Bold and
Beautiful, TOVP
An emblem of Srila Prabhupada’s boldness.
Srila Prabhupada founded the International Society
for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) when he was 70 years old and spread it
throughout the world in the next 12 years. He obviously had numerous attractive
qualities, both as a person and as a leader. One that continues to amaze, inspire,
and guide his followers was his sensational boldness. Srila Prabhupada's boldness changed the course of
world history.
When
Prabhupada started his work in the USA in the 1960s, traditional religious institutions no longer held firm sway
on the newer generations of the western world. Materialism and even outright
hedonism was beginning to capture the hearts of the masses there. The western world was fast moving towards a completely
godless state of existence; the rest of the world would have followed suit
shortly. Prabhupada reintroduced the western world to God - a stunningly
beautiful blue teenage jolly cowherd boy who plays a flute and constantly
engages in delightful pastimes of selfless love and affection with all the
inhabitants, including birds and animals, of His simple rural village named
Vrindavan. In an increasingly materialistic, self-centered, urbanized, and
anti-god western society, this picture of God was a shocking revelation. But Prabhupada's
bold conviction in his message made people start believing in it - to engage in
pure devotional service to God, Krishna.
The TOVP is an emblem of Srila Prahbupada’s
boldness.
The Bold Lonely Struggle
One can trace
back Prabhupada's boldness to his first meeting in 1922 with His Divine Grace
Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta startled the then
26 year old Gandhian Indian nationalist Abhay Charan De by his bold
proclamation: temporary material situations like the British rule over India
should not impede the preaching of Lord Chaitanya’s spiritual message; only this
message can benefit the world and not any political situation. In an India engulfed
by arousing nationalistic fervor, this was a stunning proposition; but
Prabhupada was convinced.
Prabhupada
later became an initiated disciple of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta and imbibed from
him this trait of boldness. Prabhupada was bold in multiple ways - personally,
as a visionary, and as a strategist. In the 1950s, he made the bold decision of
leaving his family to dedicate himself fully to the order of his spiritual
master – to preach Lord Chaitanya’s message in English all over the world. This
period, the 1950s, was Prabhupada’s toughest in terms of food, clothing, and
shelter. Brought up with utmost love and care by his parents and always treated
affectionately by his spiritual master, now Prabhupada found that he was all
alone. Yet he struggled on, shuttling between Vrindavan and Delhi, to raise
funds for, write, and print his “Back To Godhead” fortnightly journal and his
commentary on the first canto of the Srimad Bhagavatam. It is impossible to
fathom how this unknown aged man continued on without any fixed source of
money, contacts, institutional backing, or certainty about the future. We can but
bow our heads in the dust of his lotus feet and profusely thank him for his
struggles for bringing us to the path of Krishna Consciousness.
This period
of struggle ended in an unprecedented event in world history – a voyage that
could eventually become as famous as Columbus’s voyage that led to the discovery
of the New World. Columbus brought the western world into light; Prabhupada’s
voyage brought spiritual light to the western world. Prabhupada’s voyage to USA
on the cargo ship Jaladuta and his subsequent success are unparalleled in the
history of Vaishnavism. The voyage was a bold move on multiple counts. One,
traditional Vedic wisdom prohibits one to leave the shores of the holy land of
India. And two, Prabhupada was 69 years old then, with no financial or social
support whatsoever.
Taking on the World
Prabhupada’s
conviction in his mission gradually earned him his first few followers in the
USA. He finally had hands to execute his mission. When all he had was a single
storefront, he painted the vision of an international society. He called it a
society for Krishna Consciousness when no one in the west knew that Krishna is
God. He startled the western world by Hari Nama Sankirtans - street processions
having devotees chanting and dancing to the beats of hand cymbals and drums with
banners of the Holy Name in hand. The biggest and most eye catching street
processions were of course the Lord Jagannath Ratha Yatras which he conducted
in major cities of the world. Perhaps his boldest and most socially noticeable move
was to have devotees publicly and visibly distribute his books in major public
places like airports. His vision was clear – to wake up the people of the world
to Krishna by aggressive propaganda via books and sankirtan.
