FAQ's about Krishna Leela Theme Park

1) What is this project about?

ISKCON Krishna Lila Park is a grand-scale project to present and promote the culture and heritage of India in a compelling manner using state-of-the-art technology in a family edutainment format.
This will become yet another important cultural and religious tourism destination in Bangalore city.
In that sense, this is a tourism project of immense significance in Bangalore, and has all the characteristics and societal benefits as any other tourism project.Recognizing the immense tourism potential in this project, The Government of Karnataka has cleared this as a tourism project vide Government proceedings SLSWA meeting dated 19/01/2004 and 30/12/2004.

2) Being a temple why are you involved in tourism projects?

In India, today, it is a well known fact that cultural tourism and religious tourism are the most important tourism sectors. And hence there is a convergence of our interests to preserve and popularize culture and heritage of India and the government’s interest in developing tourism projects which invigorates local economy and creates direct and indirect employment. This project is estimated to create 4000 direct and indirect jobs.

3) What is the objective of this project?

Formerly societies and cultures flourished as independent systems. Hence, in India, we have had distinct cultures of different states or regions manifested in the form of language, music, literature, culinary habits, dress, social customs, etc. But today, we are in the era of globalization. It has changed the nature of cultures and cultural exchange.
Dominant world powers have begun to shape our societies and create a homogenized world culture. It has begun to influence the way people eat, dress, travel and practically very sphere of human activity. Anthropologists warn that this could minimize or wipe out local cultures and traditions. They call this process cultural imperialism. They also call this coco-colonization. We are concerned that this globalization and urbanization does not minimize or wipe out our ancient Indian culture.
In the next few decades, India is poised to witness unprecedented levels of economic growth and urbanization. In the flood of all these developments, we do not want India’s heritage and culture to be eroded.
The purpose of Krishna Lila Park is to present, preserve and promote the cultural heritage of India as described in the ancient Indian classics, to the contemporary society, in an interesting and captivating presentation.
We want to impress on the younger generation about the glorious pastimes of our legendary heroes like Krishna, Rama and Hanuman. Today, our children’s minds are obsessed with Superman, Spiderman and such other characters and legends coming from the West. We want to introduce the great characters of our Indian epics and instill in the minds of our children the deep morality they represent. This is an unprecedented and historical project being attempted for the first time in our country.

4) How do you plan to achieve this?

In today’s society, people, especially children, are exposed to world class entertainment through animation, multi-million dollar Hollywood productions like the Harry Potter films, internet content, Imax films and so on. We have to present Indian classical content also in a manner that matches or exceeds these standards of presentation. We plan to set up the Krishna Lila Park as a family edutainment centre – that will transport the guests to the time and place of the different episodes from the Mahabharata, Bhagavata and Ramayana. The narrative strategy we use is known as technology assisted multi-sensory immersive and experiential story telling. This is the kind of communication strategy that the worlds best Theme Parks like Disney World, EPCOT and Universal Studios use.
Five thousand years ago in Vrindavana, King Indra threatened the Vrajavasis to inundate their village because he was angered with their refusal to perform the yearly puja to him. We recreate this scene with torrential rains, blasts of thunder and lightening, and the consequent flooding of the Yamuna, and give you a real life experience of this dramatic episode. Just when the situation looks hopeless you can actually experience a surge of relief and gratitude to Krishna as He lifts Govardhan Hill and protects His devotees. The Govardhan Lila attraction will give such a realistic experience to the Krishna Lila Park visitors.

5) What is the cost estimate of this project?

The cost estimate is Rs. 350 crores.

6) How do you plan to raise this large amount?

Two of our trusts, India Heritage Foundation & ISKCON Charities have acquired about 42½ acres of land near the rocky hillock allotted by the Government of Karnataka. We plan to develop this 42½ acres of land in to a Indian Heritage Township, and the surpluses generated will be used for setting up the Krishna Lila Park. (See sketch below). The Township will provide unique opportunities for it’s residents due to the proximity of a temple and theme park humming with religious and cultural festivals and activities.

7) What kind of “development” do you wish to take up?

We plan to take up mostly residential development and some commercial development as well.

