The Chippiwada Temple Research Team (left to right): Paridhi (Historian and Translator), Anshika (Research Assistant), Neelkantha (Chippiwada Temple President), Mayapura Pati (BTG Service Centre), Sameer (Research Assistant), Padma (Research Co-ordinator) and Sanskriti (Research Team Secretary).
By Padma devi dasi
Due to the recent passing away of His Grace Brahmananda dasa, in July 2015 I ventured to Sri Vrindavan dhama. Prior to his passing, Brahmananda and I had planned to write an article together for Back to Godhead magazine about Srila Prabhupada translating SrimadBhagavatam in the small Chippiwada temple in Old Delhi in the 1960s. At the time of our discussion, neither Brahmananda nor I had the resources to pursue the necessary research for the article, so now I decided to complete this task on behalf of Brahmananda and myself.
Venturing into the busy Chandni Chowk district of Old Delhi, where the streets are so narrow and crowded that no cars can enter, I was well looked after by a small team of dedicated ISKCON devotees. ISKCON gained full ownership of the temple in 2014 and since then the temple with its beautiful deities Sri Sri RadhaVallabha, who have presided there for more than 100 years, are now cared for according to standard ISKCON procedures. During Srila Prabhupada’s time at the temple, he would sometimes perform the evening arati for Their Lordships.
On the second floor of the temple is Prabhupada’s famous room in which he wrote the first few cantos of Srimad-Bhagavatam in the English language. Travelling between the Sri Sri Radha-Damodara temple in Vrindavana and the Chippiwada temple, Prabhupada was preparing for his preaching in the Western world, which his spiritual master Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati had requested him to do.
During my few days visiting the temple, a small research team of local devotees quickly and unexpectedly formed, driven by everyone’s intense interest in Prabhupada’s presence at the temple in the 1960s. Our team has dedicated itself to producing a book on this topic, which will be published in both English and Hindi. So far, our research team has unearthed some data that has not yet been documented by ISKCON and we are estimating that we will find more.