Mayapur, Feb. 11: The Iskcon authorities are all set to open the world’s largest pujari seva facilities on 2.5 acres sprawling single floor inside the under-construction Temple of the Vedic Planetarium (TOVP) in Nadia’s Mayapur.
The huge floor that would accommodate the seva facilities will be inaugurated on February 13 in presence of the devotees of 77 countries that would also begin the countdown for the inauguration of the TOVP, Iskcon’s Rs.700-crore temple project, slated for March 2022.
The huge floor of the ‘seva facilities’ is fitted with over 20 specially designed rooms for the purpose of worship, cooking of prasad, stitching attire of the deities, training for the priests and to render many other seva services. The architectural pattern of the centrally air-conditioned and CCTV monitored seva facility floor is the viewer’s pleasure which has been made with marble stones brought from Bolivia, France, Thailand and with specially designed glass-fiber-reinforced gypsum (GRG). Over one hundred architects and designers have worked for the past two years to provide the final look of the seva floor, said an Iskcon official.
Iskcon authorities said the floor will be kept open for public viewing for one hour only every day after the inauguration on February 13. The three deities Sri Radha Madhava, Sri Pancha Tattva and Sri Nrsimha, however, will be shifted to the floor later. The initiative is being viewed as a major step towards achieving the target of the projected opening of the entire TOVP project in 2022,
“It is a step forward towards the inauguration of the much-awaited Temple of Vedic Planetarium that would add a
Temple of Vedic Planetarium
new dimension to the tourism map in the state. We expect at least 60-lakhs tourists in Mayapur every year once TOVP is opened for public viewing in 2022”, said Iskcon spokesperson Subroto Das.
Iskcon officials involved with the project said that TOVP would come up closer to the size of the Great Pyramid of Giza, one of the seven wonders of the world. Alfred Ford, the grandson of Henry Ford is the chairman of the project.
“This is going to have one of the tallest and widest domes constructed on a religious structure in the world. The entire temple is spanned on land over 400,000 square feet which can accommodate ten thousand people inside it at a time”, the spokesperson added.
As part of the project, the Iskcon during February 2018, had installed a gold plated stainless steel chakra on the top of the massive dome of the under-construction temple, which will accommodate a big model of the universe and depict its creation as narrated in the Bhagavad Gita in 3D audio-visual medium.
This project heralds one of the most important in Iskcon’s 54-year’s journey and fulfills the vision of Srila AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada to bring the Vedic culture and wisdom before the world through a scientific and authoritative presentation based on Vedic knowledge.