Sri Sri Krishna Balarama Mandir: 30th Anniversary

By Deena Bandhu dasa

Posted May 13, 2005

Rama Navami, April 18, marked the 30th anniversary of the first and only complete temple ever built by Srila Prabhupada, Sri Sri Krishna Balarama Mandir. Up to that time we had remodeled churches, a temporary temple in Mayapur, one in the making in Bombay, or houses in the low-rent area painted bright colors with a sign "Radha Krishna Temple" hung out front.

The temple is located right on the main road named by the municipality as Bhaktivedanta Swami Marg in honor of Srila Prabhupada's making Vrindavan famous all over the world. Situated in Raman Reti, "the enjoyable sands," where Krishna and Balaram sported with Their cowherd boyfriends, the beautiful, colonnaded temple with its unique archways designed by Dutch-born Surabhi Swami, has become a destination that no tourist who visits Vrindavan ever misses.

It was late after all the festivals this season, with only a few handfuls of devotees braving the 100+ weather, so the temple management organized a two-day festival whose theme was to bring together the local devotees living in the surrounding community. The highlight of the festivities was taking all three sets of Utsava Deities on three palanquins to visit all the different departments of Their temple.

Both mornings, instead of the Bhagavatam class, had many senior devotees recounting their memories of the glorious event or the histories leading up to it. The first morning, I read from a short history I had prepared for the Silver Jubilee celebration five years ago.

In November of 1971, Prabhupada had just finished a successful pandal program at the LIC grounds in Delhi, and with a few free days and that also being Kartika, he brought the devotees to visit Vrindavan. When the city honored him with a function held at the city hall, Mr. G.S. Saraff, being inspired by the enthusiastic kirtan, came forward and offered his land in Raman Reti to Srila Prabhupada.

Prabhupada appointed the late Ksirodakshayee Vishnu to get the deed. Mr. Saraff and his wife, Gita Devi, could not make up their minds so they had Ksirodakshayee write "yes" and "no" on two pieces of paper, which they folded and placed at the feet of Radharani. Srila Prabhupada being the dearest devotee of Radharani, Ksirodakshayee plucked one paper, and it was the one that said "yes". The deed was drawn up and the land was registered in ISKCON's name in March of 1972.

Prabhupada engaged a Dutch architect, who was visiting the temple in Bombay and who eventually became his disciple Surabhi, to draw up the plans for the temple. It would be like a new Govindaji's in Vrindavan, with a sunken courtyard surrounded by arched colonnades. Prabhupada wanted three altars, and Surabhi designed a unique swirling arch that has become the hallmark of Krishna Balaram Mandir.

Cement, bricks, and many building materials were scarce and controlled by the government. Guru Das and his wife, Yamuna, with a small crew of devotees tried their best, but when Janmastami of 1974 arrived, the date tentatively set by Prabhupada, there were only foundations, and RCC shooting into the sky where columns would eventually come.

Daivishakti continued the narration, as she was serving in Srila Prabhupada's house. She told in painful detail how Srila Prabhupada was so thoroughly disappointed that he developed a life-threatening fever and devotees around the world chanted for his recovery. Then Surabhi rented generators and put lights up and had 24-hour shifts to do the impossible and get the temple ready by Rama Navami of 1975. Daivishakti also recounted how they thought they had two weeks to get Srila Prabhupada's quarters ready for him when they received a telegram that he was arriving that evening. Bhavananda inspired and commandeered a crew of devotees who worked cooperatively in such a way that had never been seen before.

Ananda praised those devotees who stayed in Vrindavan with no bottled water, suffering diseases, bathing at a well from a bucket, and performing incredible austerities just to please Srila Prabhupada. Others recalled the yajna done by the local brahmins so that no one would criticized the temple. But Prabhupada over and over told us that the real installation was the 24-hour kirtan. This was a theme repeated by others throughout the two days of nectar.

After the narrations, in the evening, Srila Prabhupada and the three sets of Utsava Deities were taken on palanquins brightly decorated with flowers and colored umbrellas to visit the various department of Their temple for the first time ever. Accompanied by ecstatic kirtans led by the best of kirtan leaders, They proceeded out the front gates of the temple and went around to the right behind the temple. They went out the gate toward the prasadam hall and followed a path decorated with strings of bright yellow and orange marigolds to the Mayapur-Vrindavan Trust (MVT) road. Then going up to the main road they entered the Food for Life gate where altars were set up and bhoga offering was made and artika performed. Then milk and prasadam were distributed to the devotees. This was done at each stop.

