ISKCON NewsThe News Agency of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness

The 2008 Mayapur GBC annual meeting ratified as official ISKCON policy the presence of multiple ISKCON centres in the same city. Conceived in New Vrindavan, June 2007, at the special GBC meeting for strategic planning, the “urban proliferation proposal” earned unanimous support from the brainstorming GBCs, hungry for greater ISKCON effectiveness.

Ravi Gupta [Radhika Raman Dasa] thought someone was playing a joke on him when the Centre College religion professor received a phone call inviting him to greet Pope Benedict XVI next month during the pontiff's visit to the United States. More than 200 interfaith leaders will meet with Benedict on April 17 in Washington, but Gupta is one of a handful to have an official ceremonial role.

On March 25, 2008 the directors of the Krishna Society were summoned to a meeting organized by the Hakim of Almaty Province. The subject of the meeting was the imminent eviction of the Religious Organization Society for Krishna Consciousness from their property in Karasai District.

Whenever I make this tea at home, I use a naturally caffeine-free tea from the plant Aspalathus linearis called Rooibos, that is grown on the slopes of South Africa's Cedarberg mountains.

It is available at well-stocked supermarkets as Rooi tea (pronounced "Roy"). The tea lends itself well to this version of the ubiquitous spicy chai available all over the Indian Subcontinent.

A belief in God could lead to a more contented life, research suggests.

Religious people are better able to cope with shocks such as losing a job or divorce, claims the study presented to a Royal Economic Society conference.

The BBT will be holding their second annual art seminar in Vrindavana, India, from October 7 – 28, 2008. At last year's seminar, taught by veteran ISKCON artists Dhriti Dasi and Ram Dasa Abhirama Dasa, eighteen international students learned practical techniques as well as the mood essential in producing devotional art.

A cow in India has amazed dairy farmers by releasing milk completely unaided.

Radha is such a clever cow she can milk herself. No one knows of any scientific reason for this. All the other cows on the farm in India's Dahod district receive the same food, but Radha proudly proves she can fill a bucket unaided.

California Parents for the Equalization of Educational Materials (CAPEEM) scored a major victory on Tuesday when Judge Frank C. Damrell, Jr. of the United States District Court of the Eastern District of California rejected  the defendants' motion to dismiss CAPEEM's lawsuit to correct inaccuracies in sixth grade history textbooks.

The BBC has a feature on “the cost of food“. It shows how almost all types of food are getting more and more expensive. Drastically so!

What is happening here? Shouldn’t high-tech farming with its nitrogen fertilizers, pesticides and specially bred (often genetically modified) high-yield crop varieties allow humanity to easy feed everyone on the planet?

First-time, non-HareKrishna attendees at this year's spectacular Festival of the Chariots would have been amazed to find that they could join a queue and receive a generous portion of savoury breyani, tinged with the unique flavour of woodsmoke, completely free.

The Democratic Republic of Congo's new Varnashrama community appears to be going against the global trend of rapidly increasing food prices. As a UN aid official recently commented to global news agency AFP, "The Philippines may end up having to feed people to save them going hungry as the market price of rice soars out of reach of ordinary households."

Tens of thousands of Hare Krishna movement devotees across the country celebrated the festival of chariots today. The festival started in India and dates back thousands of years.

The main event was held in Durban today, and was hosted by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness.

Bhubaneswar, March 22: An International Society for Krishna Consciousness devotee was caught by priests of Jagannath temple at Puri on Saturday for selling booklets of Srila Prabhupada, the founder of Iskcon, inside the temple premises.