ISKCON’s Governing Body Commission to Meet in Mayapur

By ISKCON News Staff on 29 Jan 2010

The Governing Body Commission (GBC), ISKCON's managerial authority.

ISKCON’s Governing Body Commission will gather for its Annual General Meetings from February 6th to 17th this year in Sridham Mayapur, West Bengal.

This year’s Executive Committee consists of Special Duty Officer Kavichandra Swami, Second-Vice Chairman Hridaya Chaitanya Dasa, Vice-Chairman Madhu Sevita Dasa, and Chairman Romapada Swami.

“He is a really hands-on administrator and tackles lots of serious issues very responsibly,” says Corresponding Secretary Ananda Tirtha Dasa of Romapada Swami. “In other words, he’s not simply hoping for his term to quickly end without incident so he can go back to his regular life.”

The GBC Executive Committee rotates, with a new Chairman every year, and an entirely new Committee every three years. A new Chairman will be chosen on the last day of this February’s meetings.

As well as the Executive Committee, thirty-three full voting GBC members, several non-voting GBCs and twenty-five GBC deputies will also attend the meetings. In addition, this year, nine devotees from various regional bodies around the world have been invited to attend as guests to get a better idea of how the GBC works.

The first day—and every day—of the 2010 meetings will open with a Guru Puja offering and Kirtan in honor of ISKCON’s founder Srila Prabhupada. After welcoming everyone, Chairman Romapada Swami will make an address about the Executive Committee’s work throughout the year. Team-building exercises will be given to begin, and later to wrap up, the meetings.

On the first day the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, whose North American branch has seen a substantial increase in sales in 2009, will make a presentation on book distribution. The first five days of the meetings will focus heavily on Strategic Planning. Also receiving plenty of attention during the first week of the meetings will be the Sannyasa, Varnashrama and Guru Services Committees.

The GBC will take a half-day on February 10th to observe the sacred fast day Vijaya Ekadasi, during which they will spend two hours reading Srila Prabhupada’s books and chanting Hare Krishna together.

Some fascinating presentations will crop up in the second week of the meetings, starting off with “Eco Valley + Sustainability = Internationally?” by Radha Krishna Dasa, director of ISKCON Hungary’s self-sufficient Krishna Valley project.

Next up Hari Sauri Dasa will make a presentation on Mayapur’s Bhaktivedanta Research Centre, which plans to collect, preserve and digitize Gaudiya Vaishnava literature from Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s time until the present as well as to encourage study, translation and research on these treasured texts.

Reporting on the activities of ISKCON’s Child Protection Office will be former director Tamohara Dasa and recently appointed new director Campakalata Dasi. Meanwhile, Sesa Dasa will report on ISKCON’s Education Development Ministry.

On the last day of the meetings candidates for sannyasa, the renounced order of life, will be considered, while that evening the GBC will head to the Mayapur Festival’s main tent for a public discussion.

Localized issues will also be discussed in separate meetings, with the North American and European GBCs meeting on February 15th and 18th respectively.

Although the AGM usually end before the Mayapur Festival begins, this year the GBC will have to try and find time within their busy schedule to catch the spiritual entertainment on offer. Hitting the Mayapur Festival’s Main Stage from February 14th to 23rd will be dramas by ISKCON’s premier director Bhaktimarg Swami, as well as dance, bhajan bands, clowns, mimes and more.

Please visit ISKCON News during the last week of February for more details on the Annual General Meetings, and in late March to read about the latest GBC resolutions.

Secondary Schools to Follow UK’s First Hindu State Primary

By Madhava Smullen on 29 Jan 2010

The I-Foundation—the leading Hindu charity behind the UK’s first and so far only Hindu state school—has already announced plans to build at least one secondary school within the next six years, with sites earmarked in North London and Leicester.

Although the Krishna Avanti School only officially opened in September 2008, and moved to a permanent premises as recently as September of last year, it is already receiving five applicants for every two of its 240 places.

There’s a reason why the school, located in the London borough of Harrow, is so popular. Hindus feel that after integrating so quietly into British society, this is a chance for them to celebrate their own identity and to educate their children in a setting that evokes their motherland’s faith and culture.

Krishna Avanti’s look is the first unique element that makes it stand out from the crowd. The state-of-the-art design has the highest aspirations for sustainability and conservation, with wood-clad buildings, large expanses of light and grass-covered roofs. And rising from the center of the campus is a white marble Indian-style temple, looking distinctly out of place against the surrounding suburban landscape.

