ISKCON News
Hare Krishnas Strike a Soft Tone in Houston
Dr. Hansa Medley wakes up at 3:30 a.m. once a week and walks to the Hare Krishna Temple just around the corner from her small bungalow in northwest Houston. There she joins her mother, sister and three other devotees to prepare the temple's nine deities for the day. Before the first Arati ceremony at 4:30 a.m., they carefully lay out special outfits for eight statues, choosing coordinating jewelry and face paint.
Toronto Yogis Get "The Eternal Spiritual Experience"
Yoga enthusiasts all over Toronto untangled their arms and legs this April to check out InSpirit, a nine-day yoga festival with a difference billed as “The Eternal Spiritual Experience.” Events held at various venues around the city, including the University of Toronto, were designed to help people discover the ancient teachings of the East and their practical application to everyday life.
Review: Ambitious Opera Slow on Action and Enlightenment
Breastfeeding 'Helps to Boost IQ'
More evidence is being put forward that breastfed babies eventually become more intelligent than those who are fed with formula milk.
Canada's McGill University found breastfed babies ended up performing better in IQ tests by the age of six.
European Communications Conference Looks at the Positive
The European division of ISKCON Communications met this April at ISKCON’s picturesque chateau in Radhadesh, Belgium, with over thirty attendees from countries as diverse as Ireland, Latvia, Sweden and Italy. As outlined by Shaunaka Rishi Dasa at the meeting’s outset, much of the Communications team’s work since 1982 has been focused on dealing with challenges to ISKCON's authenticity – and sometimes even its right to exist.
Devotee Soldier Receives Army Commendation Medal
In the Bhagavad Gita Krishna tells us "By worship of the Lord, who is the source of all beings and who is all-pervading, a man can attain perfection through performing his own work." Partha-sarathi Dasa is a devotee of Lord Krishna. Currently “his own work” is being a U.S. army soldier on active service in Iraq. Despite his circumstances, he is providing an example we can all draw on: In any situation you can be Krishna Conscious, not only in the best of times, but also in the worst of times.
Sago Pilaf (Sabudana Khichari)
Known as sabu or sabudana, sago and tapioca are both used similarly and interchangeably in Indian cooking, especially as a light-meal choice for Ekadasi grain-fasting days. There is sometimes confusion about which is which because the white beads of sago and tapioca can look identical. But they are from quite different sources.
Swami Talks Inner Peace at NYU
Sacinandana Swami is here to teach us nothing that we do not already know. The German Hare Krishna monk is a kind of celebrity within the International Society for Krishna Consciousness community. He spoke at the Kimmel Center last Monday night and at a Village Hare Krishna temple last Tuesday as part of his month-long visit to the United States.
KAZAKHSTAN: Growing Threat to Religious Properties
Maxim Varfolomeev of the Hare Krishna Community told Forum 18 on 18 April that the Regional Akimat has given them an ultimatum to vacate the place as soon as possible. "Otherwise the authorities pledge to pull down our temple and other buildings including living residences in our presence," Varfolomeev told Forum 18.
Rasgoolas
Every Bengali halwai and household has at least one or two favourite recipes for plain rasgoolas. Most recipes follow a similar procedure, but subtle variations are endless. Though experts agree that raw milk yields the best rasgoola, it is not available to most cooks. This recipe is especially composed for store-bought whole milk.
Devotees Add Color to San Diego’s Earth Day Celebrations
ISKCON devotees joined San Diego’s Earth Day parade, one of the biggest in America, this Sunday April 20 for their 12th year in a row.
Two hundred devotees participated, pulling a modest but beautifully decorated Ratha-yatra cart from one end of Balboa Park to the other, and showering onlookers with flower petals.
Battlefield Bhajans
US Military Base, Iraq, April 17, 2008 – It’s my fifth year on active duty as a sergeant here in Iraq, and I’m back doing missions, which means long days. But I still rise early, worship my salagram sila deities of the Lord, and chant Hare Krishna as if I can die at any moment – which, here, is a reality.
Is Your Temple Green?
Environmentalism has certainly been on people’s minds lately. Governments around the globe are teaching their constituents about the need to conserve resources. School children are taught the three R’s – reduce, reuse, recycle. And of course advertisers are keen to tout the environmental benefits of whatever product they are trying to peddle.
Food For Life Keeps Vrindavana Clean and Green
Food for Life Vrindavana, not content with simply making an effort this Earth Day (April 22) is running several full-time environmental projects to beautify Krishna’s birthplace.
First up is Project Varahadeva, launched in April 2003.
Hare Krishna in a Chinese Classroom, by Oxford Don
HONG KONG: By day, Kenneth Valpey dons his academic robes to elevate his students at the Chinese University of Hong Kong to a higher orbit of understanding about Indian religions and cultures.
But come evening, he assumes another avatar. He slips into something a little more comfortable — like a pristine white dhoti-kurta and a wrap-around angavastram — and sermonizes on the Bhagavad Gita to the devotees of Krishna in Hong Kong.
More to Krishnas than Vegetarian Lunch
Hundreds of students find their way to the Plaza of the Americas every weekday to eat a $4 vegetarian meal served by the Hare Krishnas.
Some are interested enough to pick up a book off the self-service rack. A few attend classes on yoga or meditation at the Hare Krishna House on Northwest 14th Street.
Plants Deserve Respect, Swiss Committee Says
GENEVA (AFP) - Plants deserve respect, a group of Swiss experts said Monday, arguing that killing them arbitrarily was morally wrong -- except when it comes to saving humans or maybe picking petals off a daisy.
Savoury Urad Dal Doughnuts (Vadai)
Here’s a recipe for crisp, urad dal-based and cabbage-laced finger foods. The ingredients are few but the taste is stunning. They are served with fabulous coconut chutney, seasoned with, among other things, fried urad dal.
Simple Living - High Thinking
A couple from Chennai decided to live simply - by a stream in a one-room hut. The man, Magari, would forego his occupation of hunting while his wife Madhavi would cultivate Tulasi instead of selling baskets. Magari would also give up non-vegetarian food.