After getting too many hints they couldn’t ignore, a devotee couple decides, with reasonable trepidation, to open a Krishna temple in Sin City.

“What do you think about opening a center in Las Vegas?” asked Badrinarayana Prabhu, whose area of responsibility as one of ISKCON’s governing body commissioners (GBC) includes Nevada.

I looked at my husband in disbelief.

This must be a joke, I thought, Why Las Vegas, of all places on earth? What Krishna devotee cultivating a life of high moral values and principles would voluntarily jump into the jaws of Sin City?

It was 2001, and on our way from St. Louis to San Diego, where we were now speaking with Badrinarayana Prabhu, we had just passed through Las Vegas. What a scary sight! Glittering billboards advertised all kinds of abominable activities, inviting visitors to indulge in extreme sense gratification. Being from Europe, we had never seen such a place.

I guess that similar thoughts must have crossed my husband’s mind when he heard Badrinarayana Prabhu’s proposal.

“No, thank you,” my husband, Surapala Dasa, politely but firmly declined. “I’m not qualified to take up that service in such a challenging place as Las Vegas.”

I took a deep breath of relief.

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