Nova Gokula
Pindamonhangaba, São Paulo state, Brazil
- Deities
- Radha Krishna
- Traditions
- vaishnava
- Worship status
- active
- Address
- Estrada Abílio José de Almeida, s/n, Bairro do Ribeirão Grande, Pindamonhangaba, SP 12499-899.
- Coordinates
- -22.7718, -45.4655
- Darshan hours
- Varies by temple and season; consult the temple's own website for the current daily schedule before visiting.
- Best time to visit
- Year-round; Janmashtami is the community's largest annual festival.
- How to reach
- At Estrada Abílio José de Almeida, s/n, in the Ribeirão Grande district near Pindamonhangaba, in the Paraíba Valley, São Paulo state, reachable by road from São Paulo city (~150 km).
- Festivals
- Janmashtami (August/September)
- Associated saints
- A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Location
Open in Google MapsA rural ISKCON farm community modeled on the same self-sufficient, agrarian ideal as New Vrindaban in the United States (also covered in this directory), Nova Gokula (“New Gokula,” named for Krishna’s childhood village) was founded in 1978 at Estrada Abílio José de Almeida in the Ribeirão Grande district near Pindamonhangaba, São Paulo state. Described by the community itself as the largest Hare Krishna community in Latin America, it has served for nearly five decades as a hub of Gaudiya Vaishnava practice in Brazil, hosting festivals, a gaushala (cow sanctuary), and educational programs for South America’s Hare Krishna community, emphasizing simple living and Vedic-inspired spiritual culture at the base of the Serra da Mantiqueira mountains.
Sources
- historical record: Compiled from general knowledge of ISKCON's farm-community network; not independently confirmed via a dedicated live source this session (Wikipedia's ISKCON article confirms a South America section exists in its global-presence coverage, but its specific content could not be retrieved due to fetch/truncation issues encountered this pass).
- historical record: Independently verified this pass against Nova Gokula's own official website (novagokula.com.br), which confirms the community was founded in 1978 (consistent with this entry's 'since the 1970s' claim), describes it as 'the largest Hare Krishna community in Latin America,' affiliated with ISKCON and inspired by A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, and gives its address as Estrada Abílio José de Almeida, s/n, Bairro do Ribeirão Grande, Pindamonhangaba, SP. Coordinates corrected via OpenStreetMap/Nominatim, which geocodes 'Fazenda Nova Gokula' to approximately -22.7718, -45.4655 — about 17 km from this entry's prior coordinates, which pointed to a different location near central Pindamonhangaba.