March/April 2016

WELCOME  As we continue our yearlong celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, we begin this issue with a lecture Srila Prabhupada gave in December 1966, five months after he incorporated the Society. A little more than a year earlier, he had begun teaching the Bhagavad-gita in Butler, Pennsylvania, shortly after his arrival in America. Later, regular Gita classes were at the heart of his first temple, in New York City. Then, in November 1966, he added Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita classes, responding to the desire of his early disciples to hear from this revered book on the life and teachings of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the incarnation of Lord Krishna for this age. In the verse Prabhupada speaks on in this issue, Lord Chaitanya tells a disciple that to identify an avatar of God, we must rely on the infallible authority of the Vedic scriptures.

This issue also commemorates the fortieth anniversary of ISKCON Padayatra. Since 1976, devotees have spread Krishna consciousness by walking more than 160,000 miles in countries all over the world. Gaurangi Devi Dasi, coordinator for the Padayatra Worldwide Ministry since 2012, presents some highlights of this important legacy of Srila Prabhupada’s mission.

Hare Krishna. – Nagaraja Dasa, Editor

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