Category: Hare Krishna

A Russian court has dismissed a call to ban an edition of the Hindu holy book Bhagvad Gita, in a case that triggered protests in India.

Prosecutors in the Siberian city of Tomsk wanted the edition to be ruled “extremist”.

Swami Bhaktipada, a former leader of the American Hare Krishna movement who built a sprawling golden paradise for his followers in the hills of Appalachia but who later pleaded guilty to federal racketeering charges that included conspiracy to commit the murders-for-hire of two devotees, died on Monday in a hospital near Mumbai, India. He was 74.

Firefighters have said that it was an “absolute miracle” no-one was killed in an explosion at a Hare Krishna temple.

The blast rocked the building after cylinders of gas powering a large cooker leaked during a festive meal.

About 30 people escaped from the temple in Leicester when the organiser raised the alarm just seconds before the explosion yesterday. A third of the building in Thoresby Street was destroyed in the blast.

Worshippers had been cooking in the kitchen area during the afternoon for a religious festival.

The festivities were organised by Iskcon Leicester – the International Society for Krishna Consciousness – to mark Lord Krishna’s “Appearance Day”.

The Hare Krishna movement has been stopped from seeking donations at the Los Angeles International Airport by a US court.

The court allowed the Los Angeles Police to enforce a 13-year-old municipal ordinance which would prevent members of the movement from seeking donations at the airport.

“From now on, the travelling public will not have to worry about solicitors asking for money,” Gina Marie Lindsay, executive director of Los Angeles World Airports, which operates the Los Angeles International Airport, said after the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals lifted a preliminary injunction imposed in 1997, which stopped city police from enforcing solicitation ban against groups seeking donations, in particular the members of the ISKCON of California.

The ruling still allows groups and individuals to distribute literature and speak to willing travelers.

The president of a Hare Krishna-affiliated aid organisation has been arrested from a guest house, allegedly in the company of two young girls in a state of undress, an anti-trafficking police chief said Thursday.

A row has broken out after the first state funded Hindu school in Britain revealed its admissions policy will give preferential treatment to certain pupils.

What began as a property dispute between the Hare Krishna community and the local authorities has ballooned into an international controversy that threatens Kazakhstan’s ambition to chair the 56-country Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in 2009.