{"id":8311,"date":"2010-03-26T07:53:36","date_gmt":"2010-03-26T06:53:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=8311"},"modified":"2010-03-26T10:12:07","modified_gmt":"2010-03-26T09:12:07","slug":"vision-of-building-a-state-of-the-art-iskcon-hare-krishna-temple-in-silicon-valley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=8311","title":{"rendered":"Vision of Building a State of the Art ISKCON Hare Krishna Temple in Silicon Valley"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n(From right) Sri Radha, Sri Madan-Mohan, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (Pictures courtesy of “Jorge Bardina)<\/em><\/font>
\n
\nBy Girish Parikh<\/strong><\/p>\n

INTERVIEW WITH HG VAISESIKA DASA<\/p>\n

ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness) of Silicon Valley (ISV) was started in a suburb of San Jose by a small group of devotees who moved from Los Angeles to the Bay Area in 1998. ISV moved to a rented storefront on Union Avenue in San Jose. It soon outgrew that venue with a variety of programs and moved to the current rented location at 951 South Bascom Avenue in San Jose, where it has been for the last several years.<\/p>\n

ISV is known for its friendly family atmosphere and its diversity of membership. <\/p>\n

HG Vaisesika Dasa began visiting ISV Hare Krishna Temple in 1999 and was invited to join its advisory board in 2000. He became the Temple President in 2007.<\/p>\n

He has recently been appointed as Zonal Secretary for ISKCON in Northern California. He will be checking in with ISKCON centers throughout the region, helping them to maintain their high standards and connecting them to devotees from other centers so that they can share best practices. He will also be assisting in opening new centers throughout Northern California.<\/p>\n

He joined ISKCON in San Francisco in 1973, when he was a teenager and soon afterward accepted initiation from His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the Founder-Acharya of ISKCON, becoming his direct disciple. He is well known throughout ISKCON for his steady dedication and enthusiasm for distributing Srila Prabhupada\u2019s books, which he has done continuously for 37 years.<\/p>\n

HG Vaisesika Dasa is one of the dynamic disciples of Srila Prabhupada. He has a vision of building a state of the art ISKCON Hare Krishna Temple in Silicon Valley. Girish Parikh interviewed him about his vision, and the festivals and activities of ISV.<\/p>\n

Q: Hare Krishna. Let’s start with your name, HG Vaisesika Dasa. HG is acronym for His Grace. How to pronounce ‘Vaisesika’?<\/p>\n

A: Vaisesika: ‘Vai’ like ‘K-a-i’ in Kailas. ‘Se’ like ‘s-a’ in say. ‘Si’ like ‘s-i’ in sister. ‘Ka’ like \u2018c-u\u2019 in cup.<\/p>\n

Q: What do the names ‘Vaisesika,’ and ‘Dasa’ mean?<\/p>\n

A: ‘Vaisesika’ comes from the root word, Visesa, meaning specific or special. Everything in God’s creation is unique and special. There is no one particle or living being quite the same as another. Krishna is the source of all these unique creations. He is the supreme, unique and the source of all uniqueness.<\/p>\n

The “Dasa” in Vaisesika Dasa, means that I am a servant of Krishna.<\/p>\n

I received this name from my spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada, when I received spiritual initiation from him.<\/p>\n

Q: What is your religious background, and how were you drawn to Sri Krishna and ISKCON?<\/p>\n

A: I come from a family of intellectuals who were not connected to any church or religion. My father and mother, who recently passed away, were university professors in Psychology and Sociology respectively.<\/p>\n

Even though my parents never introduced me to religion of any kind, somehow or other I was irresistibly drawn to search for God when I was around fourteen years old. At that time I became a vegetarian and began reading many books about philosophy and God consciousness.<\/p>\n

Nothing completely satisfied me though until one day, a high school friend gave me a ‘Back to Godhead,’ the magazine of the Hare Krishna movement. My friend had purchased it on the street from a devotee thinking that I might like it. I did.<\/p>\n

