If you think Sunday school is just for Christians, think again.

Each Sunday morning, thousands of children show up in classrooms at houses of worship across the Washington area. But instead of learning about Jesus Christ, the Trinity and stories from the New Testament, they study the Koran, the Bhagavad Gita and the Torah. They learn about Indian culture, memorize Arabic or Hebrew, or explore an atheist path to ethical living.

New York City – On Saturday, June 14, 2008, more than five thousand Krishna devotees, guests, and festival-goers braved scattered thunderstorms and downpours to attend the annual Ratha Yatra (Festival of the Chariots) parade and Festival of India.

The all-day event, put on by the New York chapter of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), began with a colorful procession of three 40-foot high traditional Indian chariots, bearing sacred images of Lord Jagannatha, Baladeva, and Subhadra Devi, pulled by hand down the world-famous Fifth Avenue.

As anyone who has ever told a "How many _____ does it take to change a light bulb?" joke knows, humor can be tricky. Attempting religious humor can be downright dangerous. On the one hand, we fear offending people's cherished beliefs; on the other, spiritual growth seems to necessitate that--from time to time, we all learn to not take ourselves quite so seriously.

On June 20, 2008, The Love Guru hit theaters, amidst controversy that the film is offensive in its depiction of Hindu themes. In a notable departure from other organizations, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), popularly known as the Hare Krishna movement, released a statement rejecting calls to protest the movie, and encouraging others to view the film with tolerance and a sense of humor.

As an effort to resolve the conflict caused by the destruction of 26 homes and confiscation of 116 acres of property of the Society for Krishna Consciousness the Kazakhstan government has continually offered unsuitable land plots.

The latest offer has been 10 acres of a landfill/garbage dump in Illi District, Almaty Province.

From sitting on his dad’s lap as he sang devotional songs, to studying harmonium and singing in ISKCON’s gurukula schools, kirtan was the only music Gaura Vani Dasa knew as a child.

Even later, when he educated himself in modern pop and rock music, paintakingly picking his way through the decades, kirtan remained his one true love.

Award-winning electropop band The Veronicas dropped by ISKCON Dallas this June, taking a break from their current US tour.

The group, which hails from Brisbane, Australia, peaked at number 2 in the Australian album charts with their first record and are enjoying worldwide success with their second. So Dallas temple priest Nityananda Chandra was pleasantly surprised when they greeted him with enthusiastic cries of “Hare Krishna!” and “Haribol!”

Srimati Meira Kumar, Union Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment in India, recently visited ISKCON’s Mayapur campus.

The Union Minister was responding to an invitation extended from National ISKCON Communications director Vrajanandana Dasa to the Indian Government. She was greeted warmly by Sankarshan Nitai Dasa, General Manager at ISKCON Mayapur.

Srila Prabhupada wanted us to serve together based on love and trust. Here are some reflections on building trust and some ideas that may be helpful to our temples and projects.

Most organizations are not aware of the enormous cost of low trust, and because they have no means of measuring its impact, they have little motivation to seriously address it. To compound the problem, many people feel like helpless victims of the problems in their organizations and see no clear way to influence their leaders.

Hriman Krishna Das was smiling on Kerikeri main street. He stopped me, hurrying past, not to sell the books he was carrying or conduct a survey or collect membership to a group or religion but to share what he describes as universal information about life.

So Krishna is never diminished.

There is a little story, very interesting. So one poor boy, he was student in a school, and the teacher's annual ceremony of father's death would be held. So he requested all his student, "What you will give me, contribution?" Formerly the teacher was not taking any salary. But whatever he wanted, the students will bring either from parents' house or by begging. That was the system. The teacher would not charge anything. A brahmana cannot be..., charge anything.

Generally, the brahmanas were teachers. That is one of the profession of the brahmana. Everyone must have livelihood. So brahmana livelihood is pathana pathana. He must become a learned scholar, and he will make others also learned scholar. That is brahmana's business. Pathana pathana yajana yajana dana pratigrahah. Shat-karma. Six kinds of profession for the brahmanas.

