We went back through the 2008 year, counting numbers of students who came to the temple on school field trips.

Article in the Salt Lake Tribune, "Governor Keeps the Lights on for Diwali."

3,000 attendees showed up and had the time of their lives. The festival execution was flawless with the help of many many volunteers

Below are the comments and feedback. The next full retreat is scheduled for the weekend of October 3 - 5th. There may be a "Karma Yoga" retreat the weekend of Festival of India, Sept. 13 - 15, for those who would like to be a working part of this great spiritual event. Details TBA

Teenagers Namisha Balagopal, and Surabhi Kasera prepare for a dance performance at the Himalayan Performing Arts Festival at the Krishna Temple in Spanish Fork on Saturday. Divya Narayanam of Salt Lake City performs at the event, which showcased Asian cuisine and Indian dance, drama, music and songs.

Many issues were discussed of relevance to temple leaders: salary questions, temples sharing resources and helping each other out, fund raising by traveling preachers, gurus and sannyasis, the inauguration of a Temple President's web site which would archive all "best practices" for the benefit of present and future TPs.

We believe that every temple, however, could and should have an external sign inviting visitors in for a tour during certain hours of the day. We have proposed this a couple of times at NA Temple Presidents and GBC meetings.

Last Sunday evening listeners of Utah’s Internet Radio Krishna were delighted to see for the first time titles and artists displayed by their various media players.

Rama and Sita are the ideals of a Perfect Man and a Perfect Woman; their truth under trials and temptations, their endurance under privations, and their devotion to duty under all vicissitudes of fortune, form the ideal of a Perfect Life.

Subalakshmi came to USA from Madras about two months ago as the new bride of Sriram. Sriram teaches operations management at University of Utah, and has come to the temple often.

Still, lines for prasadam were across the room out the door and around the corner. We ran out of everything, with the result Vaibhavi and Minna Kumar were desperately in the kitchen cooking extra to keep up.

In This Issue: Festival Schedule. Plaque Honors Donors. Radio Krishna. Contact Info. Cultural Conquest. Magical Evening. Mantra Meditation Workshop. Arches Rounded. Vai's Paintings. Gita verse

Estimates of up to 5,000 people crowded in front of two different stages, the temple room, and the gift store. Throughout the evening there were two lines for prasadam meals, each extending 100 feet in length.

After 20 increasingly successful editions of the India Fest, few people in Utah County are ignorant of the fact that, once a year, you can go to India without spending a lot of money. You can have India right in the middle, of all places, … Spanish Fork!

The guest of honor was Shabana Azmi, five times Indian Best Actress Award recipient, and noted social activist.

The Krishna Temple at 8628 S Main St. in Spanish Fork has planned a transcendental birthday party for Sunday September 2nd. to celebrate The Appearance Day of Shree Krishna. From 8 pm there will be Indian dance, drama, musical concerts, hot meals, exhibits, and gifts available to all.

Everybody had a memorable time and felt great respect for the Los Angeles crew including Ratna Bhusana, Bhagavat Akinchana, Divya Drsti, Svavasa, Mayapur, Rabindranath, Krishna Pada, and others who work so hard to mount this impressive spectacle.

Now that the domes, arches & columns are finished for our temple here, Vaibhavi and I are thinking of giving the manufacturers the nod to continue making them for us, and our putting them up for sale to anyone who would like to incorporate them into their own temple design.

Llama Fest is a great example of “less is more.” Sometimes, when not pushing the philosophy, people fall over each other to reach out and grab it.

In This Issue: Mormon Hospitality. Gita verse. Donation Opportunities. Himlayan fest Wrap Up. Wedding Serivces

Nobody makes us happier we located in Utah than Ron. Ron always says, meaning every word, “if there’s anything you need, ANYTHING, you just call me and YOU GOT IT, my friends.”

Food, gifts, temple building, animals, were all compacted closer together than last year, which better connected the artists and audience.

We conceived this stage for medium sized events for around 1,000 attendees, reserving the main amphitheater for Llama fest and India Fest, when we get many more.

North American Temple presidents and GBC (Governing Board Commission) meetings were held in Houston Thursday thru Saturday. The session was an eye opener for me, as there is a lot more going on than I thought.