8) Being a charitable and religious organization, why do you have to take up such real estate projects?

To develop a trust property and generate income to further the objects of the trust is a standard and age-old practice followed by religious and charitable trusts in our country, and in our city. This is not something new. There are hundreds of examples of this kind all over Bangalore city.

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Saint or Psychopath?- HRISHIKESH DAS

PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA, USA (SUN) — I wish to share a poignant request from a disciple of Kirtanananda Swami to pray for her master in his time of need which I received from the New Vrindaban e-mail news feed:

Tuesday, August 09, 2011 6:06 AM: Please post this for those that may want to offer some prayers on Kirtanananda's behalf. Please!!!! --(from a godsister currently living on the outskirts of New Vrindaban)

She included this forwarded message:

Mon, Aug 8, 2011 10:36 PM from India: I wanted to let you know that Srila Bhaktipada's (Kirtanananda's) condition is not good. He has been in intensive care at Jupiter Hospital for 11 days now. Yesterday he was put on a ventilator and is unconscious. A cat scan yesterday revealed some bleeding in the brain.

My comment: Saint or Psychopath?

"Psychopaths are social predators who charm, manipulate, and ruthlessly plow their way through life, leaving a broad trail of broken hearts, shattered expectations, and empty wallets. Completely lacking in conscience and in feelings for others, they selfishly take what they want and do as they please, violating social norms and expectations without the slightest sense of guilt or regret."
-- R.D. Hare (1993) Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of Psychopaths Among Us. New York: Pocket Books.

I once knew a man like this.... but due to my naïveté and gullibility (and sadly I must admit because of my own considerable emotional dysfunctions) I was blinded by his charm and charisma. I didn't figure out his game until many years later, when my eyes were finally opened and I could see who he really was.

I pray for those who are still emotionally attached to this man.

by Hrishikesh dasa (Henry Doktorski)

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Mobiles to track Midday Meal Scheme

By: Vinay Kumar

The central government has finalized plans for monitoring the Midday Meal Scheme that reaches out to 110 million children across the country. According to the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry, this will make the programme more effective and purposeful and will be launched soon.

Midday Meal Scheme is the popular name for the meal programme provided by schools in India. It involves provision of lunch, free of cost to school-children on all working days. The key objectives of the programme is to protect children from classroom hunger, increase school enrollment and attendance, improve socialization among children belonging to all castes, address malnutrition, and social empowerment through provision of employment to women.

In July last year, the state government of Uttar Pradesh (UP) started an innovative system to monitor the scheme. A mobile phone rings between 10 am to noon every day, in 1.5lakhs government schools in UP; on the other end of the line is a computer-generated voice asking if the mid-day meal in the school has been cooked and the number of children served. The teacher in charge of the meal distribution gives the information through an ordinary mobile phone through a message.

The information is gathered through an interactive voice response system (IVRS) by the computer and automatically recorded on the website of the UP Mid-day Meal Authority. If the meal has not been served in a school, officials can call up, find out the reason, and take corrective action. Officials who have access to the system can check the data anytime.

“The system has the capacity to send and receive data from 10,000 schools concurrently, This has helped us to get data from the entire state ready within two hours,” says Pallav Pandey, Chief Operating Officer and Co-Founder of Knowlarity.

Impressed by the success of this project in UP, the Central Government will now deploy the mechanism nation-wide. The National Informatics Center (NIC) has already developed an IVRS that will be used across other states in the country.

According to the HRD ministry, a monitoring system was necessary as the present manual supervision systems were not effective in the remote, backward areas of the country. The new tool will ensure that people responsible for running the scheme do not stop the distribution of meals at their whim. In addition, it will also help to track supplies and whether they are reaching a school or not.

The Central Government has allocated Rs.10, 380 crores for the programme.

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Dayaram Das – Badshah of intimidation and Grandsire of deception

Dayaram Das, The Evil Joker

Dayaram Das has a few accomplishments under his belt, which he can be proud of. He is the President of ISKCON Kolkata and he heads the legal team of the ISKCON gurus in their fight against Prabhupadanugas in ISKCON Bangalore. However, there are some controversies he has been entangled in.

