As we welcome in 2009, ISKCON News Weekly takes a look back at ten stories that helped to shape the last twelve months. It was hard to narrow the list down to just ten, and we wanted to make sure that we tried to capture the diversity of people, places, and things that made headlines in 2008. From the inspiring to the informative, the tragic to the heart-warming – these are ten stories, listed chronologically, that changed ISKCON, and us, forever.

Last September saw the first ever US Brahmacari Conference held at San Diego’s ISKCON temple.

In the Gaudiya vaishnava culture followed by ISKCON devotees, four stages of life are central to a regulated devotional life: Brahmacarya, wherein the celibate student is trained in discipline and respect; Grihasta, wherein the householder raises a Krishna conscious family; Vanaprastha, wherein the older married couple focus more on spiritual life and prepare themselves for renunciation; and Sannyasa, or complete renunciation.

As Barack Obama begins his first term this January, the world is hoping for change.

But on January 19, the night before the inauguration, a group of kirtan singers will bless the event with what they believe is the real solution to all problems, political and otherwise – the holy names of Krishna.

In Krishna consciousness, life is a preparation for one moment -- the moment of death. Devotees of Lord Krishna believe that whatever a person thinks about at that crucial moment determines the next destination of the soul. Therefore, they hope to think about Lord Krishna at the moment of death and thereby return to His home in the spiritual world.

Devotees in Punjab, India kicked off the New Year in true spiritual style with the celebration of “Hare Krishna Nite” at the ISKCON temple in Ludhiana.

Devotees from ISKCON Delhi joined the celebration, which ran from 9pm until midnight. Throughout the night, the festivities built to a crescendo with the enthusiastic chanting of God’s names.

Having a beginning (adi) and end (anta) qualifies all pleasures in the material world. For that reason, one who is actually wise (budha) seeks no enjoyment from them.

It is a fact that in this temporal world we hold not title to, we have no actual possession of, anything we enjoy. Our lease here on happiness is fragile and fleeting.

During the 1970s, I would get culture shock whenever I went to India. The crowded cities, the heat, the food, the occasional sickness, and the austerities of local travel would painfully remind me that I was a stranger in a foreign land. But as the years passed, my visits became more frequent and I began to feel at home there, especially in places like Vrindavan and Mayapur, where the Lord once performed His transcendental pastimes.

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Makes 24 cutlets.

TIRUPATI: When money talks, `bhakti' takes a backseat. In what could be seen as posing threat to the very existence of a 17th century temple,
unauthorised quarrying works in about 50 acres of the land surrounding the temple are going on at a frenetic pace. The resultant business worth is: a cool Rs 2 crore every year.

In June, the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life published a controversial survey in which 70 percent of Americans said that they believed religions other than theirs could lead to eternal life.

This threw evangelicals into a tizzy. After all, the Bible makes it clear that heaven is a velvet-roped V.I.P. area reserved for Christians.