Devotees visiting the New Raman Reti community in Alachua, Florida this Janmastami are in for a special treat.

First introduced in 2007, the Village of Vrindavana is a miniature version of the real Indian holy place. It was created by second generation devotee Raghunatha Zaldivar and his friends, who set to work when they found themselves still buzzing with creative energy after last year’s youth festival, Alachua Kuli Mela.

When Ananta-Rupa Dasa and Arudha Dasi enrolled their five-year-old son Radhika Ramana in a private school, they expected impressive results. But sitting in on his math class, Arudha noticed that although he had finished his work, his teacher was too busy with her other students to challenge him further, and he was bored with nothing to do. Most schools, Arudha realized, cater to the needs of average students – above average children were bored, and below average children were frustrated.

This year’s European Kuli Mela in Radhadesh, Belgium, was another storming success for the infectiously spreading ISKCON youth initiative.

With 400 gurukulis (youth and adults grown up in ISKCON) attending from over twenty countries including Russia, India, America, and most of the European nations, the event was nothing short of a global phenomenon.

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."

Everyone was determined, "I must kill." Duryodhana was determined to kill Bhīma, and Bhīma was determined to kill. So when they did not listen to the instruction of Baladeva, then Baladeva left the place. He went to Dvārakā, back. Of course, Kṛṣṇa was there, because Kṛṣṇa was to give hint to Bhīma how to kill Duryodhana. So Duryodhana, by the blessings of his mother, his whole body became iron-like solid. So by beating by the Bhīma, it was not easy. So the story is that Gāndhārī, the mother of Duryodhana, she was great chaste woman. Because her husband was blind, she used to remain as blind woman covering the eyes. But she had some power. Chaste woman, anyone who sticks to the regulative principles, he gets a power, spiritual or material. He gets power. A brahmacārī gets power if he follows brahmacarya. Everyone, if we follow the prescribed rules and regulations, automatically you become powerful.

So Gāndhārī had some power. So her eldest son, Duryodhana, was advised to see the mother naked. She advised, "My dear son, tomorrow morning when you come to offer your obeisances to me, you come naked. I shall see you and you will be solidified just like iron." So he was going naked and Kṛṣṇa saw. So He asked him, "Where you are going?" "I am going to see my mother." "How is that? You are going naked? At least you have some langota(?). This is not good." So he took the instruction of Kṛṣṇa and covered the private part with a langota. And when Gāndhārī saw, she saw that he was not fully naked, so she regretted, "O my dear son, I asked you to come before me naked. Why you have got this...?" "No, Kṛṣṇa advised." Then she began to smile, that "My attempt is failure."

So Kṛṣṇa knew it, that part which was covered, that was not turned iron. The other parts turned into iron on account of seeing by Gāndhārī. So in this fight Kṛṣṇa hinted Bhīma that "You strike here. That part is not ironized." Although it is against the regulative principle to strike the opponent party below this waist, Kṛṣṇa advised that "Unless you transgress this law, you cannot kill him." So he was stroken below the waist, and he was not killed, but his waist was broken. Therefore it is said vṛkodarāviddha-gadābhimarśa. Then he died.

After a two-year hiatus, the Cleveland Nama Hatta Program, a multi-cultural group of “Hare Krsnas” and their well-wishers in the greater Cleveland, Ohio area, again hosted the Lord Have Mercy Festival. Servants of God from a variety of religious traditions were invited to sing, dance, recite poetry, enact dramas and more, to thank God for His mercy and act in a spirit of unity and harmony.

A new book entitled 'No Time to Slumber for the Hindu Tiger' by Mr Frank Ward, will be launched and blessed on Sunday 24th August during Bhaktivedanta Manor's famous Janmastami festival, in Aldenham near Watford, Herts.
The book is a personal and vivid account of the epic pioneering struggle against the persecution and intimidation of Bhaktivedanta Manor by its local Council, with support by the central government of the day.

Bhaktivedanta Manor Krishna Temple situated in the Hertfordshire countryside will attract over 65,000 people over two days during this Bank Holiday weekend to celebrate the 5000 year-old Indian festival of Janmashtami.

The kitchens of the Temple will be working 24 hours to prepare free vegetarian meals of everyone who comes the festival.

PURI: Chief priest Sri Jagannath Temple Laxmi Narayan Patjoshi Mohapatra died of cardiac arrest here today triggering uncertainty over his successor as his son is a minor to be anointed to the hereditary post. Mohapatra, who was only 32, was ill for some time. He is survived by wife, daughter and son.

Almaty regional Public Prosecutor's Office seems keen to seize property from religious communities, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. Six property cases against Christian and Muslim religious organisations in the region are known to have been initiated since mid-June. Amongst them is Agafe Protestant Church, the regional Economic Court ruling – despite numerous violations of due process – that the Church's building and land should be confiscated. A defence lawyer has received anonymous death threats, and an appeal will take place on 27 August. The regions' Hare Krishna commune also continues to struggle to retain its property.

Next year marks the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin's On The Origin Of Species. The momentous occasion will be celebrated with new books, articles, documentaries and editorials. One commentator has called for a public holiday in Britain to honour Darwin - the "humble Shrewsbury family man who changed the world forever".

For people growing up in poor neighborhoods in the city, nature is usually something ugly, little more than the weeds smothering fields or sprouting from sidewalk cracks.

Eight years ago, Detroiter Tom Milano, 60, wanted to show his eastside neighbors a glimpse of the beautiful side of nature by creating a thick pond garden in the front yard of his old brick bungalow home. The display was so well received that creating gardens for others turned into his unusual job.

Brimming with lime-hued succulents and a lush collection of agaves, one shooting spiky leaves 10 feet into the air, it's a head-turning garden smack in the middle of Long Beach's asphalt jungle. But the gardener who designed it doesn't want you to know his last name, since his handiwork isn't exactly legit. It's on a traffic island he commandeered.

Human free will might seem like the squishiest of philosophical subjects, way beyond the realm of mathematical demonstration. But two highly regarded Princeton mathematicians, John Conway and Simon Kochen, claim to have proven that if humans have even the tiniest amount of free will, then atoms themselves must also behave unpredictably.