Dr. Hansa Medley wakes up at 3:30 a.m. once a week and walks to the Hare Krishna Temple just around the corner from her small bungalow in northwest Houston. There she joins her mother, sister and three other devotees to prepare the temple's nine deities for the day. Before the first Arati ceremony at 4:30 a.m., they carefully lay out special outfits for eight statues, choosing coordinating jewelry and face paint.

Yoga enthusiasts all over Toronto untangled their arms and legs this April to check out InSpirit, a nine-day yoga festival with a difference billed as “The Eternal Spiritual Experience.” Events held at various venues around the city, including the University of Toronto, were designed to help people discover the ancient teachings of the East and their practical application to everyday life.

The European division of ISKCON Communications met this April at ISKCON’s picturesque chateau in Radhadesh, Belgium, with over thirty attendees from countries as diverse as Ireland, Latvia, Sweden and Italy. As outlined by Shaunaka Rishi Dasa at the meeting’s outset, much of the Communications team’s work since 1982 has been focused on dealing with challenges to ISKCON's authenticity – and sometimes even its right to exist.

In the Bhagavad Gita Krishna tells us "By worship of the Lord, who is the source of all beings and who is all-pervading, a man can attain perfection through performing his own work." Partha-sarathi Dasa is a devotee of Lord Krishna. Currently “his own work” is being a U.S. army soldier on active service in Iraq. Despite his circumstances, he is providing an example we can all draw on: In any situation you can be Krishna Conscious, not only in the best of times, but also in the worst of times.

Sacinandana Swami is here to teach us nothing that we do not already know. The German Hare Krishna monk is a kind of celebrity within the International Society for Krishna Consciousness community. He spoke at the Kimmel Center last Monday night and at a Village Hare Krishna temple last Tuesday as part of his month-long visit to the United States.

ISKCON devotees joined San Diego’s Earth Day parade, one of the biggest in America, this Sunday April 20 for their 12th year in a row.

Two hundred devotees participated, pulling a modest but beautifully decorated Ratha-yatra cart from one end of Balboa Park to the other, and showering onlookers with flower petals.

US Military Base, Iraq, April 17, 2008 – It’s my fifth year on active duty as a sergeant here in Iraq, and I’m back doing missions, which means long days. But I still rise early, worship my salagram sila deities of the Lord, and chant Hare Krishna as if I can die at any moment – which, here, is a reality.

Food for Life Vrindavana, not content with simply making an effort this Earth Day (April 22) is running several full-time environmental projects to beautify Krishna’s birthplace.

First up is Project Varahadeva, launched in April 2003.

HONG KONG: By day, Kenneth Valpey dons his academic robes to elevate his students at the Chinese University of Hong Kong to a higher orbit of understanding about Indian religions and cultures.

But come evening, he assumes another avatar. He slips into something a little more comfortable — like a pristine white dhoti-kurta and a wrap-around angavastram — and sermonizes on the Bhagavad Gita to the devotees of Krishna in Hong Kong.

Hundreds of students find their way to the Plaza of the Americas every weekday to eat a $4 vegetarian meal served by the Hare Krishnas.

Some are interested enough to pick up a book off the self-service rack. A few attend classes on yoga or meditation at the Hare Krishna House on Northwest 14th Street.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Dr. Ravi Gupta, a professor of Hinduism at William and Mary College in Williamsburg, Virginia, and an initiated brahmana priest of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), presented a gift of an elaborate OM symbol to Pope Benedict XVI at an interfaith gathering in Washington, D.C., on behalf of the Hindu American community on Thursday, April 17.

Leading policy makers for the Prince’s Trust, a British charity that helps young people aged 14-30, visited London’s Bhaktivedanta Manor on April 11.

Formed by Prince Charles of Wales in 1976, the charity provides training, business start-up support, and ongoing mentoring and advice to young people who would benefit from additional help.

This summer, as they do every year, ISKCON Youth Ministry volunteer Manu Dasa and fifty-five youth will travel across the United States and Canada, performing at and helping set up eight Rathayatras around the country.

But for the past three years, they’ve been upping their game.

Washington, D.C. – Dr. Ravi Gupta, 25-year-old college professor, will meet Pope Benedict XVI on April 17, and will present His Holiness with an incense burner in the shape of the sacred Hindu symbol, Om. Grateful for the opportunity, Gupta hopes that the meeting will go beyond a formality, and will lead to a deeper exchange between Catholics and Hindus.

Devotees and Deities at Sri Sri Radha Gopinatha temple in Sydney, Australia, joined an estimated 50 million people worldwide in making a statement on climate change and energy consumption.

On Saturday, March 29th people across the world acted together to switch off their electric lights for an hour.

An unusual sight presented itself at ISKCON Manila, in the Philippines this February: Franciscan monks chanting and dancing along with Hare Krishna devotees.

The 75-strong group visited the temple as part of ISKCON Manila’s ongoing interfaith outreach, taking part in an interactive discussion on the teachings of Bhagavad-Gita.

A HARE KRISHNA who videotaped the aftermath of Shane Warne crashing his Mercedes into a Melbourne tram says "nothing happens by chance".

And as part of his unexpected Karma, devotee Danda Karanya Das, 33, plans to sell the shards of broken brake lights for a Krishna food charity.

Anuttama Dasa, ISKCON’s Minister of Communications and a senior editorial advisor for ISKCON News, was elected the Vice President of the Religion Communicators Council (RCC), an interfaith association of religion communicators at work in print and electronic communication, marketing and in public relations, at that organization’s annual convention in Washington D.C. on April 3-5.

In 2007 and 2008 so far, Hare Krishna monk Robert Edwards has traveled 1,290 miles across the rural English counties of Somerset and Devon, hosted 25 meditation groups, and distributed over 1,000 books.

His adventure is inspired by the ancient Indian tradition of “Padayatra,” meaning pilgrimage on foot.

On April 6, Lord Jagannatha’s chariot parade rolled out on the streets of Solapur, Maharastra, India for the first time.

Thousands packed the streets, watching as devotees pulled the ropes of Jagannatha’s cart, waved flags, danced and chanted the Hare Krishna mantra.