In his books
he presented Krishna as the Supreme Personality of Godhead along with his Holy
Name, form, qualities, and pastimes. But in many of his conversations with
eminent philosophers and scientists he used a distinct strategy - he challenged
them. Quoting from authoritative Vedic scriptures and applying simple logic, he
questioned and reprimanded those who proclaimed God to be impersonal and denied
His eternal form and abode. He gave the Vedic perspective on the various
western philosophies he came across. And most notably, he exposed the
illogicality and futility of the mechanistic explanation of the cosmos and all
that’s in it. This was a direct challenge to the growing atheistic scientific
worldview. Despite not having a scientific academic background, he boldly
ridiculed atheistic reductionist science based on his simple and firm faith in
the word of scripture. To ensure that this challenge didn’t fizzle away, he
started the Bhaktivedanta Institute as the scientific wing of ISKCON. While the
whole world was glorifying the dazzling advancements in the scientific world,
Prabhupada belittled them as being incapable of solving the real problems of
life – birth, old age, disease, and death.
Prabhupada's
expert application of the principle of yukta vairagya was instrumental in his
spectacular success. Because Srila Prabhupada was a pure devotee, Krishna
was the most tangible reality for him; in fact he was in full realization of
the fact that Krishna is the only independent reality and that all else depends
on Him. Consequently he had the flair of engaging everything in Krishna’s
service. He was the quintessential yukta vairagi. Çréla Rüpa Gosvämé
characterizes Kåñëa consciousness in this way:
anäsaktasya viñayän
yathärham upayuïjataù
nirbandhaù kåñëa-sambandhe
yuktaà vairägyam ucyate
"When one is not attached to anything, but at the same
time accepts everything in relation to Kåñëa, one is rightly situated above
possessiveness. [This is the principle of yukta vairagya]"
(Bhakti-rasämåta-sindhu 1.2.255)
Money,
technology, world travel, mass media, public programs - he used them all with
assured confidence. What’s more, he engaged the most unkempt drug addicts on
one hand and attracted sophisticated scientists and professors on the other. It
takes extraordinary ability to engage the most spiritually unqualified and
ignorant in the Lord’s service. And it takes courage. The result was a Hare
Krishna explosion. Hare Krishna became household names, hundreds of youth
became his followers, millions of spiritual books were sold, and a hundred
temples were built. Lord Chaitanya’s movement left the shores of India;
Prabhupada fulfilled the order of his spiritual master.
Succession of Boldness
Srila
Prabhupada expected his followers to have faith in the Holy Name and continue
preaching the message of Lord Chaitanya boldly. Being bold is hard; it takes
courage to take significant and potentially life threatening risks. However,
the tales of Srila Prabhupada’s personal struggles, his life threatening voyage
to the west, and untiring hard work despite advanced old age serve as
continuous inspiration for his sincere followers. Riding on this inspiration,
his followers continue to operate even in remote corners of the globe, in
hostile countries like the Islamic and communist nations, in the hearts of
modern cities, and in many other parts of the world. Many of his disciples and
grand-disciples lead a hectic life full of inconveniences to carry forward his
legacy. This succession of boldness and dedication is one of Srila Prabhupada’s
hallmarks of success; a true leader is one who creates more leaders.
Prabhupada
has also given a life of dignity and confidence to all his followers. Without a
thriving and united community of devotees, it would have been difficult for
devotees to practice devotional life in today’s increasingly godless modern
world. But thanks to ISKCON, devotees in devotional attire are now an
increasingly common site in various parts of the world. This is also due to the
strong scriptural and logical foundation that Prabhupada has provided for all
aspects of a devotee’s life. Now a devotee does not need to be apologetic about
his devotional practices. In fact many times a devotee’s acquaintances look up
to him or her for guidance regarding various aspects of their life.
As a token
of gratitude, to fulfil one of his ardent desires, and as a stunningly courageous
undertaking, Srila Prabhupada’s followers are constructing the magnificent
TOVP.
Bold and Beautiful
The three giant domes of the TOVP will be structurally
complete by the end of 2015. This will include the concreting layer on top of
the steel superstructure of the domes. By then, the entire superstructure of
the temple building including the external brickwork will also be done. The
domes will be layered with vitrified tiles of a unique shade of blue. Tiles of
this color are available nowhere in the world. The NITCO company will specially
manufacture these tiles for the TOVP. These tiles will start arriving at the
site shortly. The MEP (Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing) work for both
infrastructure and interior needs will start in 2015. For example, lightening
arresters (devices used to protect against the damage caused by lightening)
have arrived on the site. There will be one special lightening arrester on each
of the three domes and 40 others at various places on the site. The
waterproofing is complete. Work on other services like fire-fighting, heating,
ventilation, and air conditioning will also start now. The ground floor of the
building is now leveled; in one way this milestone signifies that the super
structure is now more or less done. On the aesthetic side, the sandstone
carving work will now start.
