ABOUT US | ISKCON Makati

Sri Sri Radha Madhava Mandir, ISKCON Makati

ISKCON Sri Sri Radha Madhava Mandir was opened on August 17, 2006 during Srila Prabhupada’s Vyasa Puja festival.

ISKCON Sri Sri Radha Madhava Mandir is part of the ISKCON group and has a two storey Filipino-style house.

Originally designed as a protestant church, it was renovated to include an altar for Sri Sri Radha Madhava, as well as two kitchens — one for the deities, and the other for the devotees and locally run Food For Life program. With 17 residents currently and visitors ranging from 70-80 people during a normal week, the ISKCON temple is popular amongst travelers.

The temple is located at 9105 Banuyo Street, San Antonio Village, Makati City, Metro Manila, Philippines.

It is two streets away from the residence of Philippines Vice President Jejomar Binay, and located on the same street as the house of his son, Makati Mayor Junjun Binay.

The story of ISKCON’s temple in Makati City—one of the seventeen cities comprising the Manila metropolitan area of the Philippines—begins with head pujari Baladeva Dasa and temple administrator Radha Lila Dasi having a dream to invite Sri Sri Radha-Madhava to Makati city.

In early 2006, the two received the blessings of Philippines Governing Body Commisioner Giridhari Swami to establish a permanent temple in the Manila area—a dream that had also long been cherished by the late Tamal Krishna Goswami.

With the advice of Jananivasa and Pankajanghri, the head priests at Sri Sri Radha-Madhava’s original home in Mayapur, India, Baladeva Dasa approached the same sculptor in Jaipur who had carved Mayapur’s presiding Deities. Soon, their namesakes, Sri Sri Radha-Madhava, appeared from black and pure white marble respectively.

OUR VISION

ISKCON is to create a society based on spiritual values, where people can live in harmony with each other and with nature. The organization aims to provide spiritual education and guidance to people from all walks of life, regardless of their background or beliefs. ISKCON envisions a world where people understand their true spiritual identity and live a life of devotion and service to God. The organization also engages in various humanitarian and environmental projects to help alleviate suffering and promote sustainable living. Ultimately, ISKCON's vision is to create a peaceful and prosperous world where all living beings can thrive and reach their full potential.

OUR MISSION

Srila Prabhupada founded ISKCON in July of 1966. The incorporation document states Seven Purposes of ISKCON:

To systematically propagate spiritual knowledge to society at large and to educate all peoples in the techniques of spiritual life in order to check the imbalance of values in life and to achieve real unity and peace in the world.
To propagate a consciousness of Krishna as it is revealed in the Bhagavad-gita and Srimad Bhagavatam.
To bring the members of the Society together with each other and nearer to Krishna, the prime entity, and thus to develop the idea, within the members, and humanity, at large, that each soul is part and parcel of the quality of Godhead (Krishna).
To teach and encourage the Sankirtan movement of congregational chanting of the holy name of God as revealed in the teachings of Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.
To erect for the members, and for society at large, a holy place of transcendental pastimes, dedicated to the personality of Krishna.
To bring the members closer together for the purpose of teaching a simpler and more natural way of life.
With a view towards achieving the aforementioned purposes, to publish and distribute periodicals, magazines, books and other writings.

OUR COMMUNITY

The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), otherwise known as the Hare Krishna movement, includes five hundred major centers, temples and rural communities, nearly one hundred affilated vegetarian restaurants, thousands of namahattas or local meeting groups, a wide variety of community projects, and millions of congregational members worldwide. Although less than fifty years on the global stage, ISKCON has expanded widely since its founding by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda in New York City in 1966

Srila Prabhupada

His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (1896-1977) is widely regarded as the foremost Vedic scholar, translator, and teacher of the modern era. He is especially respected as the world’s most prominent contemporary authority on bhakti-yoga, devotional service to the Supreme Person, Sri Krishna Bhagavan, as taught by the ancient Vedic writings of India. He is also the founder-acharya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness.

“One who is not envious but is a kind to all living entities, who does not think himself a proprietor and is free from false ego, who is equal in both happiness and distress, who is tolerant, always satisfied, self-controlled, and engaged in devotional service with determination, his mind and intelligence fixed on Me-such a devotee of Mine is very dear to Me “ (Bhagavad gita, 12.13-14)

Srila Prabhupada, as he’s known to his followers, translated and commented on over eighty volumes of the Vedas’ most important sacred bhakti texts, including the Bhagavad-gita—a concise handbook for understanding the purpose and goal of human life—and the multi-volume Srimad-Bhagavatam—an epic biography of Krishna, Krishna’s avatars, and His many devotees throughout the history of the universe.

