The Glories of Melbourne Mahaprabhu Mandir

Word - Vraj, Prahlad and I are back from kickin’ it old school at the Melbourne Mahaprabhu Mandir during a lightning 24 hour visit.

Our god brother Gopal Guru and his good wife Krishna Murari are now happily married and moved into their little cottage next to the temple. It was a wonderfully lavish ceremony followed by a delightful reception where soma rasa du jour - Bundaberg Ginger Beer - flowed like water (there were mystical bottomless jugs of it on each table).

Let me get some photos up later today.

It was great to visit Melbourne Mahaprabhu Mandir, although briefly this time round. Now that I know where it is and how to get there, I’ll be back.

I got to see (ever so briefly) so many old associates from NZ-preaching days there, as well as meeting a lot of new friends such as Bhagavat-katha, Krishna Graja, Kotesvara, Vikash, Vijay, Divya-jnana, and a lot of others.

I would say that in terms of temples Mahaprabhu Mandir is currently the leading light of ISKCON in Australia. Actually the temple reminded me so much of ISKCON’s Western Headquarters, New Dwaraka in Los Angeles. It is a fully functioning old school model temple, an extreme rarity today.

In the Contemporary Urban Preaching Seminars His Holiness Devamrita Swami makes the comment: “Today if a temple manager can pay the bills and minimally serve an expatriate Indian congregation, they are considered to be successful.”

I would like to add my purport to that: ‘sa mahatma sudurlabhah” - “Such a great soul is very rare”.

I’d also like to add that the congregation in Melbourne is being more than minimally served. The facility afforded for developing Krishna Consciousness to those persons who are fortunate enough to understand its value there in Melbourne is significant, with sastric (scriptural) education, retreats, festivals, and a solid temple program.

Here are a few of the highlights of the opulence of this temple:

• Six pujaris on the altar in the morning - three at 4.30 am, a different three at 7.00 am
• 30 + people in mangal-arati
• Silver arati paraphenalia
• Intercom system connecting the entire complex
• Wireless SM58 mic in use everywhere
• K&M mic stand
• Fully stocked temple shop with reasonable pricing structure
• Massive community
• Support for all ashrams - places for unmarried young people to stay, for married couples engaged in service, and for sannyasis
• Financial maintenance based on distribution of prasadam

The temple costs around $15,000 per week to maintain, and this money is collected through the two restaurants that the temple operates in the city. That’s a very pure, upright, and honest economic arrrangement.

The K&M mic stand is a high quality German manufactured microphone stand. That detail communicates a lot.

I’ve been to a number of temples in nine different countries, and in that sampling I’ve only seen three temples based on this model that are actually functioning. Those are New Dwaraka in Los Angeles (TP: Svavasa dasa), ISKCON Santiago in Chile (TP: Adi-kesava dasa), and Mahaprabhu Mandir in Melbourne (TP: Aniruddha dasa).

If you haven’t seen so many temples it might be difficult to appreciate the situation there, but to do service in an environment with so much community and social support is something rarely obtained in today’s world, and something that should be highly valued.

It’s a great testament to both His Grace Aniruddha prabhu and his hard-working wife Her Grace Acintya Rupa devi dasi the rock solid stability that they have been able to create there to give shelter to so many people.

This was the second wedding where our paths have intersected, as people that we have previously cultivated through our urban outreach programs have gone on to serve at Mahaprabhu Mandir, and then gone on to make the transition to married life in Krishna Consciousness. I’m sure there will be many more.

Everywhere I go I’m always looking for inspiration. Anyone who saw me there would realize that Atma Yoga in Brisbane owes a lot to the opening of the Lotus Room in Sydney in December of this year. I also picked up a lot of inspiration while in Melbourne, even though it was only for 24 hours. Here’s one thing immediately:

Aniruddha and Acintya Rupa have been married for 25 years. Param Satya and I have been married for 8 years this month. In the past year I’ve been to two of my god brothers’ weddings, both of them with Aniruddha and Acintya Rupa present. Getting married is one of life’s transitions, and I now realize that we are going to have to track people through these transitions as we “do life” together. It’s part of taking responsibility for contributing to people’s experience of life and building authentic community.

Both of these marriages have caught us on the back foot, not because they weren’t communicated with sufficient notice, but because of the way we’ve structured our program. We haven’t allocated time or resources to tracking people through these life changes - being there to provide support. Now I’ve gotten the realization of how important this is. For every person that we accept in our house, we have to make allowances for being there through these changes in the future. The commitment doesn’t end after a few years. It goes all the way.

Anyway, I’m pretty thick, but after seeing it twice I get the idea, and for the next one we’ll be properly situated.

Melbourne Mahaprabhu Mandir ki jaya!

All glories to the devotees doing service there. Your austerity and sacrifice is creating a shining example for Australia and for the world. Keep up the good work. We’re relying on you.