It Happened Twice !

It Happened Twice !

Visiting Lord Krishna’s  temple is a blessing by His mercy only . We may attempt to visit or plan to visit many temples but  without His blessings we cannot make it and this would have been experienced by many. Tirupathi  Lord Sri Venkatesa  Perumal’s   darshan can happen  only by His invitation  - is a popular myth among all devotees.

I too had such an experience of visiting THREE  Sri Krishna’s temple  in row of a week Twice , at different places of India. I feel this experience is by His mercy only and cannot happen for anyone  normally.

Year 2011

In the year 2011, on a bright Sunday , 5^th june , I had been to Vrindhavan , where Lord Krishna spent His  childhood past time and  also to Mathura , the Janma Bhumi of the God Head.  In the same week on 7^th June , I had visited Delhi ISKCON temple. All the places associated with Sri Krishna and only on His mercy I  had His darshan .   Colleagues  of mine accompanied me to all the three holy places.

A small narration about the places may be interesting to the readers:

Vrindavan ISKCON Temple – Sri Sri Krishna Balaram Temple – an absolute must visit temple.

Opened in 1975 by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) in Raman Reti, 3 km from the center of Vrindavan. The principal Deities of this temple are Krishna with His brother Balaram. Next to Them are Radha (Krishna's consort) with Syamasundara and Gaura-Nitai. The samadhi (cenotaph) of ISKCON's founder-acarya, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, in pure white marble is within the complex in front of the temple. His private chambers have been converted into a museum. The temple is built in the Bengal Renaissance style with bright frescoes on Krishna's life. There is also a guesthouse, restaurant, gurukula and gosala. Hare Krishna devotees from all around the world come here, bringing a truly international flavor to this ancient holy city.

The 24 hour Kirtan singing,chanting and dancing made my heart explode with love and joy for the lords holy names. I recommend all visitors to come between 6 pm stay up to the evening arti at 7:30 pm. A visit to Vrindavan without going to this daily event would be a great lose. Like all other ISKCON Temple this is also one glamorous temple. But its quiet small in compared to other ISKCON temple in different parts of India.

I told Him that finally you made me come here!  Never miss this place. This is the actual adobe of Lord Krisha. Unknowingly you will chant and dance to the tunes of "Hare Rama, Hare Krishna". The evening AARTI is one such beautiful moment you need to experience for yourself.

Vrindhavan Baanke Bihari Temple

This temple is in the by lanes of Vrindavan. Always very crowded & packed with people from all around the place.

Baanke Bihari Mandir  is  one of the most sacred pilgrimages in India  situated at "Shri Vrindavan". The entire land of Vrindavan gives a feel of holiness. There are around 5500 Temples at Vrindavan but "Baanke Bihari Temple" is one of the main attraction of Vrindavan and daily thousands of devotees visit this place. The idols of Lord Krishna are worth watching.

Mathura – Sri Krishna Janmasthan – a must visit place

It has often been said that it is easier to count the number of dust particles on the surface of the earth  than to count the number of holy places in Mathura. Each of the ghats, for instance, has its own Krishna  story (like Visram-ghat where He rested after killing his evil and tyrannical uncle, King Kansa).

Belief is left to individual, but this place is awesome, fortified with lots of security as this carries a  significant importance for Indians. The place is so mesmerizing only if you believe the existence of Lord Krishna. A life time experience to stand in this place which is believed to be birth place of Lord Krishan (a jail in those days) .

Sri Sri Radha Parthasarathi Mandir , Delhi ,  generally called as ISKCON Delhi temple is a famous Vaishnav temple of Lord Krishna and Radharani in the form of Radha Parthasarathi, Opened in 1998, it is located at Hare Krishna Hills, in the East of Kailash area of New Delhi, India.

In our house pooja , Sri Sri Radha parthasarathi of ISKCON Delhi, framed photograph , is kept for daily prayer  by my son-in-law and we do pooja daily.

Year 2013

Last week , on 5^th May 2013 , I had been to Chennai ISKCON temple, which  was  about to celebrate the first anniversary after the inauguration in Akkarai, in ECR Road.

ISKCON Temple Chennai is a Vaishnava temple dedicated to Lord Krishna. It is located on the East Coast Road at Akkarai, Sholinganallur in southern Chennai. Built on 1.5 acres of land, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) Chennai is the largest Radha Krishna temple in Tamil Nadu. It was formally inaugurated on 26 April 2012.

It so happened to visit Bangalore ISKCON temple on 8^th May 2013 and on 10^th to Hyderabad ISKCON temple.

Sri Radha Krishna-Chandra Temple , Bangalore,  has deities of Krishna and Radha located at Rajajinagar, in the North Bangalore, Karnataka, India. It is one of the largest ISKCON temples in the world.^[4] The temple is a huge cultural complex that was inaugurated in 1997 to carry out the vision of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the Founder-Acarya of ISKCON to promote Vedic culture and spiritual learning.

Birth of The Akshaya Patra Foundation @ ISKCON Bangalore

The history of Akshaya Patra Foundation starts with a story of compassion.

Looking out of a window one day in Mayapur, a village near Calcutta, His Divine Grace A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada saw a group of children fighting with street dogs over scraps of food. From this simple, yet heart breaking incident, came the determination that:  No one within a ten mile radius of our center should go hungry.

It is his inspiration which helped us to create The Akshaya Patra Foundation as it is today. 

We began this initiative with the vision that “No child in India shall be deprived of education because of hunger.”

In June 2000, they started the  mid-day meal program in Bangalore by feeding 1500 children in 5 schools. At that time there was no State run school meal program in Karnataka. Within a few short weeks we had received hundreds of requests from teachers who expressed the dire need of such a scheme.

This over whelming response was the impetus for the growth of The Akshaya Patra Foundation

Sri Sri Radha Madana Mohana Temple , ISKCON , Hyderabad

Hyderabad is the South Indian headquarters for ISKCON in India. The magnificent Sri Sri Radha-Madana-mohana temple at Nampally Station Road, inaugurated by Swami Prabhupada, will serve as a center of the cultural, spiritual, educational and social activities given to uplift the lives of people here.

ISKCON Hyderabad is introducing for the first time in South India its major 600 acre community farming project, 40 kilometers from Hyderabad, to benefit about 20,000 villages. Besides regular free nutritional food distribution program, ISKCON is also planning to set up a model high-yielding 600-cow dairy farm, handloom centers, nature-cure hospital, and gurukula school project.

So in a row of a week  Lord Krishna made me to visit three of His temples  TWICE  after a  span of  TWO years.

This year on February 18th,  I had been to Ahmedabad ISKCON temple , on March 30th to Mayapur ISKCON Chandrodaya Mandir and on April 18th visited Sri Jagannath Mandir in Coimbatore by the blessings of Sri Krishna.  My official visits are clubbed with a pilgrimage to ISKCON temples at that locations in  India.

All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.