prasadam (28)

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By Rameshwar Tirth Das and Vasundhara Gupta 

ISKCON Ayodhya distributes prasadam to over 100,000 visitors on the on January 15th, 2024, the occasion of Makar Sankranti. Vinay Bhushan Chaitanya Das, the director of “Food for Life,” quoted Srila Prabhupada’s iconic words that no onewithin 10 miles of an ISKCON Temple should go to bed hungry.

ISKCON Ayodhya prepared 12 pavilions across the holy dham, the most important being the one at the famous Lata Mangeshkar Chowk, also known as Veena Chwok.

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By Mathura Lilesvari Devi Dasi 

Krishna Lunch So Cal is a new creative outreach in southern California aimed at providing low-cost on-campus meals and meaningful connections to college-age students as food insecurity sharply rises.

“Beyond being a nutritious food hub while addressing food insecurity among students, we envision Krishna Lunch So Cal as a place where the students and other community members can come together, share thoughts, and build connections,” said Govinda Datta Dasa, founder

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In a recent study of 22 sets of twins published in the Journals of the American Medical Association (JAMA Network), researchers found that “a healthy plant-based diet offers a significant protective cardiometabolic advantage compared with a healthy omnivorous diet.”

The results confirm earlier findings from researchers in Norway, which showed a plant-based diet can add up to 10 years to one’s life. You can read the full study here.

ISKCON devotees advocate a lacto-vegetarian diet, strictly avoi

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From Back to Godhead

With proper guidance, anyone can turn ordinary food into a spiritual substance.

The phenomenon of something changing from material to spiritual is an extraordinary one, but it is something we as devotees are involved in daily—often several times a day. It happens when prasadam (unoffered food) becoming prasadam, or food sanctified by the Lord.

When I was a new devotee in Montreal, we arranged a program that was to be given on campus at McGill University. The leaflet adverti

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By Vasundhara Gupta

ISKCON Ayodhya distributes prasadam to over a hundred thousand people. Vinay Bhushan Chaitanya Das, the director of ‘Food for Life,’ cited Srila Prabhupada’s words that no one within 10 miles of an ISKCON Temple must sleep hungry.

Read more: https://iskconnews.org/iskcon-ayodhya-serve-prasadam-to-over-a-hundred-thousand/

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There are two teams of devotees distributing Prasad in Kharkiv.

Serving under difficult circumstances, recently the local power station was blown up, so there is no electricity or water available for the whole city.

Still these devotees continue, distributing Prasad accompanied with Kirtan.

This video is of the team headed by Mahavishnu prabhu.

Devotees receive huge appreciation from the people of Kharkiv for their steady, selfless service.

I counted 9 bombs exploding per minute while I was th

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Our London-based Food For All team has established a field kitchen for Ukrainian refugees and have since been providing 2500 hot meals per day.

In this video, you will see Food For All travel to Bucha, Irpen, Harkiv, and Lviv, and witness the devastation left behind.

After an incredibly successful first impact, we are now looking to set up additional kitchens, so we can offer support to refugees in Lviv and the Czech & Polish borders. We are continuing to fund our efforts in Ukraine whilst we s

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By Madhava Smullen 

We have to see that nobody goes hungry within a 10-mile radius,” Srila Prabhupada said during the Gaura Purnima Festival in Mayapur in 1973. Inspired by this statement, volunteers for the non-profit organization Hunger-Free Zone are ensuring that no one within ten miles of their kitchen in Baltimore goes hungry. It’s a much-needed service, as the city has the highest poverty rate in Maryland, 131.5% above the state’s poverty line.

Headed up by Baltimore temple president Nila

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By Madhava Smullen

This year, ISKCON is celebrating the 125th birth anniversary of its Founder-Acharya His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, born in 1896 in Calcutta.

Among his many contributions, Srila Prabhupada taught his disciples how to prepare food with love for Krishna, or God, and how to offer it to the Lord and accept the sanctified food as “prasadam,” meaning “mercy.” Under Prabhupada’s direction and inspiration, there are now around 110 restaurants serving pure vegeta

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By Madhava Smullen 

The Food For Life branch in New Jagannath Puri at ISKCON of Phoenix, South Africa – a suburb of Durban – relaunched on August 9th by preparing 108 pots of Biryani, a rice dish with vegetables. As the sun rose in the early morning, the impressive operation saw devotees cooking outside over multiple rows of wood fires against the backdrop of the New Jagannath Puri temple.

