For thousands of years Greece has been known as a land of great thinkers, with such men as Aristotle, Hippocrates, Socrates, Plato, Pythagoras, Plutarch, and Archimedes leading the way. It stands to reason that a “thinking man’s” movement such as Krishna consciousness should do well there.
International Society for Krishna Consciousness devotees have been active in Greece for over forty years, with some success. Over the years, eight different temples opened in Athens, and at least one successful restaurant. However, none of the temples could last long because they could not get the needed permission to legally establish ISKCON as a religion with the Greek government.
Greek Orthodoxy is the prevailing religion in Greece, and any other religion must be registered with the government to be able to practice. The Greek constitution prohibits “proselytizing,” defined by law as “any direct or indirect attempt to intrude on the religious beliefs of a person of a different religious persuasion with the aim of undermining those beliefs,” thus making it difficult for the devotees to distribute books or even have big harinams, public chanting, without being officially registered.
Italian devotee Dayanidhi Prabhu went to Greece for the first time in 1984; at that time he was Regional Secretary for NE, Central and South Italy including Greece. In 1992 he brought Srila Prabhupada’s Murti to Athens with HH Hrdayananda Maharaja and had an installation ceremony. In 2019 he opened the current temple in the center of Athens near Omonia Square, Kaningos 13, giving classes every morning and evening (on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dayanidhi.das.7) and also holding harinams and Sunday feasts.
This is the ninth attempt to establish an ISKCON temple in Athens. Dayanidhi Prabhu, along with other devotees such as Namasankirtana Prabhu, has been trying for years to get ISKCON officially registered in Greece, hiring different lawyers to deal with the Greek government’s complex bureaucratic proceedures. By the mercy of Srila Prabhupada the very good news is that they just got the permission from the Greek government to open a legal temple, Sri Prabhupada Loka in Athens.
Now his main objectives are to distribute the Greek books already printed, they have 6000 medium books such as Coming Back and Nectar of Instruction. 50,000 copies of a new edition of the Bhagavad-gita As It Is in Greek, are almost ready under the translation of the previous Athens Temple President Namasankirtana das with the help of BBT Trustee Madhusevita das, who is one of the GBC’s for Greece, as well as parts of Italy, Spain, France & Holland. (The second GBC for Greece is Radha Krishna das from Hungary, whose wife is Greek.) Years ago there was a Greek Gita but the translation was not so good and it contained no Sanskrit. But for the past ten years there have been no Greek Gitas to distribute. Now, bookshops are requesting them as there are many philosophical people in Greece.
Dayanidhi Prabhu wants to establish steady prasadam distribution, sanctified food to touch the hearts of all who partake. On his list of priorities is also relocating to a storefront building, as the temple is currently on the fourth floor of a building and a storefront would give more visibility to the temple along with easier access for guests.
Dayanidhi das is the Temple President of ISKCON Athens, and he is the perfect person for the job. Born in Italy, in his youth he considered becoming a monk so he studied Latin and Greek for several years with Franciscan and other monks. He joined ISKCON at an early age and was personally initiated by His Divine Grace AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada in August, 1975 in Paris. In Italy he did extraordinary pioneer work, helping to open many new temples, distributing books and managing several temples.
Read more: https://dandavats.tumblr.com/post/670081229313474560/after-forty-years-the-greek-government-finally
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