While
Prabhupada’s personal boldness is seen in his followers, his visionary and
strategic boldness is evident in the TOVP. One of Prabhupada’s preaching strategies
was to just encourage people to come to Mayapur so that their spiritual life
will start. Additionally, one of Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur’s prominent visions
was to see people from different parts of the world throng to Mayapur and
participate in the congregational chanting of the Holy Name. There are multiple
bold elements in the construction of the TOVP which are meant to attract the
people of the world to Mayapur.
The most
obvious is its scale. The huge central dome will be the biggest dome in the
world in terms of diameter and only second in terms of height after the Saint
Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City. Building it was an architectural challenge
which the team of architects has now addressed satisfactorily. While there are other huge temple complexes in
the world like the Meenakshi Temple in Madurai, India (180,000 sq. mt.) and the
Angkor Wat in Cambodia, no other temple boasts as large a temple hall as the
TOVP. Under the shelter of the structurally sound central dome, the TOVP temple
hall will be 45000 sq. ft. in area and will hold 10000 pilgrims. Extending Srila
Prabhupada’s application of the yukta viaragya principle, a lot of modern
technology will be employed in this project. For example, the central dome will
be acoustically designed for facilitating discourses within it for the 10000
pilgrims inside it. The decorative coffered ceiling of the central dome is also
another major execution challenge that the team is currently working on. On top
of the central dome, even above the kalash, will be housed a beautiful
Sudarshan Chakra whose diameter will be 4m. A gong will be installed inside the
temple that will be heard as far as the town of Krishnanagar, a straight line
distance of 12km from Mayapur.
Impersonalism
and atheistic science are two streams of thought that Prabhupada repeatedly
attacked in his books and conversations. The TOVP continues that trend.
Building of a grand temple of Lord Krishna focused on elaborate deity worship
and devotional lifestyle directly challenges the impersonal conceptions of the
Absolute Truth; it establishes the Absolute Truth as Sri Krishna – the Supreme
Personality of Godhead, the source of everything. Consequently, the TOVP also
rejects the mechanistic atheistic explanations of the cosmos and all that’s in
it. What’s more, it also presents the Vedic view of the structure of the
universe, most notably in the form of the ambitious chandelier that will hang
down from the central dome. This chandelier will be a moving model of the Vedic
explanation of the structure of the universe. To amalgamate the function of a
chandelier (a decorative device of lighting) with the function of a scientific
model of the universe (to explain its different aspects) into one single
electro-mechanical structure is quite a design challenge.
Being aware
of the large amount of money required for building something so grand, just to
attempt it is a statement of utmost faith in Srila Prabhupada’s vision.
Centuries ago wealthy kings used to fund the construction of large temples, but
not today. Today funds are raised by requesting for them from potential donors.
It’s a joint effort by the well-wishers of the project. Even when he did not
have the required funds, Prabhupada had promised Sri Sri Radha Rasabihari of
the Juhu (Bombay) ISKCON Temple that he would build a palace for them; he did.
Similarly, the followers of Srila Prabhupada have promised him the building of
the TOVP; with the cooperation of his worldwide followers, this promise will
soon become a reality.
The
superstructure of the TOVP already looks beautiful from Srila Bhaktivinod
Thakur’s house across the Ganga. The striking blue color of its domes is an
aesthetically bold choice too. The interior and exterior beauty of the TOVP
will capture the hearts of its visitors. But the real beauty of the TOVP lies
in its special place in the history of Gaudiya Vaishnavism; it will make Gaudiya
Vaishnavism prominent on the world’s spiritual map.
An Emblem of Boldness
Srila Prabhupada was the perfect sadhu.
titikñavaù käruëikäù
suhådaù sarva-dehinäm
ajäta-çatravaù çäntäù
sädhavaù sädhu-bhüñaëäù
The symptoms of a sädhu are that he is tolerant, merciful and
friendly to all living entities. He has no enemies, he is peaceful, he abides
by the scriptures, and all his characteristics are sublime.
—Çrémad-Bhägavatam 3.25.21
All
ornaments of a sadhu decorated Srila Prabhupada. He left Vrindavan to give
Krishna to the world because he was not satisfied with just his own liberation
– that was his compassion. He faced so many impediments and so much opposition along
the way but he tolerated it all for the sake of Lord Chaitanya’s mission. This
combination of intense compassion and utmost tolerance was the recipe of his
stunning boldness.
The TOVP
will serve as an emblem of Srila Prabhupada’s boldness for generations to come.
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