This December 3rd to 9th, the 2009 Parliament of the World’s Religions will be held at the Convention and Exhibition Centre in Melbourne, Australia. The world’s largest global interfaith gathering, it will include 10,000 participants from over 80 countries and represent dozens of religious and faith traditions.

It’s summer time in England, 4.30am, and the orange rays of early morning sunshine flood through the old windows of Bhaktivedanta Manor. It’s mid-week but the temple room is packed with saffron clad celibate monks—commonly known as brahmacharis. Enthusiastic, bright-faced, young, old, and somewhere in between, dancing and swaying before the deities.

This July 12, ISKCON Manipur drew an enthusiastic audience from far and wide for their staging of Gaura Lila in Imphal, the country’s capital city. A traditional performing art of Manipur, the dance/drama is based on events that took place in the life of Shri Chaitanya, the 15th century founder of Gaudiya Vaishnavaism who promoted worship of God through singing His praises.

Internet access has provided ISKCON members with the opportunity to create web sites which reach out to the world in a variety of ways. These web sites become transcendental when they continue Srila Prabhupada’s mission.

In the 1980's Padmapani Dasa published the The Vaisnava Journal which he posted to devotees in many countries. “I've always wanted to help spread Srila Prabhupada's glories around the world,” Padmapani says.

Organizers for the Festival of India had to dig deeper into festival funds
after several hiccups caused by the ongoing Toronto city workers' strike
pushed them off Centre Island.

"This has hit us hard financially," said the festival's chairperson, Krishna
Sharma yesterday. "Suddenly we had to reorganize a brand new festival in about
two weeks time."

PARSIPPANY--A new Hare Krishna temple would include a gift shop and bedrooms for pilgrims visiting the religious movement's only northern New Jersey temple, according to a member of the congregation.

But that likely wouldn't contribute to a spike in traffic in the Troy Road neighborhood the Radha-Krishna Temple is eyeing for relocation, worshipper Mehul Barot told the township zoning board Wednesday night.

This July 16 – 18 promises to see one of the biggest festivals in the history of ISKCON Los Angeles, as the “New Dwaraka” community celebrates its fortieth anniversary of worshiping Sri-Sri Rukmini-Dwarakanatha.

Each of the three festival days, devotees and guests will swing these smaller, moveable counterparts to ISKCON LA’s larger Rukmini-Dwarakadish deities in a traditional ceremony called Julana-yatra.

Four hundred devotees at ISKCON Italy’s Villa Vrindavana celebrated their temple’s 30th anniversary this July 11th and 12th with festive exuberance. The program included an ancient-style fire sacrifice, public chanting in Florence’s city center, a multimedia show, musical and dance performances, leisure activities and finally, a sumptuous feast.

This July 8th, devotees from New Yogapitha in Slovenia completed Eco-Caravan 2009, their sixteen-day padayatra—literally translated as “festival on foot.” The cross-country pilgrimage, aimed at spreading spiritual and environmental awareness, was their eighth in a row.

The pilgrimage got off to a strong start with over seventy devotees chanting Hare Krishna, dancing, and distributing spiritual books and food.

Twenty ISKCON devotees from Croatia, Serbia, Macedonia and the USA have set out from the Croatian city of Karlovac on their sixth annual tour of Harinams, or public chanting shows. Their mission: to hold ninety-five Harinams in sixty-five cities along the coast of the Adriatic Sea.

As the four-thousand-strong crowd began to disperse, Yasomatinandana Dasa and other Russian ISKCON leaders sighed happily and thanked Lord Krishna for the festival’s success. It was the 17th anniversary of Moscow’s Sri Sri Dayal-Nitai Sacisuta deities, and over the weekend of June 6th and 7th, they had held a huge Ratha Yatra procession with a special self-propelled vehicle—the only one in the world to have a registered state number.

New Govardhana is an ISKCON farm at Eungella near Murwillumbah in Northern New South Wales, Australia. Each year the devotees at New Govardhana hold a Ratha Yatra festival and many other devotees and well wishers come from all over the region to join in the celebration.

In Vrindavana, India, work is underway on repairing and remodeling the Samadhi (mausoleum) of Sanatana Goswami, a great sixteenth century saint and author.

Sanatana was a principle disciple of Gaudiya Vaishnavism founder Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, and the seniormost of the famous Six Goswamis of Vrindavana. The Samadhi of his younger brother, Rupa Goswami, was remodeled by ISKCON in 2007.

Montreal, Canada: You can bet that any festival that has been celebrated for thousands of years has a lot of life in it. Plus, what could be better than free curry and pointers on reincarnation?

A mini version of the Festival of the Chariot, known as Ratha Yatra in India, takes place all this weekend, starting with a big parade on Saturday at 11 a.m. at the corner of Sherbrooke and St-Laurent and settling down on Sunday in Jeanne-Mance Park.

As an offering to His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada on his 50th sannyasa anniversary, ISKCON Vrindavan, ISKCON Pune and Bhaktivedanta Gurukula and International School - Vrindavan have jointly launched the prestigious All-India Bhaktivedanta Swami Literary Quiz for ISKCON children between 10-15 years.

The organizers are expecting thousands of entries from temples all over India.

HUBLI: Around 8,000 students from different schools in Hubli-Dharwad cities will exhibit their talent during the 11-day Iskcon Heritage Fest that will commence on Friday.

A total of 29 contests based on Indian heritage comprising drama, dance, rangoli, vocal music, vedic quiz, painting, fancy dress, flower decoration, cookery and others will be held.

On Sunday 28th June London’s Ratha-yatra returned to the streets of the British capital. London was illuminated by the wonderful colours and sounds of the festival, a vibrant celebration of Vaishnava culture and spirituality in the city.

Today’s world isn’t just hectic and stressful for adults. Youth must juggle school or college, home studying, exams, and part-time jobs while holding on to some semblance of a social life. No surprise that every so often, it’s time for a much needed break. But while some choose drinking, partying and dogged pursuit of casual sex, ISKCON’s Pandava Sena youth group are looking for a true break away from it all this summer: a sample of the simple life.

For decades now ISKCON devotees have also been part of the Glastonbury experience. Despite the fact that the festival coincided with London Rathayatra this year, a dedicated team of 20 devotees went down to make a spiritual contribution to the event. “For years the organizers have given us free tickets and a good spot for putting up our tent,” explains team leader Giridhari Dasa, “So we reciprocate by giving people a helping hand and genuine festive experience.”

A new biography of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, a highly influential teacher of Gaudiya Vaishnavism and the guru of ISKCON founder Srila Prabhupada, has been completed this June.

Prabhupada disciple Bhakti Vikasa Swami spent over twenty years researching the book, titled Sri Bhaktisiddhanta Vaibhava, and at three volumes and 1,500 pages, it’s clear his efforts have paid off.