1.     On November 16, 1999, a devotee, Madhav Krishna Das, was found hanging from the ceiling of his room in ISKCON, Mayapur. It is alleged by devotees who claim to be eye witnesses, that he was tortured and beaten up by Dayaram Das for some minor offense and was made to give a confession letter in duress. In the course of his torture, he was killed. The whole incident was made to appear like a suicide. Many questions were raised about this but all of them went unanswered.

2.     On June 29, 2000, Sureshwar Das, a devotee of ISKCON Kolkata was framed in a rape case and sent to jail. Distressed at the trumped up charges, Sureshwar Das took an extreme step. On August 3, 2000, Sureshwar Das got up early in the morning, finished his chanting and then hung himself with his clothes from the ceiling of his prison cell, leaving behind a note that he was innocent. He had been left with no alternative to prove his innocence to the world. The frame is alleged to have been masterminded by Dayaram Das at the behest of his guru, Jayapataka Swami and the GBC, ISKCON’s highest management body. Sureshwar Das, made a damning entry in his dairy before his suicide, naming 8 people for framing him – Jayapataka Swami, Dayaram Das, Satadhanya Das, Bhadracharan Das, Birchandra Das, Krishnalata Das, Basanti Das and Subrabhrata Das.

3.     Dayaram led the planned physical assault on ISKCON Kolkata on Friday, 27^th April, 2001 with about 150 dubious characters dressed as devotees. 72 of them were arrested on charges of unlawful assembly, rioting and assault and had to spend time in the local prison. This was the outcome of the GBC giving a free hand to Dayaram Das to use all unlawful and intimidatory tactics to overtake the Kolkata temple from the devotees there who had declared their refusal to accept the ISKCON self appointed gurus. Dayaram subsequently managed to oust all the devotees from the temple. As a reward, the GBC made him President of ISKCON Kolkata – though he spends practically no time there, being busy handling his multimillion real estate business in Mayapur and various other business like selling Krishna dolls, apart from leading the smear campaign against ISKCON Bangalore in Bangalore.

4.     On Saturday, 13 Oct 2001, Babu Ghoshe, a security guard of ISKCON Mayapur was killed when he and his cohorts which included one ISKCON devotee, Amit Das, were making crude bombs in the Mayapur Chandrodaya Mandir premises. The police recovered four fresh bombs and arrested a few people – all purportedly “security” staff of ISKCON Mayapur. It is alleged that Dayaram Das masterminded the making of the bombs to attack ISKCON temples who stood up against the ISKCON gurus – ISKCON Bangalore being one of them. However, the full story may never be known now, as Dayaram Das is reputed to cover his tracks well.

5.     Dayaram das also masterminded a frame up of Madhu Pandit Prabhu in a rape case similar to that of Sureshwar Das’s. The diabolical plot also involved abducting Madhu Pandit Prabhu after the frame up to some God forsaken place in Uttar Pradesh (known for nefarious criminal activities) and have him beaten up and having all the bones in his body broken. However, his plan failed and he could not enforce his plan as the devotee who was acting as his henchman realized his folly in being part of such a heinous crime against a Vaishnava of good standing and pulled out. Dayaram Das subsequently tried to exhort this devotee to again pull off the crime, but the only result was that he was beaten black and blue by the wife of this devotee with her slippers for trying to brainwash her husband into such an abominable crime and vaishnava aparadha.

6.     One of Dayaram’s henchmen was apprehended on 28^th April 2008 at the Delhi airport with Rs 6 million in cash. Dayaram Das managed to cook up his accounts with the help of a disciple of Radhanath Swami in the West and managed to get the money released. Grapevine has it that this money was meant to be used for some under hand dealing to, again, frame Madhu Pandit Prabhu in a Supreme Court case, though again, the full truth may never be known.

7.     Dayaram Das’s shenanigans in the Bangalore media are well known, the latest being recruiting a professional blackmailer to fabricate audio clips to make it look like the devotees of ISKCON Bangalore are involved in financial impropriety. The result is that the matter was reported by ISKCON Bangalore to the local police, who in turn, have handed it over to the CID for investigation. This has proved to be a set back for Dayaram Das, since Varada Krishna’s and his involvement is reported to be under investigation by the CID and he is sitting on a hot seat now. However, it is rumored that Dayaram Das will most probably make Varada Krishna the scape goat when the case becomes too hot and he will make a silent escape.