Students at the School study the national curriculum, but they are also taught much that pertains to their faith. Every morning, they chant Sanskrit prayers in front of deities of Krishna-Balaram, and take lessons that include meditation and yoga. They also tend the garden and learn concepts such as the equality of all living things.

The heart of the School’s ethos is harmony with the environment—it has just been formally acknowledged as the greenest school in Britain, according to the widely accepted BREEAM industry standard. Its unique eco-systems including wildlife zones, vegetable, fruit and flower gardens; and the building structure itself features rainwater harvesting and ground source heat pumps, which provide 70% of the school’s heating.

Krishna Avanti is also Britain’s first vegetarian state school, with meals being prepared for the children on site from scratch using fresh ingredients.

Parents are enthusiastic about all these innovations. “Krishna-Avanti School offers to our child the rare opportunity to grow and develop at all levels: socially, emotionally, academically and especially spiritually,” says Mrs Elena Beltran-Clarke, mother of six-year-old Bodhini.

The project has also achieved a UK BREEAM Schools ‘excellent’ rating with a score of 75.91 per cent—currently the highest rating score of any school in the UK.

With all its success in delivering the £13.5 million Krishna-Avanti Primary School, the I-Foundation believes it should now be given the opportunity to prove it can do the same in secondary education. Hence the plans for two new secondary schools in North West London and Leicester, the two areas with the largest Hindu communities in Britain.

“It is patently absurd that, alone among the major faiths in the UK, Britain’s one million Hindus are deprived of the option of a faith-based secondary school education for their children,” says I-Foundation Director Nitesh Gor.

Mr Gor, who is also the Chair of Governors of the Krishna-Avanti School, explains: “Parents see the school’s open ethos, its work with local schools of other faiths and of none, its curriculum which teaches about all major world religions and its ethnically diverse intake, and they see the best of both worlds. We combine the ethical values and moral discipline which accompany faith education with a willingness to engage with the world beyond and prepare our children to play a full part in British society.”

Parents as well as the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), which has worked with the I-Foundation as official Faith Partner for the School, look forward to further developments.

The schools temple

Read the story and watch the video at theguardian.co.uk

Devotees Pray for Yamuna’s Future With Global Kirtan

By Madhava Smullen on 27 Jan 2010

Vaishnavas around the world are requested to participate in the event.

Hundreds of thousands of devotees, holy men and pilgrims will gather for the Vrindavana Kumbha Mela, taking a ceremonial dip in the sacred Yamuna River at Keshi Ghat on Saturday January 30th.

The event is held once every twelve years, alongside the official Kumbha Mela, which rotates between the holy places of Prayag, Haridwar, Ujjain and Nashik.

The Vrindavana Mela, held in the village where Lord Krishna appeared on earth 5,000 years ago, and at the river where He once bathed, is always special. But in recent times, there has been an added urgency to the participants’ prayers.

Devotees say that the sanctity of Vrindavana, and especially of the Yamuna River, is in danger. Among other efforts, ISKCON’s second-generation—known as “Kulis”—have launched “Global Kirtan for the Yamuna River,” a prayer which is offered with the intention to save the future of the Yamuna River and Vrindavana in general, and which they will synchronize with ISKCON Vrindavana’s 24-Hour Kirtan chanting program.

This year’s event is the second in a series of Global Kirtans. Organizer Krishna Devata McComb introduced the first in November 2008 after a trip to Vrindavana revealed how much the sacred village had changed since her childhood.

“I was born a Krishna devotee and first bathed in the Yamuna when I was five years old, with my two-year old brother Bala Gopal,” she says. “I have very precious memories of that time.”

The next time Krishna Devata returned to the Yamuna in 1998, it was to offer Bala Gopala’s ashes into its waters. The sacred river offered her solace in her grief at her brother’s passing, as she offered incense, flower garlands, and petals into it and then bathed in the water herself.

“Bathing in the Yamuna is a tradition of transformation, rejuvenation and purification,” she says. “Yet today, we see this place of deep personal prayer and meaning under heavy construction, with its waters diverted, and sewage and garbage being dumped into it. When I visited the river recently with my own daughter and son, who were the same ages as Gopal and I had been when we first bathed there, it was shocking to see how much had been lost in only one generation.”

According to Krishna Devata, many holy sites related to the Yamuna have been covered and displaced from its banks. The tree at Chir Ghat, where Krishna is said to have enacted His pastimes with the Gopis, is now hundreds of yards from the Yamuna, and the view of the holy river has been replaced by the on-ramp of a by-pass highway. The focus of development in Vrindavana, Krishna Devata says, has become service to the automobile rather than to God.

