Sri Radha Vrindavan Chandra Temple in Vrindavan

      This temple is the latest entrant in the temple town. Like the older ISKCON Temple, this is also located on the outskirts of the town. As we drove from Mathura, a few kilometres before we reached Vrindavan town, we saw this temple on our left. It is situated before the ISKCON Temple. Though this temple has been built by ISKCON Bangalore, it is not known as the ISKCON Temple, probably because Vrindavan already has one ISKCON Temple. This one is known as Sri Radha Vrindavan Chandra Temple and also as The Krishna Heritage Consortium. Some of the locals also call it Akshaya Patra Temple. The Akshaya Patra scheme is aimed at providing mid-day meals to poor school children studying in the nearby areas. This scheme was started by ISKCON at Bangalore and became a great success. Based on its resounding success in Bangalore, ISKCON decided to replicate this scheme in other states too. In Vrindavan, this temple is the centre for the Akshaya Patra scheme.

Sri Radha Vrindavan Chandra Temple

      Sri Radha Vrindavan Chandra temple is a beautiful sand-coloured circular building that looks like a huge lotus in bloom in Vrindavan. It reminded me of the lotus feet of Lord Krishna. The ground floor of the building has a huge kitchen that prepares food under the Akshaya Patra scheme. Visitors are allowed inside only after they don special aprons and headgear. The size of the vessels was astonishing! They were gigantic because the authorities have to cater to the hungry mouths of thousands of school children. There was also one huge chapatti-making machine. One of the temple prabhus (the term used for the priests here) was kind enough to show us around.

      The altar was on the first floor of the building, There was a huge central area where the devotees sat and chanted the holy names. A circular dome ceiling adorned the temple. Towards the far end, I saw the most beautiful idols of Radha and Krishna, housed in a golden mantapa (pedestal). They were white and looked resplendent in their beautiful dresses. The mantapa was surrounded by a pink arch-like structure. In front of these huge marble idols, small brass idols of Radha and Krishna were placed. The altar had a wooden door with idols of Garuda and Hanuman carved on it. On either side of the altar was a beautiful painting of a peacock, adorned with coloured glass pieces.

      Outside the temple, on the right is an amphitheatre. Next to the amphitheatre, an ISKCON official was distributing khichdi as Krishna Prasada. It was prepared using desi ghee (processed butter) and tasted awesome. The temple premises have a huge car park area and also have lots of free space for kids to play.