The worldwide fame of His Divine Grace AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, later known as Srila Prabhupada, whose name was Abhay Charan De and who was born on September 1, 1896, in Calcutta, India, as the only son of Gour Mohan De, a cloth merchant and pure Vaishnava, had to go to the West to preach Krishna Consciousness, to fulfill the aspiration of his spiritual master Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura. As he had no money, one Agarwal, a Mathura businessman was requested to help him for going to the West. Though Agarwal met Bhaktivedanta Swami for the first time, he agreed to sponsor Bhaktivedanta Swami for his trip to the United States through his son, Gopal Agarwal of Buttler, Pennsylvania, an engineer working in Pennsylvania.
Swamiji also approached Sumati Morarji, the head of the Scindia Steamship Line to give him a ticket in the ship for America. Morarji advised Swamiji not to go to the US as he was too old, but through his repeated requests Morarji scheduled a place for him on one of her ships, the Jaladuta, which left Calcutta on August 13, 1965 when he was 69 years old, along with five hundred printed copies of a small pamphlet of eight verses written by Lord Chaitanya and an advertisement for Srimad Bhagavatam. He had only a small suitcase, an umbrella, and a supply of dry cereal and a Bengali copy of Chaitanya Caritamrta when he left Calcutta for America.
In this way, Bhaktivedanta Swami went to the US which is quite different from India’s culture, where at that time there was no tradition of sadhus, no temples and no free ashrams, but with the confidence of having transcendental knowledge in English, to spread India’s message of peace and goodwill and Krishna Consciousness movement through the chanting of Hare Krishna mahamantra.
In fact, Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, an incarnation of Lord Sri Krishna had predicted that the chanting of Hare Krishna would be spread in every town and village of the world.
This would be fulfilled by Srila Prabhupada’s will in due course. So, International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) was established with seven objectives viz.
i) To systematically propagate spiritual knowledge to society at large and to educate all peoples in the techniques of spiritual life in order to check the imbalance of values in life and to achieve real unity and peace in the world.
ii) To propagate a consciousness of Lord Sri Krishna, as it is revealed in the Bhagavad-Gita and Srimad Bhagavatam.
iii) To bring the members of the Society together with each other and nearer to Lord Sri Krishna, the prime entity, thus to develop the idea within the members, and humanity at large, that each individual soul is part and parcel of the quality of Godhead, Lord Sri Krishna.
iv) To teach and encourage the sankirtana movement, congregational chanting of the holy name of God as revealed in the teachings of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.
v) To erect for the members and for society at large, a holy place of transcendental pastimes, dedicated to the personality of Lord Sri Krishna.
vi) To bring the members closer together for the purpose of teaching a simpler and more natural way of life.
vii) With a view to achieving the aforementioned purposes, to publish and distribute periodicals, magazines, books and other writings.
About Srila Prabhupada many had conveyed their praises. Prof Harvey Cox of Harvard University said, ‘Srila Prabhupada is, of course, only one of thousands of teachers. But in another sense, he is one in a thousand, may be one in a million.’ Dr J. Stillson Judah, Prof Emeritus, History of Religions Graduate Theological Union and Pacific School of Religion, California, said, ‘Srila Prabhupada’s life is the epitome of his ideal, an ideal that he set forth for others to follow. In an age of pervasive hypocrisy and cynicism, it is this kind of rare model that we need.’ AL Basham, PhD world’s leading authority on Indian history and religion and author of ‘The Wonder That Was India and The Cultural History of India’ said, ‘The movement Srila Prabhupada founded, spread rapidly around the world, attracting the attention of leading scholars and religionists’. He further said that this Asian religion, new to the Western world — being practiced by people of Western race and Judea — Christian background arose out of nothing in less than twenty years and has become known all over the West. ‘This, I feel, is a sign of the times and an important fact in the history of the Western world’. It is no doubt that Srila Prabhupada, with his bold spiritual vision built a house in which the whole world can live together and he as the modern world’s greatest self-realized master taught us that the people could resolve their conflicts and live together in peace and prosperity only through an essential change of consciousness.
So, on the concept of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, enunciated by His Divine Grace AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, as founder-Acharya in the year 1966, ISKCON Manipur, now at Hare Krishna Land, Airport Road, Sangaiprou, Imphal was established by Bhaktisvarupa Damodara Swami, an intimate disciple of Srila Prabhupada on the 25th December 1977 as the first center of ISKCON in Manipur, which has 2333 life patron members as on date. A brief bio-data of Bhaktisvarupa Damodara Swami, later known as Sripada, is given herewith for information of all concerned.
