ISKCON New York Gets Its Own TV Show

The weekly Tuesday programs at ISKCON’s first ever center on New York’s 26 2^nd Avenue have been opened up to a potential audience of up to three million people, via a public access TV station.

“A while back I was distributing books on the street when someone suggested that I look into Manhattan Neighborhood Network(MNN), the public access TV station for the borough of Manhattan,” says Muralidhara-priya Dasa, a student from 26 2^nd Ave’s ‘East Village Ashram.’ “They said the network would give me my own TV show and the equipment to film it.”

Excited at the outreach prospects, Muralidhara-priya researched MNN’s requirements, and found that all he had to do was reside in Manhattan and take their free training courses. He recalls: “I thought – ‘A free training course, free professional filming equipment, and a free weekly TV series? Wow, this is too good to be true.’ But sure enough, as soon as I completed the course and applied for a TV series, I received one!”

The resulting show, a professionally filmed and edited version of 26 2^nd Avenue’s Tuesday programs, is dubbed Post-Modern Vedanta. “It sounds hip and people can tell it’s going to have an eastern flavor,” Muralidhyara-priya explains. “We used the word post-modern because we adapted our style of preaching from a Christian book called Preaching to a Postmodern World: A Guide to Reaching Twenty-first Century Listeners, by Graham Johnston. It discusses people’s state of consciousness in the post-modern era, and how to reach them through it.”

The pilot episode of Post-Modern Vedanta aired on Sunday February 15 on channels 57 of Time Warner Cable, 84 of RCN cable, and 35 of Verizon FIOS, with a re-run due on Wednesday the 25^th at 4pm. In the show’s intro, congregation member and actress Laura Fay looks like a typical harassed New Yorker trying to catch the subway, until you realize she’s rushing to get to 26 2^nd Ave on time. The episode features ISKCON second-generation devotee Gaura Vani Dasa playing music with members of his As Kindred Spirits kirtan band, and explaining the meaning of kirtan.

“Being a pilot, there were some technical difficulties, particularly with sound quality, but these have been resolved,” says Muralidhara-priya. “Any further suggestions for improvements are greatly welcomed.”

26 2^nd Avenue devotees will now be filming their Tuesday program every week, with a new 58-minute episode of Post-Modern Vedanta – 40 minutes of spiritual discussion and 18 minutes of kirtan music – airing every week from mid March. The broadcast time is yet to be set, but episodes can be watched live at the Manhattan Neighborhood Network’s website, www.mnn.org.

All episodes will also be archived for online viewing at http://post-modernvedanta.blip.tv, where the pilot and second episode, featuring 26 2^nd Ave temple president Yajna Purusa Dasa – are already available. The upcoming third episode will feature a special guest – travelling preacher Indradyumna Swami.

Muralidhara Priya hopes the show will attract more people to attend programs at 26 2^nd Ave. “We hope to see the results within the next few months, especially once we’ve started advertising it in our newspaper Spirit Matters,” he says. “We also plan to start looking for an audience beyond Manhattan once the first season is done in four months time -- cable television networks in New York’s four other boroughs are waiting!”