By Atma Tattva Das
On March 14, 2024, the ISKCON Hammanskraal temple, located in a township in northern Pretoria, South Africa’s capital city, experienced a fire incident that caused significant damage to its front entrance.
In an interview with Co-Temple President Jai Nitai Das, ISKCON News learned that the conflagration was caused by an uncontrolled field fire that spread from neighboring grounds, particularly from a nearby church property.
According to Jai Nitai, the overgrown and unkempt gr
On Saturday, 7 October, His Holiness Indradyumna Swami visited the informal Bottlebrush settlement in Chatsworth, south of Durban. Residents were treated to a taste of the spiritual world through a vibrant and colourful harinam party and delicious prasadam distribution.
This location is home to thousands of residents of Durban who live in impoverished conditions. In this area, the residents create small make-shift shelters with minimal living space, no tar roads, or proper sanitation facilities
By Atma Tattva Das
Devotee Care South Africa (DCSA), an integral part of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) in South Africa, recently hosted a highly relevant End-of-Life Seminar at the Sri Sri Radha Radhanath Temple in Durban during the last week of August 2023. The seminar, held in collaboration with the Bhaktivedanta Medical Association (BMA), provided invaluable insights into the delicate subject of end-of-life care.
The seminar addressed the profound questions and
The ISKCON East London community has been actively spreading the teachings of Lord Krishna in South Africa’s Eastern Cape region since 2013. The project began when devotees traveling to Grahamstown for the annual National Arts Festival stopped in East London and arranged for a small, spontaneous Ratha Yatra procession in Braelyn. After the event, Nimai Das, Acyuta Keshava Das, and Vrajabasi Das mutually agreed to initiate programs in East London.
Vrajabasi Das established the preaching program
Patita Pavana and I did several revolutions around the Radha Radhanath temple in Chatsworth before taking a few restful moments for our feet on a provided bench. As usual, the myna birds were extremely noisy perched in several trees on the grounds. The sun was just about to make its appearance, when suddenly there was a power outage. The sounds of the birds just very spontaneously ceased with not a beat missing. Gradually the serenading picked up again. When the power came back on, so did a bur
By Atma Tattva Das
The Durban Festival of Chariots, one of the largest Ratha Yatra festivals outside of India, returned to the Durban North Beach Front this year for a second time after COVID restrictions in 2020. The festival, which has been running for almost forty years, allows devotees to come together and celebrate the glory of Lord Jagannath.
Organized through the cooperative efforts of many devotees, the festival is also a significant financial undertaking, costing over 2.5 million rands
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
The program's goal is the "creation of an ISKCON culture and leadership that celebrates and protects diversity and inclusion, making all devotees feel at home"
South Africa’s diverse ethnic, cultural, and religious backgrounds offers unique opportunities to demonstrate the genuine efficacy and universal relevance of Krishna consciousness.
Due to our conditioned nature and influenced by our different racial, cultural, socio-economic backgrounds and genders, we sometimes fall short in our ex
South Africa has a painful history. So many people have suffered transgressions, so many have endured racial policies based on discrimination and deliberate marginalization. This history and its ongoing ramifications should never be trivialized, and any callousness should be met with a concerted effort to deepen our collective understanding of past and present pain.
Human dignity is the bedrock of our country’s constitution, which enshrines equality, human rights, freedom, non-racialism, and
