Blog

Recently I was in Pune, a three-hour drive southeast of Mumbai. We've all heard of the glories of the Chowpatty temple, "the simple temple." Although the Pune temple is almost an exact replica of Chowpatty, it's not as well known. There are 150 brahmacaris living in the ashram, with 40 waiting in line to join. One hundred twenty of the brahmacaris have university degrees. The way it works is that if they're in school when they get interested in Krsna consciousness and they want to join, they have to first finish school. Then they have to work for two years in the profession they've trained for, and then they're allowed to join the ashram. The idea is that if they finish school and have some work experience before they join the ashram as a brahmacari, if they eventually decide to marry they can get a job and support their family.

Fifty of the brahmacaris preach at colleges. Pune also has a large team of book distributors, making Pune number seven in the world in book distribution last year, with a 100% increase over 2010. The temple president, Radhe Shyama Prabhu, told me that they are running a Bhagavad-gita study course in the nearby schools from the fourth to the ninth grade level. So far they have over four thousand students enrolled for the studies, both Muslims and Hindus. Each participant purchases a Bhagavad-gita. The goal is to get eight thousand students involved.

Just some more good news about our ISKCON Society. Prabhupada must be
very pleased with their service.

Your servant,
Vijaya Das