Proceeding further, They came to a small pandal and altar set up by the shopkeepers in front of the Gurukula. As they entered the Gurukula, the Mailout and Vrinda Kunda office greeted Their Lordships, and Daivishakti Mataji presented a book she had compiled of all Srila Prabhupada's quotes about Vrindavan, entitled, Sri Vrindavan Dhama As It Is. As per age-old ISKCON tradition, the book had only arrived two hours earlier from the printer.

Entering the Gurukula, the Deities rested on an altar in the southwest corner of the lawn under a beautiful tree and were offered an incredible chappan bhoga offering. From there they proceeded to the Samadhi where They were greeted by seven women disciples of Srila Prabhupada, each doing a different service, like ringing a bell or blowing a conch.

At that point, I began to pass out incense sticks to everyone and the procession took on a divine, auspicious aspect with all the devotees gaily waving incense in the air. One of the temple commanders had a tank on his back and was joyfully spraying rosewater on the crowd. All through the route, devotees were happily placing firework fountains that reminded one of the Deity processions in South India.

After being greeted by the Information Center, the Deities proceeded to the Krishna Balaram Guesthouse. The air of community among the devotees waving their incense sticks is impossible to describe. Everyone was simply relishing being on an inspection tour with their beloved Thakurji's. Many devotees were moved to tears.

From the guesthouse, Their Lordships were greeted by a small play put on by Nrsimha Mataji and the devotees who serve in Prabhupada's house. They had brightly colored costumes and makeup, and the devotees relished their little skit.

Then the Deities went out the Guesthouse gate and behind the temple property to the Mayapur-Vrindavan Trust (MVT). There They circumambulated the entire path with all the residing devotees greeting Them with colored designs on their steps, full water pots, decorated doorways, and festoons. They came to the park, but the palanquins were too large and too many to put in the chatri there, so an altar was improvised on one side. Then Gaura Aratika was performed under the moon and stars. Prasad was served while the Deities were serenaded with kirtan. Then They started Their journey to return to the temple. On the way out, Srimati Mataji had posted a sign that brought tears to my eyes: "Thank You so much for coming. Please visit again soon."

Finally They visited the newly renovated devotee kitchen where the next day's feast would be cooked for the first time. Returning to the temple, there were smiles of wonderful satisfaction on all the temple residents' faces for having had a wonderful evening bathing in the merciful darshan of Their beloved Thakurjis. The first phase of the festival had achieved its goal.

Day Two – April 18

The next morning on Rama Navami, the devotees found the temple decorated with flowers in an unprecedented manner. The Deities' altars were draped with bright orange marigolds, and the gates were elaborately decorated with flowers and banana trees. Not only the altars but the entire darshan mandap was turned into a flower palace, with delicate white jasmine flowers crisscrossing overhead. It seemed that the Deities, whom the devotees are ever eager to serve, had found a way to serve Their devotees by making a flower palace for them. The Tamal tree was also in full bloom with its thousands of tiny light yellow bell-shaped flowers adding their divine fragrance to the potpourri of scents.

In the morning session of katha, Dhananjaya Prabhu jovially described how he had become president of Krishna Balaram Mandir. Previously he had volunteered to help Guru Dasa in Vrindavan, but Srila Prabhupada told him that his service in Rome was more important. Later while Dhananjaya Prabhu was serving in the Manor, the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka visited and promised all support to anyone who would open an ISKCON branch there. With an idea to open a branch there, Dhananjaya went to Mayapur to seek Prabhupada's blessings.

This intention in mind, he entered Prabhupada's room, which was full of GBCs and sannyasis, and waited for the opportunity to bring up the subject. Brahmananda entered the room and sat next to Gargamuni. Seeing both the brothers, Prabhupada mentioned how it was so nice to see them both together. He went on to describe how dear these brothers were to him. They had gone to Pakistan on his bidding as white Hindu sannyasis and had done some preaching for a little while before being forced to leave the country because war with India had broken out. Sarvabhauma Prabhu, Vice President of ISKCON Vrindavan, piped up from the audience, that he was one of the results of their preaching.

