ISKCON Juhu (Sri Sri Radha Rasabihari Mandir)
Juhu, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
- Deities
- Radha Rasabihari (Krishna)
- Traditions
- vaishnava
- Worship status
- active
- Address
- Hare Krishna Land, Juhu, Mumbai, Maharashtra
- Darshan hours
- Varies by temple and season; consult the temple's own website for the current daily schedule before visiting.
- Best time to visit
- Janmashtami (Aug/Sep) draws the largest crowds; October to March for cooler weather.
- How to reach
- In Juhu, a western suburb of Mumbai near Juhu Beach; reachable by road or Mumbai Suburban Railway (Vile Parle/Santacruz stations), with Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport nearby.
- Festivals
- Janmashtami (August/September)
- Associated saints
- A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Location
Open in Google MapsISKCON Juhu’s Sri Sri Radha Rasabihari Mandir occupies Hare Krishna Land, a plot Srila Prabhupada resolved to develop into a temple in Juhu, Bombay (now Mumbai), as part of his broader push in the early 1970s to establish major ISKCON temple complexes in India. According to Prabhupada’s own biography, the man who had originally sold the land to ISKCON attempted to swindle it back from the devotees; Prabhupada persisted through the ensuing dispute and ultimately prevailed. In 1972 Prabhupada appointed his disciple Giriraja Swami as president of ISKCON Bombay and a trustee of the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, and Giriraja Swami went on to oversee the development of Hare Krishna Land into the temple complex that stands today. Bombay was one of only a handful of major Indian temple projects — alongside Vrindavan, Hyderabad, and the Mayapur world headquarters — that Prabhupada personally focused his attention on establishing during his final years leading the movement.
The temple’s presiding deities are worshipped as Sri Sri Radha Rasabihari. Today the Juhu complex functions as one of ISKCON’s active centers in western India, following the standard round of daily darshan, kirtan, and prasadam distribution observed across ISKCON temples worldwide, with Janmashtami as its major annual festival.
Sources
- historical record: Cross-checked against Wikipedia's A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada article during authoring: confirms 'When Prabhupada resolved to build a temple on land in Juhu, Bombay (now Mumbai), the man who had sold ISKCON the land tried to swindle the devotees and take it back... but Prabhupada persisted and eventually won'; also confirms Prabhupada 'focused much of his effort on establishing temples in Bombay, Vrindavan, Hyderabad' alongside the planned Mayapur headquarters.
- historical record: Cross-checked against Wikipedia's Giriraja Swami article: confirms that in 1972 he 'was appointed by Prabhupada as president of ISKCON Bombay and trustee of the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust' and 'subsequently oversaw the development of Hare Krishna Land in Juhu, Bombay.'
- historical record: The temple's official name, 'ISKCON Juhu - Sri Sri Radha Rasabihari Temple,' confirmed via the temple's own website (iskconjuhu.in) page title; the site otherwise renders as a script-driven app without further crawlable historical content, and no dedicated Wikipedia article for the temple itself was found during authoring.
For review
- No dedicated Wikipedia article exists for ISKCON Juhu specifically; the facts above are drawn from Prabhupada's and Giriraja Swami's Wikipedia biographies plus the temple's own site name. An exact land-acquisition or inauguration date could not be independently confirmed via the sources reviewed during authoring, despite this being one of ISKCON's most significant temple complexes.