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 Radha Vrindaban Chandra, Srinathji and Gaur Nitai are stunning. The larger than life Deities of Lord Nrsimha and Prahlad Maharaja are astounding. Lord Jagannatha, Lord Balarama and Lady Subhadra also have a separate altar, as do the Six Goswamis.
We arrived from Pittsburgh on Wednesday, May 27th in time to honor lunch prasadam at the home of Srila Prabhupada’s disciple Nityodita prabhu and his wife Padma, and were pleased to have Malati prabhu in our midst. Gopisa prabhu and other senior Srila Prabhupada disciples were also present. From there we went to the temple to begin making arrangements for the TOVP presentation that evening.
About 75 devotees assembled for the TOVP presentation. During kirtan there was an abhisheka of the Padukas and Puspanjali, after which the program began with Radha Jivan and Jananivas prabhus speaking about the TOVP project. Many devotees came forward to make pledges, despite this being a farm community. By the end of the pledgeing almost $115,000 was raised.
On Thursday, May 28th Jananivas was given a tour of Prabhupada’s Palace and other places in New Vrindaban. He was very pleased to get an opportunity to come to one of the original temples in the Western world established by Srila Prabhupada.
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