The list of spiritual places in and around Bangalore is big enough but it is never too difficult to choose one of them to make a peaceful visit. The ISKCON temple in Bangalore is one such destination to make your day. ISKCON stands for International Society for Krishna Consciousness. Being one of the largest ISKCON temples in the world it is also known as Sri Radha Krishna- Chandra Mandir (Temple). The temple is located at Rajaji Nagar in the North Bangalore in Karnataka state. Built in 1997 this Hindu Vaishnav ISKCON temple was inaugurated by then President of India Shri Shankar Dayal Sharma in order to promote Vedic culture along with spiritual learning. The founder of ISKCON temple is A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. From 1998 the temple was opened to public. The temple structure design reflects the Hindu architecture. The international magazine named Back to Prabhupada and electronic newsletters are published from ISKCON temple. The ISKCON temple in Bangalore has the following six shrines in it: the main deity is Radha Krishna, Krishna Balram, Nitai Gauranga, Shrinivasa Govinda (Venkateshwara), Prahlada Narsimha and Srila Prabhupada.The grand temple complex attracts devotees from all around the globe. The temple is a real architectural beauty in itself and in the night when lights are on it looks magnificent. It has a gold plated flag post (dhwajastambh) at a height of 17 metres. Apart from that a gold plated Kalash Shikhar at a height of 8.5 metres looks fabulous during the day time and also in the night when lights are on. The entire premise is immensely clean. The facilities here include fresh drinking water, neat maintained washrooms, elevator for elderly & disabled, variety of food, sufficient parking space, well placed signboards, etc. There are many occasions when celebrations take place in the temple. All of these festivals are either connected to the lord Vishnu & his various Avataras or Vedic culture like Rama Navami, Brahmotsava, Akshaya Tritiya, Narasimha Jayanti, Hanuman Jayanti, Panihati Chida-dahi, Guru Purnima, etc.It is not just a temple but a lot more than that as it offers a variety of services to the society apart from spiritual knowledge. It is involved in various spiritual, educational, social and cultural activities to benefit people from all walks of life no matter how poor the person is and no matter to which cast he belongs to, whether he is white or black. The doors of ISKCON are always open to anyone who wants to improve his life. It is an outstanding experience to visit the place. There are time slots for every day made by the trust for Darshan and these are as follows:
- 4.15 am to 5 am
- 7.15 am to 12.50 pm
- 4.00pm to 8.20 pm
A delicious sweet known as Shri Krishna Prasadam is distributed to all the devotees who come to the temple during the darshan time. The ISKCON temple is working for the poor and underprivileged. Free of cost food is arranged for needy people. There is foundation initiated by the trust of the temple which is known as Akshya Patra Foundation. It works towards feeding and education children in the country.RUCHI MAHAJAN