By Basu Ghosh Das
Pictures posted on the internet at:
Indore, the economic capitol and largest city in Madhya Pradesh, is going to become the home of a major ISKCON Sri Sri Radha Govinda temple.
On the auspicious day of Baladev Purnima, the full moon day in the Hindu month of Shraavan, observed by Gaudiya Vaishnavas as the appearance day of Lord Balaram, the elder brother of Lord Krishna, a “bhumi puja” – “worship of the earth” ceremony was performed to initiate the construction activity there.
Mahaman Das, ISKCON zonal secretary for Madhya Pradesh (and also for other areas in North India) is also the Temple President of ISKCON Indore and is heading up the project.
A senior disciple of ISKCON Founder-Acharya Srila Prabhupada, Mahaman Das has been serving in ISKCON India for close to 40 years, after joining ISKCON at London during 1972.
Hailing from a Punjabi Brahmin family settled in East Africa, taking to Krishna bhakti was natural for him! Mahaman Das served ISKCON in India distributing sets of Prabhupada’s Srimad Bhagavatam to College libraries during the 1970s. He served at ISKCON Imphal, Manipur, India’s Easternmost State, bordering with Burma (aka Brahmadesh and Myanmar) on it’s Eastern flank, where he met and married his wife, Paramahamsa Dasi, a native of Manipur.
They’ve been married for thirty five years now!
Later on he became President of ISKCON Hyderabad and served there throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s. From there he was transferred as Temple President of ISKCON Vrindavan, where he served until 2002. Due to the many years he spent as the head of one of ISKCON’s international projects, Mahaman Das is well known throughout ISKCON, especially, of course, to many of ISKCON’s long standing full time devotees, both in India and Internationally.
Thereafter Mahaman Das came to Indore to develop the project there.
Srila Prabhupada brought a group of his early disciples with him to Indore back during 1970/71 for a public lecture and kirtan program. The devotees stayed in the old city at the Gita Bhavan temple. Even during those days of “agrarian India”, Indore was famous as a center of trade and commerce, especially in the textiles and grains business and Prabhupada’s program is an indication that Prabhupada considered Indore an important place in India!
Indore is a city of almost four million residents today. Back during the year 2000, Sri Prem Goyal, a prominent businessman, donated a three acre plot of land on the outskirts of Indore near the Nipania village to ISKCON.
Located on the Northeast side of the expanding city, the land is just over eleven kilometers from the city center. The Indore Railway station is also about eleven kilometers from Nipania, and the Devi Ahilyabhai Holkar (a past Rani/Queen of Indore during the 18th century ) Indore Airport is sixteen kilometers from the temple area.
For the past ten years, a temporary temple has been functioning on the Nipania property. Recently, the temple began a Govinda’s restaurant. The temple is well attended on Sunday’s and festival days. Last year at least fifty thousand residents of Indore visited the temple on the occasion of Sri Krishna Janmastami, that is coming up this year in a few days time!
A grand temple, large guesthouse, theme park, and Govinda’s restaurant is planned for the Nipania land, and construction is to begin shortly.
To see sketches of the proposed temple, guesthouse, etc., look here on the internet: http://iskconindore.info/
Vraja Bhakti Vilas Das, a senior devotee of ISKCON India, who spent many years at ISKCON New Delhi as head pujari and then Temple President of ISKCON Noida (a large city located next to New Delhi on the Eastern bank of the Yamuna River, in Uttar Pradesh) performed the rituals that included svasti vachana, vishvaksena puja, dravya sthapana, etc. Later on the Deity of Ananta Shesha, the form of the Lord as a serpent, who holds up the universe, was worshipped with abhishek and arati, and then installed in the ground under the temple.
In attendance at the program were Sarvopama Das and Basu Ghosh Das, senior ISKCON devotees and disciples of Srila Prabhupada, Bimal Krishna Das and Radhavinod Das, co-Presidents of ISKCON Ujjain, Praneshwar Das, IYF (ISKCON Youth Forum) Indore Director, Vishal Das, ISKCON Indore Vice President, and temple devotees and well wishers.
Purushottam Agarwal, one of Indore’s leading personalities in the local business community, as well as other businessmen and their families attended the program.
After the bhumi puja and installation of Ananta Shesha, devotees performed abhishek (bathing with panch amrita (five nectars) of small Deities of Jagannath, Baladev, and Subhadradevi on the occasion of Balaram’s appearance day, more than five thousand years ago. After the bathing ceremony, arati was offered to Their Lordships and all in attendance were served a prasad feast (lunch) as per tradition!