Alfred Ford, the great-grandson of iconic industrialist Henry Ford, was in Hyderabad on Sunday to urge devotees at International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) to support construction of Temple of Vedic Planetarium (TOVP) at Mayapur in West Bengal. He is also the chairman of TOVP, a project of ISKCON.
Addressing media at ISKCON, Secunderabad, he said this was his first trip to Hyderabad and he shared details on fund donation for the project. He added that it is their mission to inform people about the Vedic Planetarium and Lord Chaitanya.
“The total cost of the project is close to US $100 million. We have collected US $60 million so far. We are going around the world appealing to devotees, and people who may not be necessary be members of ISKCON but are interested in Vedic culture and spiritual life. So, we met many wealthy businessmen in California who are interested in helping us,” Mr Ford said.
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Director of Development-TOVP, Braja Vila Das said it was the largest Vedic temple in the world whose sanctum sanctorum alone was spread over 1.5 acres where 10,000 devotees could stand and do keerthana. “This temple has largest dome in world, which is 177 feet in diameter. The chakra on top of the dome is 23 feet in diameter, and gold plated,” Mr Das said.
On the occasion, special abhisekam ceremony of padukas of Lord Balaram (Nityananda) was performed. The padukas were flown in from Sri Mayapur, the world headquarters of ISKCON.