The following is a short essay written by the editor of Back To Godhead Magazine featured at the beginning of this commemorative issue dedicated to an architectual vision of "The Temple of Vedic Planetarium," as planned during the 1990s.

Please Note: Pages 20–22 from the section "Vedic Cosmology in the Temple," describe Sadaputa's (Richard L. Thompson) contributions to designs for cosmology exhibits.

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Welcome to Our Special Mayapur Edition

On the banks of the Ganges in Mayapur, West Bengal, a region of tree-shaded villages and fertile farmland, the Hare Krsna movement is planning to build a spiritual city, centered on a temple that will last a thousand years.

Mayapura is where Sri Caitany Mahaprabhu, the incarnation of Lord Krsna for this age, appeared five hundred years ago. Lord Caitanya's chief associate, Nityananda Prabhu, predicted that a wonderful temple would rise in Mayapur to inspire the whole world to serve Lord Caitanya.

In 1977, His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the founder-acarya of the Hare Krsna movement, laid the conrnerstone for the Mayapur temple, which he names "The Temple of the Vedic Planetarium." Besides Deities, the temple will include a planetarium showing the universe as described in the Vedic literature. The Mayapur Project will also include a city for up to fifty thousand residents and pilgrims, as well as many programs to beneift the people of the region.

Srila Prabhupada showed great enthusiasm for the Mayapur Project, and  now a group of his followers is making steady progress in fulfilling his vision. With this issue of Back to Godhead, we invite you to take part in building a temple for the next millenium.

Hare Krsna.

—Nagaraja Dasa, Editor

File:

For a pdf download of the complete magazine, click here,
or otherewise visit:
bit.ly/BTG_vol33_no6_1999

For images of each page within this special edition of the magazine, 
please click here.