Some time before this, an article had come out in the news that two American sannyasis had been killed in Karachi. When someone brought this article to Srila Prabhupada, he was thoroughly distraught and began to cry and lament that it was his fault that he had sent them there only to be killed. Later it turned out that there being no flights to India because of the war, they had flown to Sri Lanka and had to wait several days to catch a flight to Delhi and finally they made their way to Bombay. Communication was very difficult in those days, so no one knew anything about their whereabouts. When they arrived safe and sound in Bombay, Srila Prabhupada was so overjoyed to see them that he embraced them and their kurtas became wet with his tears, now tears of joy!

Sitting in Mayapur, he remarked how nice it was to see them in his room together. In his talk at this point, as an aside, Dhanajaya remarked that now those two brothers are here with us in Vrindavan together. Remembering that they had gone to Sri Lanka, Prabhupada quoted a Bengali proverb, that whoever sets foot on Lanka becomes a Ravana. After a remark like that, Dhanajaya felt it was not the time to bring up the subject of going to Sri Lanka.

Somehow in the conversation, Prabhupada saw Dhanajaya and said that maybe Dhanjaya should be the president of the new temple in Vrindavan. Everybody in the room said "Haribol." So Prabhupada asked if there was a quorum of the GBC body present, and there being so, he proceeded to write up a resolution on a piece of notebook paper and have all the GBCs sign it. Up to this point Dhananjaya had not said a word, and this all happened in front of his eyes.

Then Prabhupada waved for everyone to leave the room except Dhanajaya. Then he told him to go to Vrindavan but not tell anyone that he was the president, that Prabhupada would do this when he came there later. When he asked Dhananjaya where his wife was, Dhananjaya replied, "In England."

Prabhupada told him to send for her immediately to stay with him in Vrindavan. "Wherever the wife is, the husband will go," Prabhupada said with a chuckle.

Telling him to do some other service in Vrindavan, Prabhupada sent him there. By the time the GBC meeting came in March of 1975, some sannyasis had objected to a householder being the president of Vrindavan, Prabhupada compromised and made New-Zealand-born Aksayananda Maharaja the co-president with Dhananjaya.

While Dhananjaya was speaking, he saw Kishori Mataji, the former wife of Surabhi. She had flown here from Paris this morning only to be present for the festival, Dhananjaya asked me if we could invite her to speak, and I responded that that was exactly what I had planned to do. While she was making her way to the front of the temple, I asked Devamrita Prabhu, the new temple president of Vrindavan, whether the two brothers were going to come and speak, since Dhananjaya had just mentioned them and how dear they were to Srila Prabhupada. He shook his head no, and I explained to the audience that since the GBC had seen fit to punish us all by not letting them give class, they had refused Devamrita's invitation.

Kishori Mataji bathed us all in a sweet ocean of nectar as she described her association with Srila Prabhupada. Srila Prabhupada had asked her to cook for him in Vrindavan. She made so many elaborate preparations that Prabhupada called her into the room and said that everything was so nice and tasty, but how was he to eat all these things? Thinking that her service was finished, her heart sank, but then Srila Prabhupada smiled and told her that her cooking was very nice but she should just make it simple. Then she was floating on cloud nine as she left the room, overjoyed to have such an intimate service for Srila Prabhupada.

One day in Jaipur, she tasted some namkeen, a salty preparation, and liked it so much she decided to make it for Srila Prabhupada. Then Prabhupada called her into the room and asked Kishori what it was. She told him it was bonafide since she had made it, (in those days, she explained, we never ate anything from outside.) Prabhupada immediately said, "You must make this every day. You take Hari Sauri to the kitchen and teach him also. I want this every day where ever I am in the world." She said that later in Bombay one time, he told her to again take Hari Sauri to the kitchen and teach him again, as his namkeen was not up to par.

After the Deities were installed, she was cooking for Them, but was always getting in trouble for cooking too much. She was thinking that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and He should get plenty of things to eat even if we don't have enough money. He will supply whatever is necessary. Unfortunately the president didn't feel that way. She went to see Srila Prabhupada, and Srila Prabhupada said, "Krishna is a young man. He needs to eat a lot, and you should cook a big pile of rice, like this." With his hands he drew a huge pile of imaginary rice in the air.

Somehow there was once an argument in the kitchen. A devotee left the temple, and Kishori was accused of kicking him out. Somebody told her that Prabhupada was angry with her, so she went crying to the house of Prabhupada's old friend Bhagatji, threw herself on the bed, covered herself with a blanket, and told Bhagatji she would never move from that place, as her life was finished.