Sripada’s original name is Thoudam Damodara Singh. He was born in Manipur India on December 9, 1937. He obtained his M.Tech in 1964 in Chemical Engineering and Technology from Calcutta University and got PhD in 1974 in Physical Organic Chemistry from the University of California, Irvine, USA, after he did research work as a fellow under the University Grants Commission Fellowship of GOI for 2 years. He worked as a Research Scientist during 1974-1976 at the Emory University. He then became a disciple of His Divine Grace AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Founder Acharya of ISKCON in 1970 and entered the Sannyasa Ashram, the highest order in Hindu spiritual and theological order in 1979, having the spiritual name, Bhaktisvarupa Damodara Swami. He became director of the Bhaktivedanta Institute, a center to promote studies about the relationship between Science and Vedanta, since 1974 onward. He has organized two International Conferences on World Congress for the Synthesis of Science and Religion in Bombay (1986) and Calcutta (1997). Before that he also organized the First International Conference of the study of Consciousness within science in San Francisco (1990). He was made a member of the governing body commission, the highest decision making body of ISKCON, since 1977 onwards. He is now actively involved in the United Religious Initiative activities, a non-religious International organization, for creating peace, justice and healing for all living beings in the world. He is also the founding member and president of Manipur URI Cooperation Circle (January 2000). He is the author of several books including, ‘What is Matter and What is Life? (1977), Theobiology (1979), Editor of Synthesis of Science and Religion, Critical Essays and Dialogues (1987 and Thoughts on Synthesis of Science and Religion (2001) and Savijnanam (Scientific Exploration for a Spiritual Paradigm) Vol- I (2002). Sripada has more than 500 disciples from all parts of the world such as Africa, Australia, Canada, China, France, India, Indonesia, Iran, Italy, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand, Russia, Singapore, UK and USA.
Projects of ISKCON Manipur:
Sri Sri Radha Krishnachandra Manimandir:
Under the leadership of His Holiness Bhaktisvarupa Damodara Swami, a powerful committee, known as ISKCON Manipur Development Council (IMDC) was formed in 1987 with (late) Longjam Kulabidhu Singh, an industrialist and admirer of Srila Prabhupada as the working-chairman and Radhacharan Das, a senior devotee of ISCKON and a devoted disciple of Sripada as the Secretary, and many prominent past and present devotees of ISKCON Manipur as members in charge of various departments such as temple construction, BIMS, Nature Cure Hospital, publication of Bhagavat Paojel - a monthly magazine of Hare Krishna movement, art and culture, finance, membership drive, women's cultural forum etc.
The IMDC launched a prestigious project on Sri Sri Radha Krishnachandra Manimandir in 1989 mainly with a view to taking an earnest initiative to revive Vaishnavism on his spiritual master’s strong instruction and its foundation stone was laid on March 22, 1992. The land measuring about 3 acres was generously donated by Longjam Kulabidhu Singh and his wife Longjam Ongbi Ketuki Devi. Both of them have departed from the mortal world recently, and the disappearances of the two noble souls and devotees of Lord Sri Krishna make a void difficult to be filled up in near future. The concept and design of Sri Sri Radha Krishnachandra Manimandir (without the portion of domes) done by Sri B. Roy Ghatak of Archiscape Design
Center Pvt. Ltd. New Delhi under the guidance of the then Consultant of ISKCON Ministry of Architecture, H.H. Surabhi Swami, comprises Prasadam Hall, Puspa Samadhi of Srila Prabhupada, Temple Hall, Deities Rooms and Rasamandal with 2500 seating capacity. The temple, which is still in progress, though it was inaugurated by His Excellency, the Governor of Manipur, Ved Marwah on November 11, 2000, has a plinth area of 11,230 sq.ft. and is designed as a semi floating type on an elastic base tied in all directions. The 55 ft. high structure of the temple is a self supporting ribbed plate conveniently placed on walls and columns, and carries a maximum loading on the columns of about 60 MT. The structures were designed by Dr. Ghosh Dastidar of Archiscape Design Centre, New Delhi. The concept and design of the domes was done by DM Upasini, MD of M/s Upasini Design Cell of Architects and Planners, Mumbai, an ISKCON devotee and a well-wisher of Sripada Maharaja.
