Mayapur ISKCON temple

Mayapur is across the river from the fairly large city of Navadvipa, on the eastern side of the Ganges. It basically consists of several temples along Bhaktisiddhanta Road, which cuts between the middle of some rice fields. The confluence of the Ganges and Jalangi Rivers is near Mayapur. The site of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s birth is marked by a temple, 1½ km from the ISKCON Temple. Beside the places in reference to Lord Caitanya’s pastimes, there are many other holy places here. The circumference of Mayapur is three and a half miles and the diameter is just over a mile.

ISKCON Chandrodaya Mandir This is the world headquarters for ISKCON.

Plans are underway for construction of the largest temple built in India in the last 200 years, at a cost of over 100 million dollars. Surrounded by a Vedic city, the temple will include a Vedic planetarium.

At the present time there is a temple, various guest house facilities, Srila Prabhupada’s Puspa Samadhi, the rooms where Srila Prabhupada lived, a hut where Srila Prabhupada stayed, a gurukula school, a goshala (dairy), and beautiful gardens.

The main Deities are Sri Sri Radha-Madhava. The Deities are larger than life-size. There are also eight gopis, four on each side of Radha-Madhava. They are, from left to right, Srimati Tungavidya Devi, Srimati Chitra Devi, Srimati Champaklata Devi, Srimati Lalita Devi, Sri Sri Radha-Madhava, Srimati Visakha Devi, Srimati Indulekha Devi, Srimati Rangadevi, Srimati Sudevi. Also on the main altar is a small set of Radha-Krishna Deities.

On the left altar are life-size Deities of the Panca Tattva, who are from left to right Advaita Acarya, Lord Nityananda, Lord Caitanya, Gadadhara, and Srivasa Thakur. Deity of Lord Narasimhadeva After the Mayapur temple was attacked in March, 1984 a decision was made to get a Deity of Lord Narasimhadeva.

The Deity was installed in July, 1986. The pujari who worships Narasimhadeva must be a naisthika-brahmacari (celibate from birth), and the worship must be very strict and regulated. The Deity is Ugra Narasimhadeva. Ugra means ferocious, very angry. There are nine forms of Ugra Narasimha. This one is Sthanu-Narasimha—stepping out of the pillar. He has a searching glance looking around ferociously, His knees are bent with one foot forward ready to jump from the pillar. This Deity weights about one ton.