TV News Piece on Prabhupada's Palace of Gold

They took to the streets of American cities in 1966. You've seen them on corners dancing and chanting Hare Krishna or peddling their literature in airports. But here you see them at home among the hills of West Virginia at their community called New Vrindavan, working earnestly on a project they began seven years ago, Prabhupada's Palace of Gold. Its glistening golden dome tops thousands of square feet of 22-karat gold and copper leaf.

The palace interior is elaborately decorated with blue and white marble walls inlaid with black onyx from Iran. From the hand-painted ceilings hang crystal chandeliers from Czechoslovakia, and it's all surrounded by multicolored stained glass windows and hand-carved teakwood doors. The cost of building a temple like this? Nearly $10 million.

Surprisingly, it only cost the Hare Krishna community $500,000 because it was built entirely by Hare Krishna devotees even more amazing is that the laborers were totally unskilled and mastered their talents only by trial and error first we have to varnish this background and then we put on this sizing it's type of varnish with mixed with linseed oil then we apply the copper and then after the coppers on we put two more coats of varnish over it to protect it. Now the gold you don't have to varnish. The gold is so strong and it's guaranteed to last over 60 years through any kind of weather. The work has been tedious and time consuming but the devotees haven't given up because according to the community's spiritual leader, his divine grace Swami Bhakti Pod, they don't consider it as work.

Well not work at all. Work is something you're paid for. And no one is paid. So it's a label of love.

And the real inspiration comes from our spiritual master, his divine grace, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Kaurav, for whom we built this. Because he has given us something that is so wonderful, we're all inspired to try and do something wonderful in turn. It is a place of worship.

Of course, we are honoring our spiritual master. But this is not that we're honoring a man or that we're worshiping a man. He is the representative of God, or he is the pure devotee of God. He is teaching us about love of God.

Therefore, we are very grateful. The way in which the Hare Krishnas express gratitude to their deceased spiritual master is by sharing this knowledge of God with others through spiritual education. The problem in the world is that people have forgotten God. God is our dear most friend, And as soon as we remember him, our life becomes perfect.

So we wanted to find some very pleasant way to remind people about the goodness of God, the greatness of God, the grandeur of God, the beauty of God. And we couldn't think of a better way to do it than to try and do this. If the palace doesn't attract enough curiosity seekers, the unusual lifestyle of the devotees surely will. Their shaven heads, saffron robes, vegetarian diet, and dancing and chanting of Hare Krishna seem strange, but it's all a part of their Indian culture.

Dolores Hive is a neighbor of the Hare Krishna community who has brought several of her friends to tour the temple. Well, first, people are apprehensive about coming. I've lived in this area for about 20 years, and I was here when Bhakti Prad first came. And, you know, you hear all kinds of stories and everything, but I really wasn't aware of the temple until I went looking for my children one day and I rounded the turn and there was the palace.

It takes everybody by surprise, I think, when you see it. Do you ever have any fears or doubts that you could bring someone up here and that they would be coerced into doing something, joining this community if they didn't want to? No, I live on a main road, and I have to say that I'm more fearful of the people that live near me than I am of the Krishnas. Whatever tourist attitudes are towards the Hare Krishna movement, they certainly can't deny the perseverance of its talented devotees, symbolized by this architectural miracle.

And they've only begun. The far-range plan is to construct a religious theme park called Krishna Land. This Disney type resort will include seven more temples, the first of which will be ten times the size of Prabhupada's palace, as well as a cultural museum, vegetarian restaurant, and a series of formal gardens, some of which have already been completed. What about the future?

Well, we hope it's a very exciting place and we hope it's a very spiritual place, a place that one can come and they will enjoy their visit, but at the same time they'll take away some real knowledge. How far away have people come from to visit you here? From all over the world. Really?

Just today someone came from Kentucky. Last week someone came from North Carolina. Texas last week. They're coming from all over.

What is their initial feeling when they come up here? The most common comment when they come up the stairs is, Oh, I feel like I'm in heaven. Why West Virginia? Why did you bring your community here?

West Virginia is almost heaven, but this is heaven. We'll be back in a moment with a look at the PM Magazine departments.