North American Temple Presidents Prioritize Integrating Next Generation
At the ISKCON North American Temple Presidents’ Meeting this January, one of the major points of focus was Integrating the Next Generation Youth, with practical steps taken to involve the next generation in ISKCON temples at all levels.
This was devotees’ second year participating in the parade, which is part of the massive Gasparilla Pirate Festival with a host of events themed around the legend of mythical Spanish Pirate José Gaspar.
Surfers Paradise, a suburb of the city of Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia, is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. A vivid blue sky reflects in glass skyscrapers rising behind a beach of golden sand. Sparkling turquoise waves crash as cool young people ride the crest on their surfboards.
When the category 4 Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico on September 20th, 2017, the U.S. territory’s only ISKCON temple, in Gurabo, was almost completely destroyed. For nearly a year after, devotees did not have electricity or running water, and groceries and gas were hard to come by.
“There are so many families in Hungary who are on the edge of homelessness,” says ISKCON Hungary spokesperson Gandharvika Prema Dasi. “They are in debt, have no jobs, and without external help they struggle to maintain their lives and may lose their homes.”
Between five and six hundred devotees from all over North America started the New Year as they meant to go on – chanting the Holy Name and associating with devotees – at Kirtan 50 in Dallas this holiday season.
Born in the Chicago ISKCON temple in the late 1970s and raised in ISKCON gurukulas, Gaura Mani spent much of her time singing kirtan and chanting Sanskrit verses. As she grew older, she developed a strong desire to take her training further and share it with everyone she met.
ISKCON Mauritius’ 11thannual Rathayatra at Mahebourg, in the south-east of the island nation, featured a unique offering that truly befit the tropical setting – a boat festival in a vivid blue lagoon.
Around one hundred devotees from the New Raman Reti ISKCON community participated in the Alachua Christmas Parade on Saturday December 8th, in Alachua, Florida. All the townspeople turned out for the occasion, packing the sidewalks.
Immersive technologies are a major part of the plan for the still-under-construction TOVP, including a huge 23-meter planetarium theater under one of the temple domes. However, with the temple opening still two to three years away, a smaller, stand-alone planetarium theater has been built to give pilgrims a taste of what’s to come.
The Lord’s Holy Names continue to be chanted in every town and village, no matter how exotic or remote. Devotees on Réunion Island held their second annual Rathayatra in the city of St. Pierre on Saturday December 8th, summertime for the island.
Around six hundred congregation members and newcomers visited ISKCON Philadelphia on December 8thto celebrate as the presiding Deities moved into Their beautiful, spacious new temple room. The move had been planned for several years at ISKCON Philadelphia’s property in Mt. Airy, a diverse area where the temple attracts students, Indian community members, and local Americans of all backgrounds.
Vedic Stories for Children Volume 2, a CD produced by the world-renowned Bhaktivedanta Players, was launched during the Diwali and Annakut festivals at Bhaktivedanta Manor in England.
Ofsted (The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills) is the government organization responsible for inspecting all schools and nurseries in the UK.
Two programs are gifting Srila Prabhupada’s books to thousands of people every year and will change lives across North America this Christmas.
About 150 students, professors and others attended a one-day conference at Utah State University on October 18th entitled “God and Smog – The Challenge of Preserving our Planet.”
The giant book is funded by ISKCON Italy through donations and designed by the Mediterranean branch of the BBT, which claims it will be the largest sacred text in the world.
The harinama party bus is the brainchild of husband and wife Prema Rupa Madhava Das and Prema Rupini Madhavi Dasi, who were born in the same year, share the same zodiac sign and were called Paul and Paula before becoming devotees. The two are also soulmates when it comes to service.
The temple is in a quiet residential neighborhood on Central Pennsylvania’s East Shore, can occupy 300 to 400 people. The Harrisburg congregation currently comprises of 25 to 30 families, or approximately fifty to sixty people, so there’s plenty of room to grow.
After the major success of the recent Bhadra Campaign, in which devotees all over the world distributed thousands of full Srimad-Bhagavatam sets, the BBT Marketing, Communications and Innovations team is launching a new global campaign for this winter’s Prabhupada Marathon – “Be A Giver.”
The new grant will provide high quality anatomical models of different bodily systems for the students to study, which are normally too expensive for the school to buy.
The work continues on the outside of the temple domes with blue tiles, stars and gold ribs being placed in beautiful designs that are appealing and beautiful to look at from all locations throughout Mayapur and the surrounding area.
Nearly 10,000 delegates from 80 countries attended the 2018 Parliament of the World’s Religions from November 1stto 7thin Toronto, Canada. They represented nearly 200 religious, spiritual and indigenous traditions, comprising the single largest interfaith gathering in the world.
ISKCON India’s Director of Communications, Yudhistir Govinda Das, was earlier this month chosen by the King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz International Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue (KAICIID) as one of its twenty International Fellows for the year 2019, to promote inter-religious dialogue with the aim of preventing and resolving conflicts.
On October 27, ISKCON New Vrindaban devotees in West Virginia heard of the horrific mass shooting at the Jewish synagogue in Pittsburgh, a 90-minute drive away from their idyllic rural community. Jaya Krishna Das, the Temple President of ISKCON New Vrindaban, wrote a heart-warming condolence letter to the Tree of Life Synagogue and the Jewish community, which was noted by the Intelligencer newspaper of Pennsylvania.
