Author Archives: Temple of the Vedic Planetarium

The TOVP will undoubtedly become one of the wonders of the world in beauty, architecture, design, and sheer size. This beautiful animated view of the TOVP provides a window into that reality.

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The Temple of the Vedic Planetarium is named as such because within its main dome it will house a 3-dimensional, moving model of the universe according to the Vedic scriptures. This explanation describes the planetary systems and all the universal cont…

On Wednesday, July 8th, in Alachua, Florida, New Raman Reti Dhama, the same temple from where the North American TOVP Tour started, a celebration was held to welcome back the Padukas and Sitari, as well as Jananivas prabhu and the TOVP Team, and to also bid them a farewell back to Sri Mayapur Dhama. Amidst

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After four months of fund raising for TOVP in America, HG Jananivasa prabhu returned home to Mayapur with the padukas of Lord Nityananda on 12th July. Hundreds of jubilant devotees flocked at Temple’s main gate for receiving them. It was truly a grand reception with multifarious items like garlands, rangolis, flowers and many ghee lamp

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The next four days, from June 29th – July 2nd were spent in Houston catching up on office related work and visiting local devotees. Below is a list of devotees we visited during that time. We also paid a visit to the NASA Space Center to get an idea of what the Vedic planetarium in

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Saturday and Sunday, July 4th and 5th, were the last two days of the North American TOVP Tour, 2015. They were, in fact, record days for our fundraising and visits to devotees homes. During these two days Jananivas prabhu alone visited over 25 devotees’ homes, going from one to the other with the Padukas and

The post TOVP Daily Tour Diary Days 107-108: The Grand Finale – Seattle, Washington appeared first on Temple of the Vedic Planetarium.

On Sunday, June 28th, we arrived at ISKCON Houston at the home of Advaitachandra and Kalasuddha prabhus. They are leaders in the U.S. of the Bhakti Vrksha programs, helping devotees all across the country to organize their efforts in this regard. Their home was like Vaikuntha; every inch of wall-space was covered by either a

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The history of the Detroit Temple, Devasadan, is known to many, and within that history lies the seed of the fruition of Srila Prabhupada’s vision of the Temple of the Vedic Planetarium. As the story goes, as told by Ambarisa prabhu at all of his TOVP presentations, he joined ISKCON in Detroit which is a

The post TOVP Daily Tour Diary Day 101: Devasadan Temple (Detroit) TOVP Program appeared first on Temple of the Vedic Planetarium.

On Friday, June 26th, we arrived in Detroit, Michigan at the home of Temple President Jagad Guru das and his wife Radha devi dasi, and were served the most wonderful varieties of International cuisine at lunch. A TOVP presentation had been arranged for that evening in Farmington Hills, a suburb of Detroit, at a large

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We arrived in Columbus, Ohio on the evening of Wednesday, June 24th, and stayed at the home of Prema Sindhu and Lila Valisini prabhus. The next day, Tuesday, June 25th, we moved to the home of temple president, Naveen Krishna and his wife Vraja Bhakti (named Radha Madhava House). We visited the small Columbus temple

The post TOVP Daily Tour Diary Day 99: Columbus, Ohio TOVP Program appeared first on Temple of the Vedic Planetarium.

The small devotee community in Richmond, Virginia is run by temple president Divyanam das, and he and his wife Premalatika devi dasi, along with their two children Kulashekhar and Mahatma, hosted us in their home. The TOVP presentation on Tuesday, June 23rd was in the home of Subala Sakha das and Krishna Pramodni devi dasi

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On Sunday, June 21st, we were scheduled for two TOVP presentations. The first was at New Hastinapura Dhama in the U.S.A.’s capital, Washington, D.C.. This is also one of the original temples established by Srila Prabhupada and, in fact, the main Deities of Sri Sri Radha Madan Mohan were the first Radha Krishna Deities in

The post TOVP Daily Tour Diary Day 97: New Hastinapura (ISKCON Washington, D.C.) and ISKCON Baltimore TOVP Presentations appeared first on Temple of the Vedic Planetarium.

