GUNTUR: The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (Iskcon) is going to construct a unique golden Lord Butter Krishna temple near Kondaveedu Fort of Guntur district with a fund of Rs 500 crore. This is the first of its kind of a golden temple in south India.
The surroundings of the temple will host pavilions for different attractions from Mahabharata and Ramayana.
The temple complex will also house an international school, a medical centre, a religious theme park, a museum with the history of Kondaveedu, a vedic school and a cow protection centre.
A rare idol of young Krishna, locally called as Venna Mudda Gopaludu, was found during the excavations at the historical and ancient Kondaveedu fort in 1998 and it inspired Iskcon to construct a golden butter Krishna temple at Kondaveedu.
According to the Kondaveedu development society convener K. Siva Reddy, the discovered butter Krishna idol belongs to 13th century. It was sculpted during King Sri Krishna Devaraya and this golden temple is going to revive the religious cultural heritage of Kondaveedu.
Iskcon south India president and trustee of golden temple project, Satyagopinath Das said that the Iskcon planned to promote spiritual heritage, hence started Iskcon-Kondaveedu Spiritual Heritage Revival Project (IKSHR). It will create a comprehensive spiritual tourist attraction zone in 150 acres of land, he added.
He said that the project would be completed in three phases and already the Gosala (cow protection center) and a cow university have been started at Kondaveedu.
He said that Iskcon sought 58 acres of land, but the government has allotted only 21 acres of lands.
Hence, they are waiting for the allotment of land to start the temple project. The golden temple will have gold-plated sanctum sanctorum.
