By Kurma Dasa on 19 Jul 2008

Here's a fabulous recipe if you ever have a lot of cucumbers and don't know what to do with them.

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By Madhava Smullen on 19 Jul 2008

As sacred tour guide Dina Bandhu Dasa approached Varsana, the legendary home of Lord Krishna’s consort Radharani, dusk was falling; but the festivities were only beginning.

Dina Bandhu is one of the privileged few westerners who know about the annual Phul Bangalas – flower palaces – and Kavi Sanmelans – poetry recitals – demonstrated at Varsana and Nandagram, the village of Krishna’s adoptive father Nanda Maharaja.

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By Sarah Pulliam for The Columbus Dispatch on 19 Jul 2008

MOUNDSVILLE, W.Va. -- Sujoy Bhowmik lives in two worlds.

On most days, he is a pharmacist at a CVS in Columbus. Other days, he is Narottama Das, a devotee of Hare Krishna, who finds peace in West Virginia at the Palace of Gold.

Once a religion whose members gave their life to the movement, the Hare Krishnas today welcome the most devoted people and the casual follower. In the 1970s, many of the members lived in communes. Now many, like Bhowmik, have careers and live outside the movement but are still devoted to their religion.

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By Krishna Dharma Dasa on 19 Jul 2008

It is interesting that the US and UK style themselves as “liberators” of Iraq. Subtly implied in this euphemistic term is the assumption that we are ourselves already liberated, in a position to bestow our happy state on others. And that is surely a commonly held assumption in the West. We view ourselves as having the most progressive and free societies. But how true is this?

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Joshua Greene, author of "Here Comes the Sun", George Harrison biography, speaks about George, the Beatles, making of the "Radha Krishna temple" LP, performance at the Temple club in London ... From the DVD "Hare Krishna tribute to George Harrison". You can get it here: USA [8] or Europe [9] Part One:

Part Two:

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By Krsnanandini Devi Dasi, Certified Family Life Educator, Director, Grihasta Vision Team (GVT) on 19 Jul 2008

Wouldn’t it be grand if married couples everywhere could have enduring, satisfying relationships, based on spiritual principles? Wouldn’t it be marvelous if all children could grow up in a healthy two-parent home? Such was the goal of most of the attendees of the 12th Annual SmartMarriages conference from July 2-6, 2008 in San Francisco, California.

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By Kate Benson for The Sydney Morning Herald on 19 Jul 2008

The part of the brain responsible for memory shrinks twice as much in elderly people who have had a limited education, stunted social life or have not kept mentally active since they were teens, a Sydney study has found.

University of NSW researchers followed a group of 60-year-olds over three years and found that those who had been mentally and physically active continually since the age of 13 had a larger hippocampus, the part of the brain that controls short-term memory and navigation skills.

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By Duke Helfand for Los Angeles Times on 19 Jul 2008

Californians, long known for their propensity to buck convention, have apparently done it again: A national survey released Monday revealed that they are less religious and less certain about the existence of God than the nation as a whole.

Residents of the Golden State do not pray as much as people in other parts of the country. They are less inclined to take scripture literally. And they are likelier to embrace "more than one true way" of interpreting their religious teachings.

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By Dan Pashman for National Public Radio (NPR) on 19 Jul 2008

Rick and Julie Vreeland opened Freedom Hill Farm last year as a place for kids, but quickly found themselves fielding an unexpected request: The people who came wanted to buy raw milk.

In August 2007 the Vreelands began selling raw milk. In that first month they sold 13 gallons of it; last month, they sold more than a thousand.

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ABC News on 19 Jul 2008

South Korean police have used a water cannon to disperse thousands of people in the capital Seoul protesting against the resumption of US beef imports.

The protests took place as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice insisted in Seoul that US beef is safe to eat.

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By Donald G. McNeil Jr. for The New York Times on 19 Jul 2008

If you caught your son burning ants with a magnifying glass, would it bother you less than if you found him torturing a mouse with a soldering iron? How about a snake? How about his sister?

Does Khalid Shaikh Mohammed — the Guantánamo detainee who claims he personally beheaded the reporter Daniel Pearl — deserve the rights he denied Mr. Pearl? Which ones? A painless execution? Exemption from capital punishment? Decent prison conditions? Habeas corpus?

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This article was originally published in Back to Godhead magazine in 1993. Edifying hyperlinks added.

The heroes of my youth were the great healers of humanity. While it’s true that in those days I could be seen with other American boys paying homage to the likes of Elvis Presley [17] and Joe DiMaggio [18], I rendered them only lip service. My real—if somewhat secret—devotion was reserved for a pantheon of great medical pioneers like Edward Jenner [19], discoverer of the smallpox vaccination; Robert Koch [20], who identified the tuberculosis bacillus; and Ignaz Philipp Semmelweise [21], who crusaded to save women from childbirth infection by teaching doctors to disinfect their hands. I avidly studied the life stories of these saviors and dreamed of becoming like them by slaying some modern scourge—leukemia, say, or coronary thrombosis. In my eyes there was no higher calling than to wage war on behalf of humanity against disease and death.