On Saturday, June 20th, we left Delaware after breakfast at the home of Krishna Mohan and Amala Sundari prabhus for the nearby Philadelphia Temple (where we had previously visited in March) for the Bhumi puja yajna of the new temple on the property. By the grace of Lord Nityananda, only three weeks after we had

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On Friday, June 19th, after arriving at the home of Temple President Krishna Kirtan and his wife Shyamala and their children Gauranga and Vasudeva, we made our way over to the temple of this small but dedicated and growing community of devotees for the TOVP presentation. During arati the Padukas and Sitari received Their abhisheka

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New York Rathayatra New York is considered the most important city in the world. Therefore, it’s not surprising that it was the first city where Srila Prabhupada preached and established his first center. It was also in New York that he incorporated ISKCON, that the first Harinama samkirtana went out, that Back to Godhead magazine

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We departed from Toronto, Canada and arrived in Atlanta, Georgia on Friday, June 5th for the weekend of the Rathayatra and Panihati Festival. The Atlanta Yatra is also one of the original temples opened during Srila Prabhupada’s physical presence, and he visited a number of times, exhibiting various pastimes, including going into a deep trance

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We spent the following four days in Toronto visiting different devotees’ homes and other nearby temples and devotee communities: Monday, June 1 Brunch at the home of Shasank and Satyabhama prabhus in Toronto Travel to Muskoka for a TOVP presentation to 50 devotees and Indian congregation members organized by Jaya Gopal and Vyasacarya prabhus: $34,000

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ISKCON Brampton is a suburb in the Toronto area that has a small temple and congregation of devotees. On Sunday, May 31st we made our way there for a special mid-day Sunday Feast TOVP program which was also attended by His Holiness Bhaktimarg Swami who had come especially for the TOVP presentations in Brampton and

The post TOVP Daily Tour Diary Day 81 – TOVP Presentations at ISKCON Brampton and ISKCON Toronto appeared first on Temple of the Vedic Planetarium.

We had to take an extremely early flight on Saturday morning, May 30th, from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to get to Toronto, Canada. We were picked up by Subha Vilas prabhu (his wife’s name is Ashalata), a disciple of Srila Prabhupada and father of one of the TOVP Canada Team, Indresh prabhu, in whose home we were

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Gita Nagari, another one of Srila Prabhupada’s original farm communities/temples located in Port Royal, Pennsylvania, is home to the beloved Deities of Visnujana Swami, Sri Sri Radha Damodar. These Deities traveled throughout North America many times in a Greyhound bus converted into a traveling temple, enjoying devotional festivals and the sweet kirtans of Visnujana Swami

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The month of Purushottama is a highly sacred month and beneficial to making a donation to the TOVP. Lord Krishna in Goloka speaking to Lord Vishnu Who has brought the personified extra month (Adhik Maas) to His realm for shelter:   “An unfortunate ignorant man, who does not perform any japa, does not giveany charity,

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New Vrindaban is famous throughout ISKCON as being Srila Prabhupada’s first farm project, named after the holy dhama. Like other farm projects and temples, it was given the nomenclature “New” to link it to its origin. Srila Prabhupada even said there was no difference between the two, Vrindaban and New Vrindaban. The presiding Deities of

The post TOVP Daily Tour Diary Days 77-78 – Our Visit to New Vrindaban appeared first on Temple of the Vedic Planetarium.

We have a new beautiful photo of the TOVP which were taken from Ganges right across Prabhupada Ghat.
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With the announcement by the GBC Chairman, Praghosa das, of 2015 as the Year of the TOVP, and the coming of ISKCON’s 50th Anniversary in 2016, along with the overwhelming success of the current North American TOVP Tour, a new and effective fundraising plan has been devised to collect the required funds for its completion.

The post 9 WAYS OF DEVOTION, 9 LEVELS OF PARTICIPATION – Pledge Your Support for the TOVP Today! appeared first on Temple of the Vedic Planetarium.

In Vrindavan in 2014 we inaugurated the Gratitude Coin program to help fund the TOVP project. Our first presentation was at Srila Prabhupada’s Disappearance Day festival during Kartik. At that time Jayasri mataji and Pratapana prabhu from Sydney, Australia pledged two Platinum coins, a total of $500,000, in the service of the TOVP construction. With

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Guy rope has been positioned, pulled and secured. Now the new segments are being installed to increase the height of the crane; the 2 segments – 19.5 feet (6 meters) each are to be placed by the end of this week!

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Muted tones of sandstone will be used at the foot of the temple as a symbol of strength, shouldering the weight of the temple. The subtle beauty of the Sandstone will wrap the base of the temple all around, inspiring a contemplative mood in the pilgrims as they view the beautiful carvings along the parikrama.

