Iskcon Berkeley

Area Served

About Iskcon Berkeley

Welcome to the ISKCON of Bay Area Temple in Berkeley! When Param Pujya A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Shrila Prabhupada (Shrila Prabhupada), then 71, travelled by air for the very first time in his life, he landed in our Bay Area's San Francisco International Airport. This maiden air journey by Shrila Prabhupad in January 1967 brought to the United States' West Coast his newly started Hare Krishna movement. The very first temple, Radha Krishna Temple, was located at 518 Frederick Street in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco. During the initiation of this Temple, a remarkable event unfolded: a female disciple of Swamiji brought a small three-inch wooden doll with a flat head, a black smiling face, and big round eyes that she had purchased from a local import store as a piece of Indian antique. This three-inch wooden doll with a flat head, a black smiling face, and big round eyes was none other than Shri Jagannath Dev, Shri Krishna Himself, who until then was only being worshipped in India in the historical city of Puri with His brother Baldev and sister Subhadra. Shrila Prabhupad took this as a divine signal to initiate in the western world the worship of Shri Jagannath, Baldev and Subhadra (hence this temple!). Along with this initiation came to the western world Puri's Rath Yatra: each year in Puri, during the yearly gigantic Ratha-yatra festival, millions of pilgrims pull the three huge carts carrying the deities of Jagannatha Swami, Baldev, and Subhadra. The Golden Avatar of this dark age, Shri Caitanya Dev, spent the last eighteen years of His life at Puri, dancing and chanting in ecstasy before the Deity of Lord Jagannatha during the Ratha-yatra festival. Shrila Prabhupad initiated the Ratha-yatra festival in San Francisco. Further, to memorialize this advent of Shri Jagannath Dev and His Rath Yatra, he gave San Francisco a new and spiritual name: the New Jagannatha Puri. This temple in Berkeley was established by Shrila Prabhupad in his early seventies.