The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords (the upper house). Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members (since the 2010 general election), who are known as Members of Parliament (MPs). Members are elected through the first-past-the-post system by electoral districts known as constituencies. They hold their seats until Parliament is dissolved (a maximum of five years after the preceding election).

A House of Commons of England evolved at some point in England during the 14th century and, in practice, has been in continuous existence since, becoming the House of Commons of Great Britain after the political union with Scotland, and also, during the nineteenth century, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland after the political union with Ireland, finally reaching its current title after independence was given to the Irish Free State in 1922.

The House of Commons is the name of the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada and historically was the name of the lower houses of Ireland and North Carolina. Roughly equivalent bodies in other countries which were once British colonies include the United States House of Representatives, the Australian House of Representatives, and the New Zealand House of Representatives.

In the UK and Canada, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the upper house of parliament (the House of Lords and the Senate, respectively). The leader of the majority party in the House of Commons usually becomes the prime minister. Since 2010, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom has had 650 elected members. The House of Commons of Canada has 308 members. The Commons' functions are to consider through debate new laws and changes to existing ones, authorise taxes, and provide scrutiny of the policy and expenditure of the Government. It has the power to give a Government a vote of no confidence.

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK, or Britain) is a sovereign state located off the north-western coast of continental Europe. The country includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border the UK is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel and the Irish Sea.

The United Kingdom is a unitary state governed under a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary system, with its seat of government in the capital city of London. It is a country in its own right and consists of four countries: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. There are three devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in Belfast, Edinburgh and Cardiff, the capitals of Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Associated with the UK, but not constitutionally part of it, are three Crown Dependencies. The United Kingdom has fourteen overseas territories. These are remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in 1922, encompassed almost a quarter of the world's land surface and was the largest empire in history. British influence can still be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former territories.

Radhanath Swami (born December 7, 1950) is a Gaudiya Vaishnava guru and a member of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON). He works largely from Mumbai in India and also travels extensively throughout Europe and America. He has been instrumental in the founding of the Mumbai Bhaktivedanta hospital. He is an ISKCON guru and a member of the Governing Body Commission of ISKCON. Steven J. Rosen described Radhanath Swami as a "saintly person respected by the mass of ISKCON devotees today".

Born as Richard Slavin, he studied a number of religious paths such as Judaism, Christianity and Islam. At the age of 19 he began traveling through Europe and the Middle-East, eventually settling for over a year in the Himalayas. Much of this time he spent devoted to the tradition of Shaivism and was living as a renunciate Shaivite in India when he first met with Krishna devotees near Delhi. Through contact with the devotees in Vrindavan, and after receiving name Ratim Krishna from Swami Bon Radhanath began to focus exclusively on his spiritual path in Krishna Consciousness. In 1971 Radhanath Swami observed A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada during the ISKCON Cross Maidan festival in Mumbai. After leaving India, Radhanath Swami returned to the United States where he joined the New Vrindaban ISKCON farm community in West Virginia during July 1972. There he accepted initiation from A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada in February 1973 receiving the name Radhanath Das, later to receive the name Radhanath Swami.