Food For Life’s distribution partner network of religious organizations of all faiths then distributed an

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By Madhava Smullen

Healthy snack company Pure Bliss Organics, run by owners and co-founders Jaya Govardhana Das and Haridas Thakur Das since 2005, had been selling its granola, energy bars and gourmet nut mixes to hundreds of stores all over the U.S., both as packaged products and as bulk foods.

When Covid hit in early 2020, however, many stores shut down their bulk departments, and hotels and schools – who had also been clients of the company – stopped ordering snacks. Within a month, Pure Bl

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By Subroto Dasa

The care for the resident devotees is of foremost importance and to ensure this ISKCON Mayapur has initiated the launch of Free Covid Relief Prasadam service for all the devotees infected by Covid and their family members. Prasadam will be delivered at their doorstep by the volunteer devotees in disposable containers.

In a note released by the Management “Devotees who wish to register for this service will need to send their Covid test report to us via Whatsapp message and they

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Saved by the senses by Kadamba Kanana Swami

7875169657?profile=RESIZE_584xRemember our favourite song? What is the favourite song in the Hare Krsna movement? 

It is the prasadam prayers. 

sarira avidya-jal, jodendriya tahe kal,
jive phele vishaya-sagore
ta’ra madhye jihva ati, lobhamoy sudurmati,
ta’ke jeta kathina samsare

Very ecstatic! Most popular song in all of ISKCON. Without a doubt, number one (laughter). So if you allow me to translate it, these words say, “O Lord, this material body is a place of ignorance, and the senses are a network, leading to death …” S

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Activism
 
By Madhava Smullen

According to a recent survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau and other federal agencies, more than a third of U.S. adults have signs of clinical anxiety or depression. This hasn’t been helped by the Coronavirus pandemic, which has impacted people’s mental wellbeing as well as their physical health and led to feelings of stress and isolation.

Some have reached out to help those worst affected by volunteering; interestingly, however, new research suggests that volunteers

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Covid-19
By Kumari Kunti Sherreitt, Madana Gopal Das

Since the beginning of the global pandemic caused by COVID-19, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) has been doing its part to help, worldwide. The major donor of this food has been ISKCON in India, that has served more than 50 million meals and dry good boxes through its 75+ kitchens across 22 states, starting in early March until June 8th when the country began to re-open.   

ISKCON India’s resident monks and volunteers dist

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sani1_slideshow.png?profile=RESIZE_710xBy Madhava Smullen

Devotees in the city of Thunder Bay, Ontario in Canada are doing their part to help their local community during the COVID-19 pandemic by feeding prasadam to essential personnel like hospital staff and sanitation workers.

Home to Sri Sri Radha-Braja Vatsala, Sri Sri Sita Ram Lakshman Hanuman, and Sri Sri Gaura Nitai, the ISKCON temple in Thunder Bay is the only temple in Northwestern Ontario. 

Temple president Prem Kishor Das also works as a pathologist specializing in canc

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Akshaya Tritiya in essence is the day of Receiving – the day to receive unlimited spiritual benefit by giving, expecially offering charity on Akshaya Tritiya is considered very virtuous . Scriptures proclaim that offering oblations to forefathers, taking bath in holy river, offering anna dana, sastra dana brings one more auspiciousness than given on any other day. As Navadvipa dham Mahatmya declares that any spiritual activity performed in Navadvip dham earns one 1000 times more benefit than of

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(This is part of a series of articles about health, you can see the other installments on the website: https://www.gettingthemercy.com/blog)

Very few people are going to disagree that sugar is bad for our health. Srila Prabhupada was eating white sugar in different preparations, but in small amounts (different from what most of us tend to do). The problem with sugar is that the body needs a lot of different minerals and other nutrients to metabolize it (it’s quite a complex process executed by th

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It is simply an example of Krishna’s inconceivable potency that such an insignificant coronavirus which is not even visible by the naked eyes had made this world standstill.

To fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, our Honorable Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi had announced a nationwide lockdown since March 24. There have been more than 17,340 positive cases of COVID-19 in India so far, with at least 559 deaths due to the disease.

As in many other parts of the world, people have been advised t

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By Madhava Smullen 

Since a nationwide lockdown began in India on March 24th, ISKCON and its affiliate foundations (Annamrita and India Tribal Care Trust) have served more than 12 million meals to people in need across the country from forty-six kitchens.

While the nation has been affected by the Coronavirus crisis and is observing a lockdown, millions have been stranded with no food and shelter. Amidst these challenging times, ISKCON, with the support of its donors and well-wishers, has bee

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