Bangalore: Part 2-- Iskcon (Hari Krishna) Temple

 Prior to Bangalore, my experience of Hare Krishna temples was only in California: In fact, my mother took the whole family to one in Los Angles when I was a young teenager. Most unfathomably to me now, she chose-- as a project for her college journalism class-- to go to the main temple in L.A. and report about the experience.  

My atheistic father and brother were undoubtedly rolling their eyeballs and making snide remarks (Can no longer recall, exactly... it was SO very many years ago!!) and my mother was most likely indifferent to it all, but I definitely loved it!!! I loved the rousing, Hare Krishna chanting... I wanted to be amongst those wild dancers but was too embarrassed to do so, especially with my whole family present. After the chanting ended, the Hare Krishnas served up an Indian feast out of large, stainless steel buckets (this I DO remember...quite vividly, in fact!) and I ate voraciously. The food was absolutely delicious! I remember being surprised that such massive quantities of food could still retain such quality: they must have served a couple hundred people!

Thus it was that my expectations of Iskon were quite high: I had heard that the Bangalore temple was the largest Hare Krishna temple in all of India, and very beautiful. 

Well... it is ALWAYS dangerous having too great of an expectation of ANYTHING in life, it seems to me! The temple was SO ostentatious--- literally glittering with gold everywhere in the interior--but I was thwarted from capturing this amazing scene. Why? Because of COURSE photos were NOT allowed, so the few you see here on the blog were pirated off the 'net.  I admit that the temple's exterior was interesting and rather beautiful, but by no means close to the nicest temples I have seen in India thus far. (See photos of my favorite temples in Saidapet, Chennai!) 

Worse, there was NO exuberant chanting taking place at all the eve I visited; rather, just a somewhat subdued bhajan (devotional chanting) being sung by some bored-looking priests. The Indians got in a queue to go before the main altar, but conducted their usual rude antics, consisting of pushing, shoving and hustling to get up there faster (something about this culture I will never, EVER be able to understand!!! Or NOT be annoyed by!!!) Not only were signs posted EVERYWHERE declaring that photography was strictly forbidden, but a woman with a large PLACARD containing the same message circulated continuously inside the main area of the temple. Talk about overkill!! Of COURSE this "Disneyland of 'spirituality', as I cynically refer to it now, was fixing to SELL photos to the ardent "devotees" of Krishna. In fact, after leaving the main room of the temple, one had no choice but to follow directional arrows leading through a maze of counters selling every manner of junk. There were plastic krishnas and various other "chachkas" . There were T-shirts of every variety and size. There was an endless sea of (Indian) fast food being sold, along with sweets and and other gooey treats. In short, this place is clearly a MAJOR money-making establishment... and was, for me, MOST disheartening.

Still, I am including a post about it because it is iconic in Bangalore and elsewhere in India... and it was one of the few "attractions" I visited in this city. 

So here you go, the photos: 

One of three temples outside the main temple, where photos were NOT prohibited...

All that glitters really IS gold, even if only gold leaf! STILL... brilliantly shiny and pretty... and undoubtedly QUITE expensive! Hence, the necessity of LOTS of sales of chachkas to the devotees!!! 

(These last 3 interior photos were downloaded off of the internet, so you can at least see what it looked like.)

The deities of the main altar: Krishna and his love...Radha, I believe... 

The photo doesn't do it justice, of course. But it gives you some idea of the amount of glittering gold leaf involved in creating this enormous altar!