The latest in Dayaram Das’s brimming cup of achievements is the “Bangalore Correspondent” pseudonym – a title he has assumed so that his insane rantings and wild mud slinging at Madhu Pandit Prabhu cannot be taken up for legal action. Coming from a person of such dubious character, it is indeed, surprising that there are people out there in the world of internet to support him by publishing his treacherous words of trickery and deceit. After all, Dayaram Das is the Badshah of intimidation and Grandsire of deception.

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Lets give India’s corruption money to AKSHAYA PATRA- RASHEEDA BHAGAT

 RASHEEDA BHAGAT

The rate at which mega scams are tumbling out of this Government’s cupboard and the humungous amounts that are being systematically sucked out of the public exchequer, prove one thing. Surely, we cannot be a poor country. How can a country that can drain thousands of crores of rupees in a telecom scam here, a Commonwealth Games (CWG) scandal there, through a huge mining disgrace in Karnataka, and a hundred other instances of swindling, cheating and rip-offs across various States, be called a “poor” country?
 

The Adarsh Housing Society scam in Mumbai, horrendous land grabs in Tamil Nadu, the mining scam in Karnataka, which got the scalp of Mr B. S. Yeddyurappa, the allocation of 20 acres of prime land in Bhopal by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan to the Kushabhau Thakre Training Institute Trust on a Rs 1 a year lease six months before the trust had been formed, or grant of 5-acre land in Chandigarh by the Hooda Government to the Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust at a throwaway rate…. Such scams are crawling out of every nook and corner of the country.

The latest CAG report points out that the CWG ending up costing 15 times more at Rs 18,532 crore, compared with the originally estimated Rs 1,200 crore in 2003. The report highlights giving contracts to ineligible firms, the involvement of the Delhi CM’s office and, in some cases, the “active involvement of the CM” herself, in purchasing products and equipment at highly inflated rates. All this has sullied even more the already tainted image of the Congress Party that leads the UPA.

The Delhi Chief Minister, Ms Sheila Dixit, has a lot of explaining to do.

What this money could do

Now, let’s switch from murky dealings to an organisation like the Bangalore headquartered Akshaya Patra Foundation, which feeds a whopping 1.3 million school children in nearly 8,200 schools in India. Did you know that if you donate only Rs 525, it can feed one child with a nutritious noon meal for an entire year? That is, because, as its Web site points out, 89 paise from every rupee donated to it, goes towards feeding a child. And, research has established that a child who has had a decent meal can imbibe much more learning from a classroom than one with an empty belly. Now, coming to education — a crucial factor that will make a difference between whether we tread the path of development and growth and become a great nation or fall by the wayside — the annual cost of educating a child in India, through donation to the Worldvision is Rs 7,200. If you take the average of the services offered by other organisations, this amount is around Rs 6,000. This is for education of decent quality.

Sarva SHiksha Abhiyan

Let’s take the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan programme, aimed at the enrolment and retention of every Indian child till the upper primary level. Budget 2011-12 allocated Rs 21,000 crore, a 40 per cent hike over the previous year, for this laudable project, which also seeks to narrow the gender and communal gap in school enrolment.

But with such scams rocking the country, and the public image of politicians, and by implication and some evidence, even the bureaucrats, at its nadir, how can anybody believe that huge chunks of it will not be siphoned away?

Coming to India’s pathetic rank of 119 on the Human Development Index, in a recent address to the Ahmedabad University, Infosys’ Chief Mentor N. R. Narayana Murthy blamed Indians for the pathetic state of affairs and our failure to take “proactive action, even when the solution to our problem is staring us in the face for a long time…. We have political freedom but we still do not have freedom from hunger, illiteracy and disease”. It was a shame that about 250 million people did not have access to basic medical care, and around 350 million to safe drinking water, he said.

