October 24, 2016: The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) was founded by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda in New York City in 1966. Since then the society has expanded a lot. It now has millions of members worldwide, more than 500 centers and temples and about 100 affiliated vegetarian restaurants.
Since 1971, Krishna Lunch has been serving strictly vegetarian food to the students of University of Florida and the community of Gainesville. With $5 donation, one can enjoy the delicious rice, soups and halava. Dhristadyumna "Dennis" Das, 34, is the temple commander for the Gainesville Krishna House.
The food is served from 11 AM to 1:30 PM on all week days at the Krishna House. The restaurant is located one block north of the University's campus. The food is available for delivery through Gatorfood.com.
According to Menaka Harjani, one of the devotees," If you can't pay, you can volunteer and get a free plate of food." Each volunteer is responsible for a single task. One volunteer hand out the plates, one serves rice and the last one puts salad dressing on the salad and rams a fork.
A group of people continuously chant the Maha Mantra with cymbals and a drum. People gather at the Krishna House to discuss about philosophy and their personal lives. Everyone present at the House is treated with courtesy irrespective of their culture, belief or religion.
However, some people believe that the popularity of ISKCON worldwide has led many people to believe that Hinduism is all about Lord Krishna. According to Aparna Sethumadhavan, a student of the University, "Hare Krishna takes this cultural imperialism one step farther by twisting Hinduism so that it fits into modern ideas of what religion should entail without giving a thought to the thousands of years of history behind Hinduism."
– Prepared by Diksha Arya of NewsGram. Twitter: @diksha_arya53