Krishna Temple of North Carolina

The first meeting to construct the new Krishna temple was held on May 15th at ISKCON, Hillsborough, NC.

The following devotees/people attended the meeting.

• His Holiness - Bir Krshna das Goswami (Chair - Meeting)
• Daya-vir das
• Krishnapriya dasi
• Golokananda Priya dasi
• Omkara das & Jadurani dasi
• Hrishikesh das
• Jagannath dasa
• Gopal das
• das_amsu
• Vikram Khatri
• Anjali Khatri (Secretary - Meeting)

His Holiness Bir Krshna das Goswami opened the meeting and laid out the plan/vision for the new temple as per following details.

• Iskcon has 8 acres of land across the street for the construction of new temple.
• It is the Iskcon mandate to not to borrow any money from any financial institutions for the construction of the temple.
• This is the ripe time to start the planning, construction of the new temple.
• We need to build a nice facility to serve Sri Sri Radha Golokananda and more people with more space.
• We need to serve lot of prasadam (delicious spiritual food) to the people.
• We need main temple room to be big enough to accomodate 800 people. The current temple room size is approximately 700 sq. ft. and we need a minimum of 2500 sq. ft. of main temple hall.
• Of course, our temple plan has to be approved by North Carolina and follow all the rules and regulations.
• The new temple design is being influenced by the temple constructed in New Zealand. The temple in New Zealand is one of the unique temples in the world with striking features and marvelous paintings on the walls and roof.
• The main temple building will not have any residential accomodations to keep the temple atmosphere pure and serene. This is the tradition of ancient temples built in India.
• In order to secure the temple, there will be professional security system installed in the new temple.
• The initial seed money to get temple planning done in a professional manner was estimated to be $100,000. The experience of devotees who have helped build other temples in United States and Canada were taken into consideration to arrive at the initial cost.
• The SKY IS THE LIMIT when it comes to the cost of the temple.
• We went for a conservative estimate of $4,000,000 to be the initial cost of the temple.
• During festivals, tents etc. will be used to accomodate large gatherings.
• The operation and maintenance cost of the temple will be put under the trust fund with a seed money of 2% of the replacement cost of the temple after temple is constructed.

After laying out the vision and plan for the new temple, the discussion was opened as how to proceed further with planning for the new temple. The following points emerged out of the discussion.

• Temple has zero dollars in the bank as of today to even start planning for the new temple.
• It will take 9 -12 months to get all the approvals with detailed drawings before we could start the construction. It may take 3 months to get the site plan completed. We might need another 9 months to get all the detailed drawings and permit to begin the temple construction.
• We need an initial investment of $100,000 to reach the stage of starting the actual construction.
• Out of $100,000, we need an immediate of $25,000 to start the site plan with survey work to submit the proposal to City Government to initiate the permit process including sewerage system.
• If we ask City Goverment to provide sewerage system, we might need a provision for $400-$500,000. We also have to evaluate the best saving option to get sewerage system.

After discussing the initial phase of the temple planning, the fund raising was discussed.

• Vikram pledged an initial investment of $10,000 so the immediate work on site plan could begin.
• Gopal das pledged $1000 to the initial seed money.
• Daya-vir dasa also pledged $1000 to the initial seed money.
• The 12% of the target seed money was achieved. Other devotees also promised to come up with their pledged amount very soon.

It was also decided that we will seek help from local devotees and patrons for an initial seed money to push the temple planning phase in full speed. There are many devotees and patrons locally who are very attached to Sri Sri Radha Golokananda and will go at any length to contribute their share.

To raise the money for the construction of the temple, the detailed planning will be undertaken as we go forward. We are still not sure as to how we will go forward but Sri Sri Radha Golakanada will show us the way.

The second meeting is scheduled to be held on June 24th, 2006 at 10:30AM. The venue will be decided later.

All glories to His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada.