Sunday, February 18, 2007

The Temple of Vedic Planetarium

On the 5th of March 1977 in Mayapur Srila Prabhupada had the devotees lay a corner stone for the Temple of Vedic Planetarium, about one kilometer into the fields behind Lotus bld .

Nityananda Prabhu had pointed to Srila Jiva Goswami a place where Adbhuta Mandir would come up. It just so happens that the place which Nityananda Prabhu pointed out corresponds to the place in which Srila Prabhupada had the devotees lay a corner stone.

* Srila Prabhupada did not push construction to start while He was present because He saw that it will take time to do it in the right way. So, He did established Ananta Shesha & corner stone at the place where He wanted this Temple to come up, which is totally corresponds with place pointed by Nityananda Prabhu to Jiva Goswami.
* The Adbhut Mandir seeing by Bhaktivinoda Thakura is situated on the straight line from His house in Godruma to Yoga Pitha, this line goes through the spot where Srila Prabhupada established Ananta Shesha & corner stone (ISKCON garden area does not come close to that line).
* In the eternal Mayapur this wonderful temple situated in Isodan, South-East area of Antar-dvipa, which corresponds with the area where Srila Prabhupada had corner stone established. (which still to this day remains vergine of any development)

"I was there when the corner stone was laid on the 5th of March 1977, acting as Srila Prabhupada's body guard with Akshaya Prabhu. Srila Prabhupada was too sick to come out to the pit on that day and had the GBC and us devotees do it on his behalf" Arjuna Das

In the pictures above - the corner stone is shown, presently this corner stone is on the wall in ToVP office, Chakra building (known as Long bld); the area where the corner stone was originaly established is shown - in the fields behind the Lotus-Conch bld compound, about 1 kilometre away from Lotus bld;

in the next 2 photos - the latest model of the temple is shown set in the present Mayapur gardens, where this temple is now proposed to build, fitting very tightly in between existing buildings (Lotus, Chakra and Samadhi Mandir):

Srila Prabhupada had established two Ananta Shesas in Mayapur - one in 1972 to support the whole ISKCON project in general; the second one was established in 1977 specifically for the Temple of Vedic Planetarium.

The first Ananta Shesa is in the ground where the ex-elephant house was, near Samadhi Mandir, Srila Prabhupada established this particular Ananda Sesha to support the whole ISKCON Mayapur project, in 1972.
[This place falls under present construction plans, so there is a danger of Ananta Shesa being dug out in the process of making foundation...]

Then, on the 5-th of March 1977, Srila Prabhupada established second Ananta Shesha & corner stone - about one kilometre into the fields behind Lotus bld, in the land of Antradvipa island - to support the Temple of Vedic Planetarium.
This Ananta Shesa was stolen from the ground - when asked about it, Srila Prabhupada said that it means there will be difficulties in starting this temple. He did NOT say "let's build it somewhere else".

Thus Srila Prabhupada's last instruction for location of the Temple of Vedic Planetarium (ToVP) is publicly known and clear.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is very interesting, but somewhat misleading. there was nother ananta sesa buried much earlier by Srila Prabhupada. This is in the site originally picked by Srila Prabhupada to build the big temple. There is a photo of the model exactly in the garden area with Srila Prabhupada looking at it. You also do not mention about the land problem with the government who will not let us build on any other land. There are also many numerous discprepencies which you fail to mention in your slanted piece. I hope you have the honesty to post this as you are creating misleading propapaganda.

Padmalocan Das (ACBSP-1971) said...

Thank you for your coment, dear Anonymous.

You are sounding upset. I am sorry for that. I don't want you or anyone to feel this way.

The purpouse of this post is NOT to create any controversy - I can say this compleately honestly.
We simply wish to show Mayapur and what's happenning here AS IS.
Why? - for general awareness of MAYAPUR as the root of Lord Chaitanya's movement. If we fail to take care of the root properly - all the leaves and branches will suffer too...

We all hope and pray that something significant is done in our life. But the desire to do it should not make us foolish.
As far as leagal problems are concerned - that is our business to overcome, we have to fulfill Srila Prabhupada desire.

Example (my husband, Padmalochan Prabhu, remembers):
When ISKCON got the land in Juhu (Bombay) there was so many leagal problems, not only with Mr.Nire, but the Bombay municipality was also against, as were the Police, and everything looked very difficult, even impossible.
Some devotees wanted to forget about that land, which they concidered too difficult and take another plot, which was being offered by a Life-member. And they even tried to do the same.
BUT Srila Prabhupada stopped them very strongly, telling "it is my desire that the temple be on the land in Juhu".

