The Chief Minister of Haryana, Mr. Bhupendra Singh Hooda and ISKCON GBC Gopal Krishna Goswami laid down the foundation stone for the upcoming ISKCON temple at Kurukshetra on 18^th August, 2014, which was also celebrated as Krishna Janmastami, appearance day of Lord Krishna.

Mr. Hooda, who was accompanied by several government dignitaries of Haryana state, was showed around by Gopal Krishna Goswami who explained to them the features of this project. After the tour, a fire sacrifice was performed to invoke auspiciousness and success for the new temple. Later on, Mr. Hooda and Gopal Krishna Goswami jointly unveiled the foundation stone.

The Chief Minister then spoke on the occasion and thanked ISKCON for its contribution to the society by promoting Vedic knowledge and the wisdom of Bhagavad Gita, which was spoken by Lord Krishna in Kurukshetra, all over the world. He also thanked the devotees who had dedicated themselves to this project including Sakshi Gopal Das (Temple President), Priya Govinda Das (Project Director).

Hundreds of devotes from the neighboring cities had travelled overnight to attend this festival to mark the commence of ISKCON’s Kurukshetra project, which would house a Bhagavad Gita Study Centre, a Vedic Expo, a Sri Krishna Park and a Vedic Museum.

ISKCON was allotted a plot of land measuring 6 acres in early August 2014 after 16 years of struggle to secure a plot of land in Jyotisar, where ISKCON-founder Srila Prabhupada envisioned to build a Krishna-Arjun temple and a Bhagavata college to facilitate a deeper study of the Vedic knowledge.