Srila Prabhupada’s own spiritual master, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur, was the leading proponent of Krishna consciousness in India during the early part of the twentieth century. He specifically taught the philosophy of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the divine avatar who revived Krishna-bhakti all over India in the 1500s. When Srila Bhaktisiddhanta first met the young man later known as Srila Prabhupada – in Calcutta in 1922 – he urged him to preach Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s message of Krishna consciousness throughout the English-speaking world.

After forty years of struggling within India to carry out his guru’s order, while maintaining family and business responsibilities, Srila Prabhupada boarded a steamship bound from Calcutta to New York City in 1965. At age sixty-nine, with forty rupees and a trunk of his Bhagavatam commentaries – the first ever in English – his aim was to introduce “India’s message of peace and goodwill” to the western world. During the last twelve years of his life, Srila Prabhupada would inspire thousands of Westerners and Indians to devote their lives to Krishna consciousness, launching one of the fastest-growing spiritual movements in the history of the world.

Many scholars and professors who met him and became familiar with his work continue to use Srila Prabhupada’s books as standard university texts, and regard him as a genuine, realized, and scholarly teacher of bhakti. His authoritative yet down-to-earth presentation of Vedas continues to inspire a worldwide audience.

With the help of his students, he established the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) in July of 1966. ISKCON is popularly known as the “Hare Krishna” movement, due to its members’ widespread practice of chanting the Hare Krishna mantra in public. In the eleven years that followed, Srila Prabhupada circled the globe 14 times on lecture tours spreading the teachings of Lord Krishna. Men and women from all backgrounds and walks of life came forward to accept his message. With their help, Srila Prabhupada established temples, farm communities, a publishing house, and educational institutions around the world. And, he began what has now become the world’s largest vegetarian food relief program, Hare Krishna Food for Life.

With the desire to nourish the roots of Krishna consciousness in its home, Srila Prabhupada returned to India several times, where he sparked a revival in the Vaishnava tradition. In India, he opened dozens of temples, including large centers in the holy towns of Vrindavana and Mayapura.

Srila Prabhupada’s most significant contributions, perhaps, are his books. He authored over 70 volumes on the Krishna tradition, which are highly respected by scholars for their authority, depth, fidelity to the tradition, and clarity. Several of his works are used as textbooks in numerous college courses. His writings have been translated into 76 languages. His most prominent works include: Bhagavad-gita As It Is, the 30-volume Srimad-Bhagavatam, and the 17-volume Sri Caitanya-caritamrita.

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada passed away on November 14, 1977, in the holy town of Vrindavana, surrounded by his loving disciples who carry on his mission today. Srila Prabhupada intended ISKCON to facilitate the association and education of bhakti-yoga practitioners, and his followers continue to spread that mission.

Bhakti Yoga

ISKCON belongs to the Gaudiya-Vaishnava sampradāya, a monotheistic tradition within the Vedic or Hindu culture. Philosophically, it is based on the Sanskrit texts Bhagavad-gītā and the Bhagavat Purana, or Srimad Bhagavatam. These are the historic texts of the devotional bhakti yoga tradition, which teaches that the ultimate goal for all living beings is to reawaken their love for God, or Lord Krishna, the “all-attractive one”.

ISKCON’s founder, Srila Prabhupada, has drawn appreciation from scholars and religious leaders alike for his remarkable achievement in presenting India’s Vaishnava spiritual culture in a relevant manner to contemporary Western and worldwide audiences.

Members of ISKCON practice bhakti-yoga in their homes and also worship in temples. They also promote bhakti-yoga, or Krishna Consciousness, through festivals, the performing arts, yoga seminars, public chanting, and the distribution of the society’s literatures. ISKCON members have also opened hospitals, schools, colleges, eco-villages, free food distribution projects, and other institutions as a practical application of the path of devotional yoga.