Upasini’s concept and design has a cluster of 24 domes to be of the appearance of the cut-diamond crystal shapes to be built with the quality glass panels, preferably of the import quality from Italy with the suggestion from the Italian devotee and disciple of Sripada, Madana Gopala Dasa. The concept of 24 cluster-domes comprising one main deity central dome with two side deity-domes, one main mandapa dome, two staircase domes, two main cluster domes with 16 smaller cluster domes, have now been built as concrete structures due to technical and financial reasons, to be topped and finished with Bisazza copper mosaics, and the gold mosaics to be bordered on the seven tiers of each of the main and two side deity domes. The firm entrusted with the work is Bisazza, Mumbai (India), an associate of Italian Bisazza Company.
Once Sri Sri Radha Krishnachandra Manimandir is completed with the continuous supports from the people of Manipur and many local and foreign devotees of ISKCON, and but not the least with the strong support and help of the members of Sri Sri Ratha Krishanchandra Manimandir Completion Committee headed by Maisnam Madhumangol Singh, a well-known businessman and a devotee of Lord Sri Krishna as chairman, and Rajyeshwar Paul as secretary, and the well-wishers of Sripada, the University of Bhagavata Culture (UBC) as the centerpiece of the temple would be started in full swing under the leadership and guidance of Sripada, as the UBC’s rector. The UBC will be in due course a center for learning the deeper meaning of life and living and it may be for the first time of its kind in the world. The main focus of the UBC will be on the cultivation of human values having various disciplines such as Sankirtana, Brahmacharis and monastic life, languages, inter-religious studies, science and philosophy of life, theobiology, advanced studies in mantra and spiritual technology, Srimad Bhagavatam and Vedanta, health and natural living -Ayurveda and Naturopathy, art and culture, performing arts, martial arts and so on. The above-mentioned disciplines will have one college each. This will only be possible by the blessings of Lord Sri Krishna and no doubt, with the support of the people of Manipur.
And, Srila Prabhupada had always depended for his health on nature cure and ayurvedic medicines, such as Mahatma Gandhi had valuable experiments and authenticated writings on naturopathy. In order to please his spiritual master, Sripada Maharaja was very much longing to have one Nature Cure Hospital opened in Manipur, to facilitate the devotees of ISKCON in particular and the people in general in the treatment of their ailments in a very simple say and inexpensively. By the grace of Srila Prabhupada and Lord Sri Krishna, Sripada had found a devotee and an admirer of Srila Prabhupada in Longjam Kulabidhu Singh, who had also the aspiration to open such a hospital in Manipur. Fortunately enough, N. Gandhar Singh, who was a devotee and well-wisher of Sripada, donated to ISKCON Manipur a kutcha building, which he constructed at Langol foothills, Lamphelpat, for opening a nature cure hospital under the care of his daughter, Dr. N. Sorojini Devi now a disciple of Sripada, in the name of Sakhirani Devi Dasi. This building has now been improved. Longjam Kulabidhu Singh, who offered the land as gift for Sri Sri Radha Krishanchandra Manimandir project now in progress, built a four-storied building for the nature cure hospital, which was later donated to ISKCON Manipur. What a noble soul he was during his mortal life as a devotee of Lord Sri Krishna. The foundation stone of the four-storied building at Longol foothills was then laid on the auspicious day of the 12th Oct. 1991 and it was completed during March 1995. It was on March 21, 1995, the ISKCON Nature Cure Hospital and Yogic Ashram with nearly 30 beds, on the concept of Sri L. Mangi Singh, consultant architect of ISKCON Manipur, was inaugurated and dedicated to His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, founder Acharya of ISKCON, in a function graced by the then Deputy Chief Minister of Manipur, Radhabinod Koijam as the chief guest and many distinguished foreign devotees of ISKCON as special invitees, who were extremely pleased to have such a nature cure hospital constructed at a beautiful and an ideal site.
Few words of the site of this nature cure hospital are appropriate to mention here. The foothills, which is the most suitable and ideal site of a nature cure hospital has the open space surrounded by the hills and lush green paddy fields and full of fresh air. It captivates every visitor by its scenic beauty from where the glitters of Imphal city during the night time are viewed nicely. The greeneries in and around the hospital and breath taking panoramic views of the vast green fields, coupled with the sweet and melodious chirping sounds of the birds early in the morning with gentle breeze blowing, provide a soothing and refreshing effect to the minds of the patients always.
