Every Town and Village
A look at the worldwide activities of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON)
Delhi Suburb Gets ISKCON Temple
Delhi—Surabhi Swami, ISKCON's Minister of Architecture, used to call Punjabi Bagh, the neighborhood here where he's lived since 1981, an isolated place. Yet it has now become prominent, owing to a glittering new temple he recently opened here. The house and property were donated by Mr. and Mrs. Krishan Khanna, residents of Newark, Delaware.
Surabhi Mahārāja designed a temple that would fit into the driveway. Visitors enter through a fifty-foot marble-paved walkway covered by arches overgrown with jasmine, campaka, and mālatī flowers. Inside the temple, one sees more marble arches, a marble floor with brass inlay, and a silver-plated altar with decorations of black marble inlaid with mother of pearl. The Deities, Rādhikā Rādhikā-ramaṅa, are gorgeous.
The opening attracted and inspired more than five hundred people
Lord Jagannātha Arrives in Miami
Miami Beach, Florida—The deities of Lord Jagannātha (Kṛṣṅa), His brother, Baladeva, and His sister, Subhadrā, were recently installed here under the direction of Śrīla Hridayānanda dāsa Goswami. The deities were carved and painted in Jagannātha Purī, India, to exactly resemble the original deities at the ancient Jagannātha temple there.
Having come from India by ship, the deities arrived at the Miami temple on the same day that the original Lord Jagannātha was celebrating His famous Ratha-yātrā cart festival in Jagannātha Purī.
The deities now reside at the Miami Beach temple, along with the deities of Śrī Śrī Gaura-Nitāi and Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Brajabihārī.
ISKCON Manipur Hosts Education Seminar
Imphal, Manipur—Responding to the new national policy on education adopted by the government of India, Śrīla Bhaktisvarūpa Dāmodara Swami and the devotees of ISKCON Manipur recently organized a seminar here on the value of moral and spiritual education. Many well-known scholars attended the seminar, which was held in conjunction with the annual Janmāṣṭamī celebrations. The governor of Manipur, General K. V. Krishna Rao, former chief of the Indian Army, inaugurated the seminar.
The Indian government's new policy on education identifies the need for improving educational quality. Student unrest, cheating, and alcohol and drug abuse are increasing in the schools. Seeing an impending crisis in Indian education, participants at the seminar discussed the need for moral and spiritual education.
The seminar also included saṅkīrtana (congregational chanting of the names of God), discourses on the Vedic scriptures, and plays depicting the pastimes of Lord Kṛṣṅa and Lord Caitanya.