Today ISKCON in Australia and New Zealand includes four temples and three farms totaling more than 1,200 acres. It has opened four vegetarian restaurants, initiated two drug rehabilitation programs, and established the Ratha-yatra chariot festival.
Full-time devotees number three hundred in Britain and Life Members and other supporters tally in the tens of thousands. They have, for the most part, come in contact with devotees through daily street chanting parties and ISKCON publications.
Delicious, traditional Vedic cuisine was part of the legacy Krsna consciousness brought to Western shores. Eating, like everything else for Krsna devotees, is a part of the complete spiritual experience of life.
As we began to work on Prabhupada’s home, it began to take on the shape of a palace. This was not the original conception—the original idea was rather modest.
We didn’t have, any kind of professionally drawn architectural plan. It’s not a matter of what inspired the Palace. It’s a matter of who inspired the Palace. That was His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.
Two hours from Sydney, the Society has acquired a new farm, Bhaktivedanta Ashram—136 acres of mandarin orchards, vegetable gardens, and forested hills, near the Colo River.
The grand opening of ISKCON’s Sri Sri Radha-Radhanatha temple drew 100,000 visitors, including leaders of the Afrikaans, English, black, and Asian communities.
In the spirit of Srila Prabhupada’s voyage to America in 1965, devotees are bringing Krishna consciousness to the Hawaiian Islands on the Jaladutta II boat.
The Bhagavad-Gita is an authoritative statement given to Arjuna by Lord Krishna. It must be borne in the mind that the Bhagavad-Gita was spoken on a battlefield. Before the battle, Arjuna declined to fight with his own kinsmen.
The sage does not make any distinction on the basis of color, intelligence or species. He sees every living entity as a small particle of spirit soul.
In London on Soho Street just off Oxford Street, English devotees of Lord Krsna have opened a new cultural center that includes a temple, a theater, and a vegetarian restaurant.
The original consciousness of the self cannot be awakened as long as it is contaminated by material affection. The soul in his pure state does not want anything material.
Knowledge is the solution. And for knowledge we have to go to the right person, the one who has actually seen or experienced the Absolute Truth. Unless we find such a person there is very little chance for our making spiritual advancement.
Something of a minor marvel is taking shape in the hills of Marshall County, where members of the Hare Krishna religious community have sacrificed over the past four years to complete a “labor of love”—a temple in honor of their spiritual master.
Devotees outside the St. Louis center of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. 1976.
For thousands of years devotees in India have known that we can personally see and serve the Lord in His Deity form. Now, to the Western mind this idea may seem unfamiliar, but it’s easy to understand.
Find out more about Krishna consciousness in this issue of BACK TO GODHEAD magazine.
After instructing the sculptor on the few changes I wanted made, I saw two rough chunks of marble—one white and the other black—that were to become the Deities of Balarama and Krishna. I was spellbound.
I first learned of Srila Prabhupada’s plan for a “heaven on earth” in Vrindavan, India in May of 1970. He asked me to investigate a report that the king of Bharatpur wanted to give us one of his many Vrindavan palaces.
We want to attract people from all over the world to visit the holy land of Lord Krishna’s birth—and to provide nice facilities for them when they come. Vrindavan is a land of great spiritual potency. Anyone who visits will automatically chant the holy names of the Lord.