ISKCON NewsThe News Agency of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness

Los Angeles Times reporter K. Connie Kang had another interesting story on the Godbeat or, in this case, the gods beat. Yes, the Episcopalians are involved. It seems that the Diocese of Los Angeles hosted an interfaith service with Hindus at St. John’s Episcopal Cathedral there on Saturday. Kang simply reported it without any analysis, which I think is good for an initial story on what turned out to be a rather controversial event.

Basava Premanand has been burgled… again. It is the third time in just one month. But he is in no doubt of the thieves’ motives. He suspects they were looking for evidence that he has collected for over 30 years against India’s leading spiritual guru, Sri Satya Sai Baba. Mr Premanand believes this evidence proves the self-proclaimed “God-man”, Sai Baba, is not just a fraud, but a dangerous sexual abuser.

Barsana Eye Camp, the free annual cataract surgery run by Mumbai's Bhaktivedanta Hospital, serves the residents of Barsana, India, and the surrounding 120 villages, who due to extreme poverty and lack of medical facilities often lead a life of blindness caused by cataracts, which are easily treated.

Members of the Kirtana Festival Bus Tour through Mexico and Guatemala, and members of Bhagavat Life met at a retreat center in Guatemala for the first Japa Retreat held exclusively for youth. The twenty-two participants had two full, and two half-days of workshops designed to help them develop a stronger connection with japa.

This popular leavened bread, especially enjoyed in Punjab in north-west India and Pakistan, is cooked in a traditional coal or wood-fired clay oven called a tandoor. Many versions of this flat bread are found throughout central Asia, from Iran in the East to the Soviet countries in the North.

The breads, enriched with milk, yogurt and butter, are slapped onto the inner walls of the hot oven where they cook quickly, partially puffing, and taking on a smoky flavour. The occasional charred spot from where the flames lick them adds a delightful crisp textured crust. This recipe calls for a household griller, which does a pretty good job.

If you have a tandoor oven, all the better. Naan are traditionally sprinkled with kalonji seeds that are also known as nigella seeds and occasionally misnamed as onion seeds. Kalonji seeds are available at Indian and specialty grocers.

MUMBAI, India, Jan. 15, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Dow Jones Indexes, a leading global index provider, and Dharma Investments, a leading private investment firm pioneering the development of faith-based investment, today announced the launch of the Dow Jones Dharma Indexes. The new indexes measure the performance of companies selected according to the value systems and principles of Dharmic religions, especially Hinduism and Buddhism.

The folks at Saveur, an award-winning international dining magazine, pack their most zealous and fervent recommendations into their popular Saveur 100 issue – an annual list of “favorite restaurants, food, drink, people, places and things.” This year that list included the cuisine of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) – under the heading “A Faith that Nourishes,” the magazine deemed Hare Krishna temple dining halls “one of the best restaurant chains in the world.”

ASTANA, Kazakhstan -- Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev criticized foreign missionaries on Thursday as a threat to national stability and urged lawmakers to curb their activities. The mainly Muslim country has positioned itself as an area of stability in the potentially volatile Central Asian region. But some rights groups have criticized its treatment of small groups such as Hare Krishna.

The US government has given the green light to the production and marketing of foods derived from cloned animals.

After six years of study, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ruled that meat and milk from cloned pigs, cattle and goats and their offspring is safe.

I realized this when I noticed that January 19th heralded the birth of Jagadish Pandit sometime in the sixteenth century. I know my Hare Krishna festivals well, but I’d never heard of Jagadish Pandit. Why were we celebrating his birthday?

At the beginning of every year a gathering takes place at the ISKCON New Govardhana Community in Australia. Devotees come from all around the world to hear thoughtful classes, dance in the blissful kirtans and honor the sumptuous feasts offered to the Supreme Lord with love and devotion. This year’s schedule ended up a lot different from previous years as unexpected flash flooding was a prominent theme.

In March of last year, the GBC authorized The Spiritual Embassy of ISKCON CIS Countries, commonly known as the Russian Center, in Sridham Mayapur. December 2007 saw the birth of the Center and a bright future for the Russian ISKCON community.

The annual plant is one to two metres high with large seed clusters at the end of the stalk, similar to millet. In fact, the most popular strain of Quinoa is pale yellow in appearance, and does resemble millet in colour and size, although quinoa is more flattened than spherical.

So far as its food value is concerned, one researcher has said, “ while no single food can supply all of the essential life-sustaining nutrients, it (quinoa) comes as close as any other in the vegetable or animal kingdoms.” It contains more protein than any other grain: an average of 16.2 %, compared with 7.5 % for rice, 9.9 % for millet, 8.2 % for barley, and 14 % for wheat. It has a good balance of the amino acids that make up the protein and is high in lycine, an amino acid not overly abundant in the vegetarian diet.

Quinoa is easy to cook, and like rice, blends well with other grains or whole-grain pilafs. The cooked consistency is light, with a texture resembling caviar.

Mississippi, USA – ISKCON’s New Talavan farm recently mourned the loss of one of their oldest friends, the bull Bala. Srila Prabhupada visited the 1300 acre farm once in 1975, inspiring the devotees there to take up cow protection. Since then, the community has acquired over 100 cattle, and its always hard to see one of them go.