Washington, D.C. – Dubbed “America’s official birthday party,” the National Independence Day Parade, held on the Fourth of July, attracts more than three hundred thousand spectators each year. This year, the Washington D.C. Chapter of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) was again invited to join the procession, adding an authentic Indian chariot, deities of Lord Krishna, and devotees dressed in traditional dhotis and saris.

ISKCON Mayapur took part in Kolkata’s annual Travel and Tourism Fair for the first time this year, setting up a large pavilion at the Swabhumi-based event from June 20th to 22nd.

The fair had been advertised widely in Kolkata’s print and visual media, and crowds flocked to see the video show and panoramic photographs of Mayapur’s scenic delights, eager to learn more about the sacred travel destination.

Exactly echoing a message found in the Bhagavad-gita, a senior judge recently declared that “almost all of society's social ills can be traced directly to the collapse of the family life.”

In a speech in Brighton to lawyers from Resolution, formerly the Solicitors' Family Law Association, Mr Justice Coleridge warned of a "cancerous" increase in broken families and said the government must take "comprehensive action".

This June, devotees at ISKCON Mayapur’s satellite temple of Lord Jagannath in Rajapur, Simantadvipa joyfully celebrated their annual Snana-Yatra festival.

The ancient Snana-Yatra, or “bathing festival” is considered to be the birthday of Lord Jagannath and has been practiced at Jagannath Puri for hundreds of years.

More than one million people in Taiwan have pledged to help cut carbon emissions by being a vegetarian. Taiwan's population is about 23 million, and the one million vegetarians would reduce at least 1.5 million tons of carbon emissions in Taiwan in one year.

The Indian government has unveiled a national action plan to confront the threat posed by climate change.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the plan envisaged a gradual shift to greater reliance on sustainable sources of energy.

Iskcon is enlisting its ex-IIT devotees to conduct stress management sessions at its Rathyatra fair on the Park Circus Maidan this year.

Responding to the increasing number of suicides and stress-related diseases among the youth, the Krishna devotees have decided to highlight the malaise in society and offer stress management solutions through its Iskcon Youth Forum.

IIT engineers and water experts have pooled resources and skills to salvage the ancient kunds (ponds) of Vrindavan, Krishna’s childhood home. The water bodies, a big draw for tourists who throng Mathura, of which Vrindavan is a part, disappeared over the past 25 years, swallowed by encroachments and illegal constructions that changed the landscape.

Kazakh authorities continue to apply pressure against religious communities across the country, Forum 18 News Service has found. The latest example of the authorities' attempts to take places of worship away from religious minorities is a court case against Grace Protestant Church in Semey, in Eastern Kazakhstan Region.

The Brazilian BBT harks back as far as 1975, when Srila Prabhupada held the first Portuguese Bhagavad-gita in his hands. Director Ishvara Swami ran the organization impressively, translating all of Prabhupada’s books and turning out huge print runs of between 100,000 and 400,000, with an unprecedented one million copies of Perfect Questions, Perfect Answers flying off the presses.

So today is the disappearance day of my Guru Mahārāja. As I told you that sādhavo jīva vā mara vā. There was a nice story the other day I told you that a sage is giving different kinds of blessings to different types of persons.

So to a king's son, a prince, he blessed, rāja-putra ciraṁ jīva: "You are a king's son, a prince. You live forever." And muni-putra, the son of a saintly person, he blessed him, mā jīva mā jīva: "You don't live." Rāja-putra ciraṁ muni-putra mā jīva. And sādhu, devotees, he blessed him, jīva vā mara vā: "Either you live or you die, as you like." And there was a butcher, he blessed him, mā jīva mā mara: "You don't die, don't live." So these words are very significant. That I have already explained, still I am explaining. A prince, he's enjoying sense, that's all. He has got enough facility for sense enjoyment. So his next life is hellish.

Because if you indulge in sex life, then Kṛṣṇa will give you facility to have sex life three times in an hour, just like the pigeons, the monkeys, the sparrows, they are very sexually strong. You have seen it. So the facility is given. So princely order, they are after sense enjoyment. So he's blessed that "Better you live forever, because after your death, you do not know what is going to happen to you. You are going to get a hellish life. Better you live for some time. Go on with your enjoyment."

And muni-putra mā jīva. Brahmacārī, working under the guidance under strict disciplinary guidance, of a spiritual master, he is blessed, mā jīva, "You better die. Because you are so trained to enter into the kingdom of God, so why should you take so much trouble? Better you die and go back to Godhead." Ma jīva. And a devotee he blessed, jīva va maro va: "My dear devotee, either you live or die, the same thing."

And the butcher, he blessed him, ma jīva ma mara: "You don't live, don't die." What he's to do? His living condition is so abominable. From the morning, he has to slaughter so many animals, see the bloodstain, the ghastly scene. That is his livelihood. So what a horrible life this is. So "Don't live. And don't die also." Because after death, oh, he is going to be in so much hellish condition, nobody can describe. So both lives, living condition and death, after death, his condition is very horrible.

Anyway, apart from others, the devotee, for him, appearance and disappearance the same thing.

Kolkata (PTI): The Rathayatra of Lord Jagannth was celebrated here on Friday with Information and Broadcasting minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi flagging off the brightly painted chariots with the ritual of sweeping the road with a golden broom.

The highlight of my visit to Mayapur this year was Anuttama Prabhu's seminar on leadership and management—an extremely valuable course, which teaches so many important skills and principles of effective leadership and management.