Anyone by sincerely cultivating true spiritual science, we can be free from anxiety and come to a state of pure, unending, blissful consciousness in this very lifetime. A brief summary of the main points of our philosophy are as follows:

We are not our bodies but eternal, spirit souls, parts and parcels of supreme lord Sri Krishna. As such, we are all brothers, and Krishna is ultimately our common father. We accept the process of transmigration of the soul (reincarnation).
Krishna is eternal, all-knowing, omnipresent, all-powerful, and all-attractive. He is the seed-giving father of all living beings, and He is the sustaining energy of the entire cosmic creation. He is the same God as The Father Allah, Buddha and Jehovah.
The Absolute Truth is contained in the Vedas, the oldest scriptures in the world. The essence of the Vedas is found in the Bhagavad-Gita, a literal record of Krishna’s words.
One can learn the Vedic knowledge from a genuine spiritual master — one who has no selfish motives and whose mind is firmly fixed on Krishna.
Before one eats, one offers to the Lord Krishna the food that sustains all humans; then Krishna becomes the offering and purifies the offered.
One performs all actions as offerings to Krishna and does nothing for one’s own sense gratification.
The recommended means for achieving the mature stage of love of God in this age of Kali, or quarrel, is to chant the holy names of the Lord. The easiest method for most people is to chant the Hare Krishna mantra:

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

The Kali Santarna Upanishad says “In this age of quarrel and hypocrisy the only means of deliverance is chanting of the holy name of the Lord. There is no other way. There is no other way. There is no other way.”

According to Srimad Bhagavatam (12.3.51), “kirtanad eva krishnasya”, simply by chanting of the holy name of Krishna, one is liberated and returns home, back to Godhead. Therefore one must adopt the chanting of the holy name as the principal method of advancing in spiritual life.

Krishna consciousness is not an artificial imposition on the mind. This consciousness is the original, natural energy of the living entity. When we hear this transcendental vibration, this consciousness is revived. This simplest method of meditation is recommended for this age.

A mantra is a spiritual sound vibration that purifies the heart and awakens love of God. The transcendental vibration established by the chanting of the Hare Krishna Maha Mantra helps to revive our original pure consciousness:

“Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare”

In the material concept of life we are busy in the matter of eating, sleeping, mating and defending, as if we were in the lower, animal stage. A little elevated from this bodily concept of life one is engaged in mental speculation for the purpose of getting out of the material clutches. A little elevated from this speculative status, when one is intelligent enough, one tries to find out the supreme cause of all causes, within and without. And when one is factually on the plane of spiritual understanding, surpassing the stages of sense, mind, and intelligence, he is then on the transcendental plane.

This chanting of the Hare Krishna Maha Mantra is enacted from the spiritual platform, and thus this sound vibration surpasses all lower strata of consciousness-namely sensual, mental and intellectual. There is no need, therefore, to understand the language of the mantra, nor is there any need for mental speculation, nor any intellectual adjustment for chanting this Maha Mantra; also anyone can take part in the chanting without any previous qualification. Chanting reestablishes our lost connection with God and takes one immediately to spiritual platform.

The word Hara is the form of addressing the energy of the Lord, and the words Krishna and Rama are forms of addressing the Lord Himself. Both Krishna and Rama mean “the supreme pleasure”, and Hara is the supreme pleasure energy of the Lord, changed to Hare in the Vocative. The supreme pleasure energy of the Lord helps us to reach the Lord.

The material energy, called maya, is also one of the multi-energies of the Lord. And we, the living entities, are the marginal energy of the Lord. The living entities are described as superior to material energy. When the superior energy is in contact with inferior energy, an incompatible situation arises; but when the superior marginal energy is in contact with the superior energy, Hara, it is established in its happy, normal condition. These three words, namely Hare, Krishna, and Rama, are the transcendental seeds of maha-mantra. The chanting is a spiritual call for the Lord and His energy, to give protection to conditioned soul. The chanting is exactly like the genuine cry of a child for its mother’s presence. Mother Hara helps the devotee achieve the Lord Father’s grace, and the Lord reveals Himself to the devotee who chants this mantra sincerely.

In this way, continue chanting on each of the 108 beads in the strand until you again reach the Krishna bead. This is known as one round of japa and usually takes from six to ten minutes.

It is beneficial to chant thePancha-tattva mantra before beginning your japa meditation. Many people like to chant it before each round. This is a prayer to Krishna’s most merciful avatar, Lord Chaitanya and His associates, to help us become ecstatic and avoid offenses while chanting.

sri-krishna-chaitanya prabhu-nityananda
sri-advaita gadadhara
srivasadi-gaura-bhakta-vrinda

“I offer my obeisances to Sri Krishna Chaitanya, Prabhu Nityananda, Sri Advaita, Gadadhara, Srivasa and all others in the line of devotion.”