New Era Begins for ISKCON in India

Recently, a bullock cart filled with ISKCON devotees rumbled along the back roads of the east Indian province of Orissa. When they and their leader Lokanatha Swami reached Badrak, they led crowds of delighted townspeople in chanting the Hare Krsna maha-mantra and served out a feast of prasada (vegetarian food offered to Lord Krsna with devotion). Also, the devotees left many Badrak residents with inexpensive editions of the ancient Vedic literatures, as translated by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.

Observing all these goings-on was Bhakti Vikash Maha-yogi Maharaja, the manager of the local Krsna temple. He felt so impressed with the devotees' enthusiasm for spreading Krsna consciousness that he asked them to take over the management of his temple and use it as a base for their missionary work.

This brief encounter marked a real breakthrough for Krsna consciousness in modern India. Now, the Badrak temple is part of the Gauḍiya Matha, a multi-temple federation that dates back to the first part of the century, when Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Goswami (Srila Prabhupada's own spiritual master) started a campaign for reviving Krsna consciousness throughout the world. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta opened sixty-four Gauḍiya Matha temples in India and asked his disciples to open similar temples everywhere, especially in the United States and Western Europe. But after he passed away in 1936, his disciples split into factions and fought in the courts for property and power.

This petty legal wrangling has carried on through the years, but Srila Prabhupada has stayed clear of it and mindful of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta's plan to spread Krsna consciousness throughout the world. In 1965, at age seventy, Srila Prabhupada journeyed to America to found the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. In a dozen years he has opened more than one hundred Krsna-conscious centers worldwide, but the members of the Gauḍiya Matha have been slow in acknowledging his achievements. Now, at long last, this acknowledgment is coming-at least in Badrak.

When Bhakti Vikash Maha-yogi Maharaja saw the vigorous missionary work of the ISKCON devotees, he knew that they and their spiritual master Srila Prabhupada are bona fide followers of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta. At that moment he determined to place the Gauḍiya Matha temple in Badrak in their charge, and not long afterward, he and the ISKCON devotees approached the temple's board of trustees to see whether they would agree to the proposal. After interviewing the devotees, the trustees concluded, "These ISKCON members are devotees of the highest order." And without hesitation the trustees pledged their support.

ISKCON leaders hope that other Gauḍiya Matha temples will follow after their sister temple in Badrak and fully support the nonsectarian mission of spreading Krsna consciousness to every town and village in the world.

Link to this page: https://prabhupadabooks.com/9dd/back-to-godhead-magazine-12-11-1977/every-town-and-village/new-era-begins-for-iskcon-in-india