Sunday October 12 Krishna Temple at Mayapur
We had a three hour walk round the Hari Krishna complex. Chris was very under the weather, full of cold and still a lot of coughing, but she was determined to see it and she found that she could sleep walk around it.
The Temple is a modern Hindu temple and planetarium complex under construction since 2009 in Mayapur, West Bengal. Serving as the global headquarters of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), the temple is of particular significance to followers of Gaudiya Vaishnavism, a tradition associated with Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. The complex includes the Sri Mayapur Chandrodaya Mandir, one of the main temples within the premises, which is dedicated to the worship of the Pancha Tattva deities, Radha Madhava along with the Ashta-sakhis, and Narasimha. Upon completion, it will be the largest religious monument in the world, with its opening scheduled for 2026. The project chair is Alfred Brush Ford, also known as Ambarish Das, a great-grandson of Henry Ford and an initiated disciple of Srila Prabhupada. In 1974, Ford initiated as a disciple of A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (Srila Prabhupada), whom he first met in Dallas, USA. He joined the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (the Hare Krishnas) in 1975, and that same year he made his first trip to India with Prabhupada
Effectively this place was a cross between the holy Mosque at Mashad and DisneyLand. It received thousands of visitors every day, mostly Indians who would stay overnight for one or two nights. A young Australian girl of Indian parents showed us round and she was quite enamoured with the place where she had been for four years and was trying to get her parents to join her. We visited the original temple and another one which had been built since, with money raised by the grandson of Henry Ford. In this there were various exhibits in which the mannequins had different dresses every day and were given fresh flowers too.
Money seem to be raised by the tourism aspect of the temples and also large donations from some famous people. After visiting these two temples, we proceeded to the farm where there were very impressive looking cattle of all different breeds. ISKCON is the home of Sri Sri Radha Madhava’s beloved cows. At present they maintain a herd of over three hundred and ninety cows, bulls, calves, and bullocks. These bulls and cows perform a very important service of providing milk for Sri Sri Radha-Madhava. Whoever feeds the cow with grass and water every day derives the benefit equivalent to performing Ashwamedha Yajna.
And after looking at all these cows we were offered a bullock cart ride for the four of us who had gone down there. This took us back to the centre of the complex again and we then had to walk back to the ship
To get a larger photo, click on a thumbnail below
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| The cows were kept on the campus, and were a very impressive cross-section of breeds |
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Chris retired the bed for most of the rest of the day rising only at 5:30 pm to sit outside the room and contemplate the party that was going on on the riverbank.
David was at it but was accosted by the Purser who told him that we had to get off at 9:30 on the last day and was not too pleased by this and in the end he only got us concession to stay on till 1130 but we were refused the lunch and even a late supper which our literature had claimed. So David withdrew from the party too and had two plates of the barbecue tapas as a supper and then we just had a coffee in the room. Hoping I will be in a healthier position in the morning.
To get a larger photo, click on a thumbnail below
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| The crew search for a picnic site | ||
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| ..and search.. | ..and finally find a sand bank for the barbeque | We looked on from above |