If you believe in what you are doing, you can overcome any obstacles. You may feel disheartened sometimes, but remember that faith will move mountains.
Undeterred by many hurdles that came in the way, the devotees of Lord Krishna in this remote city of Vladivostok in far away eastern corner of Russia established an ISKCON temple to worship their Maker.
Vladivostok is a port city not far from Russia’s borders with China and North Korea. The region was long under Chinese rule, but Russia acquired it through the Treaty of Beijing in 1860.
The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), also known as the Hare Krishna movement, is a Hindu religious organisation that focuses on practising bhakti-yoga. The movement was founded in New York City in 1966 by His Divine Grace A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.
ISKCON has set up centres across Russia, and the movement gained momentum in Vladivostok as well, with over 85 initiated devotees in the area today.
The first centre was in a rented building. As the community grew, the devotees had to relocate. They found a disused building. After all legal formalities, they moved in, refurbished the building and transformed it into an ideal centre. But the local government wanted the property back, so the devotees had to relocate again. As spiralling property prices made things difficult, they decided to build a temple. They formed a committee and started raising money. A major source was the devotee-run restaurant Ganga, which has gained the respect of the local people over the years. Baked samosas filled with cheese or fruit jams are a favourite with customers. As many as 14,000 samosas have been sold in one day.
Another bountiful contributor was Krsna Kesava Dasa, a devotee since 2000. He has a window-framing business and donated a major chunk of his profits for the cause. Besides, he daily supplies his staff with lunch boxes of prasadam from Ganga.
The idea of building the temple started taking shape in 2011. The head of the construction team was Dvarakadhisa Dasa, a young Russian who soon found it an uphill task.
With not much money in hand, Russian climate only added to the woes. The land is on a steep slope overlooking the bay. The contractors said it was impossible to lay the foundation for the temple. But Dvarakadhisa Dasa didn’t give up hope and kept trying till he was able to get the basic structure up. The devotees too chipped in with their mite. They showed their technical skills by building a goods elevator running from the warehouse in the basement to the kitchen on the second floor and on to the pujari and deity rooms on the third floor. This helped in bringing down the building expenses significantly.
Incidentally, Vladivostok hosted the Asia-Pacific Economic Conference (APEC) summit in 2012 and that made things more difficult, as the Russian government tried to spruce up the city to make the event a grand success. A new airport, new roads and bridges, new hotels, and a new university were all under construction. Consequently, the prices of building materials shot up and the traffic became even more intolerable.
The devotees had been holding daily programmes at Ganga, with morning and evening classes. They had rented an apartment to continue the deity worship, and they had to find their own accommodations.
The devotees chant in public places throughout the year. The chanting party is led by Candrabhanu Dasa, who served as the temple’s head cook before becoming the current head cook for the Ganga restaurant.
Finally, the devotees got the reward of their unflinching faith. The construction of the temple was completed (at a cost of over a million dollars) and the opening took place in November 2014.
The number of devotees in this far-eastern Russian city is increasing day by day and it is to their credit that they could build the temple despite the hardships and obstacles along the way.
(Reference: http://btg.krishna.com/iskcon-vladivostok-where-krishna-reigns-russia%E2%80%99s-far-east)
