Krishna Temple

– We're here at a place thatyou may have wondered about if you've ever driven pastthis area in Utah County. The Sri Sri Radha KrishnaTemple is a place of worship, a place of learning, and a place of celebration built in the style of Hindu kings. – We came here in the 80sto buy the radio station. We had no plans tobuild any temples or to get a congregationor any of those things.

Krishna had his plan. (gentle music) We came because my husbandwas doing broadcasting in California. He felt at the time, it'stime to leave California. Let's go and buya radio station. – Welcome to 1480 KHQN, a Krishna stationfor the Utah Valley. This is Caru Das.

– So I thought, well, I'lldo something outrageous. We can never build it, but I'll make something far out, and it'll helpbring in some funds. This is the firstelevation print, which gave us an ideaof what we would build. I made an announcement at our little Sundaygathering that we had, you know, in the futurewe wanna build a temple.

On top of the hill. And then of course, it went right intoBYU's “Daily Universe,” Krishna's buildingtemple in Utah County. And then all the TV stations and radio stations andnewspapers were here. And we thought, okay, if theywant us to build a temple, we'll build a temple. And we started broadcasting,.

And people started listening, and they started coming. And here we are now. (gentle music continues) The rest is history. (gentle music continues) (people cheering)(upbeat music) – We started the FestivalColors, I think, in 1995. Just an excuse to have funand chant Hare Krishna.

And it's 20,000people over two days. We did have a line out the road and going down State Road, a half a mile long, people waiting to get in. They don't know necessarilythe inner significance of it or the seriousness of it to us. They just have a good time. It purifies them onsome subconscious level.

I think God just wanted to kindof play a joke on all of us and do what wewould least expect, is to establish awonderful, world-class, Hare Krishna temple in the area. It's 90% another religion. I can't say that of any otherKrishna temple in the world. (upbeat music)(people cheering) – It's the way it's presented. It's not an alien culture.

It's just a basic belief incaring and love and devotion. (calming music) If we understand who weare, that we're the soul, then we see otherpeople as souls, then we see equally. You can't say he'sBlack, he's white, he's Indian, he'sMuslim, he's Hindu. They're not. They have a body whichhas adapted to the culture.

And the environment thatthey're brought up in, but essentially,they're all equal souls. – Cultural nuances arenot that significant when you start with who you are. I don't identify as aHindu or as Hare Krishna. I identify myselfas a servant of God. (calming music continues) – If you understand this, you understand awhole way of life.

(calming music continues) I think I'll hold yourarm at this point. I've, fortunately,got a good husband. We've been married 51 years. So marriage to us is sacred. – God plans out things, that two people whocompliment each other with their talents and abilities would somehowor other come to Utah.

Where there's nodevotees, no resources, and because of thechemistry between them two, bring something out of nothing. She's down-to-earth,she's practical. During the Hindumarriage ceremony, the priest says, “Theman is the heaven, and the woman is the Earth.” 'Cause the men, themen are just guided. That means they'realways in the clouds.

They're always got thesecrazy, impractical schemes. But you need to runit past the woman 'cause she actuallyknows what's gonna work and what's not gonna work. You know, when we're buildingthis temple from 1998 to 2001, there was a point at whichthese all had to be painted and mounted, and she did all of that. She painted allthese pictures here,.

And she carved the figuresthat you see in the dome. And she installedeverything 21 years ago. She'd spent, like, whole daysup there on the scaffolding. (gentle music) – So I went to the LondonSchool of Fine Arts. Then I went travelingaround the world, and that's where I cameacross spiritual life, became a Krishna devotee. And immediately now, Ihad a sense of purpose.

Now I know what to paint. Krishna, it means the mostattractive form of God. So one of the things I dowhen I have time is paintings for the temples. So this painting inthe background here, it tells the story of Krishnadancing with the peacocks. Whenever you seeany of the forms of the differentincarnations of God, Krishna always hasa peacock feather.

You can tell him by that. (gentle music continues)(peacocks squawking) – And there wasn't asingle period of time when we had to stop construction or even slow it downfor lack of funds. Don't ask me how it happened. It was totally mystical. – Mormon stakes, the wards came and helped.

They bring a hundred kids over to help tie rebar, and BYU students and so on. And that way the temple went up for a very minimum costwith everyone's input. – Hare Krishna. (bird squawks) (bird whistles) – This property, weare trying to show.

That you can live inharmony with nature. (gentle music) Yeah, sometimes people do ask, (bird chirps)(lock clinks) why do you have these animals, you're a temple? As far as we're concerned, it's a way of life. It's not,.

Going to the church or the temple is notsomething you do on a Sunday for an hour, and then youlive a different life. It's 24 hours, a way of life, which is respect for life, respect for nature, respectfor all living beings. Darling. Most places, you go to thepond and the fish run away. Our fish come.

(water flowing) The water goes by siphon down to the gardens. So we water themwith fish water. We're growing all kind ofamazing organic produce for two reasons, the fish water andthe llama coop. So we're putting organicsback into the sand. We're creating soil.

About a month from now, it'll be just all really high. And then we gotta pick it all, and then we're gonnachop it all up, and then we'regonna cook it all. (gentle music) It was the atmosphere ofthe temple that counts. It has to be very open, liberating,.

A lot of windows, very light, heavenly. Everyone can come. Everyone's welcome. – We just had aIndian family going through all the National Parks, and they saw our billboard onthe freeway, Krishna Temple. He said, “This is thelast thing we expected. How did you get here?”.

And I say, well,you know Krishna he has that look in his eye that says he loves nothingmore than a good prank, and so, we're here becauseGod has a sense of humor. (gentle music continues)

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