Welcome
OUR COVER STORY in this issue takes us to Tirupati, South India, home to one of the busiest pilgrimage sites in the world. The history of the Balaji temple on top of the Tirumala Hills goes back thousands of years. Now the Hare Krsna movement has opened a stunning temple at the base of those hills. While the worship of the Krsna deity known as Balaji emphasizes the awe-inspiring nature of God, pilgrims to the Hare Krsna temple worship Radha-Krsna, the full expression of God's most intimate feature.
Each summer, another type of pilgrimage takes place in the mountains of British Columbia, Canada, when children come for a summer camp at the Hare Krsna movement's Saranagati Village. Visakha Devi Dasi, a Saranagati resident and long-time Back to Godhead contributor, reports on how the camp's organizers help the kids keep Krsna in the center while learning and having fun in a great natural setting.
From southern India to western Canada, Hare Krsna devotees are everywhere. In the 1970s, one young woman ran into them in the U.S.A., in Europe, and in India. Jambavati Devi Dasi tells how impressions from those early meetings stayed with her for two decades, until she finally decided to follow her heart and join Krsna's worldwide family.
Hare Krsna.—Nagaraja Dasa, Editor
Our Purposes
• To help all people discern reality from illusion, spirit from matter, the eternal from the temporary.
• To expose the faults of materialism.
• To offer guidance in the Vedic techniques of spiritual life.
• To preserve and spread the Vedic culture.
• To celebrate the chanting of the holy names of God as taught by Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.
• To help every living being remember and serve Sri Krsna, the Personality of Godhead.