On April 22-25, 2009, at a convention center just outside Washington, D.C., members of the Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA) met for their annual national convention and trade show. Amid the booths of vendors of furniture, ice machines, accounting software, and just about everything else related to the hospitality industry, stood a booth of a different kind, in which a group of earnest volunteers passed out copies of Bhagavad-Gita and made a humble request to the assembled hotel and motel owners: “Please let us provide copies of Bhagavad-Gita to place in your rooms alongside the Gideons Bibles.”

Recently, Food For Life Slovenia was present at 'Škisova tržnica' the biggest Slovenian students' clubs festival with more than 3o.ooo students in attendance. Twenty volunteers prepared and distributed thousands of cookies, sandwichs, puris and papadams to students and participants.

The Council for the Indian Secondary Certificate of Education (CISCE) released their final exam results recently and ISKCON Vrindavana's Bhaktivedanta Gurukula and International School (BGIS) students in the 10th and 12th grade had a 100% pass rate.

ISKCON's Krishna Valley self-sufficient rural project in Hungary now attracts 30,000 tourists per year. Why did these young people turn to a natural and simple life? What is the mission of their community? Gaura-Sakti Dasa, the president of Krishna Valley ISKCON community, answers these questions for Krishna Valley Magazine (published by Manorama Dasa, Hungarian Society for Krishna Consciousness).

On May 21, 2009 the Board of Directors of Prabhupada Village (Sandy Ridge, North Carolina) decided to affiliate with ISKCON, thereby joining the greater communities of ISKCON temples throughout the world. Tamohara Dasa was selected as the GBC representative.

Last week, ISKCON News reported on a letter we had received from Chinmoydham Dasa of Chittagong in Bangladesh, detailing a May 14 attack on the ISKCON temple there.

Readers and other websites immediately jumped on the word “terrorists” used in the report, assuming that the attackers were Islamic Jihadists. However, ISKCON News never stated this, and only included the word because no others were used to reference the attackers in Chinmoydham’s letter.

New York – When kirtan band As Kindred Spirits—featuring second-gen Krishna devotees Gauravani Buchwald, Acyuta Gopi Dasi, and a host of other talented musicians—wanted to celebrate the launch of their new CD Ten Million Moons in style, they did what rock stars have been doing for ages: they threw a party. But the release party, held on May 16 at the Ashtanga Yoga Studio in New York’s trendy SoHo district, included performances from the band and guest musicians, a vegan feast, and an eclectic crowd of yogis, devotees, and music lovers.

Since it was released earlier this year, Journey Home, the autobiography of ISKCON leader and Vaishnava guru Radhanath Swami, has been a must-read for many Krishna devotees. In what is, perhaps, a sign of things to come, the book has begun to win fans outside of the devotee community, as well. BKS Iyengar, considered one of the foremost yoga teachers in the world wrote an enthusiastic endorsement for the book, as did celebrated yogini Shiva Rea and Ayurveda scholar David Frawley.

Cambridge, MA. I recently wrote a remembrance of a very old swami, Swami Sarvagatananda of the Ramakrishna Vedanta Society. This time, I write of a middle-aged swami, who is by all accounts still very active in his ministry.

The occasion is that recently I was sent a copy of The Journey Home: Autobiography of an American Swami, and asked if I could review it for a journal.

ISKCON’s Bhaktivedanta College in Belgium, which currently has 27 students from 20 countries and is accredited by University of Wales, Lampeter, inaugurated the opening of its new library and offices this May 17.

The College has been in operation since 2002, but this new development marks a major step in its history.

A year ago, New Zealand's sport and television celebrity Marc Ellis began filming "How the Other Half Lives", a reality program that focuses on breaking down the religious and cultural stereotypes of New Zealand minority groups. He opened the series with a feature on Auckland's semi-rural ISKCON community and cast himself as a participating member for a few days.

California pastor David Jones and his wife Mary Jones were questioned by San Diego County officials and threatened with fines over a weekly Bible study in their residence in Bonita, California, according to several news reports and televised interviews. The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty has offered to assist the couple or others facing the same situation in California or elsewhere in the U.S.

Baltimore’s Mayor, Sheila Dixon, has named May 30, 2009 as “Hare Krishna Ratha Yatra Day” in a glowing proclamation.

“The City of Baltimore celebrates its diverse community and has respect for all groups who have chosen to make this city their home,” writes the Mayor in the official document.

An update to this story may be read here.

On May 18, ISKCON News Weekly received a distraught message from an obviously emotional monk at ISKCON’s Nandankanan Sri Sri Gour Nitai Ashram in Chittagong, the main seaport of Bangladesh.

On May 14 at 3pm, the devotee said, he and his peers were busy preparing for a weekend festival when fifty to sixty terrorists burst into the temple, brandishing knives and iron bars.

Thursday, May 7, Alachua, Florida -- I settled down on my narrow bunk, people around me stacked in three tiers like tightly packed stowaways and beginning to snore. It wasn’t a five-star hotel, but it was comfortable enough -- and ISKCON Youth Ministry’s Krishna Culture Festival Tour bus was definitely the way to travel. Soon the hum of the road would send me to sleep, and save for a bit of tossing and turning, I’d stay that way for at least half of our sixteen-hour journey.

ISKCON Juhu celebrated an historical event on 17 May 2009 when the presiding Deities Sri Sri Radha Rasabihari along with Sri Sri Garu Nitai and Sri Sri Sita Rama Laxman Hanuman were anointed with chandan for the first time ever since Their installation by Srila Prabhupada in the seventies.

New York City – More than two hundred devotees gathered together to welcome the small (chota in Sanskrit) deities of Sri Sri Radha-Murlidhar to a Hare Krishna temple here, where They join larger deities of the same name. The last time the two sets of deities were worshiped together was more than twenty years ago, in Their original home in Cleveland, Ohio. The two day festival, held on May 2 and 3, featured abhishek (sacred bathing of the deities), kirtan, and devotees sharing memories of the deities over the years.

Washington, DC – For the more than fifty ISKCON devotees who gathered here to attend the “Building Bridges” conference last month, there was good news and bad news. The bad news was that – judging by comments made by almost all of the conference’s esteemed presenters – the “good old days” of ISKCON’s in-your-face preaching have been officially declared dead. The good news, of course, was that the “good old days” of ISKCON’s in-your-face preaching have been officially declared dead.

Marian Thomas, a devotee who attended ISKCON’s Festival of Inspiration in New Vrindaban, West Virginia this May, has passed away due to injuries sustained after a car crash.

Marian had served at ISKCON Columbus and had recently moved to Athens, Ohio. She was returning to Athens from New Vrindaban following the Festival of Inspiration.

In our latest photo-journalism piece blogger Manoj, an Indian living in Australia, shares a highlight of his recent trip to ISKCON’s headquarters in holy Mayapur, India. There, he caught a behind-the-scenes glimpse of how the hard-working temple cooks prepare food for thousands of devotees.