Perhaps the development currently taking the most prominence is a bridge being constructed alongside the Yamuna. Started back in May 2008, the project is intended to facilitate a 130km pipeline through Vrindavana, Mathura and Agra, which will provide water in areas that have been battling a shortage for decades.

It’s essentially a good cause. However, local and international devotees and environmental activists, working under the Save Yamuna to Save Vrindavan campaign, are saying that the implementation needs to be rethought. “They are destroying nature and culture,” said environmentalist Swami Sewak Sharan. “Ordinary folks in Vrindavan have no voice while the ‘developmentalists’ are out to murder a rich heritage.”

Mathura-Vrindavan Development Authority Vice Chairman R.K. Singh denied the charges and claimed they had been raised by people who do not understand development or environment. “They are just obstructing,” he said. “We have got proper studies done. The Keshi Ghat was any way crumbling. The bridge is a little distance away from the ghat. Pointless controversies are being raised.”

PWD Chief Engineer C.D. Rai added, “The bridge on the river does not affect environment in any manner, nor does it obstruct the flow of the river. We will later take up the renovation of the Keshi Ghat.”

But devotees and Vrindavana residents say that the developers have not revealed the full plans of their project to the community and show no sensitivity to the historic sacred site. The bridge will facilitate traffic to Delhi, Agra, and the Taj Mahal, and they fear that the noise, dirt and pollution will render Keshi Ghat a place that’s no longer peaceful for spiritual reflection.

“Some solutions include restoring water flow to ancient ghats, garbage management and water-treatment, although it will take collaboration and care from tourists and residents of Vrindavan to create lasting change,” Krishna Devata comments.

She admits that much of this is beyond her understanding or capacity to impact. However, what she can do is bring people together to make them aware of Yamuna Devi’s plight, and to unite their voices in prayer—in a Global Kirtan.

The January 30th event is backed by the Kuli Mela Association, which organizes ISKCON second-generation festivals and projects around the world, and which Krishna Devata is a founding member of. Other entities lending their support include World Prayer and Kirtan Day, Mandala Publishing, World Vaisnava Association, UNESCO, Sri Sri Radha Raman Temple, Save Yamuna to Save Vrindavan campaign, and many participating ISKCON Temples.

The Global Kirtan concept is that people “think globally and pray locally.” So far over one hundred locations around the world—in India, Canada, the United States, Europe, South America, South Africa, the Carribean, and Russia—have confirmed their participation, holding kirtans which will coincide with the Vrindavana Kumbha Mela and 24-Hour kirtan at the Yamuna River.

Many of these participants are ISKCON temples and preaching centers, while some are home programs, yoga studios, book-stores, and sanga groups. Some 24-hour kirtan events—such as those in Radhadesh Belgium, Hillsborough North Carolina, and one hosted by Radhanatha Swami in Mumbai—were prescheduled, yet their organizers decided to dedicate their prayers to the Global Kirtan cause.

“Because this is about calling attention to the current condition of the Yamuna River, which affects many people from many different lines and faiths, this is a call-out to all who will answer,” says Kuli Mela Association member Chaitanya Mangala. “The mood is one of openness and inclusiveness—this is an opportunity for everyone to come together and share in a time of solidarity.”

Those participating will include many well-known kirtan singers: Gaura Vani and As Kindred Spirits will perform at the ISKCON temple in Brooklyn, New York; Karnamrita will perform in Durban, South Africa; The Kirtaniyas will perform in Los Angeles; and the Mayapuris will perform in San Francisco.

“At this auspicious time of Vrindavana Kumbha Mela, sadhus, yogis and pilgrims of all kinds and from all traditions will gather to honor the Yamuna River,” says Krishna Devata. “On the full moon, thousands will simultaneously bathe in the river in a huge act of devotion and peace—chanting, dancing, and honoring Yamuna Devi together.”

Already, she says, kirtans are sounding in tents along the Yamuna, and puja and prayer offerings are being made.

And it looks like the prayers are already being answered. On January 21st , an Uttar Pradesh High Court Order was issued stating: “Until further order of the Court, the respondents are directed to stop further constructions over the bridge which is being constructed along side river Yamuna and other illegal constructions on the land which falls between the ghats and river Yamuna on both the sides and to stop dumping of garbage in river Yamuna or its bank. Respondents are further directed to ensure that no constructions are raised in the aforesaid area by any person.”

Devotees are preparing themselves for a further hearing at the High Court on February 23rd. Until then, their prayers for their beloved Yamuna River will resound across the globe.

The Global Kirtan organizers can be contacted at: thedancingmama@gmail.com

Or join the Global Kirtan Facebook group here.

Add your name to the petition against building a bridge at the Yamuna here.

