The Mercy of Kṛṣṇa in India

The Vedic literature repeatedly emphasizes the spiritual importance of India. Since time immemorial, India has been a center of spiritual knowledge and culture. From the Vedic scriptures we understand that in former ages the world was one unified kingdom, with its capital in India, and the Srimad-Bhagavatam tells us that even if spiritual culture declines, as it has in the present age, in India it may at any time be very quickly revived. Srila Prabhupada, therefore, especially in his last years, devoted great energy toward revitalizing India's declining spiritual culture. He personally traveled in India extensively, from city to city, always preaching, and started several branches of his International Society. In Hyderabad he began a large farm project, and in Bombay he under took the ambitious construction of a modern Center for Vedic Education and Culture, including a magnificent temple, a 450-seat theater, a recording studio, an extensive Vedic library, a prasada restaurant, and a comfortable eight-story guesthouse.

Throughout India there are also many sacred places especially favorable for spiritual advancement, but among them all, the holy cities Vrndavana and Mayapur are especially important. In these places, therefore, Srila Prabhupada established special centers so that visitors from around the world may go there to cultivate Krsna consciousness. In Vrndavana, where Lord Sri Krsna performed His youthful pastimes five thousand years ago, Srila Prabhupada established the Krsna-Balarama Temple and International Guesthouse, now a place of pilgrimage for visitors both from India and from abroad. And in Sridhama Mayapur, the birthplace of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, the already completed guesthouse, temple, and residence buildings mark the initial stages of what Srila Prabhupada planned to be a full-scale Krsna conscious city. When completed, Srila Prabhupada's "Vedic Planetarium and Temple of Understanding," in the center of the city, will be the largest temple and cultural center in India. Moreover, the city will set an ideal example-for India and for the world-of how society should be organized for a life of Vedic culture and spiritual advancement, culminating in Krsna consciousness. This was but another of the many ways by which Srila Prabhupada desired to bestow the benediction of Krsna consciousness-the perfection of life-upon the people of India, and of the entire world.