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By Anuttama Dasa

ISKCON News Report
Anuttama dasa
6 PM EST
March 7, 2022

Events in Ukraine are changing daily, if not by the hour. Here are updates that ISKCON News has confirmed.

Kyiv Temple Refills With Devotees

It was previously reported that many devotee families and temple residents in Kyiv left the city for safer locations in the county or to other cities further to the west. Earlier reports were that only a handful of devotees were living in the temple, but that has all changed. Niranjan

Russia volunteers distributed fruit to 7,500 Refugees from Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

There are close to a hundred temporary accommodation centers for refugees in the Rostov region of Russia. In the last few days, Food for Life volunteers drove through some of those centers and distributed over 3 tons of fruit to 7,500 refugees. About 70% of the residents of the centers are children, while around 30% are mothers and social workers.

In particular, in one of the centers volunteers of the Food f

A poem for the people of Ukraine by Bhaktimarga Swami

To the staunch devotees in Ukraine
Great bearers of surprise and pain
We offer humble prayers to you
May the hardship you now go through
Be short-lived and strengthen
Your conviction while serving to lengthen
The need to bond in Krishna’s love
Which the world is short of
We all attest to human misunderstanding
Which requires a major disbanding
As we are spirits and not the flesh
May we all be given the chance to refresh
There’s much power in

By Krishna Lila Dasi 

– Sample ‘Art for Peace’ collage

Over the past week, more than a million Ukrainian refugees crossed the borders to the neighboring countries, fleeing war. Most of them are women and children, like their husbands, fathers, and sons, —all men between the ages of 18-60 — had to stay back to defend their country, not knowing if they would ever see their loved ones again.

Read more: https://iskconnews.org/art-for-peace-initiative-to-help-ukrainian-refugee-children-cope/

About this Episode:

It may be news to many, but there is a large-scale, vibrant community of Krishna Bhakti in Ukraine. Niranjana Swami is ISKCON’s Governing Body Commissioner for Ukraine, and in this interview, Raghunath and Kaustubha ask him about the history of Bhakti in the former Soviet Union, and what it was like serving there undercover during Soviet times. Niranjana Swami also shares his personal experiences of witnessing the character of the Ukrainian devotees serving under the pressur

What does prostitution have to do with consciousness of Krishna? Is there any compatibility here? We hear that prostitution is the world’s oldest profession and that this vocation was around in Krishna’s time. Society women in His time felt He was a heart-throb. They would go out on their balconies to greet Him with flowers as He entered the city. Does a Krishna Conscious culture endorse this interesting profession?

The story of Pingala, from Canto 11 of the Bhagavatam, is very interesting. She

Creating a balance between the temporary and eternity

One of the essential activities of the sadhu, and of the most successful people, is creating “sacred space,” daily quite time. Some suggest this is the time to become more clearly focused on your material goals, and what you wish to accomplish in your day. This is important. We need sacred time every day where we put our external world on hold and make a connection that transcends this world. In our modern materialistic world and life, doing

By Nrsimhananda das

My mother, Mimi Jaffe, departed peacefully March 7 at the ripe old age of 100. Her pastimes with Srila Prabhupada are inscribed by his letters to her in response to her many challenges. They are in the Vedabase. From being a founding member of the anti-cult movement in 1972 to celebrating her 77th birthday in Vrndaban in 1999, her journey to Krishna was full of transcendental pastimes. She provided the seed money for the Pyramid house land and was therefore responsible for f

The importance of being thoughtful

One time, a simple elderly man came into a shop.
And the merchant was selling him some grains and the merchant asked the man, “Why is your head shaven? You come here every day. You never shave your head. Why are you wearing dark clothes today?”
And the old man, he was very serious. He said, “Oh! You have not heard? Sargal Singh is dead!”
The merchant, he didn’t want to reveal that he was ignorant – because the way he said “Sargal Singh is dead. You have not hea

Truth is by nature self-evident. As soon as you remove the cobwebs of ignorance that surround it, it shines clear.
 —Mahatma Gandhi

Srila Prabhupada said that “Krishna consciousness (spiri tual truth) is so simple you can miss it.”
I have noticed that what researchers often discover after half a decade of research are simple truths missed by modern man, yet well known in the past. Truth may be profound, but it is usually simple.
One of the biggest selling books on marriage is Men Are From Mars,

By Rasikendra das, Nama Rasana dd & Jahnavi dd

On Thursday 25th of February we watched the news with horror and we knew at that very moment our next door neighbours will need our help. On the same day we got a call from Ukrainian temple in Kiev, asking “If we were to send our woman and children would you look after them?” Our reply ” Of course, but what about you? We need to stay back and fight and protect our homeland and our temple and our elderly who don’t want to leave their homes.”

