Aravade Temple Opening a Success

We here at ISKCON Aravade (located in a village of 5000 residents, 250 kilometres south of Pune, Maharashtra) are happy to write a small report on what has happened here since our grand opening in February 2009.

After so many people mercifully came to take part in the opening festival and really brought us so much happiness, we faced a major task in bringing everything back to normal. Many things needed to be done and a major clean-up was also needed. All the pandals had to be taken down and the fields ploughed. Borrowed items had to be returned with small gifts of appreciation. We spent around 30 days with all this, and now everything here is clean and the temple is running in a very nice way.

Many guests came during the opening festival, and that trend is continuing. We still look in amazement every Saturday and Sunday as thousands of visitors from all over Maharashtra come to visit Sri Sri Radha Gopal. Tourist buses filled with people come from far away, and from early morning till late at night we show visitors the exhibition halls (Krishna Tattva Darshan), the goshala and Govardhan, Vrindavan Gardens and, of course, the temple itself.

We have roaring kirtans, with hundreds of visitors and devotees taking part, and we are currently among the top ten book distribution sites for India. This development is completely unexpected, but we are very happy that so many have such an attraction for Sri Sri Radha Gopal that they embark on long journeys to visit Them. We are now working hard to improve our campus preaching efforts so that our guests not only pass through the temple on a one-time basis but actually get connected with ISKCON long term. We are gathering addresses of our guests and are working on making follow-up programs for them. We are also directing them to ISKCON centers in their neigbourhoods.

One very nice problem we face is our devotees tend to put aside their menial services in order to run out to speak with people. New rotation schedules for the devotees will give them all a chance to preach and serve these nice guests of Sri Sri Radha Gopal.

On the managerial front we are trying to clear debts from the construction and opening festival. We still have some way to go but are definitely seeing the need for the second phase to commence as soon as possible. We want to construct a nice guest house, a bigger Brahmacari asrama and a big multi-purpose hall for the different preaching activities that we are planning.

We really hope that you feel inspired to visit us again to experience the nectar here in beautiful Aravade and to take part in the propagation of the holy name for the pleasure of Sri Sri Radha Gopal and Srila Prabhupada.