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We are now at the final stage of the main dome construction. Preparation works has began for the Kalash and the Chakra! Looking at this image, you can really see how big is the Kalash by comparing the proportions of the people and the Kalash. Standing at 277 feet (84.4 meters) from the ground, it

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The main dome is almost completed and we are now getting ready to start the Kalash! To carry out the Kalash work, the height of the tower crane must be increased; from the now existing level of 278 feet (85 meters) to 380 feet ( 116 meters). In order to secure the stability of the

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On Tuesday, May 19th we departed from New Orleans for Charlotte, North Carolina by airplane. We arrived and spent the rest of the day and evening quietly in the home of our host, Pavitra Gaura prabhu and his family. The next day, Wednesday, May 29th we paid a short visit to the home of Sathish

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The amazing murtis pictured here are mockups of the 8 demigods that will overlook Lord Nrsimhadeva altar, offering prayers as described in Srimad Bhagavatam. The mockups are 2 ft. tall, but the size of the actual murtis when finished will be an astounding 9.8 feet! On the second level of the altar, the railings between

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GRC is an abbreviation for glass fiber-reinforced concrete, the strongest and most environmentally retardant concrete in the world. The TOVP is being constructed of this material, as well as all the architectural elements and decorative items being used on the temple. Now underway on the ISKCON property is the construction of a dedicated GRC workshop

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We departed from Boone, North Carolina where the Sadhu Sanga Retreat took place for Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on Monday, May 25th, arriving at the home of Gopal Gauranga das and Anandini Radha devi dasi for evening prasadam. From there we went to the home of Shyamsundar das and Radhika Sundari devi dasi who were our hosts

The post TOVP Daily Tour Diary Days 75-76 – Arrival in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and TOVP Program appeared first on Temple of the Vedic Planetarium.

The Sadhu Sanga Retreat in Boone, North Carolina is North America’s largest devotee gathering attracting almost 2,000 devotees each year from all across America and Canada for kirtans and lectures by some of ISKCON’s favorite kirtan leaders and senior devotees. We departed from Charlotte, North Carolina by car on Friday, May 22nd for three days

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On Thursday, May 21st we spent more time on office and tour related work and then prepared for the TOVP presentation in Pavitra Gaura’s home that evening. The devotee congregation in Charlotte is quite large and there are several Bhakti Vrksha programs going on weekly. Around 50 devotees came and after a puspa abhisheka of

The post TOVP Daily Tour Diary Day 71 – Charlotte, North Carolina TOVP Program appeared first on Temple of the Vedic Planetarium.

With only one extra day in New Orleans, the many eager devotees there could not get enough association with Jananivas prabhu. On Monday, May 18th we visited the homes of devotees with the Padukas and Sitari for kirtan, Krishna katha and prasadam. For breakfast we went to the home of Satya Gaura das, for lunch

The post TOVP Daily Tour Day 68: Visits to Devotee Homes in New Orleans appeared first on Temple of the Vedic Planetarium.

On Sunday, May 17th, the TOVP North American Tour arrived in New Orleans, Louisiana to visit the ISKCON temple, fondly named mini-Mayapur by His Holiness Jayapataka Swami because of its congregation of Bengali devotees, many from Sridhama Mayapur. We were greeted by a rousing kirtan and brought to the temple room where the Lord’s Padukas

The post TOVP Daily Tour Day 67 – Vaisnava Taxi Drivers in New Orleans Pledge Half-a-Million Dollars to the TOVP appeared first on Temple of the Vedic Planetarium.

On Saturday, May 16th we left Bloomington, Illinois for the Chicago temple. However, along the way we paid a surprise visit to His Holiness Radhanath Swami who was staying nearby. Arriving at the temple, we set up our TOVP presentation banners and prepared for the Sunday program. The Chicago temple is a very large building

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On Thursday, May 24th we left Phoenix on a flight to Chicago. We planned to drive to our first stop in Bloomington before going to the Chicago temple that evening, but changed our mind and stayed overnight in Chicago due to a late arrival time. The next morning, Friday, May 25th we paid a visit

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While in and of itself plumbing is not a glorious activity, when used in the Lord’s service it becomes a glorious detail to the TOVP project and an essential and important element in its all-around long-term preservation. Piping work on the temple started last June, 2014 under the guidance of Gammon Construction. Recently, plumbing work

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