It is no wonder that many visitors, nay almost all the patients of this nature cure hospital at Langol foothills and others who accompanied with them express their desire to come again and again. At the same time "this hospital can also be reached within fifteen minutes from Imphal through any vehicle.
Naturopathy is the most simple and inexpensive form of prevention and treatment, avoiding universally realized harmful side effects of the allopathic medicines. The naturopathy’s main objects is "Eat to live, not live to eat", it believes in correct diets such as vegetables, fruits, milk, polished rice, potatoes with peel intact, unsaturated fats, better in medium quantity, brown sugar etc. Here I quote Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, "It may indeed be doubted whether butchers’ meat is anywhere a necessary of life. Grain and other vegetables, with the help of milk, cheese, and butter, or oil, where butter is not to be had, afford the most plentiful, the most wholesome, the most nourishing, and the most invigorating diet. Decency nowhere requires than any man should eat butchers’ meat". Mahatma Gandhi said, "I do feel that spiritual progress does demand at some stage that we should cease to kill our fellow creatures for the satisfaction of our bodily wants."
Naturopathy which makes the body resistance strong to defend ailments and expel morbid matter through simple treatments such as hip, steam and sun baths, mud packs, fasting, enema, fruit and milk diets, hydropathy, atmospheric cure, yogasana, pranayama, exercise, sunlight and clean habits, non-intoxication, free from anger, violent reactions etc. believes that disease is a punishment for disregarding the Laws of Nature.
The ISKCON Nature Cure Hospital is manned by the qualified doctors under the guidance of His Holiness Bhaktisvarupada Damodara Swami.
RANGANlKETAN:
Srila Prabhupada who had a great respect for Manipur Vaishnavism and Kshatriayism and its cultural heritage, told Sripada that, "... knowledge, good quality, happiness, advancement of life, everything is complete in Manipur. So let us go to Manipur. Arrange for that. We shall organize Manipur as a Vaishnava state ... and train the Manipuris the slogan -Jaya Radhe! Jaya Krishna! Jaya Babhruvahana! Jaya Arjuna!" Srila Prabhupada expressed his desire to utilize the art of dancing in the seva of glorifying Lord Sri Krishna, after he had witnessed a dance program performed by the Javeri sisters who depicted the stories from Krishna’ s pastimes, at Bombay in 1972. Srila Prabhupada repeatedly instructed Sripada to use the Manipuri traditions of dance and sankirtana as a platform for glorifying the supreme personality of Godhead. At the same time, Sripada who was born in a Vaishnava family and who is now a good singer has been deeply influenced by dance and music from his very childhood and therefore he was readily motivated by his spiritual master’s advice to propagate and promote the Bhagavata culture throughout the world, through the ancient cultural arts, the unique cultural heritage of Manipur.
With this in view, Sripada founded "Ranganiketan", a Manipuri cultural arts troupe in 1989 to expose the exotic tradition of Manipuri art and culture to the rest of the world. Ranganiketan, which means, "House of Colorful Arts", as a platform by which the old and unique cultural heritage of Manipur is maintained and simultaneously promoted for the universal, peace and friendship, is also a department of the University of Bhagavata Culture (UBC)). The Ranganiketan, Manipuri Cultural Arts Troupe comprising the talented dancers, martial artistes, drummers, musicians and craft artisans have started the premier world tour led by Laishram Joychandra Singh who was associated with ISKCON Manipur in connection with the activities of Ranganiketan before his departure from the mortal world, since 1990 and presented many cultural program in the cities such as Paris, Zurich, Avignon, Bordeaux, Bern, London, Nottingham, New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and Orlando. The cultural program was hosted by Walt Disney Epcot Centre in Florida, etc. and a tremendous response was received from all quarters and it is a real encouragement to the Ranganiketan troupe. In this way, Ranganiketan troupe had performed many cultural programs in Asia, the USA, Canada, North America, Singapore, Hanoi, Cairo, Tanta, Suez, Alexandria etc. The Indian Council for Cultural Relation (ICCR) is sponsoring the Ranganiketan Troupe in many cities of the world.
Among the artistes of Ranganiketan troupe which sometimes consists of nearly 100, a young 10 year old artiste Tulasi Dasa, son of Ajit Das, the secretary of Ranganiketan, has brought many laurels from many places of the world where he displayed the pastimes of Lord Sri Krishna. Like that, Ranganiketan is grooming many young devotees, the Brahmacharis in particular who follow the four principles of ISKCON, to be the permanent artistes for its growth and development in future.
