KRSNA News, KRSNA Tunes, KRSNA World, Hansadutta World News As It Is and Inside Nam Hatta are hosted by Hansadutta das, a senior disciple of Srila Prabhupada and trustee of The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, also Rittvik Representative of the Acharya under the banners of The Bhaktivedantas and World Sankirtan Party.
KRSNA News features commentary on current events from the Bhaktivedanta perspective.
A little history…
Back in 1970, while we were in Indore, on tour in India with Srila Prabhupada, he directed us to publish a newspaper for distribution in major cities worldwide. His idea was to publish the news along with commentary presenting the Krishna conscious viewpoint.
Room conversation, Indore, December 13, 1970:
HANSADUTTA: People are very anxious to read something from different angle of vision.
PRABHUPADA: Yes.
HANSADUTTA: They are tired of old newspapers. So if we present a newspaper with our angle of vision, Krishna consciousness…
PRABHUPADA: So immediately you write to the GBC members.
HANSADUTTA: But the articles that will be in the newspaper, they will be exactly like other newspapers? Who will write them?
PRABHUPADA: No, articles… Daily newspaper means there must be news. News you can purchase from the news collecting company. They will supply it. At very cheap price they’ll supply. And you take advertisement. Yes. You’ll cover your expenses by getting advertisements and make sufficient profit. Newspaper starting is not a losing business provided you can organize. Just like ordinary newspaper, they give… In daily news… People want to learn daily news, and they supply huge quantity. And those who are advertiser, they are simply concerned how many copies are issued. If you issue 100,000’s of copies, then you can charge for each page thousand dollars. They will pay. Two thousand dollars they will pay.
HANSADUTTA: That means in each city we would we have to have our own local press.
PRABHUPADA: No, not necessarily. You can arrange with any newspaper place. You simply supply your matter; they will print. Just like we are getting from Japan, similarly, make your own layout and supply them. Immediately, within two hours, everything is complete.
HANSADUTTA: But a daily newspaper has to turn out daily, so it takes time to transport it from one city to another city.
PRABHUPADA: Well, from every city we can publish. Every city there is a newspaper place.
DEVOTEE: …national, just like the national…
PRABHUPADA: Yes. So we have to organize. First of all let us publish in one city, big city like New York, like London, yes, Bombay, Tokyo. Big cities, world’s big cities.
HANSADUTTA: The best place to start is Boston.
PRABHUPADA: Yes, already. Even in small scale we can start from Boston.
HANSADUTTA: Just like one or two pages.
PRABHUPADA: Yes. Never mind. Just like I began in that way. You have seen the…
HANSADUTTA: Yes, I saw the original Back to Godhead [magazine]. A lot of your articles were commenting about current events.
PRABHUPADA: Yes. The editorial board must be very intelligent how to talk about Back to Godhead with current politics. Giriraja, you can do that?
GIRIRAJA: I could try.
PRABHUPADA: Try. You just try it immediately. You take one newspaper and comment on the current news. Any one of you… Every one of you can do. And show me how you have given. Then you start immediately. We have got many things to do. We have Krishna, and Krishna is the bhoktaram yajña-tapasam sarva-loka maheshvaram [Bhagavad-gita 5.29]. What these petty politicians and three acres of land? Their stage is three acres of land; our stage is the unlimited. That I have mentioned in the second volume of Srimad-Bhagavatam. So what news they can publish? Three acres of land. We have got the innumerable universes. We can supply so much news, provided people are ready to read it. We have published so many books, they are not even able to read these books.
KRSNA News is a humble attempt to present the news of the world as a springboard for discussing what lies beneath, behind and beyond all the goings on in our lives in light of the teachings of His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.
