Facilities

Facilities at ISKCON Bangalore Temple

Visitors to the temple are factually guests of the Lord who resides as the Deity in the temple. Just as we honour the Deities with the highest standards of spiritual service, we receive the pilgrims with utmost care. Srila Prabhupada emphasized the need to maintain cleanliness and timeliness in Deity worship. These form the major principles behind the facilities deployed in managing the Deity darshan for the pilgrims.

Wheel Chair and Elevator

You can avail of elevator and wheel chair facilities at the temple for the disabled and elderly in addition to ramp facility. You need to come near temple reception to avail Wheel chair facility.

Parking Facilities

ISKCON Bangalore temple is having ample parking space for Four wheeler and Two wheeler. There will be nominal parking charges. Tourist whehicles like bus or tempo can be parked at parking area opposite of temple main gate.

Drinking Water

As the holy shrine rests on a hill devoid of reach of ground water, we are entitled to provide the same for the drinking and washing requirements atop the hill. Several thousands of gallons of water reach the hill in tankers, day in and day out. Our water purifier renders the fluid potable. The Akshaya Patra kitchen consumes a sizeable amount of  water for its mammoth midday meal cooking project.

Toilets

We have toilet facilities inside the temple complex  at two locations for visitors which are cleanly maintained.

Security

Security personnel working 24×7 in shifts guard this holy shrine and also facilitate smooth darshan experience for the thousands of pilgrims who come here every day.

Restaurant

We have two restaurants located inside the ISKCON temple complex, The Higher Taste is Bangalore’s first sattvic restaurant that serves fully vegetarian food with no onions or garlic.  Annakuta Prasadam Restaurant is a casual dining restaurant serving a variety of delicious preparations. A great place in Rajajinagar, it is praised for its stylish presentation and is a nice joint to visit when one is looking to satiate hunger pangs with tasty, hygienic food at nominal prices.

Buffers

Numerous pilgrims rush to the sanctum sanctorum during weekends and festival days. Unless there is a regulation on the queues that lead to darshan, stampedes and medical emergencies will raise regular alarms. Hence, we have arranged well–designed buffers that comfortably lead the pilgrims to the Lord.

Cleanliness at Temple Campus

Srila Prabhupada was extremely particular that ISKCON temples should remain spick and span always. In an effort to please our beloved spiritual master, we have deployed a large number of house-keeping personnel to keep this seven-acre land neat and clean.

Footwear Stand

“This is a remarkable project worth emulation and detailed study,” says a renowned MBA professor from a reputable institute. The subject here is the footwear deposit and retrieval system in place at Hare Krishna Hill, for the convenience of pilgrims. We provide tokens to identify that unique sack which holds their footwear during their visit. These sacks are stacked systematically to avoid exchange of footwear among pilgrims. Later, when the pilgrims produce their tokens, they receive their respective footwear. This facility houses huge partitions that can hold footwear of around nine thousand two hundred and fifty people. There is also a section dedicated to the safe keeping of your valuables, like cameras.

Use of technology

Srila Prabhupada taught from the Bhagavad-gita that: As long as we are in this material world we have to act; we cannot cease acting. Therefore if actions are performed and the fruits are given to Krishna, then they are called yukta-vairagya. Actually situated in renunciation, such activities clear the mirror of the mind, and as the practitioner gradually makes progress in spiritual realization he becomes completely surrendered to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Therefore, at the end he becomes liberated. By this liberation he does not become one with the Brahmajyoti, but rather enters into the planet of the Supreme Lord. At ISKCON Bangalore we use the best of technologies to execute our services to the Lord.

Donor Care

The Donor Care Center (DCC) of ISKCON-Bangalore, facilitates the participation of our donors and patrons in the devotional and charitable activities of the temple.

The following are the services extended by the DCC.

• Inviting the patrons for special puja on the occasions chosen by them (and extending a warm hospitality during their visit).
• Dispatching monthly magazines, spiritual books and festival passes in a timely manner.
• Keeping in touch with the donors and patrons through various communication channels (e-mail, phone, etc.).
• Effective handling of donor queries and grievances.
• Encouraging the donors and patrons to take up devotional activities (chanting, reading Srimad Bhagavatam, rendering services in the temple, sponsoring the sevas performed for the pleasure of Their Lordships, etc.)

For more details contact:

Mobile : 9379156083. Toll free no. 1800 425 8456

Email : [email protected]

Deity & Pooja

Supreme Lord Krishna has unlimited spiritual forms that cannot be perceived by the material senses. Hence out of His causeless mercy, the Lord descends as the archa vigraha (worshipable Deity form of the Lord), so that He may be visible even to the material senses. Hence the archa vigraha is non-different from the Lord, and extends Himself to be served by His devotees.

