The worldwide activities of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON)
World News
North America
The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust has published two new books by Srila Prabhupada. Narada-bhakti-sutra is a classic Sanskrit scripture on devotional service that Srila Prabhupada began in 1967 but never completed. Now his disciples have finished it. The Laws of Nature: An Infallible Justice is a compilation of some of Srila Prabhupada's talks and writings on karma, reincarnation, and devotional service. For more information, see back cover.
A drought hit ISKCON's Gita Nagari farm in Pennsylvania last summer, causing a feed shortage. So devotees are raising funds to make sure the cows and bulls are well fed during the long winter. To help, send your contribution to Adopt-A-Cow, P.O. Box 839, Port Royal, PA 17082.
Europe
"Lord Jagannatha Greets a Free Berlin," read a banner at the Berlin Rathayatra, held in September. After the festival, in the temple courtyard the devotees held an installation ceremony for Deities of Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityananda.
ISKCON Padua, Italy, has moved to a new home, a two-hundred-year-old building known as Casa de Guistina. The devotees have renamed it Prabhupada Desa "the place of Prabhupada."
Devotees in Zurich took part in four big open-air festivals last summer. They distributed 38,000 plates of prasadam.
In November, Swiss National TV aired two programs on Krsna consciousness. Also, Swiss National Radio interviewed devotees at their Roche d'Or farm, focusing on their ox training and biological farming.
India
The chariots rolled at ISKCON Bhubaneswar's Rathayatra festival last summer, as ten thousand people pulled. The parade was held the same day as the original Rathayatra in Jagannatha Puri. The festival included nine days of programs and a return procession.
Six floats with Krsna conscious themes moved through the center of town as part of the Janmastami festival at ISKCON Udhampura, in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Ten thousand people attended the three-day celebration, which included 24-hour-a-day chanting of Krsna's holy names.
Two hundred thousand people attended ISKCON Bombay's three-day Janmastami celebration. Festival-goers bathed the temple's main Deities, Sri Sri Radha Rasa-vihari, Ganges water and other sacred subtances from 1008 silver pots. Member of Parliament and veteran film-actor Mr. Sunil Dutt took part in the bathing ceremony.
Srila Prabhupada speaks out to college students in Secunderabad. Bhakta Ravi of Bhaktivedanta Youth Services in Secunderabad has started a monthly publication entitled Srila Prabhupada Speaks Out. BYS members there plan to distribute it widely at local colleges and universities.
Soviet Union
The Cable News Network (CNN) ran a story in September on devotees chanting and distributing literature in Moscow. ISKCON leaders estimate that ten thousand people in the Soviet Union are seriously practicing Krsna consciousness.
Singapore
The Radha-Krsna Deities rode a boat on Janmastami at ISKCON Singapore. Devotees set up a pond in the temple, filled with lotuses and sweet-scented water. Each of the one hundred guests got the chance to pull Their Lordships' boat.
Africa
Giriraja Swami
Hare Krishna Food for Life fed hundreds of schoolchildren during ten days of intensive prasadam distribution in Zimbabwe last summer. The Food for Life team made their base at a primary school in the small village of Maramba and traveled to schools within a sixty-mile radius.
Several years ago the Zimbabwe government had banned ISKCON. Now the government was grateful to have ISKCON give out prasadam meals to drought victims near the Mozambique border.
For more detailed news, see ISKCON's monthly newspaper, ISKCON World Review. To subscribe, see page 55. Any news from your town or village? Please let us know!
Mayapur-Vrndavana News
MAYAPUR
Youth Seminar
In December, Krsna conscious young people from various Indian states gathered in Mayapur for seminars organized by ISKCON's Bhaktivedanta Youth Services.
Mayapur-Vrndavana Festival
ISKCON's annual Mayapur-Vrndavana Pilgrimage, attended by devotees from around the world, begins March 5 with a nine-day tour of Mayapur (Navadvipa Parikrama). After celebrating Lord Caitanya's appearance on March 18, devotees will travel to Vrndavana.
ISKCON's Governing Body Commission (GBC) will meet in Mayapur February 18-March 3, just before the festival begins.
VANDAVANA
Annual Fall Pilgrimage
Devotees from around the world toured Vrndavana during ISKCON's fifth annual Vraja Mandala Parikrama, a walking pilgrimage through Krsna's holy land. The pilgrimage took place during the sacred month of Kartika (October 23-November 21).
Padayatra News
Padayatra India
At the end of November, the Padayatra was in Dvaraka for the opening of the ISKCON Padayatra Gate. The gate commemorates the Padayatra's first encirclement of India, a fourteen-thousand-kilometer walk that began in September 1984 and ended in March 1988.
The Padayatris are now walking through Gujarat on their way to Jaipur, Rajasthan.
Padayatra Europe
The ox-cart for the Belfast-to-Moscow Padayatra served as Lord Jagannatha's chariot for the first Paris Rathayatra in ten years. The European Padayatra is spending the winter at New Mayapur, ISKCON's farm in southeastern France. In April, the devotees will head for Italy.
Padayatra America
In mid-November the Padayatra devotees drove to central America, to walk through Belize, Guatemala, and El Salvador. They are also seeking permission to hold Padayatra in Cuba.
For more information about Padayatra, write to:
International Padayatra
M-119 Greater Kailash 1, New Delhi 100 048, India
Phone: 641-3249 or 641-2058
Padayatra America
4969 Mills St., Apt. 10, La Mesa, CA 91941
Phone: (619) 461-2594
Fax: (619) 463-0168
Padayatra Europe
Bhaktivedanta Manor, Letchmore Heath,
Watford, Hertfordshire WD2 8EP, England
Phone: (09) 2385-7244