Srila Prabhupada’s Temple in Bangalore
Spread over 8 acres of land atop a hill, in the heart of Bangalore is ISKCON’s largest temple complex in the world. Also known as the Hare Krishna Hill, this is home to 5 temples of various forms of Lord Krishna: Sri Sri Radha Krishna-Chandra, Sri Krishna Balarama, Sri Nitai Gauranga, Sri Prahlada Narasimha and Sri Srinivasa Govinda.
Introduction
The temple complex which was inaugurated in May 1997 by the President of India, His Excellency Sri Shaker Deal Sharma, has been visited by over 5.1 million visitors since inception, including various dignitaries of the country. Mr. Ramakrishna Hedge, Former Chief Minister of Karnataka and Former Cabinet Minister, and a frequent visitor to Hare Krishna Hill since 1987, commented: “Every time I visit this incredible edifice, the abode of Sri Krishna, I experience a unique divine feeling. This temple represents the essence of all religions.”
Dr. Mural Menorah Joshi, Mrs. Rama Devi, Governor of Karnataka, Mr. HE.DO. Devegowda, former Prime Minister of India, Mr. I.H. Patel, Former CM of Karnataka, Mr. Rajinder Singh, Chief of the RSS and Mr. Ashok Singhal, President of the VHP are amongst the other dignitaries who have visited Hare Krishna Hill, seeking the blessings of the Lord. The distinct neo-classical architecture of the temple has attracted the interest of designers and artists from around the world. The design, which was developed by ISKCON devotees Madhu Pandit Dasa (President and Project director) and Jagatchandra Dasa, both graduates from the IIT Mumbai, combines elements of traditional South-Indian as well as modern styles of architecture in a harmonious blend, to provide a gorgeous residence for the Supreme Lord.
The temple complex is equipped with various facilities for the purpose of promoting the spiritual and cultural message of Lord Krishna and His pure devotee His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the Founder-Acharya and spiritual master of the entire ISKCON movement:
The Deities and Daily Programs
All activities on Hare Krishna Hill are centered around the principal Deities of Sri Sri Radha Krishna-Chandra. Beginning with the mangala-arati at 4:15 am, a typical day is filled with spiritually inspiring programs of aratis and kirtanas.
The morning’s program includes a procession where devotees performing sankirtana, accompany the Deity of Srila Prabhupada on a palanquin to the various temples. The day ends with the festive shayana utsava, when the Lord tours His temple room on an ornamental palanquin before entering His sleeping quarters for rest. This daily utsava offered to the Lord is a unique feature of ISKCON Bangalore.
Free Prasadam for All
Every visitor to the temple receives a cup of free kichiri prasadam, made of rice and dahl. This is a humble attempt to fulfill the vision of our guru Srila Prabhupada, who, expressing utmost compassion, said in 1974: “God is the father; wherever there is the father, there cannot be hunger… No one within a ten-mile radius of our temples should go hungry.
” The temple’s Pilgrims’ Prasadam Kitchen is provided with modern equipment to prepare large quantities of prasadam in a short time and can feed up to two thousand visitors per hour. Since May 1997, about 750 tonnes of prasadam have been prepared and distributed to the visiting pilgrims.
In addition to the free prasadam, this kitchen is also used to prepare varieties of sweet and salty items, which are offered to the Lord and made available as prasadam to the visiting pilgrims for a nominal price. ISKCON’s Bakery, which began operations only 2 years ago, is well-known in Bangalore for its eggless cakes and biscuits.
Puja on Birthdays of Donors
The temple was erected with donations received from nearly 25,000 donors in and around Bangalore city. These donors receive an invitation on their birthday to visit the temple along with their family and a special puja is offered to the Lord in their names.
Shata Koti Nama Japa Yajna
To promote world peace and harmony, a program to chant 1 Billion holy names of Rama and Krishna in the year 2000, on Hare Krishna Hill, was begun on January 1st this year. The venue for this program is the temple’s harinama mantapa, located just before one enters the first temple of Prahlada Narasimha. This mantapa is fitted with two sets of granite steps (each containing 108 steps) and on each step a pilgrim can chant the full Hare Krishna mantra once. To guide the pilgrim to chant properly, recorded chanting of Srila Prabhupada is constantly played from a CD player in the mantapa. After chanting on the 108 steps (which means after chanting the maha-mantra 108 times), the pilgrim enters the Narasimha temple through an exclusive entrance where he receives a free packet of a prasadam sweet. It has been observed that about 60% of the visitors choose to enter this mantapa and chant, before having darshan.
FOLK Program
The “Friends of Lord Krishna” (FOLK) program for bachelors between 19 and 29, has created a lot of enthusiasm for understanding the Vedic culture amongst the youth of Bangalore. This program is held on Saturdays and Sundays and consists of classes, discussions and practical sessions on Vedic philosophy and lifestyle. Meditation sessions are also held during these programs. Each program ends with a free prasadam feast.
