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I am going to visit the Golden Palace next weekend but, I do have a question...

 

Why did people build prabhupada a palace to live in? isn't he a yogi who gave up all material life?

 

Then living in a palace made out of "gold" is definitely not an unmaterialistic life in my view.

 

Please, I don't mean to offend any one here, but this is a question that has been going through my head for quite some time.

 

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In 1968, The New Vrindaban Community was founded in West Virginia to fulfill Prabhupada's dream of an ideal society based on Krishna Consciousness, or love of God. When Prabhupada set down the first guidelines for such a community, the idea seemed out of reach to the small band of devotees struggling through a hard winter on a small, rundown farm. There was no electricity, no running water in their only building, a battered pioneer shack. But when Srila Prabhupada had a vision of "seven temples on the seven hills," suddenly all obstacles seemed insignificant to his followers.

 

Srila Prabhupada traveled extensively and in 1972 returned to New Vrindavan. By then the community had expanded from the original 100 acres to 500 acres. In 1973, the devotees decided to build a home for Srila Prabhupada, where he could write all his books and enjoy the clean country air. The location was chosen for its potential beauty, hardly apparent at the time because the land was being used as a dump. The debris was removed, the land was cleared, and construction was started on a simple house. The plan was a rough sketch drawn on a scrap of paper.

 

But Lord Krishna had his own plan. Somehow or other, at each step, the trial-and-error construction produced something grander than what the devotees had imagined. Bit by bit, cemented, forged, and chiseled with loving labor, Prabhupada's Palace of Gold emerged. How it came about may seem hard to understand: after all, how could these inexperienced devotees build something that surpassed their own expectations? A spiritual force was certainly involved, and those who worked on it were but instruments in the Lord's hands. That spiritual force is inexplicable, beyond words, but is evident in the love that is infused in the Palace.

 

One of Srila Prabhupada's most cherished desires was to establish the New Vrindaban Community in America. He spoke at great length about building a replica of Vrindaban India, where there are seven main temples. Devotees in New Vrindaban built Prabhupada's Palace as the first of the seven temples here. It immediately became the most famous Hare Krsna temple in North America. The Palace attracts millions of visitors and is an incredible place of pilgrimage in North America. Its transcental beauty, built of love and devotion of his disciples, delivers special mercy to all that come into contact with Srila Prabhupada.

 

Somewhat forgotten, obscured perhaps by the arrangement of the Lord and His inconceivable loving dealings with His devotees, was the fact that the most sacred flowers that adorned Prabhupada when he left this mortal world, were placed under the altar at the Palace before it opened in 1979, establishing the Palace as Srila Prabhupada's divine samadhi.

 

When this fact was revealed to the devotees, Srila Prabhupada's eternal words spoken in 1976, while visiting the Palace, were remembered, "I'm already living here and always will be."

 

In India, especially Vrindaban, where Krishna displayed his eternal pastimes of love, the great saints are not cremated but placed in their samadhis. These most blessed of places are full of special potency because the great souls reside there in their spiritual forms, increasing the mercy for pilgrims who visit and receive their blessings.

 

In India, Srila Prabhupada's main samadhi is in Vrindaban, and the second most spiritually-charged samadhi is in Mayapur. In the Western world, the Palace of Gold is his special samadhi mandir attracting millions of followers to receive his full blessings of love of Krishna.

 

Located in a sacred area of the samadhi is the Prabhupada Smaranam, a testimonial book of miracles. It contains true stories from people of all religious backgrounds and all walks of life who have experienced unusual and enlightening insights, even miracles in their lives, after visiting Srila Prabhupada's Samadhi.

 

From www.palaceofgold.com

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the spiritual master is not attached to money or gold, but the disciple wants to offer everything to him..

 

the bona fide spiritual master uses all these things offered by the disciple exclusively at the service of sri krsna

 

this is called yukta vairagiya, the best renunciation, to use everything for krsna

 

prabhupada have managed huge amounts of money but he never kept a cent for his gratification

 

the palace is meant to attract people to chant hare krsna, serve the spiritual master and go back to godhead... if this is the use of this temple, prabhupada, krsna, chaitanya mahaprabhu are there and happy

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  • 2 weeks later...

I always get excited when people ask me about this trip.

 

Although it was a very boring drive (10 hours duration) from where I live, it was all worth it /images/graemlins/smile.gif .

 

I did n't know it was on a mountain but it was on this huge mountain and it took like 25 mins to get on top of it. When we got to the top , I not only felt elevated physically but also spiritually /images/graemlins/grin.gif .