Bhagatji went to see Srila Prabhupada and came back and beat his cane on the bed saying, "Get up. You're in maya. Prabhupada wants to see you now and hear your side of the story and your complaints."

He took her to Prabhupada's quarters and opened the door and she went in, but he did not follow.

Hearing that Prabhupada wanted to hear her complaints, she started thinking of all the things she wanted to say, but as she sat there she began to feel smaller and smaller. Prabhupada walked into the room, sat down, and without looking at her, said, "Kishori, what is the problem?"

She was silent. Again he repeated his question in a very grave voice. She couldn't speak. Then he said, "What is this argument and fighting? Kishori, unless you became humble and tolerant, you will never make it in spiritual life."

Then he quoted the "trinad api" verse and repeated that without becoming tolerant, there is no advancement in spiritual life.

So she went out of the room and went to see Malati. Remembering how Prabhupada had told them that his Guru Maharaja had said that one should wear this verse around the neck, they tattooed it on each other's neck. Despite the pain and all, they managed to do it.

Now, in Kishori's shop in Paris, people always ask what it is around Kishori's neck. Most of them she puts off with "It's a prayer," but at least once a day she has to explain that verse to a customer who insists on knowing what it means.

She told how Malati and other sankirtan devotees were telling Prabhupada of their book distribution and how they had a van and distributed books. She noticed how Prabhupada was smiling and was so pleased with them. So after they left, she went to him and told him how she didn't know how to drive but that she wanted a van so she could go out and distribute books and all. Prabhupada smiled and said very sweetly, "Kishori, you want to leave me? You're not happy with me here in Vrindavan?"

Then her heart was filled with bliss, and she realized that Srila Prabhupada accepted all services equally.

Other speakers repeatedly mentioned the wonderful smile on Srila Prabhupada's face as he did the first artika. Again and again they mentioned that despite the elaborate arrangements for yajna, Prabhupada said the real installation was the 24-hour kirtan.

I finished off with a vivid description of how the Deities were standing in the middle of the darshan mandapa with wax over Their eyes and the brahmins were very joyfully splashing all the abhishek ingredients over them. They seemed to be really enjoying themselves.

Then the final moment came, when the Deities went on the altar, were dressed, and had Their first offering. Finally the door opened with billows of incense, and Srila Prabhupada was standing in bright saffron silk on Krishna Balarama's altar to do artika. At that moment, the crowd surged forward, and I was swept off my feet. Being very young and remembering news reports of people in Third-World countries being trampled to death, I panicked as I was taken 15 feet this way and 10 feet that way and my feet were not even on the ground.

Finally I made his way to the courtyard like an American football player and turned to see Srila Prabhupada's smile of fuuuuulllllll satisfaaaaaction. Every time he finished offering an article to the Lords, he would turn to offer it to the devotees and his smile increased each time, like 10, 100, 1000, and finally millions of suns rising in the sky.

Then there was a simultaneous maha abhishek of all three sets of Lords. Everyone sat peacefully and relished the wonderful ceremony as Aindra sang one of his lively kirtans. "Sri Gaura Nitai Ki Jaya! Sri Sri Krishna Balarama Ki Jaya! Sri Sri Radha Shyamasundar Ki Jaya" rent the air.

The feast was really fantastic, and even the Gurukul was present. In fact many of the servers were the older Gurukul boys. The feast was nicely cooked and served to the satisfaction of all the devotees.

The grand finale came at the afternoon artika, with the flower outfits artistically made by all the devotee women—flower crowns, earrings, ornaments, and dresses; mainly large yellow flowers, but there were highlights of blue, violet, and pink. The outfits appeared to come straight from Goloka Vrindavan. Radharani had a beautiful outfit made with wonderful pink flowers that was just stunning. No one could take his eyes off of Their Lordships.

Sri Sri Gaura Nitai Ki Jaya! Sri Sri Krishna Balarama Ki Jaya! Sri Sri Radha Shyamasundar, Lalita, Visakha Ki Jaya! Sri Sri Krishna Balaram Mandir 30th Anniversary Mahamahotsava Ki Jaya.

In service of Sri Sri Krishna Balaram,
Deena Bandhu dasa

© dipika.org May 13, 2005