ISKCON is building 'heaven on earth'

Midday/August 21, 2003

The ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness) temple in Juhu turns 25 this year. To mark the occasion, it is building an exhibition hall, a wedding hall, guest houses and new classrooms for its ICSE board school within the temple complex.

The project, called "Heaven on Earth," will cost Rs 20 crore and is the biggest expansion undertaken by ISKCON since the four-acre Juhu temple complex was founded in 1978.

The construction began in January this year and is scheduled for completion in two-and-a-half years.

President of the temple trust Swami Bhima Das said the expansion would help the organisation serve the spiritual needs of the community.

ISKCON tries to fulfil spiritual needs in three ways - by chanting "Hare Rama Hare Krishna," distributing prasad and distributing spiritual literature.

The Vedic exposition covering an area of 10,000 square feet will house a multi-media exhibition on stories of the Ramayana and Mahabharata and will explain human anthropology, the Srimad Bhagavatam and the Chaitanya Charitamrita, the life account of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the father of the Hare Krishna movement.

The organisation has faced allegations of child abuse in the West and is combating the problem by setting up new child protection units in its schools worldwide.