In the recent past, many institutions and highly respected personalities and print media from all over the world had sent letters of appreciation and published the excellent performance of the Ranganiketan Cultural Arts troupe.
"One pleasant surprise followed another in music and dance of Manipur, which the Ranganiketan Manipuri Cultural Arts Troupe presented at Symphony Space...There were dances of unusual refinement and delicacy, as well as wildly percussive dances and hair raising displays of martial arts.
And the company, directed by Dr. TD Singh, made all these styles wondrous to behold. Many of the lyrical dances were filled with gentle undulations and flowing arm gestures. Although movements never grew harsh, the level of energy occasionally increased so that slight bobbings grew into light-hearted bounces, and then dancers started whirling with ease. Though such sequences were always joyous, they seemed mystical, too, in a dance honoring the God Krishna in which an ensemble of women (he means Gopis and Radhikarani) wore skirts that glittered as if they were encrusted with gold and jewels.
Sripada Maharaja had also opened Sri Sri Gopaldeva Mandir at Manipuri Nutun Rajbari, Nabadwip and Sri Sri Gopaldeva Mandir at Radhakunda, to help facilitate many Manipuri pilgrims who often visit to Nabadwip, where Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu appeared, as an expansion of Lord Sri Krishna embodying Radharani in the personality of a devotee, to continue His Vrindavana pastimes to Nabadwip pastimes, and also to Radhakunda, the holiest of all holy places within the three worlds. Accommodation and prasadam facilities are provided to the pilgrims at reasonable rates.
Sripada has also opened a women’s wing of ISKCON Manipur, known as ISKCON Women’s Cultural Forum (IWCF) headed by Dr. C. Jamini Devi, a devotee, an educationist and a social worker, who is particularly concerned for up-gradation of the status of women in Manipur. Dr. C. Jamini Devi, as president of IWCF has been working very hard to expand this women’s wing of ISKCON comprising young and old matajis through sankiratana, glorifying the supreme personality of Godhead, Lord Sri Krishna. The members of IWCF are also helping in the construction of Sri Sri Radha Krishnachandra Manimandir with financial support from time to time within their capacity.
ISKCON Youth Forum (IYF), under the leadership of Ramachandra Das, has been actively engaged in bhajans, kirtans, lectures, arati and distribution of mahaprasadam (Food for Life), with the house program on every Sunday. It is encouraging that many youths are taking interest and joining in ISKCON Youth Forum, which is also conducting regularly the class of Sri Bhagavad Gita in the temple.
Sripada had also established an office of The Bhaktivedanta Institute at RC-8, Raghunathpur, Manasi Manjil Building, fourth floor, VIP Road, Kolkata 700059, India, Tel./fax: +91335009018; email: tdsingh@vsnl.com. Those who want to subscribe "Savijnanam," a Scientific Exploration for a Spiritual Paradigm -now published as Vol.1, can contact this office. The Savijnanam’s contributors are mainly: A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada (1896-1977), who was one of the most prominent self-realized spiritual master and cultural ambassadors of the 20th Century India and who established more than 108 spiritual, educational, and cultural centers around the world and authored over 60 volumes of philosophical and theological books.
Werner Arber (1929- ) of University of Basel, Switzerland: A Nobel Prize Winner in Physiology and Medicine in 1978, who discovered the restricted enzymes and their applications to the problems of molecular genetics.
Karl H. Pribram (1919 - ) of Georgetown University, USA: A noted neuropsychologist and an inventor of a holographic model known as the holonomic brain theory.
Jagadish N. Srivastava (1933 -) of Colorado State University, Colorado, USA: A renowned statistician and a founding Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Statistical Planning and Inference, who has discovered ‘Codes’, Algebras’ and ‘Estimators’ under his name, Srivastava.
E.C.G. Sundershan ( 1931- ) of University of Texas, Austin: A prominent Particle Physicist who was awarded Padma Bhushan in 1976 and a winner of the World Academy of Sciences Prize in Physics in 1985.
Dr. T.D. Singh (1937- ): A scientist and spiritualist as a Brahmacharis disciple of the world fame of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, founder Acharya of 1SKCON, who is widely known for his sincere work in the Synthesis of Science and Religion having organized the World Congress in Bombay (1986) and Calcutta (1987) and also the first International Conference of the Study of Consciousness within Science in San Francisco (1990). He is the Editor-in-Chief of Savijnanam.
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