Fox TV 13 News: How do we get to heaven? Max Roth interviews Caru Das at the Radha Krishna Temple in Spanish Fork, Utah. A segment of this interview aired on Mothers' Day, 2007.

What made this morning’s service project here the MOTHER of all projects were 1) the number of volunteers involved, 175 kids and 30 adults, and 2) the high level of organization.

Three thousand people descended on rural Spanish Fork on Saturday afternoon for dancing, a vegetarian buffet, bonfire and ritual witch burning capped with a colored powder fight, chanting, singing and moshing.

Last Saturday evening, about 15 devotees came to the Hunger Banquet at Brigham Young University for chanting and a drama.

The Krishna Temple in Spanish Fork invites all members of the public to celebrate the festival of Holi on Saturday, March 24th. In India Holi announces the arrival of spring and the passing of winter. It is a festival that breathes an atmosphere of social merriment.

The cultural program is always a favorite. Neda’s dance on Lord Shiva catching the Ganga on his head was beautiful. There are no real dance schools in Salt Lake City. Yugoslavian born Neda is quite a phenomenon because she has taught herself by watching and imitating videos

In this temple visitors purchase a ticket for a pot of jaggery, sweet water with cardamon and pepper, to be offered through a brass mask of Narasingha placed over a hole in the mountain.

Last Monday from my office window I noticed a sole Indian gentleman circling the temple verandah on foot. He had apparently tried entering from the upstairs, but that door is often stuck in winter due to cold expansion.

Two fellows came down from Idaho, spent a couple of days fixing pylons into the ground, arranged skirting, double compression doors, and then with a compressor blew up the shape of the 27 foot wide 18 foot high dome from a vinyl air form.

When I had made my way in line to the Governor, First Lady Mary Kaye, Gary Herbert (Lieutenant Governor) and Jeanette, his wife, I got an especially warm welcome from all of them. Governor Huntsman and Mary Kaye, as it so happened, are leaving for Gujarat tomorrow to pick up their adopted daughter, Asha Bharati, who is 13 months old.

Would Vaibhavi have to lie on her back on a high scaffold for years, like Michaelangelo, painting by hand the vast surface?

For Vaibhavi and I this was a landmark day. Thanks to Justin (16 rounds, 4 months) and Mikela (16 rounds 1 year), and Cary, their connections in the community, their energy and enthusiasm to share, we tasted one very sweet fruit of 20 years habitation in Spanish Fork, the “Livestock Capital of Utah County”.

Ravana was not ‘evil’. He was just ignorant: ignorant of God, of spiritual life, spiritual values, spiritual power, spiritual joys. Because he was indifferent to the cultivation of spiritual knowledge and practice, he became, by default, polluted with the three enemies of the soul: lust (kama), anger (krodha), and greed (lobha).

After about a half hour talk there were a number of excellent questions. By their questions the students showed how well they had grasped the concepts in the Gita, and were working out in their minds the sequences. During dinner I circulated around to all the tables, and fielded at least another three or four good questions from each.

Lastly, I sat in the temple courtyard, anonymous to all but a few "old timers", and simply watched in amazement all the passing cavalcades of devotees, mostly quite young, from India and all over the world, massed here in the Holy Dham. I thought that what Prabhupada started four decades ago by coming, a single penniless sadhu, to America has now become a titdal ocean which will inundate the entire world.

Krishna had an ecstatic plan for the delight of the devotees. By four pm festival start the sun burst through the clouds, winds died completely, temperatures rose by a good 10 degrees, and hundreds of determined festival goers began pouring through the main gate. Everything returned to total normality just as after seven days Krishna replaced the Govardhan Hill on the ground.

I sent a press release by e-mail to the media. The papers locally are quite good about including the information as calendar announcements. I also sent the same message to about 5,000 people in our e-mail database. The date of the festival, a poster, and information has been posted prominently on our web site since last November.

The father of the bride came from Hong Kong. He was very religious. I could hear him mumbling many of the Sanskrit slokas with me. At the end he happily exclaimed, “I never expected any ceremony this good in America!” . . .