ISKCON NewsThe News Agency of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness

In the US elections on November 6th, former Honolulu City Councilwoman and Democratic State Representative Tulsi Gabbard became the first practicing Hindu to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.

The Yamuna Bachao Yatra continued to camp in Delhi after the government didn't accept all their demands. Yamuna Rakshak Dal members were in a meeting with water resources ministry officials till late Wednesday night and are expecting an outcome by midnight.

Imphal, Nov. 12: The Iskcon temple in the Manipur capital is getting ready to showcase Hindu culture and religion, as practised around the world, during a six-day-long cultural extravaganza later this month.

ISKCON guru Mukunda Goswami’s long-awaited memoir of the early days of the Hare Krishna Movement in New York, San Francisco, and London—entitled Miracle on Second Avenue—was ceremonially “offered” to the Deities of Sri-Sri Pancha-Tattva at ISKCON’s headquarters in Mayapur, West Bengal on February 23rd.

The giant pink wedding cake of a building stands in bold contrast to nearby houses painted polite Northwest shades of beige and taupe.

Naresh Bhatt beams as he gives a tour of this new temple in Sammamish. He chose the colors. Happy, blissful colors, he says.

Inside, as the service begins, Bhatt joins his wife, two daughters and many others — most of Indian descent — who chant exuberantly: "Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare."

The recent rape case in New Delhi gave ammunition to certain academicians to spill venom on Vedic literatures. These scholars unequivocally attribute all the wrongs happening in India as the outcome of the Vedic Culture. To substantiate their point they oft quote Vedas but mostly wrongly.

Protesters angry over an amateurish American-made video denouncing Islam attacked the United States Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, on Tuesday, killing a State Department officer, while Egyptian demonstrators stormed over the fortified walls of the United States Embassy.

The recent shooting in Tucson, Arizona, USA has saturated the media, sparking accusations of political influence from the Tea Party and a rancorous political climate to explain why the shooter decided to open fire. "The tragedy in Arizona signals how desperately Americans need to commit to restoring some sanity and civility to our public discourse" - an author says.

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.

On December 16th, 2012, a photo exhibition opened at the Sri Sri Doyal Nitai Sacisuta temple in Moscow. The exposition is entitled "Hare Krishna, Moscow!" It consists of 108 photographs by Alexey Koshelev and is dedicated to his teacher, professor of arts Alexander Lapin, who has left this world on October 25th, 2012.

On the day of Aksaya Tritiya in Vrindavan, all large temple deities are covered with chandan (sandalwood) paste, and not a bit of cloth is used to cover the deities in the afternoon. The cooling effect of this substance provides relief from the scorching heat of summer. This practice is also followed increasingly by ISKCON temples all over the world, but it has been observed since time immemorial.

Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin has assured there will be no delays in the implementation of a program for building 200 new Orthodox churches in Moscow.

Quinoa is native to South America. The pre-Columbian Incas saw it as a sacred food, calling it chisaya mama (mother grain). They planted the first seeds of the season in religious ceremonies using golden tools. Depriving the people of quinoa was one of the means the Spanish used to conquer the Incas.

Semolina halava is the most popular dessert served at any of the Hare Krishna restaurants worldwide. This version of the famous hot, fluffy pudding with juicy raisins, raw sugar, and walnut pieces rates high in the "halava-top-ten". I have cooked halava for 4 or 5 persons and for 1500 persons; either way, following the same basic steps yields equally stunning results.

The secret of good halava is to roast the semolina very slowly for at least 20 minutes, with enough butter so as not to scorch the grains. Steam the finished halava over very low heat with a tight-fitting lid for 5 minutes to fully plump the semolina grains; then allow it to sit covered for another 5 minutes. Fluffy, plump grained halava is best served hot, on its own, or with a spoonful of cream or custard. Serves 6 - 8 persons, or a couple of halava addicts.

An interesting new trend is the recent proliferation of ISKCON devotee yoga teachers. Knowing that Srila Prabhupada, who taught Bhakti-yoga, did not place any emphasis on physical yoga exercise, how did they end up as yoga teachers? Is it simply a way of earning a living for them, or is there more to it?

A five-day inter-collegiate cultural event, ‘Rasa Fest', organized by ISKCON, Hubli-Dharwad, India, started on Monday, the 23rd of November. It was inaugurated by astrologer Shymrao Ramrao Jumnalkar on the ISKCON premises.

The claim is that all our environmental problems can be solved by listening to the compelling call of our timeless culture. Pollution, as stated in the scriptures, is a direct result of “over-consumption”, which in turn is a product of greed, and greed is generated by materialism combined with secularism.

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.

"It was a profound lesson that when real interfaith exchange happens, it’s not about glossing over the differences or trying to convert one another. It’s about using those differences, and one’s appreciation for those differences, to go deeper in one’s own faith, and one’s own love for God.”