Near-Death Experiences Convince Doctor of Afterlife

By Laura Fitzpatrick for Time.com on 22 Jan 2010

Thousands of people have reported "out of body" experiences while at the brink of death.

Is there life after death? Theologians can debate all they want, but radiation oncologist Dr. Jeffrey Long says if you look at the scientific evidence, the answer is unequivocally yes. Drawing on a decade's worth of research on near-death experiences — work that includes cataloguing the stories of some 1,600 people who have gone through them — he makes the case for that controversial conclusion in a new book, Evidence of the Afterlife. Medicine, Long says, cannot account for the consistencies in the accounts reported by people all over the world. He talked to TIME about the nature of near-death experience, the intersection between religion and science and the Oprah effect.

Medically speaking, what is a near-death experience?
A near-death experience has two components. The person has to be near death, which means physically compromised so severely that permanent death would occur if they did not improve: they're unconscious, or often clinically dead, with an absence of heartbeat and breathing. The second component [is that] at the time they're having a close brush with death, they have an experience. [It is] generally lucid [and] highly organized.

How do you respond to skeptics who say there must be some biological or physiological basis for that kind of experience, which you say in the book is medically inexplicable?
There have been over 20 alternative, skeptical "explanations" for near-death experience. The reason is very clear: no one or several skeptical explanations make sense, even to the skeptics themselves. Or [else ]there wouldn't be so many.

You say there's less skepticism about near-death experiences than there used to be, as well as more awareness. Why is that?
Literally hundreds of scholarly articles have been written over the last 35 years about near-death experience. In addition to that, the media continues to present [evidence of] near-death experience. Hundreds of thousands of pages a month are read on our website, NDERF.org.

In the book you say that some critics argue that there's an "Oprah effect": that a lot of people who have had near-death experiences have heard about them elsewhere first. How do you account for that in your research?
We post to the website the near-death experience exactly as it was shared with us. Given the fact that every month 300,000 pages are read [by] over 40,000 unique visitors from all around the world, the chances of a copycat account from any media source not being picked up by any one of those people is exceedingly remote. Our quality-assurance check is the enormous visibility and the enormous number of visitors.

You say this research has affected you a lot on a personal level. How?
I'm a physician who fights cancer. In spite of our best efforts, not everybody is going to be cured. My absolute understanding that there is an afterlife for all of us — and a wonderful afterlife — helps me face cancer, this terribly frightening and threatening disease, with more courage than I've ever faced it with before. I can be a better physician for my patients.

You say we can draw on near-death experiences to reach conclusions about life after actual death. But is that comparing apples and oranges?
Scientifically speaking, interviewing people that have permanently died is challenging. Obviously, given that impossibility, we have to do the next best thing. If these people have no brain function, like you have in a cardiac arrest, I think that is the best, closest model we're going to have to study whether or not conscious experience can occur apart from the physical brain. The research shows the overwhelming answer is absolutely yes.

You raise the idea that your work could have profound implications for religion. But is whether there is life after death really a scientific question, or a theological one?
I think we have an interesting blend. [This research] directly addresses what religions have been telling us for millenniums to accept on faith: that there is an afterlife, that there is some order and purpose to this universe, that there's some reason and purpose for us being here in earthly life. We're finding verification, if you will, for what so many religions have been saying. It's an important step toward bringing science and religion together.

Is there any aspect of human experience that you don't think science can touch?
Oh, absolutely. What happens after permanent death — after we're no longer able to interview people — is an absolute. To that extent, the work I do may always require some element of faith. But by the time you look at [the] evidence, the amount of faith you need to have [to believe in] life after death is substantially reduced.

Free Downloads of Seminars from the VIHE

Dear devotees,
Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

The Audio Ministry of the Vrindavan Institute for Higher Education is hosting on our web site, www.vihe.org, a variety of audio seminars recorded
during the last 20 years.

This unique collection of well-researched and inspiring lectures, given by senior Vaisnavas, serves to infuse us with faith, conviction and shastric
knowledge of devotional service, Gaudiya Vaisnava philosophy, Krishna's holy name, His pastimes, His dhama and so on. Among them are the Bhaktivaibhava and Bhaktivedanta Courses, which have been hosted by the VIHE for the past ten years. They are a verse by verse study of Srila Prabhupada's Srimad Bhagavatam taught by Bhurijan Prabhu Narayani Mataji. The presentations also includes the commentaries of our previous acaryas.

Over the years our staff has worked hard to organize and record these classes. We would like to offer you this wonderful chance to enliven your devotional life by listening to these recordings and sharing your inspiration with others.

Your servants in VIHE

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