Temple Will Benefit All, Says Gita

[suchandra]

Temple will benefit all, says Gita

 

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

 

http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=75876

 

THE foundations of a temple have been laid on a hill in the heart of Sigatoka.

The ISKCON temple or the Sri Radha Damodar temple located on the hill top will have a scenic view and will be a five minutes walk from the main town.

Developers of the project are sisters Gita and Gurusmarna Dasi.

The sisters are disciples of the Srila Tamal Krishna Goswami.

Gita said the project would change the face of Sigatoka.

She said besides housing the place of worship the building would also feature a vegetarian restaurant, gift shop and book shop, medical clinic, guest rooms and a hospice that would take care of the terminally ill or the homeless. She said the location was a five minutes walk from the main town, giving the temple wonderful scenic views and would also be accessible from the main town.

She said the project was funded by them and were appealing to members of the public should anyone be willing to donate in any way they wanted to.

Ms Dasi said the project is estimated to be around $1.3million but will cost around $3m by the end completion of the project.

She said the ground laying project has already taken place with the project expected to be completed with two years.

"We thought that since we were both single, why not do something for the public as we had been helping them materially," she said.

"Sigatoka is a small place and needed a place to have people from all different places to come together.

"But spiritually we felt that we were not helping the people of the town. Because even though we had treated them, it was not enough.

"We saw that some people were homeless and had other problems so we thought why not we build a temple so that everyone could come and get spiritually enlightened."

Ms Dasi said the building would not only consist of a temple as a place of worship but also have a yoga centre, a restaurant and a cultural centre.

She said at the moment the ISKCON Sigatoka centre was operated from their home in Olosara, just outside Sigatoka town towards Suva.

She said the main objectives of building the temple were to help people discern from illusion.

"The temple would also offer guidance in the Vedic techniques of spiritual life and also spread and preserve the Vedic culture which is the oldest culture," she said.

"But besides the spiritual side, other services would also be offered, like daily worship, free food distribution.

"There would also be free counselling services, celebration of major festivals. A full time care for the elderly."