And kshatriya's profession is to give protection to the citizen and levy some tax, twenty-five percent, not more than that. Whatever is income your, give twenty-five percent to the kshatriya king. That's all. That includes sales tax, this tax, that tax, so many tax, income tax. All finished. You give twenty-five percent. And if you have no income, no tax. Not like that even you have no income, "No, last year you gave so much tax. You must give it. Otherwise your property will be sold." Not like that. So that is kshatriya's income.

Similarly, vaisya's income, krishi-go-rakshya-vanijyam [Bg. 18.44], agriculture, cow protection, and if there is excess foodstuff, then he can sell, make trade. And sudras, they will simply help.

So this teacher, the original story, the teacher asked the student for... Somebody said, "I will contribute this cloth," somebody said, "I'll rice," somebody said something, something, something. There was one poor student, he had no means. He was very poor. So when he was asked, so he replied that "I cannot say anything without asking my mother."

"All right, you ask your mother and tell me tomorrow."

So he asked, "My dear mother, all my class friend has promised the teacher to contribute this, that, this, that. So my turn is there. What shall I promise?" The mother said, "My dear son, we are so poor, we cannot give anything. But if Krishna gives, He is dina-bandhu, the friend of the poor. So if He gives something to you, you can promise."

"Oh, where is Krishna? What is His name?"

"Now, His name is Dinabandhu, friend of the poor."

"Where He is?"

"I understand that He is in the forest."

So he went to the forest and called, "Dinabandhu brother, Dinabandhu brother, where You?" He began to cry. So Krishna came. When a devotee is very much eager to see Him, Krishna comes. He very is kind.

So "Why you are asking?"

"My mother... You are Dinabandhu?"

"Yes."

"So this is my condition, sir. What can I promise?"

So He said that "You promise that you will supply yogurt, dahi. You will supply dahi."

So he was very much satisfied. And he came to the teacher that "My Dinabandhu brother, dada, He will supply dahi, or yogurt, for whatever you require."

"Oh, that's nice. Very good."

So on the day of ceremony, so he went to the forest again and called Dinabandhu dada, and He gave him a small pot of dahi, yogurt, a small pot. Oh, he was a child. He did not know. And the..., he brought it to the teacher, "Now, this is my contribution. My Dinabandhu brother has given. So you take."

"The hundreds and thousands of people will be given foodstuff and this much dahi?" He became very angry. He became angry, he did not care, and the pot fell down, and the yogurt also fell down.

But after some time, when he came, he saw that although the yogurt has fallen down, the pot is full. Then he again dropped it; again it is full. He dropped it; again it is full. Then he could understand it is spiritual. Purnasya purnam adaya purnam eva avasishyate. You take the whole thing; still, the whole thing is there.

That is Krishna. Not that because you have taken something, one minus one equal to zero. No. In the spiritual world, one minus one equal to one. And one plus one equal to one. That is called advaya-jnana. There is no duality. Plus and minus, they are two things. But in the spiritual world, either plus or minus, the same. That is to be understood. That is called Absolute, advaya-jnana.

When ISKCON Mayapur’s resident elephant, Gulab Kali, passed away in April 2006, devotees mourned her almost as if she were a human Vaishnava. Brought to Mayapur when she was only three years old, she had served the community during festivals and other religious functions for 24 years until her untimely death at age 27.

It was difficult to even think about replacing such a fine and devoted animal, but Hrimati Dasi and the other members of the Mayapur Animal Protection Team were sure that, having passed away in Lord Caitanya’s holy land, Gulab was now in a better place. And so their search for a new elephant began.

For those who are new to the story of ISKCON's struggle with the Kazakhstan government, this article, from a credible secular news agency, is posted to shed some light on their underlying agenda in evicting the devotees enmasse from the ISKCON property there.

ALMATY, Kazakhstan: Kazakhstan's parliament tentatively approved a bill Wednesday intended to increase government control over the activities of religious associations.

The bill has drawn protests from rights groups, which say the changes will hinder religious minorities and could force some of them out of existence.