After reading the issue of ‘Back to Godhead’ — that explained how the knowledge of the Vedas is passed down through a disciplic succession and how by chanting the names of God one could become perfect — I searched out other books by Srila Prabhupada and found the \u201cBhagavad-Gita As It Is\u201d, \u201cSri Isopanisad\u201d, and \u201cOn the Way to Krishna\u201d at a book store in Berkeley, California, named Shambhala Books.<\/p>\n

After reading the books carefully, I visited the ISKCON temple in San Francisco that was on Valencia Street in the Mission District. After meeting the devotees who lived there that summer day in 1973, I knew for certain that I wanted to live with them and devote my life to Krishna. A few weeks later after much negotiation with my parents and the temple authorities — as I was still only sixteen years old — I entered the brahmachari ashrama in the temple with the permission and blessings of my loving parents and became a full time devotee. On that day, I felt like a fish who had been rescued from dry land and had been placed back in a cool, refreshing lake. After all these years, I’m still happily swimming. <\/p>\n

Q: The Deities of ISKCON Silicon Valley Hare Krishna temple are called Sri Sri Radha Madan-Mohan. Please describe the significance of the names ‘Radha’, and ‘Madan-Mohan’.<\/p>\n

A: The name Madan-Mohan means, “The attractor of Cupid.” In the material world everyone is looking for beauty, and the most compelling form of beauty is epitomized by Cupid, the god of love. The beauty of Krishna is so great however, that even the attractive Cupid is attracted to Krishna. Hence, His name, Madan-Mohan, “The attractor of Cupid.” Radha is the name for Krishna’s eternal consort. She is the best devotee of Lord Krishna through whom devotees offer their worship to Krishna.<\/p>\n

Q: Please describe your vision of the new Sri Sri Radha Madan-Mohan Temple of ISV in San Jose, California.<\/p>\n

A: ISV devotees work together to organically grow a home base for our Lord and His devotees.<\/p>\n

My vision for the new temple, our new home base, is:<\/p>\n

A welcoming environment comfortable for hearing, chanting and meditation.
\nA base from which we feel strong to fight with Maya, illusion.
\nSecure and safe.
\nA meeting place that attracts new people.
\nA place for education, learning, high culture.
\nA spiritual center.
\nOpen to the public.
\nA pure environment.
\nClean, attractive and green.
\nPerfect for Kirtan (group singing of the names of God).
\nA center for the Lord\u2019s glorification.
\nA home and base for the Lord and His devotees.
\nKid-friendly.
\nThe heart of Bay Area Sankirtan.<\/p>\n

Q: What is ISV\u2019s uniqueness?<\/p>\n

A: It has:
\nFamily atmosphere.
\nHuge book distribution, teaching.
\nLots of Kirtan.
\nAn ideal atmosphere for learning.
\nExemplary loving relationships among devotees.
\nAn individual, spontaneous and voluntary mood for service.
\nKid-friendly environment.<\/p>\n

Q: What is your plan to raise the funds needed to build the new temple?<\/p>\n

A: Most of the funds we have now have come from members and patrons who like the atmosphere at ISV and would like to see it expand and succeed in the Valley. We have held several fund raisers, selling tickets for dance and musical events also.<\/p>\n

We invite anyone who thinks that this is a worthwhile project to help out in any way that they feel they can.<\/p>\n

Q: You are a Master Book Distributor. I understand ISV’s book distribution program under your able leadership will help raise part of the funds. Please describe ISV’s book distribution program. <\/p>\n

A: The devotees at ISV have become well known for their prolific distribution of transcendental literatures. In fact, out of dozens of North American ISKCON temples in the United States, Mexico and Canada, ISV ranks #3 in volume of books sold.<\/p>\n

