Restoration of ISKCON Krishna Balaram Mandir Vrindavan as it was during Prabhupada's

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Restoration of Krishna Balaram Mandir

By Deena Bandhu dasa

Posted June 29, 2003

 

For the last two months it has been the hot season in Vrindavan, with temperatures at 110+ (F). The pilgrims visiting the temple are much fewer than usual. So taking advantage of this slow season, there has been a flurry of activity in Krishna Balaram Mandir. The temple is being restored back to its original state, as it was when Srila Prabhupada inaugurated the temple on Rama Navami 1975.

 

Around Kartik last year, there was some discussion about repainting the temple. Daivishakti Mataji, who has been here from the beginning of the temple, told us that Surabhi had the temple finished in marble dust that was meant to be maintenance free and never painted. Underneath all those layers of paint is a beautiful, colored marble-dust finish that one can see in the old pictures of the temple.

 

One of the persons who worked on the construction of the temple is Ramjilal, who has since gone on to become a sthapati, building and designing only temples. In fact, he was the one who gave the original design for the beautiful Vrinda Devi Temple at Vrinda Kunda, Nandagrama, that was opened in mid-February this year. So I called him and he showed me how they had done the entire temple with colored marble dust, from the floor to the kalash on top of the dome. He scraped off some of the paint in various places and showed us the original finish underneath.

 

Somewhere way back, when after Surabhi left, it was decided to paint over this lovely work, and thus every couple of years, lacs of Rupees are wasted in trying to maintain the temple. In fact, because of the highly polished surface, the paint never really sticks, and in many places, especially along the molding at the floor level and the molding around the bases of the columns, it always flakes off giving a very unkempt appearance to the temple.

 

When I was president several years ago, the Hindujas visited the temple. Sri Chand, pointing to the flaky paint on the moldings around the temple, told me that whenever they do marble work, they always save the dust and mix that dust with white cement and do the moldings around the floor with it so it never looks like this. And underneath all that paint is actually marble dust.

 

Immediately inspired, a devotee named Srestha Das from Washington, DC, a disciple of HH Gopal Krishna Maharaja, promised to bear the expense of the work. He is busy building his own house in Vrindavan, but at the same time, he wants to take care of the house of Krishna Balaram.

 

We spent several months investigating ways to actually do the work and were thinking that it would be really expensive and take a couple of years. Then one day, I called on a gentleman, Shri Shailender Singh from Truworth House <http://www.truworth.com> in Jaipur, who is the representative of several companies from America who sell sealants for stone and wood. I wanted to seal the carved stonework at Vrinda Kunda from water damage.

 

I just happened to ask him whether besides preservative work he had any products for removing paint and doing restoration. I showed him what we wanted to do to the temple, and he was so inspired, he promised to do the whole restoration of the temple at his cost price and finish within one month. He would remove the paint and polish everything with his special diamond-dust polishers.

 

Our president, Devakinandan, consulted many companies in Bombay, and no one could even come close to his price, so he obviously wasn't bluffing. So then, when the summer came, his crew began work. Every day as more and more of the original temple becomes uncovered, the devotees who've stayed here for the summer are awestruck. Just the other day, they uncovered this heavenly blue color that was inside the archways of the temple. All the devotees were amazed.

 

Of course, now that he's started the work and seen just how many layers of paint there are to remove, he's revised his estimate to two months. That's still a lot better than two years. And its much more economical. He told me that he's the only representative for the whole of India, so he is very busy and never gets time to associate with devotees. He was overjoyed when I walked into his office and gave him the opportunity to do some service for us and occasionally visit Vrindavan and get a spiritual break.

 

So as the heat comes down and we move into the Janmastami season, the devotees and pilgrims who will soon start visiting Krishna Balaram Mandir will be pleasantly surprised to see Krishna Balaram Mandir restored back to its glorious days when Srila Prabhupada was present.

 

In Service of Sri Sri Krishna Balaram,

Deena Bandhu dasa