I entered college intent on medical studies, but a little over a year later abandoned that aim. I had not been fatally disheartened by my encounter with other pre-med students, profiteers eager to mint gold from disease. A book, rather, had destroyed my vocation and my faith.

Read the entire article here [22]. (This link will take you to Ravindra Svarupa Dasa's journal.)

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ISKCON News Staff on 19 Jul 2008

Andhra Pradesh [India] Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy said today that, with the oil crisis deepening, the time had come to explore alternative energy sources.

Mr. Reddy released a book entitled "Oil: Final Countdown to a Global Crisis and its Solutions" by ISKCON member Sahadeva Dasa at an impressive function. He said the problem was of even more concern for oil importing countries such as India.

read more [23]

19 Jul 2008

ISKCON Sannyasa Ministry and many senior leaders have felt an increasing need for forums in which this training is systematically imparted, especially in North America.

In response to this need a 3-day conference at ISKCON San Diego is planned by H.H. Candramauli Swami in a cooperative endeavor with H.H. Prahladananda Swami, H.H. Bhakti Vikasa Swami and H.G. Maha Tattva Prabhu T.P. ISKCON San Diego.

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By Bhaktivedanta Manor Board of Council Members on 15 Jul 2008

Yesterday, on 13th July 2008, Gauri Dasa stepped down from his position as Temple President of Bhaktivedanta Manor after a decision by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness Central Office of Child Protection.

The decision found Gauri Dasa responsible for "inappropriate and excessive corporal punishment" whilst a teacher at an ISKCON affiliated school in India during the 1990's.

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By Madhavi Mangu Dasi on 13 Jul 2008

TORONTO, ON - After almost 40 years of Ratha-Yatras in North America, a distinct challenge has arisen with respect to how to promote these festivals in new and creative ways.

For many devotees, Ratha-Yatra is equated with radiant colours, resounding vibrance, exciting exhibits and entertainment showcasing the beautiful Vaishnava culture. But from a marketing perspective, argue some devotees, perhaps our messaging has become a bit repetitive.

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[28]

Read Transcript [28] | Download Podcast [29]
5:55 minutes (2.72 MB)

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Hurricane season is now upon us. We in these disunited States have already endured a spring offensive of monstrous tornado-breeding thunderstorms, sweeping in waves eastward across the land. Depicted on the terrifying animated maps of the Weather Channel the storms resembled broad-fronted blitzkriegs on war charts. The channel treated us again and again to jumpy, rain-spotted videos [31] that pan across jumbles of SUVs and pick-ups, crushed and flatten like beer cans after the bash, all nicely backdroped by heaps of gigantic splinters—the local shopping mall. One of these malls [32] was less than fifteen miles from my mother’s home in tidewater Virginia.

I don’t own a TV, but I still like the Weather Channel. I’m not alone in harboring a long-standing fascination with tornados [33] and hurricanes [34], as well as floods and tsunamis, windstorms and wildfires, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. This fascination, I’m convinced, is a rudimentary manifestation of our innate attraction to God. When you come down to it, all these displays of natural power are a form of revelation. Instinctively, we are drawn to those disclosures of the indomitable higher power which compels us to recognize how very small, weak and helpless we truly are.

Read the entire article here. (This link will take you to Ravindra Svarupa Dasa's journal.)

read more [35]

Hurricane season is nearly upon us. We in these disunited States have already endured a spring offensive of monstrous tornado-breeding thunderstorms, sweeping in waves eastward across the land. Depicted on the terrifying animated maps of the Weather Channel the storms resembled broad-fronted blitzkriegs on war charts. The channel treated us again and again to jumpy, rain-spotted videos [31] that pan across jumbles of SUVs and pick-ups, crushed and flatten like beer cans after the bash, all nicely backdroped by heaps of gigantic splinters—the local shopping mall. One of these malls [32] was less than fifteen miles from my mother’s home in tidewater Virginia.

I don’t own a TV, but I still like the Weather Channel. I’m not alone in harboring a long-standing fascination with tornados [33] and hurricanes [34], as well as floods and tsunamis, windstorms and wildfires, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. This fascination, I’m convinced, is a rudimentary manifestation of our innate attraction to God. When you come down to it, all these displays of natural power are a form of revelation. Instinctively, we are drawn to those disclosures of the indomitable higher power which compels us to recognize how very small, weak and helpless we truly are.

Read the entire article here. (This link will take you to Ravindra Svarupa Dasa's journal.)

read more [35]

[28]

Read Transcript [28] | Download Podcast [38]
2:04 minutes (980.04 KB)

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