By Lakshman Das
The holy place of Mayapur in West Bengal is glorious, for it witnessed the appearance and the magnanimous pastimes of Lord Gauranga Mahaprabhu in the 16th century. The building of the Rs 6000 plus million temple is being carefully overseen and substantially funded by HG Ambarisa prabhu (originally known as Alfred Brush Ford) of the Ford Company, one of the leading global automobile manufacturers. This massive structure will be one of the largest temple complexes in the world located on the bank of River Ganga in Navadvipa. Mayapur is famous for Gaudiya Vaishnavism and there are many temples where Radha and Krishna are worshipped.
Srila Prabhupada, the founder Acharya of ISKCON said in 1976, “Now you all together make the Vedic planetarium very nice so that people will come and see. From the description in the Srimad Bhagavatam, you prepare this Vedic Planetarium (often called Chandrodaya Mandir). I would like to express my heartfelt appreciation for your thoughtful and generous participation in fulfilling this order.” The Vedic Planetarium is thus a brainchild of Srila Prabhupada and is being materialised by his humble disciple HG Ambarisa prabhu. Senior disciples of Srila Prabhupada believe that originally it was the founder Acharya of ISKCON himself who performed the foundation ceremony for the Vedic Planetarium, perhaps in March 1972, when the first Gaura Purnima festival in Shridham Mayapur was organised in the presence of their Lordships Sri Sri Radha-Madhava, who had just arrived from Calcutta.
Srila Prabhupada requested Ambarisa Prabhu to fund for the project and instructed Bhavananda Prabhu about his primary designs. History also reveals that Nityananda Prabhu spoke of an adbhuta-mandiram at Mayapur in future and said, gauranga-nitya-seva haibe vikasa “from here will spread the glories of Lord Gauranga world-wide.” Srila Prabhupada again said, “This temple already exists and Bhakti Vinoda Thakura saw it with his spiritual mind. The Lord desires something and by His iccha-shakti, it automatically manifests. But it exists spiritually. As Krishna said Arjuna to take the credit of destroying the enemies firing the arrows after showing that the Lord killed all warriors in the battlefield, we have to go and take the credit of building the temple.”
Srila Prabhupada had a clear vision of the temple complex. He once said, “Now here in India, we are constructing a very large Vedic Planetarium and within it we will construct a huge detailed model of the universe as described in the text of the fifth canto of Srimad Bhagavatam. Within the planetarium, the model will be studied by onlookers at different levels using the escalators. Detailed information will be given on open verandas at different levels by means of dioramas, charts, films, etc.”
The proposed temple of Vedic Cosmology complex includes a Vedic Planetarium, a Vedic Science Centre, and a Planetarium Theatre. The Planetarium will be a revolving giant to demonstrate the planetary movements. The Vedic Planetarium is expected to remain as a touchstone of the Vedic contribution to cosmology. The Vedic Science Centre will house various exhibits demonstrating many aspects of Vedic sciences relevant to humanity. The exhibits may include the scientific rationale behind the Vedic cosmology, Vedic library and research center, archeology from the Vedic era, the fallacy of the Aryan invasion theory, and Vedic social sciences. The Planetarium Theatre consists of the Vedic cosmos including the Sisumara Planetary systems projected on a twenty meter domed screen. Digital projectors will be in use to project the image from a computer base on a 20m hemispherical screen. The theatre will be designed to accommodate 200 people at a time.
The project is underway and the piling works for its foundation have already been begun. The entire project, expected to be complete by
2014, is also likely to enhance the tourism potential of Mayapur. The holy River Ganga may then facilitate the ferrying of tourists from the Sunderbans to Mayapur through Dakshineshwar.
“In Vrndavana there is a place where there was no temple, but a devotee desired, “Let there be a temple and seva, devotional service.” Therefore, what was once an empty corner has now become a place of pilgrimage. Such are the desires of a devotee.” (SB 10.13.50)