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July 21, 2001 VNN6837 Comment on this story
Thousands Gather For The Dedication Of The Krishna Temple
BY CARU DAS
 SPANISH FORK, UTAH, Jul 21 (VNN) — After ten years of planning and three years of construction, the ISKCON Radha Krishna temple in Spanish Fork, Utah, opened its doors on Saturday June 23. Though many decorative domes and arches are yet to be added, the building officially received the first members of the public with dedicatory rituals, entertainment and vegeterian cuisine. By the end of the day, an estimated 5,000 visitors had toured the temple in a mood of awe and wonder.
Utah Republican Senator Orrin Hatch was the Chief Guest.
"I am so proud of the people who have spent their time to work on this beautiful edifice, who have dug into their pockets to pay for it,"said Senator Hatch. "I am so grateful for people of deep devotion and deep belief-and I've got to tell you, you have to look long and hard for people to be the equal of the Krishna people. I am just asking everybody in Utah to treat this place with tremendous respect. It is a place of refined spirutality. I hope all of us will always revere this temple and revere the people who worship here".
 Key to the construction of the temple was the help of hundreds of Mormon volunteers in an exemplary display of interfaith cooperation and the generous donations by the Indian and local communities including a gift of $25,000 from the LDS (Mormon) Foundation.
Installed were the deities of Radha Krishna, Sita Ram Laksmana, Hanuman, and Chaitanya Nityananda. Many Indian families traveled from California, Idaho, Colorado, Nevada, and New Mexico to participate as yajamanas (sponsors) at this historic event.
Roshan Khandpur of Los Angeles, a temple trustee and donor of the deities, altar and doors, shared the duties of yajamana with Gopal Bhatta, Los Angeles based businessman, and Salt Lake City residents Dinesh and Kalpana Patel. Other temple trustees who participated in the fire sacrifice and the abhishek were Asim and Sujata Mukherjee, Yogesh and Pragna Shah, Jai Krishna Das, and Vaibhavi Devi, temple Presidentand designer of the building.
"This is one of the most magnificent temples which have been built in this country. It will not only serve the needs of the Hindu community, but also educate non Hindus about Hindu beliefs", said Dr Dinesh Patel." We've spent about $800,000 on the building thus far, and hope to raise the final $400,000 to complete the final arches and domes within a year".
Anuttama Dasa, the director of North American Communications for ISKCON said the temple opening signfies religious tolerance ."It just demonstrates that America is a religiously pluralistic society," he said."That says a lot about the people of Utah in particular".
For more information, call (801)798-3559/787-1510
Visit our web site at http://www.iskcon.net/utah.
Please note our new email address is carudas@earthlink.net.
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