The ancient city of Madurai visited by pilgrims year-round witnessed a rather unique event on the 26th March, 2017. More than 5,000 people from different walks of life gathered together in one of Madurai’s biggest outdoor auditoriums, Gandhi Mandapam, eager to celebrate the 1,000th Anniversary of a Stalwart Saint, Acharya and Guru, Srimad Ramanuja Acharya. ISKCON Madurai, under the inspiration of HH Jayapataka Swami and leadership of HG Balaram Govinda Das and HG Shanka Dari Das, Temple President of ISKCON Madurai, orga...

At the recent GBC Meetings in Sridham Mayapur, the GBC College was pleased to present 32 graduates from the GBC College to the assembly of GBC members. As HG Rupanuga Prabhu (President of the GBC College) called out the names of the graduates, HH Romapada Swami handed them their graduation certificates, HH Bhakti Charu Swami gave them a pavitra (in the colours of the GBC College and offered to Lord Nrsimhadev) and HG Gopal Bhatta Prabhu gave them a GBC College bag. HG Tapan Misra Prabhu, the top student in this group of graduates, spoke bri...

ISKCON Founder Acharya His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada says, "Bhagavad Gita is the essence of Vedic knowledge and one of the most important Upanisads in the Vedic literature whose purpose is to deliver mankind from the nescience of material existence and is devoid of any religion." (25 March, 2017) Saturday festival in ISKCON Temple, Budanilkantha, Kathmandu with social activist, CNN-hero and the founder of Maiti Nepal, Anuradha Koirala and Actress Rekha Thapa. Actress Rekha Thapa sponsored 45 Srimad Bhagavad Gitas ...

On behalf of Govardhan Eco Village, Vrajendra Nandan Prabhu, ISKCON India Communications Head went to receive the Water Digest Award. The Awards were graced by several prestigious personalities such as Shri Vipul Goel, Cabinet Minister for Ministry of Industries and Commerce, Ministry of Environment & Ministry of Industrial Training, Government of Haryana; Ms. Dana Kursh, Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of Israel; Mr Mitrasen Bhikajee, Senior Programme Specialist, Natural Sciences, UNESCO; Hon’ble Justice Dr. Mukundakam Sharma...

On Tuesday, March 14, 2017, the Department of Sport, Recreation and Culture of the city of Durban, South Africa, hosted a panel discussion at the prestigious Durban International Convention Centre entitled, "Healing Historic Divisions - towards racial harmony". Over 150 delegates, including city officials, political councillors and religious leaders accepted the Heads invitation to attend this important and ground-breaking event. The esteemed panellists included His Holiness Bhakti Charu Swami, Governing Body Chairperson of ISKCON; Bis...

On Saturday evening March 18, ISKCON Vrinda Kunda very ecstatically celebrated the annual Yamuna Boat Festival on the opposite side of Yamuna from Sringar Vat. All the devotees gathered at Srila Prabhupada's Samadhi in the afternoon to take the special festival large Deities of Radha Shyamasundar along with Radha Govinda, the personal Deities of HH Radha Govinda Maharaja, on procession to the boat ghat. Our dear godbrother Punyatama Prabhu arranged flags of a hundred different countries for the devotees to carry to show that Srila Prabhup...

When Arjun Bhattacharyya started telling us that Agnideva Prabhu, the legendary Agnideva Das, was coming to Detroit, most of us didn’t believe him. In the spirit of serving a dear and surrendered disciple of Srila Prabhupada, many of us offered to assist in preparing his residence. But our hearts weren’t quite ready to accept that he would actually come; it would be too painful if it didn’t work out and with Prabhu so in demand, we had every reason to think it wouldn’t. But Krishna can make anything happen and He sure did! Agnideva P...

Iskcon Silicon Valley has a most solid reputation for taking wholeheartedly the order of guru and Gauranga, with 'books are the basis', as their battle cry. There is no doubt that this community of hard-working, humble and empowered Vaishnavas, will manifest amazing results with this latest venture into cow culture, knowing that all the books that have been distributed, all the seeds of bhakti that have been planted will one day result in millions of people wanting to take up the life of bhakti.  Then we will be sufficiently ready on the farm...

The Awards ceremony which was held at Y B Chavan Auditorium Mumbai on 16th March, 2017 saw a gathering of eminent individuals from various sectors like FMCS, Transport, Finance, Healthcare and Social Work. The event was presided over by the esteemed panel consisting of Mr Deepak Premnarayan – President IMC Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mr Niraj Bajaj – Chairman, IMC RBNQ Award Trust, Mr Suresh Lulla- Chairman IMC RBNQA as well as members of the Managing Committee of the IMC. The Chief Guest for the evening was Dr R. A. Mashelkar,...

Welcome to volume 5 of the Sannyasa Newsletter. I would like to congratulate those who have been accepted by the GBC to take sannyasa this year. I would also like to remind those who are taking sannyasa, that as Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu has said, our only true identity is the servant of Lord Krishna's servants. In ISKCON we take sannaysa to have more opportunities for service, not to seek for opportunities to be served. Maya is always there to try to trick us and have us believe that somehow we can enjoy this material world. Only pur...