Dim view of India

With such a terrible HDI rank, it is little wonder that the rest of the world doesn’t think we are making great strides, despite our frequent pats on our own backs. A British minister’s suggestion to move some call-center jobs from Newcastle to Mumbai evoked the fury of not only the Labour party and British union leaders, but also the general public.

Her suggestion in an article titled “Concerned about losing your job in Newcastle? Just move to Mumbai”, and published in the British daily The Independent, attracted not only angry, but also abusive comments, about India.

The attempt by an “Indian patriot” to defend his country got this contemptuous response: “He is deluded. There is no such country as India; just a group of very different States, all of whom resent being part of India and whose corrupt local politicians would just as soon leave. These kind of sad Indians are not uncommon but are a waste of time, waiting as they are for another call to answer!”

Another comment talked about the “abject poverty and disease, the rats and the flies, and being hounded by beggars and tainted food.”. A particularly stinging one read: “For idiot (British) ministers who don’t do their homework, Google ‘poverty, India and unemployment’.”

If this is India’s image in a country like the UK, who is mainly responsible? And what about our own ministers, more corrupt than idiot? More and more Indians are increasingly losing faith in our ruling politicians.

The crucial question is — what degree of exceeding shamelessness resides in the DNA of our politicians, prompting them to loot hundreds of thousands of rupees meant for the development of India and Indians? By their corrupt acts, are they not snatching morsels from the mouths of hungry, malnourished children, and denying a lifeline called education to millions of others? For how long are we going to tolerate them?

By their corrupt acts, politicians are snatching morsels from the mouths of hungry, malnourished children, and denying a lifeline called education to millions of others. For how long are we going to tolerate this shamelessness?

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Thy will be done!

In 1965, when Srila Prabhupada, the founder of the Hare Krishna Movement, made his now historic journey to the West on the steamer Jaladhuta, all he had with him was a crate of Srimad-Bhagavatams, a pair of hand cymbals and seven dollars.

He suffered from severe bouts of seasickness and cardiac trouble when the ship went through heavy storms for two consecutive nights. At age 69, Prabhupada knew these could prove fatal. But on the third night, he dreamt that the Blue Lord Himself was rowing the ship to America, urging him on, and offering him all protection.

The next day, the storms and palpitations subsided. When the ship docked in New York City, he wondered how he would make westerners understand the message of Krishna Consciousness. So he wrote a letter to the Lord from his cabin.

"...I'm very unfortunate, unqualified, and most fallen, Therefore, I am seeking Your benediction so I can convince them, for I am powerless to do so on my own." The rest, as they say, is history.

In the next 12 years, from his arrival in New York until his final days in 1977, Srila Prabhupada was to circle the globe 14 times on lecture tours that took him to six continents.

He founded the religious colony of New Vrindavan in West Virginia, and he watched his movement grow to a confederation of more than 108 temples, various institutes and farm communities and he also found time to write more than 80 books!

His message was seemingly simple: "Don't fight with adversity. Just practice Krishna Consciousness sincerely; all discords will disappear by themselves."

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I want a CBI enquiry- V L Varadarajan

By: 

V L Varadarajan, former statutory auditor of ISKCON Bangalore, clarifies on ICAI report.

Bangalore, Aug 14^th 2001.

Sri Doyarama Dasa of ISKCON Mumbai had filed a complaint against VL Varadarajan in ICAI- Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. In his complaint he alleged that VLV was guilty of misconduct on various technical grounds. The disciplinary committee of the ICAI was slated to submit its report to the council, but unfortunately Director of the Disciplinary committee, Smt Vandana Nagpal illegally gave a copy of the report to Sri Dayaram Das the complainant. Dayaram Das gave a press conference giving his own purports to the report and giving a total negative spin on the report. The same was carried in many media few weeks back. Few days back Sri VL Varadarajan conducted a press conference clarifying the contents of the report. Bangalore News Network a prominent web portal of the city interviewed VLV.

Click on the following video

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Jhulan Utsav 2011- ISKCON Bangalore

Jhulan Utsava celebration at Iskcon Bangalore for the transcendetal pleasure of Their Lordships Sri Sri Radha Krishna-chandra.

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