On March 17, around 8 PM, 150 men tried to forcibly occupy a parcel of land owned by ISKCON Bangladesh. The property is a ten-minute walk from ISKCON’s main temple in Dhaka, the Swamibag Temple, and is adjacent to a smaller ISKCON temple on nearby Lalmohan Saha Street.
“We were using the land for storage and plan to develop it in the future,” said Jagatguru Gauranga dasa, ISKCON Co-Regional Secretary for Bangladesh. “The men showed up with three large trucks and began looting the things we keep
There is one thing that The Supreme Personality cannot tolerate, and that is pride. It is false pride. Whenever a living being takes great pride, then Krsna will make arrangements to cut down that pride. And of course what reason do we have to be proud? Because after all, we are dependent. We are never fully independent. We are dependent on the Lord for everything we do. It is by the grace of the Lord that we can do anything. Otherwise, we are completely powerless. Whatever power we have is a g
The fun thing about walking is that when you turn a corner there is something new for the optics. Always a surprise. For instance, you can be on a straight walkway, sheltered from wind, but you turn that corner and suddenly you’re hit by harsh cold or turbulent warmth by the gust. It’s also a change of scenery.
When you turn that corner and, with welcome, a streak of sun can dart at you; especially at dusk. It’s a nice feeling.
Once our guru, Prabhupada, said “Around every corner there’s a brah
By Gurushakti Dasi
I returned to Reading today where I met Noddy, aged 83. Having successfully stopped him in his tracks, I introduced him to the Bhagavad Gita. I explained it contains the oldest writings known to man.
This attracted Noddy’s interest and he was fascinated by our scriptures wanting to know more. We spoke for some time whilst I expanded on the essence of the teachings. Noddy revealed his wife had passed away three years ago and he still feels incomplete without her. Whilst being o
We are deeply saddened to see the suffering faced by people who are victims of the escalating war and humanitarian crisis in Ukraine. The Ukrainian people are in need of our sincere prayers. While we are staying warm and comfortable in our homes with our families, in Ukraine it is getting harder and harder for people to get hot food, shelter, medications, and in some places, even drinking water.
We are doing all we can to support the humanitarian aid efforts of The Lotus Trust UK team who are c
In the light of the severe humanitarian crisis that is being brought about by the current war in Ukraine we want to dedicate Kirtan Mela 2022 to pray to our merciful Lords Sri Sri Radha Madhava, Sri Panca Tattwa, and Lord Nrisimhadev for the protection of their devotees affected by this war, for protecting their lives and their Krishna Consciousness, and give them all the hope and support we can. We also want to use this event to render some practical service, to see how you can help the Ukrain
By Caitanya Chandra Das
ACCOMMODATING REFUGEES in Hungary
As far as accommodation is concerned, to date, 90 Ukrainian devotees have come to Hungary, including 32 children. Some devotees were in transit and just stayed overnight, others are staying longer term to rest and weigh up their options.
Presently there are 60 Ukrainian devotees (18 children) in Hungary, some are housed with devotees, some in the Budapest temple and others in the New Vraja Dhama farm community. Five families (7 Vaishnavi
Bhaktivedanta Medical Association will launch on March 13th, 2022 with the mission to provide a digital resource that provides healthcare information from a holistic perspective. It shall offer advice in areas of healthcare and wellbeing. Devotees and doctors at BMA strive to serve the devotees by delivering holistic healthcare to the ISKCON community at large.
Event link:
I received a letter from one of our young leaders in western Canada, asking about doing kirtan to honour our devotees and people in general in Ukraine. I encouraged him to please chant for these innocent people. It would be the right thing to do.
Give Peace A Chance!
We have a large community in the Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Ottawa areas of Ukraine descent. Russians as well. They follow the principles of bhakti. Krishna is their main deity and mantra meditation is their major approach to
At a particularly important point in his life, Arjuna decided that his friendship with Krishna was actually causing him a lot of problems. Of course, the problem was not of Krishna's doing. It was Arjuna who was notable to derive proper advantage of being so close to Krishna .
Arjuna was shirking his duty as a warrior. Even though the Pandavas were wronged and this was a just fight, he was overwhelmed with compassion when he saw all the assembled soldiers on both sides. Lord Krishna tried to pa
By Vraja Vihari Prabhu
“It was the fall of 1984, and our party had been distributing books at the State Fairgrounds in Tampa, Florida, all day. We parked our van in a Days Inn parking lot for the night. Our party of five brahmacaris was fast asleep in the van when we heard aloud voice over a megaphone: ‘All right in there! Come out slowly with your hands raised!’ I looked out the window and was shocked to see the van surrounded by twelve police cars and about thirty officers with their guns dra
This article will be regularly updated to keep you informed on the ever-changing situation in Ukraine.
The following announcement has been sent to us from the European Crisis Team and reported by Sukanti Radha devi dasi. It was received on March 14th. We have no further information and are posting what we received.
“We have confirmation of de facto cease-fire in the direction of the humanitarian corridor for private transport along the route: Mariupol (towards the
By Syamala Devi Dasi
We are pleased to share that the VIHE will be resuming onsite courses in Vrndavana in June 2022. We would like to welcome you to join the Bhakti-sadacara (a pre-bhakti sastri course) or the Bhakti-sastri course.
Along with enhancing the knowledge of the students, this kind of structured study also enables them to preach better, see the world from a sastric perspective, enhance their faith and conviction, cultivate vaisnava qualities and apply the sastric knowledge in their
Dear Devotees;
My obeisances. Srila Prabhupada ki jai
Due to the urgent, horrendous and tragic situation unfolding in Ukraine, I would like to make an appeal that has both the suppo11 of the local GBC for Ukraine, HH Niranjana Swami, as well as the entire GBC body
The appeal is a simple one regarding the 20,000 or so ISKCON devotees living in Ukraine.
Many of these devotees will be displaced and some of them will leave Ukraine. As a result the European Regional Gove1ning Body for ISKCON has req
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/
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