Cow Protection
Vedic wisdom advocates cow protection as one of the primary elements necessary for a prosperous and healthy society. ISKCON Bangalore goshalla maintains 40 cows in its goshalla on Hare Krishna Hill. Milk from these cows is used to make various products for the service of the Deities.
Organic Farming
ISKCON encourages organic farming, in which grains, vegetables and fruits are grown naturally without the use of chemicals and fertilizers. ISKCON Bangalore’s 100-acre farm near Mysore, on the bank of the River Kaveri provides an active model of such farming. The farm’s products are made available in the temple’s natural foods shop on Hare Krishna Hill known as “Dharani”.
Dakshinakriti
ISKCON Bangalore has a scheme to promote and protect the traditional art and craft of South India. This project encourages and supports talented craftsmen by providing them an outlet for their work. It gives them an opportunity to sustain themselves through the creations of their artistic expression. Through this service, ISKCON Bangalore is bringing into focus the richness of Indian tradition and the need to recognize its importance in preserving our culture and heritage. The products made under this scheme are available at “Dakshinakriti”, the temple’s sculpture showroom.
Multivision Cinema
The Multivision Cinema at ISKCON Bangalore was conceived by devotees and produced in the United States. This is India’s first show combining visual projection and animatronics. The 14 projectors, Laser Disc players, the surround sound processors and the animatronics mechanisms are controlled by a special purpose computer which operates through electronic control units and software developed in Sweden. The 40-minute Cinema conveys a simple yet significant spiritual message and is priced nominally. Nearly 50% of the visitors to the temple choose to watch the cinema, which operates at specific times in the morning and evening.
Dwarakapuri
The temple complex also houses “Dwarakapuri”, a marriage hall with ultra-modern finishing and “Mathura”, a hall for seminars and conferences. These halls help generate revenue for the temple’s maintenance and preaching activities.
Bhaktivedanta Book Trust
The Bangalore branch of the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust is housed on Hare Krishna Hill and is involved in translating and publishing Srila Prabhupada’s voluminous works in the Kannada language. Eminent Kannada writers Prof. L.S. Seshagiri Rao, Prof. N.S. Laxminarayana Bhat, Dr. Shivarudrappa, Dr. A.R. Mitra and several others are involved in translating the books. Since 1985, 123,000 Kannada copies of the Bhagavad-gita alone have been printed and distributed by the BBT. In all, 430,000 pieces of literature have been distributed since May 1997. At present, 39 titles of Srila Prabhupada’s works are available in Kannada.
Goloka Seva Trust
The Goloka Seva Trust promotes and maintains the valuable art of incense (agarbatti) making, using purely natural ingredients. At present the Goloka Seva Trust produces 73 varieties of incense that is meant for worship. The trust also conducts in-house research to develop varieties of non-toxic user-friendly incense and related products. These products are also made available at the temple’s counters for the visitors.
Srila Prabhupada Museum
The construction of the Srila Prabhupada Museum is scheduled to begin shortly. This museum will also be an architectural marvel in itself and will be dedicated to creating awareness amongst the general public about the glorious contributions of ISKCON’s Founder-Acharya and spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada.
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ISKCON bangalore is the Best ISKCON temple Prabhu. Because the centre is Pure Devotee Srila Prabhupada. So everything is going on Nicely here By His Blessings. i will be taking initiation here coming Gaura Purnima, so I’m very eager for it. To become a disciple of a Pure Devotee.
Please upload the “Multivision Cinema – Home Beyond the Dark Skies” on YouTube. I miss it as I am now not living in Bangalore now.
Hare Krishna Prabhu ji,
All glories to guru and gauranga,
The temple is very beautiful! I have also seen many debates of Madhu Pandit Prabhu, explaining prabhupad’s Iskcon, so is it really like not other Iskcon temples, which are so called prabhupad’s ?
I mean is it our type? Like… Not fake and all that? Dose everyone follows only Prabhupad’s teachings there? Is everyone Prabhupad’s original disciple there? And accept Prabhupad’s disciples ? I had this curiosity to know about it but didn’t asked because of so much bogus things of Iskcon.
Sorry if I’ve been offensive anywhere,
Hare Krishna
Hare Krishna Vanshika
Yes. At ISKCON Bangalore all the devotees are disciples of Srila Prabhupada. So it is very nice. It is not that everyone is a pure devotee. We are all trying to become pure devotees so in the material world you can find some imperfection and problems everywhere if you look for that. But ISKCON Bangalore is certainly preaching the point that Srila Prabhupada is living in his books and is still available to anyone who wants to take shelter at his lotus feet.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Hare Krishna prabhu ji
All glories to guru and gauranga
Yes, we can see imperfections everywhere, and everybody is not a pure devotee but it’s our duty to preach right things and things which are unchanged, So then our mission is complete. The else we should leave on Krishna and between his imperfect children, we just need to be right.
