception Films in Los Angeles.
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.
“Hare Krishna! The Mantra, The Movement and the Swami Who Started It All,” a ninety-minute documentary film about the life and achievements of ISKCON Founder Srila Prabhupada, will start its nationwide roll-out in the U.S. this June. The ambitious film, originally titled “Acharya” and directed by John Griesser (Yadubara Das), has been much-awaited by ISKCON devotees and congregation everywhere.
A new book from the Russian branch of the BBT tells the amazing history of ISKCON in the USSR during the Soviet era, detailing the struggles and successes of some of our movement’s most dedicated and often unsung heroes. “The Krishna Consciousness Movement in the USSR: A Historical Outline From 1971-89” is out on May 15th in the Russian language. Not yet available in English, it is the first comprehensive account of these 18 years of history.
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.
Two ISKCON authors have won in their categories at the Independent Book Publishers Benjamin Franklin Awards this year, which received nearly 1,400 entries published during the 2016 calendar year. Over 150 librarians, booksellers, and design and editorial experts judged the books submitted. Radhanath Swami’s “The Journey Within: Exploring the Path of Bhakti, A Contemporary Guide to Yoga’s Ancient Wisdom” won the gold medal in the Body, Mind & Spirit category.
Many of the wrongs done to women for so many years have now been corrected and ISKCON women have recovered some of their rights. Unfortunately, they have been rehabilitated only to higher or lesser degrees according to the different leaders in different places. Much is still to be done for men to fully recognize women’s dignity.
On Tuesday, March 14, 2017, the Department of Sport, Recreation and Culture of the city of Durban, South Africa, hosted a panel discussion at the prestigious Durban International Convention Centre entitled, "Healing Historic Divisions - towards racial harmony". Over 150 delegates, including city officials, political councillors and religious leaders accepted the Head's invitation to attend this important and ground-breaking event.
A court in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand has granted the same legal rights as a human to the Ganges and Yamuna rivers, considered sacred by nearly a billion Indians.
Often pushed by his male disciples to minimize ISKCON women’s spiritual position, Srila Prabhupada reacted, for example, in the following way: Srila Prabhupada: ‘”You dance, she dances. You sing, she sings, you cook, she cooks, there is no difference. You are the same in Krishna’s eyes.”
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.