We saw t

“According to Vedic civilization, the perfection of life is to realize one’s relationship with Kṛṣṇa, or God.… All living entities are parts and parcels of God. The parts are meant for serving the whole, just as the legs, hands, fingers, and ears are meant for serving the total body. We living entities, being parts and parcels of God, are duty-bound to serve Him.”

Source: http://www.dandavats.com/?p=93669

This class on Srimad Bhagavatam 8.22.24 is given by HG Kalakantha Prabhu on Tuesday, January 26th, 2021, at Bhakti Center.
The crux of the issue is this: Will I serve the Lord with whatever money He has allotted to me, or will I use it to try to please myself. My consciousness, and not on the amount of money I have, determines my decision. Prabhupada explains: “Materialism does not mean that one has to possess so many things. The actual fact is one may be a perfect transcendentalist or spiritua

As we come closer to Gaura Purnima, the most auspicious appearance day of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, we celebrate the ‘Be a Gardener Campaign’, as we sow and water the seeds of Bhakti. Now, we have an opportunity to do good for others, to nurture them as Lord Chaitanya tells us in Sri Chaitanya Charitamrita—by becoming a gardener. Be a gardener and plant the seed of bhakti in others’ hearts. As a gardener, we read Sri Chaitanya Charitamrita, and share it with others.

Srila Prabhupada put his hea

ISKCON News Report
Anuttama dasa
6 PM EST
March 7, 2022

Events in Ukraine are changing daily, if not by the hour. Here are updates that ISKCON News has confirmed.

Devotees Among Those Cut Off in Mariupol

The direst situation faced by Ukrainian Krishna devotees may be in the city of Mariupol in southeastern Ukraine. “The devotees have been cut off,” reported Nirananjana Swami, ISKCON Governing Body Representative for Ukraine. “More than one hundred fifty devotees have been forced to leave their h

The Bhaktivedanta Institute for Higher Studies Sponsors its Third Cosmology Workshop

In 2019, the Bhaktivedanta Institute for Higher Studies (BIHS) sponsored its initial cosmology workshop, “Taking the 5th… Canto!” This gathering explored the study of Puranic cosmography within ISKCON as an outgrowth of interest raised by the development of the Temple of the Vedic Planetarium (TOVP) in Mayapur, West Bengal. The second workshop in 2020, “Models and Memes and Maps: A Modern Journey through Ancien

On March 4, in Kharkiv, by the grace of Krishna, we came to distribute Krishna prasadam in the subway. Guys, it’s just like in a movie of post-apocalypse. People live right on the floor, with dogs, cats, and things. On different types of bedding. Crowds of people. They sleep, chat, read books. They said there were 2,000 people in the subway station. There was a huge queue. We fed at least 500 people.

Today there was soup, 110 liters; drinks of two types, 80 liters; a lot of bread, two types; an

Sanjay is from Nepal but he has the look of an indigenous person from North America. It is simply an observation. He has a humble disposition and he was willing to walk with me for a short stretch in the Timberlea district where I’m staying, at the residence of Angiras and Anchal. It is gorgeous with nature all around. This walk constituted a second stroll for the day; the first one being along the harbour at Dewolf Park, which is also appealing.

One of the main reasons for the trip here was to

In his stunning paintings, Haridas Thakur das is able to capture life in his subjects in such a vivid way, they almost come across as photography. He captures realism in his paintings so true to life, one feels that they are in the presence of Srila Prabhupada himself.

Haridas Thakur das is a monk, artist, art teacher, and inspirational speaker. He is a disciple of Radhanath swami.  He had studied mechanical engineering at Karnataka University and after a short stint in the industry, he chose t