ISKCON NewsThe News Agency of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness

With the kind of dazzling spectacle that ISKCON Mayapur has become famous for, this Diwali saw the entire campus illuminated by thousands of oil lamps.

Diwali, a cross-cultural festival that is celebrated in Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism, commemorates the return of Lord Rama to the city of Ayodhya after rescuing his wife Sita Devi from the demon Ravana.

This December, while most of us are nursing cups of hot tea and trying to keep warm, a group of intrepid ISKCON youth adventurers will be hitting sunny beaches and exotic locales across Mexico.

But theirs is not just any holiday—it’s the fifth annual Kirtan Yoga Festival Tour. Starting life as a Krishna conscious way for youth to get together in between ISKCON Youth Ministry’s longer summer festival tours, this winter excursion has grown into a powerful outreach tool of its own.

A troupe of second generation ISKCON artists performed for Kartik Vandanam 2, the second in a series of annual classical music and dance evenings, this October 17th in Vrindavana, India.

Held in honor of Kartik, the most auspicious month of the Vaishnava year, the devotional “garland of prayer” was performed under the stars in ISKCON Vrindavana’s Bhaktivedanta School Gardens, which were lit with hundreds of lamps.

After what was a spectacular Diwali firework display on Sunday 18th October at Bhaktivedanta Manor near London, numerous community leaders and festival revelers released 1000 lanterns into the sky in a bid for world peace.

On the Sunday, 15,000 people attended the Diwali celebrations at the Temple. Other highlights of the festival included colourful dances, plays and free vegetarian meals for everyone.

On a clifftop above the sea, on the Mediterranean island of Crete, a young man meditating at sunset heard a voice inside say “Go to India.” He climbed down to his cave and there met his childhood friend and fellow traveller, who had been meditating on the seashore. This other young man had heard, at the same time, a voice telling him to “Go to Israel.”