Kaulini Devi Dasi, a much-loved disciple of Srila Prabhupada known for her simplicity, surrender and purity, and for her many years of dedicated service at Gita Nagari, passed away on September 3rd. She was 69.

Born and raised in Northern California, her life changed when she received Srila Prabhupada’s Bhagavad-gita in 1972 while on a trip to Mexico. Upon her return, her husband Kenneth Beck – who later became Keshava Bharati Swami -- had also gotten one of Prabhupada’s books.

Kaulini followed him to ISKCON, joining the San Francisco temple that same year. She received initiation from Srila Prabhupada in 1973.

In 1976, she moved to the Gita Nagari farm community in Pennsylvania. From there, she headed up a women’s sankirtana party, traveling around the U.S. in a motorhome and distributing books.

Kaulini (in green sari) and her son Rama with Srila Prabhupada

Later, Kaulini began cooking for the deities and devotees at Gita Nagari, which she continued to do for thirty years. Always surrendered to whatever needed doing, she also cared for the farm’s many cows, served as the head pujari (priest), and, when many devotees left Gita Nagari in the mid 1980s, even took on the post of temple president.

“She was like the mother of the community,” says her longtime friend Kaisori Dasi.

In the late 2000s, after Kaulini suffered a health crisis brought on by cancer and other ailments, Sacisuta Das and his wife Keli-lalita Dasi bought her a house next door to theirs in upstate New York and lovingly cared for her for many years. She also stayed with her son Rama in Sacramento, California.

Kaulini returned to Gita Nagari to pass away. For one week, devotees  streamed in to see her, sing kirtan, and as per her wishes read to her about Srila Prabhupada. They also brought Sri Sri Radha Damodar to see her.

Kaulini at the memorial service Tamal Krishna Goswami in 2003

“It was a magical darsana, and I could see that she was deeply touched by Their care and mercy,” says Kaisori, who helped Kaulini through chemotherapy and was with her in her final days. 

On Wednesday September 2nd, devotees from all over the country chanted for hours with Kaulini. Then, at 2:20am on Thursday September 3rd, while her old Gita Nagari friends led by Visakha Devi sang a quiet no-instruments kirtan, she departed.

“She completely opened her heart in faith, and to the devotees,” says Kaisori. “It was like watching someone step out away from fear and pain and uncertainty. She just surrendered. It was beautiful.”

Kaulini leaves behind her son Rama, two grandchildren, and many sisters and brothers in ISKCON whose lives she touched.

“She was sweet, pure, simple-hearted, friendly, very Krishna conscious, and always serving,” Kaisori says. “It’s rare I saw her idle. She was an uncomplicated person. She was non-envious. She cared for the devotees. And she loved Prabhupada. I will miss her, but at the same time, she was such a pure soul that I don’t mourn her. Her destination is glorious.”

Just one week after the grand opening of an 18,000-square-foot temple in Plainfield, New Jersey, comes the news that a Bhumi Puja ceremony will be held to break the ground for another new ISKCON temple in Parsippany on September 26th.

Brahmana priests headed by Amara Das from Germany will carry out the elaborate fire ceremony on the 3.2 acre site at 170-180 Troy Road, which was acquired back in 2008 for $1.9 million.

Over five hundred congregation members and devotees are expected to attend, including ISKCON Deity Worship Minister Jayananda Das, and150 donors who will play an important role in the ceremony.

A 3d model of the planned new temple

The event will begin at 8:00am with a procession around the land carrying small deities of Sri Sri Gaura-Nitai. A deity of Ananta-Sesa will be installed in the ground, followed by kirtan, sanctified vegetarian food, and an inspirational speech by fundraiser Radha Jivan Das.

The new temple will be replacing the current one in Towaco, a 100-plus-year-old protected historical building that is beyond renovation and is now too small for the growing congregation.

It’s been a long journey. “It took us seven years just to get the permit to build the new temple,” says Namarasa Das, a brahmana-initiated young community member whose Indian immigrant parents have served at ISKCON of New Jersey since he was two.

Sita Rama Lakshman Hanuman at ISKCON of New Jersey

The first phase of the new temple in Parsippany – 15 minutes’ drive from Towaco – is expected to be open by summer 2017, and will include a 4,000 square-foot prayer hall. The current presiding deities of ISKCON in Towaco -- Sri Sri Gaura Nitai, Sita Rama Lakshman Hanuman, and Gopal Nathji, will be worshipped there.

When completed, the temple will also feature a dining hall, offices, classrooms, kitchens, and residences for priests. It will serve a congregation of about 100 families like Namarasa’s.

“We have a lot of Bhakti Vriksha groups in Parsippany, and we’re constantly getting new people who start chanting, following the devotional process, and serving at the temple,” says Namarasa. “So this new temple will facilitate our growing congregation.”