 

I saw the beautiful palace dome and as we passed it and entered the temple parking lot, there was a sign saying "you are entering a sacred place" and then when we got into the temple, every one was chanting and some people were like raising their hands toward the deities and moving their bodies in some sort of a rhythmic motion.

 

The whole temple upper wall was filled with Krishna pictures. One picture was about him and his friends playing.

 

The other was him and Gopis dancing... it was fun.

 

The Deities themselves were very beautifully decorated and very beautiful themselves.

 

Then there was Jagannatha and there was Lord Narasimha...my parents were very happy to see Lord Narasimha there.

 

When we all got into the dancing mood (it was very contagious , no body could help themselves but dance) a devotee started going around with aarti (Fire) taken from radha krishna and every one touched it and then touched their eyes and forhead.

 

Staying in cottages was fun too, even though I wanted to stay in the temple , my parents insisted that I stay in the cottage.

 

We went to the palace on the same day... we arrived pretty late and it was the last tour through the palace.

 

The palace itself was very gorgeous inside. It was decorated with beautiful chandeliers (which were expertly crafted) when I asked about the chandeliers , the guide said it was done by a devotee who had no previous experience /images/graemlins/shocked.gif .

 

The paintings of Radha Krishna on top of walls and in the samadhi temple of Prabhupada were very impressive. One painting was very beautiful and it was krishna dancing with the gopis.

 

One other impressive painting was a work of love and art /images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

It was a painting of 1000 flowers or so on top of prabupada's room... it was very beautiful.

 

The peacocks were beautiful and the garden was just wonderful!

 

The garden was only a small part of the beauty there, the real beauty was in the mountains and the atmosphere .

 

The busy life of long Island is no match for inner peace that we find on top of those mountains.

 

Also, the whole place was "spiritually inclined". People there were chanting hare krishna on streets, which was very nice to hear.

 

The whole place made me feel very peaceful. Every one was friendly and kind. The owner of Govinda snacks gave me free Mango lassi!

 

The next morning , we went to the temple again. My grandfather and others spoke to a devotee there who was very sweet and pure hearted.

 

Overall, the place was fun to visit and the drive was worth it...

 

I don't think krishna wanted me to leave that place because when we were leaving the main road was blocked by a power line .. that was cut off.

 

SO, the traffic stopped and it was raining . So, we had to go back up the mountain again. Then a local there came to the rescue and showed us another way down the mountain...

 

Which was on a muddy road , but was quite safe.

 

The whole trip was very spiritually enlightening. /images/graemlins/smile.gif !

 

Thank you , for asking me to post this here. You have made me very happy by doing so /images/graemlins/grin.gif

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Here's what I think is really cool: If I remember correctly, you were worried that your parents weren't very happy about your interest in Krishna consciousness. Nevertheless, you got them to drive you all the way down to New Vrindavan and back. You go, girl! (Sorry--I ran a half marathon with Oprah a few years ago, and I guess I felt a little of her energy.)

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I am glad you had fun reading about this trip of mine, I highly recommend this trip to any one.

 

I did learn something there, not just in sadhu sanga but also from the whole place itself.

 

I learned something special which is not really new to you people here- the feeling that krishna was right by me as I was walking on the streets of new vrindavan.

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  • 1 month later...

Quick answer:

 

1) I don't think he ever lived in it.

 

2) The spiritual master who is a pure devotee should be viewed and treated as good as God. He is not God, but since he is Gods representative and therefore can give you God, he is treated this way. So we can give him gold, jewelery, fancy chariots or cars, and he is not attached. Not to think one who is pure can loose interest in attachment to Krishna and be swayed by material opulence. No. He doesn't even want them, but accpets them so WE will make spiriutal advancement.

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Priitaji: " No. He doesn't even want them, but accpets them so WE will make spiriutal advancement. "

 

Yes, this point was quite clear to me as I read more about this monument, also, I do apologize for such an immature question. It was due to the newness to his books which made me question such a great entity.

 

The website however, provides great help. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

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Hare Krsna Prabhus,

 

Yes New Vrndavana was very dear to Him but he wrote about the "Geeta Nagari" way back in the 50's in His Back to Godhead Magazine. And near the end of His pastimes here he said that 50% of HIs work was finished and that he would finish the other 50% starting at Gita Nagari.(new spelling)That was to establish Varnasrama Dharma.

 

I have always wondered what this would have looked like at Gita Nagari. Varnashrama Dharma. Cows perfectly protected, vaisyas working the earth, ksatriyas protecting the community, brahmanas teaching the vedanta, and sudras helping all. All this does take place at New Vrndavana and Gita Nagari and other farm communities around the world, but perhaps not on the grand scale it would be if the Sampradaya Acarya was personally moving it.

 

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