ISKCON NewsThe News Agency of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness

On the weekend of September 19th to 20th, four hundred ISKCON devotees will congregate at Boston’s Commonwealth Pier to celebrate the day that changed their lives forever.

For it was at the Pier that ISKCON’s founder Srila Prabhupada first stepped onto American soil on September 17, 1965. Determined to fulfil his guru’s request to preach Krishna consciousness in the West, he had endured a thirty-five-day sea journey from Calcutta on board the cargo ship, Jaladuta.

The Sri Sri Nitai Gaurachandra Harinama Tour has just wrapped up its 2009 leg after holding eighty-five Harinamas, or chanting performances, in over fifty-five Eastern European cities.

The tour has visited countries and islands along the Adriatic Sea every year since 2003, and has grown from a humble start into a travelling Festival of India with audiences of over half a million people.

This November 7, ISKCON devotees at the rural Prabhupada Village community in Sandy Ridge, North Carolina will be holding “George Fest,” the latest in a series of innovative festivals designed to attract the general public.

At previous events, devotee and outside professionals spoke on different aspects of sustainability such as transportation, farming, energy production, and solar panels.

On 20 August 2009 at Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi ISKCON's Gopal Krishna Goswami met with India's president Pratibha Devisingh Patil.

A copy of the photo book Darshan, featuring images of the deities of ISKCON centers worldwide, was presented along with a flower garland and Maha-prasadam (sanctified food) from ISKCON Delhi's Radha Parthasarathi.

American musician Gaura Vani is practicing with a motley group of musicians: Bramhachari Ananta Nitai on vocals, Krishna followers Adinath and Bhakth Gaurang on the tabla and Mridangam, faded jeans and sneaker-clad Karan on bass guitar, Florida girl Rupa Manjari on piano, Briton Jhanvi on violin, Prabhu Gaurang on bansuri and Rupa Manjari on vocals. As they croon "Govinda, Gopala", Gaura suddenly says, "Next time, let's chill on that melody. Take it cool guys!"

Srimati Radharani expressed her inconceivable benevolence to India’s youngest fashion designer Nishka Lulla when she benignly adorned the outfit designed by Nishka on Her auspicious appearance day – Radhastami which fell on 27 August 2009 this year.

Nishka won the ‘Creative Excellence Award’ for the Barbie all Doll’d–up show at the Lakme India Fashion Week 2009 where many of India’s leading designers participated to design an outfit for Barbie for her 50th anniversary. The winning design was Nishka Lulla’s whose outfit was worn by actor Katrina Kaif.

Sure the job market is tough right now. But, if you’re focused you can still be successful in finding the job that’s right for you. O Spiritual Warrior, your success will be in direct proportion to your ability to do two things: first, to meet the most pressing needs of a potential employer; and second your ability to utilize skills which give you an advantage over other applicants.

A treasured piece at the Dutch national museum - a supposed moon rock from the first manned lunar landing - is nothing more than petrified wood, curators say.

It was given to former Prime Minister Willem Drees during a goodwill tour by the three Apollo-11 astronauts shortly after their moon mission in 1969.

Recent studies found that, on average, Jews and Hindus are the most educated religious groups in the United States, with similar economic structures and the highest retention rate of believers. Yet there is little exposure of one faiths to the other. On June 14, a Hindu-Jewish interfaith meeting in New York and Washington helped the two faith groups make each other’s acquaintance.

Did Krishna exist? Most certainly, says Dr Manish Pandit, a nuclear medicine physician who teaches in the United Kingdom, proffering astronomical, archaeological, linguistic and oral evidences to make his case.

"I used to think of Krishna is a part of Hindu myth and mythology. Imagine my surprise when I came across Dr Narhari Achar (a professor of physics at the University of Memphis, Tennessee, in the US) and his research in 2004 and 2005. He had done the dating of the Mahabharata war using astronomy. I immediately tried to corroborate all his research using the regular Planetarium software and I came to the same conclusions [as him]," Pandit says.