Chanting at the Pushpa Abhishek festival in ISKCON of New Jersey

Parsippany’s new project joins ISKCON of Central New Jersey, ISKCON Brooklyn, and the Bhakti Center in Manhattan to make four temples in the New York/New Jersey area.

“I think it’s wonderful that we’re having more and more temples,” Namarasa says. “I think it’s needed for the heavily populated tri-state area, and especially for New Jersey, which is the most densely populated state in the country!” 

For more information please visit http://www.iskconparsippany.org/

On August 13th, 2015, thousands of people marched together in the city of Chandigarh, capital of Punjab and Haryana, while loudly performing kirtan and chanting the Hare Krishna mantra to usher in the year long celebrations commemorating the 50th anniversary of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON). 

The Founder of ISKCON, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, boarded a ship called Jaladuta on 13th August 1965 to begin a prophetic journey that would later see the founding of ISKCON in 1966.

The grand procession in Chandigarh called 'Shobha Yatra' marked the 50th anniversary of Swami Prabhupada's historic journey, which was celebrated all over the world.

The co-president of ISKCON Chandigarh, Nand Maharaj Das said, “in October 1976, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada visited Chandigarh, and spoke to a large audience which included many dignitaries for 5 days at Nehru Park in Sector-22. To commemorate the historic and auspicious visit of Srila Prabhupada to New York by Jaladuta, we organized the Shobha Yatra. Today, ISKCON is engaged in teaching unalloyed pure devotional service to the Lord all over the world through chanting of His holy names and preaching the message summarized in the Bhagavad Gita.” 

The Shobha Yatra began from the parking area of Nehru Park, Sector-22, and concluded at Sri Satya Narayan Mandir, Sector-22C Chandigarh after passing through Sector-22B, Dividing road Sec-22B & 22C, Shastri Market, Dividing Sec-22A & 22D, Sector 22D, Sector 22C.

Several newspapers including the Daily Post, Dainik Bhaskar, Punjab Kesari, Dainik Savera, Dainik Jagran, Ajit Samachar, Amar Ujala Aaj Samaaj, and Satya Swadesh covered the event.

Construction is set to begin on a new dayschool gurukula near Sochi, Southern Russia sometime this spring, with plans to open in September 2017. With no other gurukulas currently in operation in Russia, it may be under high demand as the only one of its kind.

The gurukula is planned in Baranovka, a small village 15 kilometers from Sochi City Center, which devotees have dubbed “Balaramovka.”

The devotee community there, started by the late leader of ISKCON’s Sastric Advisory Council Purnachandra Goswami in 2009, consists of about fifty devotees. Meanwhile the nearby Sochi ISKCON community is about 200-strong with many children.

The gurukula will be built on a recently donated half-acre plot 100 meters from the Baranovka ISKCON temple. A small house has already been constructed on the property for Amala Rasa Das, who will move with his wife Svetlana and their two children from Ukraine this October to develop the gurukula project and serve as its director.

The gurukula, named after Purnachandra Goswami, will be housed in a 7,500-square-foot, two-storey building with four classrooms, a large kindergarten room, an altar room for Gaura Nitai that will accommodate 150 children and parents, a kitchen, and a break room for teachers.

The gurukula will open with facilities for kindergarten (3 to 7 years old in Russia), as well as 1st, 2nd and 3rdgrades. Later, it will introduce the remaining grades up to age 17. 

Using examples from already existing gurukulas around the world, the day will begin at 6:30am with mangala arati, guru puja and a short Bhagavatam class, before launching into the regular government-required academic program. Extra curricular activities will include music classes on mridanga and harmonium, sports, martial arts, dancing, sewing, painting and more.

Because of the obstacles to becoming a licensed school in Russia, the gurukula will be classified as a homeschool program, and students will take their exams at a local government school.

At least 15 students are expected to enroll when the gurukula first opens in 2017, and at least 50 from all over Russia once it opens for all grades up to 17 years old.

“Already, many devotees have heard of our plans and are calling us to ask about enrolling their children,” says project manager Nadezhda Drobzheva.

Enrollment will be strict – parents will be required to follow the four regulative principles of Krishna consciousness, chant sixteen rounds of japa a day, and have a regular bhakti practice at home.

But managers say it’s all so that children get the full benefits of the spiritual environment the gurukula is trying to create; an environment that protects them from the harmful effects of the typical Russian government school, where, according to Nadezhda, they would learn bad habits like smoking and drinking from as young as ten.

“This gurukula was Purnachandra Goswami’s dream – he felt that taking care of our children is perhaps the most important thing in Krishna consciousness,” she says. “Because they are our future.”