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The final days of our summer festival tour on the Baltic Sea coast in Poland were bittersweet. While tasting the nectar of sharing our good fortune with others, we knew it would only last a few days more. Now the drums, accordians and kartalas have gone silent. The loud chanting of Krsna's sweet holy names are no longer resounding along the beaches. Nowhere do we see the large crowds that assembled each evening in front of our stage. And gone are the many people eager to purchase our books on th

By Mina Sharma

Devotees from across the UK came together today in Leicester for the first ever ISKCON UK National Convention, organised as part of the celebrations for ISKCON’s 50th anniversary.

Taking place in ISKCON Leicester’s magnificent Grade II listed building in the city centre, hundreds of devotees took part in a day of collaboration and learning, and celebrated the successes and new developments taking place in the UK today. This was the first time in the history of ISKCON UK tha

By Ravindra Svarupa dasa

We conditioned souls are originally Krishna conscious living entities, but owing to a desire to be independent of God and to be the Supreme ourselves, we have fallen from our original position and become covered by maya (illusion), who provides us with false identities of gross and subtle matter. By the grace of Krishna and His pure devotees we fallen souls can regain our original Krishna consciousness and in so doing go back to Godhead.

This simple dramatic narrative t

By Satyaraja Dasa

The kindness of strangers played a pivotal role in ISKCON’s pre-history.

Last year I had the good fortune to meet Gopal and Sally Agarwal, an elderly couple who played a significant role in ISKCON’s origins. They are forever etched in the devotees’ collective memory as two of the Western world’s earliest recipients of Srila Prabhupada’s mercy. It was the Agarwals who hosted him in the fall of 1965, before ISKCON was even nominally born, giving him shelter, hospitality, friend

Hare Krishna, John Herbison embarks on a year long pilgrimage around New Zealand.

By John Bisset

When John Herbison said goodbye to his wife before setting off on a walk, he didn’t say “I’ll see you later”, it was “I’ll be back in about a year”.

The devout Hare Krishna of 30 years has set out on a pilgrimage to mark the 50th anniversary of the Hare Krishna Society’s arrival in the western world.

He left Christchurch 10 days ago with a stroppy horse named Samson and a restored 100-year-old w

By Ranchor dasa

This paper was the ISKCON keynote address at an Inter-faith conference hosted by our communications group in the UK and devotees in Bhaktivedanta Manor. Twenty Christians and twenty ISKCON members took part in the exchange, which was described by Rev. Michael Barnes SJ as, “one of those rare occasions when head and heart seemed somehow to be united…. I was left wondering why it is that Catholics and Vaishnava Hindus get on so well together.” Ranchor’s paper was very well receiv

By Kesava Krsna dasa

Do we come to Krsna Consciousness to advance? If so, does that advancement have to be recognized by others, to earn a generous pat on the back? And perhaps to hear something like “You are so advanced prabhu” to which we either feigningly or embarrassingly recoil in protest, or return the compliment with “I am very fallen and unqualified”. While these crèches are well meaning, until we come to the real advanced stage beyond the three modes of material nature, our perception