Prez inaugurates ISKCON Sri Rajadhiraja Govinda temple in B'luru

Bengaluru, June 14:  President Ram Nath Kovind inaugurated ISKCON Sri Rajadhiraja Govinda Temple and cultural complex in a ceremony held here on Tuesday.

The project is replica of Tirupati Tirumala Devasthanam and built as a tribute to Srila Prabhupada in commemoration of his 125th birth anniversary.

After the inauguration, President Kovind stated that the temples have been among the most important symbols of Hinduism.

At one level, they are sacred sites. Worshippers feel the presence of the divine, be it in the form of vibrations or energy or a rush of the intense devotional feelings. Coming to a spot like this, one can leave the world and its noise behind and feel enveloped in peace. At another level, temples are often much more than places of worship. They are like the sangam sthal, or the point of holy confluence, of art, architecture, language and knowledge traditions, he said.

This is no surprise, considering the fact that the religious impulse is at the heart of India's culture. The quest of the rishi-munis of this land in ancient times has also inspired our society along with its kings and scholars, poets and architects, he said.

If there is a single defining feature of this quest, it is plurality. All competing world-views, from Advaita Vad to Vishishtadvait Vad, all have flourished under one umbrella. There are different sects, such as Vaishnavism, Shaivism, and Shakta sampradaya. Just as there can be many ways to reach the top of this hill, there are different paths to realise the Supreme, such as Jnana Marga, Karma Marga and Bhakti Marga. Yet, in Hinduism, you never know where one ends and another begins, as if they are all interlinked by their common faith in the divine, he said.

"Our great spiritual leaders such as Shankaracharya, Ramanujacharya, Madhvacharya and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu showed us a variety of ways. In recent times, Ramakrishna Paramahans and Swami Vivekananda, among so many others, reiterated the same attitude. It is no wonder that the Bhagavad Gita, the scripture that is held most important by all Hindus, also offers different lessons to different people, depending on their qualification," he said.

The temple will be thrown open to the public from August 1.