Environmental impact of Mayapur New temple project

[Guest guest]

Environmental impact of the New Temple Project

 

We should be rather building temple of the heart where Krishna can actually

come and stay. The massive temple buildings in the Gaudiya Vaisnava

Sampradaya is something of the recent, if you study histories from Lord

Caitanya up to the time of Srila Bhkativinoda Thakura, there was hardly any

emphasis on temple building.

Isvara Das GGS, Touch stone media

 

Building a massive temple to support 50,000 residents and millions of

tourists and concreting the island will cause irreparable loss to the

eco-system of Mayapur.

I have studied the Master plan and discussed this issue with several

environmental scientists, and town planners, including one Mr.Lalit (Who is

serving for AURO FUTURE in Auroville, Pondichery). During 1997 or so Lalit

was at Mayapur as a Town Planner in the project team preparing Mayapur

Master plan. I have deeply thought about the consequences of urbanizing

Mayapur. Mayapur is not like other temple cities like Tirupathy,

Visvabharathy or Darmasala, it is a Small Island surrounded by perennial

holy rivers. Degrading the quality of Land, water and air will lead to an

irreparable environmental loss to Mayapur. Its beauty as a village should be

preserved, it is "hidden Vrindavan", why should we urbanize Mayapur, Like

Vrindavan?.

Massive Temple: means:

Hectic fund rising

Destruction of the Habitat

Our mission is to spread the holy names of the Lord.

We need preachers and KC communities

Temple has a less priority in Kali Yuga.

The Eco system of Mayapur consists of variety of flora and fauna and we

should preserve them. Mayapur can adapt the development model of Auroville

and think of building an Eco friendly and sustainable environment. We should

not make Mayapur as a concrete jungle. Mayapur is surrounded by the holy

perennial rivers with a delicate Eco-system, tampering this will have

catastrophic effect on the environment in the long run. Mayapur may

disappear again if the rivers join together due to shifting patterns and

erosion of the landmass by the rivers. The offshoot of urbanization will be

pollution and proliferation of the natural resources. We can present endless

number of points against the construction of a massive temple and consequent

urbanization of this village.

Instead we can think of a sustainable model for development and at the same

time focus on our core activity of preaching and book distribution. We can

convert Mayapur to be a learning center for the whole world.

We can build sustainable devotee communities focused on Vaishnava education

and follow the principles of "simple living and high thinking". Massive

temple means lot of business opportunity and its impact on spiritual

development. Present day ISKCON is riddled with high-pressure internal

conflicts because we have converted this movement from preaching to fund

rising. Fund raising should be a secondary activity; we should not take up

projects with heavy investments to reveal our ego as a great people among

Gaudiya Vaishnavas. MAC is developing Mayapur as a business center. The land

prices have been artificially boosted by ISKCON's greed to grab the land

around. Having grabbed all the land ISKCON is not using the land resources.

Simple living has become impossible due to such artificial demand created by

ISKCON. This trend has to be reversed. We can laterally focus on Vaishnava

Education and Training. Thus we can develop 100s and 1000s of preachers in a

large scale. We can develop an excellent university offering Vedic science

for the whole world. We can use our land resources for practicing Daiva

Varnashrama and follow the principle of "simple living and High thinking".

By this we can satisfy Srila Prabhupada's priorities like Preaching and Book

distribution.

Mayapur Master plan has not taken in to consideration the environmental

impact of this project. There were recommendations for setting up cottage

and Handicraft industry as part of development plan in and around the

project area. It does not mean any thing and there is no specific measure to

preserve the destruction of the environment. If we are truthful and sincere

to the Dham and its residents (including its Habitat) then as a priority we

should undertake a study on environmental impact of this project with an

open mind. This should be the deciding factor for the New Temple project.

Finally I would like to tender my sincere apologies if I have offended any

one by expressing my frank opinion on this issue.