And now back to Mayapur:
On the 5-th of March 1977 Srila Prabhupada's desire of where the temple should be was expressed in a very clear and public way.
To our knowledge, at no time after the 5 March 1977 did Srila Prabhupada change that instruction.

As very rightly pointed out by you, Srila Prabhupada did perform a ceremony in 1972, when He installed Ananta Shesha for the whole project.
But if that had been His final instruction on where the temple should be, then why in 1977, on the 5th of March, did He go ahead and have the corner stone layed along with the ceremony of installing Ananta Shesa far from the 1972 location?

Srila Prabhupada also looked at many models of proposals for the temple. There was no final on that.
It is interesting that you say that Srila Prabhupada looking at a model placed in the location infront of Lous bld. I must say it is amazing that you are in favour of the location indicated in the photo, but not the model of the temple.
Is this not contradictory?

My dear, Prabhu Anonimous, please do not be disturbed by our feelings on this. We hope and pray that some settlement would be made, so the land that Srila Prabhupada had chosen becomes available.
We also pray that everyone who is desiring to be part of development of the Temple and the Township will be fully engaged in that.

We are all servants of His Divine Grace and we will accept the will of Krishna when it comes to pass.
Untill it has become clear - we shall simply try to do our service with all sinserity.

You are welcome to write your coments, but not Anonimously. Mayapur Katha has never been in habit to publish anonimous articles. This applys to comments also.
All future anonimous comments will not be published.

Thank you.
Hare Krishna.
Padmalochan Das & Vrindavan Lila Dasi

Anonymous said...

In 1977 Prabhupada approved design by Surabhi (then swami) of the Temple of Understanding. The model was made and was standing in front of Lotus Building. Bhavananda (then swami) did not like the design and had changed it to something he liked, and that is when all started. Now another change has come and when it will stop. Yes Prabhupada did a few times Anantasesa ceremony for the temple, one further in the fields and yet another time with Brahmananda and JPS. Now number of designs is much greater then anantasesas for the new temple.

Padmalocan Das (ACBSP-1971) said...

Lately we have been receiving some opinions, 2 points are particularity prominent:
- the distance between 2 sites isn't great:
- the devotees funding the project are getting old and may go soon, then who will build?

Well,
The "new site" for the Temple is over 1 kilometer away from the real site. This isn't close.
More than that - it is in a different island (Rudra-dvip) - a territory meant to accommodate different variety of transcendental mood and have different purpose and flavor.
This is important consideration, and not our's to make - Srila Prabhupada had already decided where this Temple should be built (see the article above) - we should simply stick to His opinion & decision and not manufacture our own to suite our own desires.

If some senior devotees are feeling insecure about their old age - what to do? They should of worried about it earlier, they knew old age will come. Personal insecurity is not an excuse to mess around with acharya's predictions and Srila Prabhupada's direct instructions.

It is strange assumption that there is not (and will not be) any other capable devotees who could get this work done.... This temple isn't one man's task, but for all of us to accomplish - when we realize this and when the right mood and understanding arrives among devotees - this Temple will manifest as a fruit of our love and cooperation.
Lord Chaitanya will not let this happen any other way. And longer we take to ripe, yes more senior devotees will leave their bodies.
So, sooner ISKCON arrives at the clear understanding & realization of real cooperation among devotees - sooner the Temple of Understanding will manifest.

Giridhari Das said...

Did Srila Prabhupada ever mention that the Mayapur temple was the adbhuta mandira predicted by Lord Nityananda?

It seems that some Vaisnavas believe otherwise and have many references from Srila Bhaktisiddhanta to prove it.

What are you thoughts on this?

Padmalocan Das (ACBSP-1971) said...

As to our knowledge Srila Prabhupada did not directly say that temple of vedic planetarium was the adbhuta mandira predicted by Lord Nityananda.

However, the corner stone He established for ToVP is corresponding to the place Nityananda Prabhu pointed.

The present plan for construction does not match Srila Prabhupada's direction, yet is advertised as the adbhuta mandira predicted by Lord Nityananda through ToVP website...

We do not wish to go into long debates in this comment area, if you have more questions, please contact us via e-mail link @ our Home Page (www.remembermayapur.com)