Various archa vigraha forms are manifest at ISKCON Bangalore giving an opportunity for thousands of souls to serve. The presiding Deities here are: Sri Radha Krishnachandra, Sri Sri Krishna Balarama and Sri Sri Nitai Gauranga. The other two smaller temples house the Deities of Sri Srinivasa Govinda and Sri Prahlada Narasimha, Sri Hanuman and Sri Garuda Deva.

A dedicated team of pujaris (priests) and their assistants manage the worship of the Lord. The Deity department is headed by Sri Vasudev Keshav Dasa and his deputy, Sri Guna Bhadra Dasa. Fifteen full time pujaris render service to the Deities throughout the day from 3:45 am to 9:00 pm, in shifts.

A typical day in this department begins with the jagarana seva and mangalarati. The jagarana seva or awakening of the Lord at 3:45 am is followed by a balya bhoga (early morning offering) and then mangalarati at 4:15 am.

After mangalarati, the Deities are offered sixteen varieties of services or the shodashopachara inside the sanctum, behind closed doors.

This is followed by a schedule of seven naivedyas (food offerings), six aratis and archana. A grand shayana pallakki or ceremonial circumambulation of the temple by the Deities in a flower bedecked palanquin culminates the worship for the day, after which They are offered rest (shayana seva) in a special chamber on luxurious beds.

All routine services to the Lord are rendered by the pujaris. Assistant pujaris take care of services like washing and cleansing the Deities’ paraphernalia, ironing the dresses of the Deities, preparing the items required for arati, abhisheka, naivedya and so on. They also clean the rooms where these sevas are organized and decorate the palanquin with fresh flowers every night, in preparation for the shayana pallakki.

Festivals are organized on a grand scale and many more devotees chip in to help in the services. The Deity department on Hare Krishna Hill hums with enthusiastic activity throughout the year, with pujaris serving the all merciful Supreme Lord who has appeared in His archa vigraha form to bless us with His transcendental devotional service, for our eternal welfare.

Devotional Artefacts

Srila Prabhupada was a sannyasi and hence had nothing to do with endeavours to amass personal wealth. However, he sanctioned that his disciples engage in business and contribute monetarily to aid missionary activities in the institution. This was done with a mood to aid in preaching. The following are two letters from Srila Prabhupada, on the Spiritual Sky Incense Sticks business, and business in general.

Regarding Spiritual Sky business, I am very happy to learn that it is making very nice progress and you are getting demand. Do it nicely, and as already agreed, you can use the profit exclusively for opening branches. The sales which an individual center makes by selling incense may be employed for temple expenditure. Similarly, Los Angeles also can employ it for this purpose. But so far as Spiritual Sky business is concerned, done by you, this profit should be set aside in a different account reserved for expanding branches. When you do business you should do it business-like. We should not neglect any minute part of it, but at the same time we shall think of Krishna, seeking His protection. The living example is the gopis. They were householder wives, young girls having children to feed, carrying out the order of superiors; father-in-law, mother-in-law, sister-in-law, satisfying the whims of the husband, executing so many household duties from morning to night. Still they practiced in such a way Krishna Consciousness that they did not forget even for a second Krishna.

– (Srila Prabhupada’s letter to Gargamuni — Tittenhurst, 29 October, 1969)

If there is labour cheap you can organize there some incense manufacturing concern. I wish that in every center we shall now manufacture incense of very good quality. The only thing you have to be assured is to get the splinters or the thin sticks. If you think it will be possible to get, then immediately start the work. The ingredients are the splinters, charcoal, starch or gum and essential oils. It will be a very lucrative business and the profits will be sufficient to maintain the center once you begin the work. I will give you many business ideas by which you can accumulate nice profits. For business four things are required. Namely place, labour, capital and organization. For incense we have already organization. Little capital you are gathering. The poverty place means you can get cheap labour and the place you have already in your possession. Guidance, I am present. So do it immediately and there will be no scarcity of money. I hope you understand me right.

– (Srila Prabhupada’s letter to Krishna Devi, San Francisco, 16 December, 1967)

Goloka Seva Trust (GST) is involved in manufacture of incense and other aromatic products. The incense sticks are manufactured from natural herbs and fragrances. Aroma of Goloka incense sticks will definitely create the necessary ambience for worshipping Lord Krishna in your home. Several aromatic varieties of incense sticks are available under the brand name of Goloka. For more details, visit http://www.golokaincense.org

Devotional artefacts and paraphernalia like arati lamps and plates are available under the brand name of Matchless Gifts. You can add value to the Deity worship at your home with a wide range of products from Matchless Gifts.

The proceeds from the incense and devotional artefacts are used for various charitable activities.