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Krishna Balaram Mandir (ISKCON)

Raman Reti, Vrindavan, Mathura district, Uttar Pradesh

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Krishna Balaram Mandir (ISKCON)
Photo: Aleksandr Zykov from Russia, CC BY-SA 2.0

About

Shri Krishna Balaram Mandir, known to most people as the ISKCON temple, is one of the first temples built by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. It stands at Raman Reti in Vrindavan, the sandy land where, by tradition, the boys Krishna and Balaram grazed their cows and played. The central altar has Krishna and Balaram. On one side are Radha Shyamsundar with the gopis Lalita and Vishakha; on the other are Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Nityananda Prabhu, with the ISKCON founder Srila Prabhupada and his guru. The Hare Krishna mahamantra kirtan fills the temple, and devotees from India and many other countries sing the holy names together here.

The story

Raman Reti is remembered in Braj as the place where the boys Krishna and Balaram played in the soft sand and took the cows to graze by the Yamuna. In the twentieth century, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada carried the message of Krishna bhakti to many countries and founded ISKCON. He wished to build an international centre in Vrindavan where devotees from all over the world could stay and worship, and he laid the foundation of this temple himself. On Ram Navami in April 1975, Prabhupada opened the Krishna Balaram Mandir and installed the murtis of Krishna-Balaram, Radha-Shyamsundar with Lalita and Vishakha, and Gaura-Nitai. A white marble samadhi mandir of Prabhupada stands at the entrance of the complex. Because many foreign devotees in saffron and white clothes sing 'Hare Ram, Hare Krishna' here, local people also fondly call it the 'Angrezon ka mandir', the temple of the foreigners. The complex has grown much bigger since then, and today it is a place where people of many countries and languages sing Krishna's name together.

Visiting

October to March is the best time; Kartik month and Janmashtami are festive and very crowded. Wear simple, modest clothes. Prem Mandir is close by, and the old temples such as Banke Bihari and Radha Raman, and the Yamuna ghats, are a short ride away.

Festivals

  • Krishna Janmashtami
  • Radhashtami
  • Balaram Jayanti (Shravan Purnima)
  • Gaura Purnima: Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's birth anniversary (Phalgun Purnima)
  • Kartik (Damodar) month

Famous temples

Sources