namahatta.org - Congregational Development Ministry

Open air cremation of the English poet Shelley (Painting by Louis Edouard Fournier 1889)

I am happy to learn that after many years of repeated refusals, permission has finally been given for open-air cremations here in Britain.

In 1974, Japanese soldier Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda, was finally discovered on a Pacific island. For the past 30 years, he'd thought World War Two was still being fought.

When I was 16, I was into all things Japanese. Martial arts, food, poetry, films. I thought that the Japanese did a pretty good job of combining spirituality, art, and a warrior code, so I thought they were worthy of further exploration. So I was very intrigued when, at that age, I heard of a Japanese soldier being discovered on a small island in the Pacific. He’d been hiding there since World War ll, not knowing that the war was over, living off coconuts, bananas, and small animals.

Holi is a fun-filled spring festival celebrated on the last full moon day in the month of Phalguna. Known as the ‘Festival of Colours’ it is celebrated in different ways throughout the many regions of India.

by Kripamoya das

Wouldn't it be nice if all the religions could get along? Peacemakers like to suggest an impersonal way to do it. Sometimes they even try to use the Gita to support their ideas

"Well, we can understand that all you spiritual and religious people still need something to believe in. But please listen to us—there is a difference between the God of Religion and the Ultimate Reality. The first is the figure you believe in, pray to, and have a kind of emotional faith in. The second is a slightly more abstract notion of a state of universal, cosmic light from where all the incarnations and saints, angels and prophets come from and into which they merge after their time with us is finished."

North Korea, where even the words for ‘God’ and religion have been done away with (only to be replaced with a different type of religion, it seems)

Here's another television report on the new school. This is from a news programme that goes out around 6.30 pm.

Watch Video

For thousands of years, all schools were ‘faith schools’…

The critics of faith schools – and religion in general – have now had a few days to register their comments on the opening of the new Krishna-Avanti School in north London. They have not been silent.

New school is centred on traditional spiritual culture

Plenty of room to play and learn

A little more than ten minutes drive from Bhaktivedanta Manor you’ll find the new Krishna-Avanti school. I love the idea behind it, the architecture, and the boldness of its conception and execution in the heart of a north London suburb.

Its been under wraps for several months now, but today it threw open its doors to the press. I’m happy to share the following story, released to the national press this morning, with my readers.