Thankyou for your guidance
Hare Krishna
Hari bol… 🙂
Hare Krishna Vanshika
Yes. Our purpose is to preach the perfect things. And our purpose is to become perfect ourselves. Even without being perfect ourselves or very advanced we can carry the perfect message if we simply hear it from Srila Prabhupada and repeat it to whomever we meet.
That example Srila Prabhupada gives very often. He speaks of the postman. It is the postman’s business to deliver the letter to the person who the letter is addressed to. The postman may not be a very wealthy man himself but if the letter is containing a million dollar check he can take that letter and deliver it to the person who it is addressed to and thus deliver one million dollars to that person.
So this is our purpose. To hear the perfect knowledge from Srila Prabhupada, to accept that and follow it in our own personal lives, and to preach the same perfect knowledge to others. That way, if we do not speculate, if we do not add in our own interpretations and opinions, if we just perfectly present the perfect knowledge we have heard from Srila Prabhupada to the people we meet then we will be able to deliver the perfect knowledge, even if we are not perfect ourselves.
But we have to follow ourselves, otherwise our preaching will not have much effect. If someone is a smoker but is trying to preach to others to stop smoking then his preaching will really have no effect. Because the people will not take him seriously. They will see he is smoking himself so when he preaches “don’t smoke” it has no effect.
Chant Hare Krishna and be happy!
Madhudvisa dasa
Thankyou prabhu !
Yo always right !
SRI RADHEY!!
HARI HARI BOL.. 🙂
Hare Krishna
Krishna is the enjoyer and we are being enjoyed by rendering Devotional service to Lord.
Real Purusa is only Lord that is Supreme Personality of God Head KRISHNA. Except Lord all are feminine.
When we say feminine it should be understood at the spiritual platform we should understand not at the bodily platform.
Either man or woman false ego is same in this material world. Non-Devotees are there even in the Category of Women. So Why a person particularly Desire Woman Body.
Everyone wants to enjoy this world independent of Lord. Even if a person has the body of woman still there is a Purusa mentality.
This is Not to Dis-respect Women or This is not to Critisize women we should have a Respect towards every women in this world. But at the Same time one should not compromise towards proclaiming the things Falsely with some confusions as far as understanding the TRUTH is concerned the women. Do you think women are free from False Ego ? Do you think that she is freed from all the Arishad Varga i.e Lust, Anger, Greed, Jealousy etc…. (Woman also has the tendency to enjoy material world under the influence of wrong mentality)
So one need not Desire the woman Body in the name of Religion. Actually speaking male form is more suitable than Female form for Self Realization and Krishna Consciousness. All the Ancient Vaishnava Acharyas Are having the Body of Male.So we should follow in thir foot steps
I see some boys(with very poor and sinful background) try to justify their womanish behavior through Krishna Consciousness Philosophies. That is not correct.
Revered Madhudvisa Das ji,
I have read some of your posts in which you mentioned the Bhagavad Gita lines stating This place is dhukhalaya ashashwatham, a place full of miseries.. It is not possible to establish any peace or happiness here. But then you the Hare Krishna people have established so many temples world wide and try to impart the knowledge of Bhagavad Gita to the people.. Do you have hopes that you can change the society in this way? Do you feel that a significant difference can be made in the society by establishing temples and conducting classes? when you know the nature of the world itself is full of miseries, do you hope to see improvement through your mission? Please reply soon
The idea is to realise this world is a temporary place of misery and get out of it and go back home back to Godhead. The idea is not to try and make it comfortable and stay here.
Temples are supposed to be like embassies of the Spritual World. They are not supposed to be the material world at all.
hare krishna sir , iwant to join the 1 year course of vedic mantra
what is the elegibilty of this course
AS i do work in night. I am not able to concetrate in chanting. what should i do for that?
Hare Krishna Amol,
First, I would like to commend you for taking the process of chanting Lord Krishna’s name so seriously. And you are correct in understanding the importance of chanting with attention. The hard part is to regulate our lives, secular responsibilities, and devotional life in such a way that we find some segment of undisturbed time when we can chant with concentration. I find it helpful to rise quite early and complete a good portion of my rounds before I think of doing anything else. If we have that resolve to carve out some portion of our day when we have no other intention but hearing and chanting, our spiritual progress is more rapid. Personally, I feel the difference in the way my day goes when I complete my 16 rounds early on in the day. Your schedule, it sounds like, is a bit more challenging but my point is that each of needs to find that special time somewhere in 24 hours when we do nothing else but chant Hare Krishna maha mantra. Hope that helps. Hare Krishna.