Each month the devotees at ISV hold a Monthly Sankirtan Festival (MSF). Using all modern organizational techniques, the devotees mobilize all over the Bay Area at least one weekend out of every month to distribute Bhagavad-Gitas, other small books, invitations to the temple and thousands of pieces of Krishna prasadam, sanctified food (offered to the Deities by a priest at our temple). This group called, Team ISV, has as its motto, “always better service” and they operate on the principle that “lots of people each doing a little” is the best way to keep things fun and easy for all. Team ISV invites all of its members to go out into public as ambassadors of goodwill, meeting people door-to-door and in other locations, to make friends and to give them an opportunity to read \u201cBhagavad-Gita\u201d, \u201cSri Isopanisad\u201d, and \u201cSrimad-Bhagavatam\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Team ISV members find that people all across the Bay Area are interested and receptive to hearing the philosophy of Bhakti Yoga and Krishna consciousness.<\/p>\n

Team members accept donations, but their prime directive is to give something valuable and to leave each person they meet with a good impression. This goes well with Team ISV’s mission, which is to serve all living beings through the mass distribution of the holy names of God, spiritual food and literatures like the Bhagavad-Gita.<\/p>\n

Team ISV also recently inaugurated its Panchajanya project that places Bhagavad-Gitas in motel rooms all across the United States. To date, team members have placed nearly 30,000 Gitas and they are poised for distributing exponentially more than that in 2010 and beyond.<\/p>\n

Another branch of Team ISV’s book distribution program is called Smart Box, a small “help yourself” system that places a small rack of books and a donation box in stores across the Valley. From the Smart Box people interested in the literature can pick up a Bhagavad-Gita or other small books and leave a donation on the honor system. Through the Smart Box program, Team ISV distributes hundreds of books every month. <\/p>\n

Q: How will the new temple benefit the residents of San Jose and neighboring towns? How will the national and international devotees and visitors benefit?<\/p>\n

A: The new ISV temple will benefit the residents of San Jose by bringing the rich culture of Vedic India, including Yoga, meditation, Ayurvedic medicine, vegetarian cooking, philosophy, music and drama — into their midst.<\/p>\n

National and international guests who visit ISV will go away with a sense of inner peace and will uncover a treasure trove of information and books about self-discovery.<\/p>\n

Q: What are the major celebrations of ISV during a year? What are other activities?<\/p>\n

A: At ISV we hold several major celebrations during the year. The most highly anticipated and well attended of them are: Janmastami, the birthday of Lord Krishna; Rama Navami, the appearance day of Lord Rama; Nrisimha Caturdasi, the appearance of Lord Nrisimha; Gaura Purnima, the appearance day of Lord Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu; Nityananda Trayodasi, the appearance day of Lord Nityananda; Radhastami, the appearance day of Srimati Radharani; and Gita Jayanti, the day the Bhagavad-Gita was spoken. ISV holds many other festivals, including a weekly Sunday program and a monthly Sankirtan festival.<\/p>\n

According to the popularity of each festival, we receive between 150 to 600 guests.<\/p>\n

ISV has outgrown the present location and needs to build its own bigger temple to serve the ever increasing number of devotees and visitors. With a burgeoning membership, our establishing a permanent residence for the Deities and the ISV members is more than just a need, it\u2019s an imperative.<\/p>\n

As we have plans in the works for a Child Development Center, a school, and to facilitate our music academy (called the Vaisnava Academy of Kirtan) — which is already in progress — we are seeking a large enough property that is also aesthetically inviting.<\/p>\n

ISV Hare Krishna Temple is located at:
\n951 South Bascom Avenue.
\nSan Jose, CA 95128<\/p>\n

Phone: 408 293 4959
\nWeb site: http:\/\/www.virtualtemple.org\/ <\/p>\n

(Girish Parikh is author and journalist based in Modesto, California.
\nE-mail: girish16@yahoo.com).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Girish Parikh<\/strong><\/p>\n

ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness) of Silicon Valley (ISV) was started in a suburb of San Jose by a small group of devotees who moved from Los Angeles to the Bay Area in 1998.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-announce"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8311\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}