What we are all about

ISKCON (Inter­na­tional Soci­ety for Krsna Con­scious­ness) Hal­i­fax is a non-profit edu­ca­tional soci­ety based on the spir­i­tual teach­ings of India. These teach­ings include the impor­tance of med­i­ta­tion as part of daily life, reg­u­lar prac­tice of bhakti-yoga (devo­tional ser­vice), expres­sion through music and art, a healthy veg­e­tar­ian diet and the devel­op­ment of philo­soph­i­cal thought based on ancient San­skrit texts such as Bhagavad-gita and Sri­mad Bhagavatam.

With an aim to shed light on the pro­found phi­los­o­phy under­ly­ing these cul­tural expres­sions, the Bhak­tivedanta Book Trust (BBT), ISKCON’s affil­i­ated pub­lish­ing house, has printed and dis­trib­uted more than 400 mil­lion books and mag­a­zines. These pub­li­ca­tions often con­tain trans­la­tions from San­skrit or Ben­gali, repro­duc­tions of rare com­men­taries, and attrac­tive orig­i­nal illus­tra­tions and pho­tographs. The BBT is renowned as an excel­lent resource for the study of Indian cul­ture and phi­los­o­phy. Music and art play key roles in the lives of Krishna devo­tees. The devo­tees have shared a dynamic musi­cal expres­sion with the world, and many have gone on to become accom­plished singers and musi­cians. Artists within the Hare Krishna move­ment have cre­ated hun­dreds of orig­i­nal paint­ings depict­ing Lord Krishna and His spir­i­tual abode. With their char­ac­ter­is­tic blend of East­ern and West­ern styles, these works of art illus­trate mul­ti­ple vol­umes of books, dec­o­rate ISKCON tem­ples, and help to visu­ally present the Krishna tradition.

ISKCON cen­ters offer vis­i­tors deli­cious sanc­ti­fied veg­e­tar­ian food, and often host pro­grams that cul­mi­nate in a multi-course feast. The inter­na­tion­ally inspired menu can range from Pun­jabi cur­ried veg­eta­bles to egg­plant parme­san. To bet­ter acquaint peo­ple with the ben­e­fits of a veg­e­tar­ian diet, the Krishna move­ment has also estab­lished 100 veg­e­tar­ian restau­rants around the world.

 

Founder

When His Divine Grace A.C. Bhak­tivedanta Swami Srila Prab­hu­pada entered the port of New York City on Sep­tem­ber 17, 1965, few Amer­i­cans took notice — but he was not merely another immi­grant. He was on a mis­sion to intro­duce ancient spir­i­tual knowl­edge, which orig­i­nated in India, into main­stream Amer­ica. Before Srila Prab­hu­pada passed away on Novem­ber 14, 1977, at the age of 81, his mis­sion proved suc­cess­ful. He had founded the Inter­na­tional Soci­ety for Krishna Con­scious­ness (ISKCON) and saw it grow into a world­wide con­fed­er­a­tion of more than 100 tem­ples, ashrams and cul­tural centers.

In 1965, at the age of sixty-nine, Srila Prab­hu­pada trav­eled from India to New York City aboard a cargo ship. The jour­ney was treach­er­ous, and the elderly spir­i­tual teacher suf­fered two heart attacks aboard ship. Arriv­ing in the United States with just seven dol­lars in Indian rupees and his trans­la­tions of sacred San­skrit texts, Srila Prab­hu­pada began to share the time­less wis­dom of Krishna con­scious­ness. His mes­sage of peace and good­will res­onated with many young peo­ple, some of whom came for­ward to become seri­ous stu­dents of the Krishna tra­di­tion. With the help of these stu­dents, Srila Prab­hu­pada rented a small store­front on New York’s Lower East Side to use as a tem­ple. On July 11, 1966, he offi­cially reg­is­tered his orga­ni­za­tion in the state of New York, for­mally found­ing the Inter­na­tional Soci­ety for Krishna Con­scious­ness. In the eleven years that fol­lowed, Srila Prab­hu­pada cir­cled the globe 14 times on lec­ture tours, bring­ing the teach­ings of Lord Krishna to thou­sands of peo­ple on six continents.

Srila Prabhupada’s most sig­nif­i­cant con­tri­bu­tions, per­haps, are his books. He authored over 70 vol­umes on the Krishna tra­di­tion, which are highly respected by schol­ars for their author­ity, depth, fidelity to the tra­di­tion, and clar­ity. Sev­eral of his works are used as text­books in numer­ous col­lege courses. His writ­ings have been trans­lated into 76 lan­guages. His most promi­nent works include: Bhagavad-gita As It Is, the 30-volume Srimad-Bhagavatam, and the 17-volume Sri Caitanya-caritamrita.

 

Our Team

Our ashram had its’ hum­ble begin­nings on Creighton Street 2 years ago. The team has grad­u­ally grown to 5 full-time mem­bers or monks. We are now located on Quin­pool Road above the Athens Restau­rant. Our ashram nur­tures a spirit of self­less ser­vice thereby cre­at­ing a har­mo­nious sup­port­ive atmos­phere. The stu­dents are taught to care & look out for each other. We accen­tu­ate indi­vid­ual & col­lec­tive purity of body, mind & words. Every day is an adven­ture into under­stand­ing God, the uni­verse and our place within it all through bhakti yoga. It is a lifestyle of bal­ance and fun with peo­ple of char­ac­ter and integrity! Jour­nal­ist Nick Logan is pleased to present his first doc­u­men­tary, Spirit on the Streets, to the gen­eral pub­lic. His 10-minute film will take you through the his­tory of this fas­ci­nat­ing ashram and intro­duce you to indi­vid­u­als who have cho­sen to pur­sue a monas­tic life ded­i­cated to Krishna con­sciousnes.   We will be trav­el­ing across Canada this sum­mer, shar­ing our lit­er­a­tures with peo­ple along the way.  At the end of Octo­ber we’ll be head­ing off to India to study in Maya­pur West Ben­gal.  We will be back in Hal­i­fax April 2011.  But email us at info@iskconhalifax.com any­time and keep in touch by check­ing out our web­site.  We’re going to write about our trav­els across Canada and in India and post it on the home­page of this website.