President Herbert Hoover promised "a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage." With warnings about global warming reaching feverish levels, many are having second thoughts about all those cars. It seems they should instead be worrying about the chickens.

The Sanskrit word “Karma” found its way into the English dictionary long ago so today even the most conservative American has a sense of what it means. Since then John Lennon sang: “Instant Karma Is Going To Get You,” and bumper stickers mock: “Don’t let your Karma Run Over My Dogma.“ But Karma is no joking matter.

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.

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.

You know when people are drinking coffee at intermission that something is wrong. The audience that attended the April 19 presentation of "SatyaGraha" sincerely wanted to understand and be attentive to this opera but, like me, they found themselves fighting off sleep while desperately trying to follow along with few and poor tools to do so.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

 

Paramahaṁsa Swami: What does that mean?

Prabhupāda: No, veri means sheep. Their walk... If you can push one of them in the slaughterhouse, all of them enter. This is called veriya dāsan. You haven't got to endeavor to push others. You just push one only. "Fut, fut, fut, fut, fut, fut, fut," they all enter.

In Hindi it is called veriya dāsan. Just cheat one veri, and all others will be followers.

Long ago, when we were boys, we saw one comic cinema. That old cinema player was... His name was Max Linder. Max Linder. So this Max Linder was going to a ball dance, and he was waiting in the park, and the ball dance coat, you know? It has got a tail. So he was sitting in a bench, and some naughty boys came and they nailed the tailing part. So when he got up it became torn, like... So his, this hip was visible. So when was dancing in the ball others were seeing his, "What is this?"

So he went to the mirror, he saw, "Oh?" So he began to dance and show everyone like this. So others said, "What is this?" "This is the latest fashion. This is the latest fashion in ball dancing." "Oh?" Then all cut their tail coat. You see? "The latest fashion."

- From a Morning Walk on June 7, 1975 in Honolulu, Hawaii.

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.