HI-TECH and traditional. Dioramas and a dome. Rocks and sermons. The Rs 10-crore temple that the International Society for Krishna Consciousness is building in Bangalore will have all this and more. And three years from now, it is sure to be a tourist spot.

The temple is being built on a rocky hillock on Chord Road, where the Hare Krishnaites live next to a small temple they have constructed. "They have really transformed this place," said former chief minister Ramakrishna Hegde. When he granted them the land in 1988, it was an abandoned quarry.

"We first drew up our plans and then worked out the budget," says Madhu Pandit Dasa, the president of the magnificent temple under construction. "We were confident that we would be able to raise whatever money we needed. And we succeeded beyond our wildest imagination."

Architects from ISKCON units the world over offered their suggestions. The blueprint was finalised by Madhu Pandit and Cochin-based architect N. R. Joseph (now Jagatchandra Das), and construction commenced 10 months ago. The five-storey gopuram (dome) will have the height of a 16-storey building so that it would be visible from the highway below. The top storey, housing the temple will be about 70 feet high.

Past an ornate double gate at the hill, vehicles will drive along the curved road to a car park beside one of the four entrances to the temple. Next to a kalyani (temple pond) near the car park will be a small waterfall. A paved path with terraced gardens on either side and small mantaps housing statues of Hanuman and Garuda surrounded by fountains will lead to the mahadwara (main entrance).

The rock formation on the western side of the complex will form a horse shoe-shaped amphitheatre to seat 10,000 people. There will also be a multimedia theatre with synchronized slide projectors and sound systems and a performing arts theatre that can seat 350 people.

The front portion of the building adjoining the mahadwara will have a Govinda restaurant, part of ISKCON's international chain. The food sold will have the same spiritual value as prasadam. Would this not amount to commercialising religion? "No," says Varada Krishna Das, a young business management graduate who renounced worldly pursuits to join ISKCON. "Many of our devotees first came to know us through our restaurants. They initially come just to eat our vegetarian food. Then, they pick up some of our literature or buy our cards and calendars and gradually get involved with the movement."

Ten of the 25 movable dioramas (computer-controlled and pneumatic), the first of their kind in India, will depict 10 events from Krishna's life. The rest will show episodes from the lives of ISKCON founder Srila Prabhupada and Chaitanya and abstract concepts like the transmigration of the soul. The first and most complex of the exhibits will depict Krishna dancing on the many-headed serpent Kaliya. The tail in itself is an amazing feat of engineering. "We use technology to preach, reach out to more people and become more effective," says Varada Krishna Das. Madhu Pandit is hopeful that the traditional-hi-tech architecture would attract large crowds.

The 100-feet high temple section will be almost at the southern end. On the ground floor will be a kalyana mantapam (marriage hall) which ISKCON prefers to call a Vedic Samskar Hall. Estimated to be the largest in Bangalore, it will have a seating capacity of 1,450. On the floor above will be a Vedic library that will house a huge collection of audio and video tapes and books.

Above this will be the actual temple with a huge hall in front. The temple will have five small shrines-dedicated to Radha-Krishna, Balaram-Krishna, Chaitanya-Nityananda, LakshmiNarasimha and Venkateshwara, respectively-built to the shilpa shastra and vastu shilpi specifications. Each shrine will have its own vimanam (small dome) covered with thin sheets of gold. Rituals, such as ceremonial processions of the deities, will be celebrated every day to draw in the crowds.

A dome with a gold-plated kalasham (peak) supported by 12 exquisitely carved pillars will cover the 35m by 35m temple precincts. Two balconies inside the hall will hold exhibits portraying the life of Prabhupada. No cheap tricks

MADHU Pandit Dasa, the man behind the ambitious temple project, is himself a civil engineer. He did his master's degree in the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay. He is firm in his conviction that he is doing the right thing and gently brushes away allegations that ISKCON has CIA connections. Excerpts from an interview with him:

ANSWER: Ours is not merely a temple. It will be a place where we can disseminate knowledge about the soul, which is beyond all religion. This is not a cheap conversion trick. Many of our devotees have not even changed their original religion. We have two Sikhs and two Jains among our community of 41 adults. We stand above religion. Prabhupada presented Krishna as a God of the whole world.

I think that we will have many regular visitors from Bangalore. No tourist who visits Bangalore will miss this place. Apart from the Vidhana Soudha, what is there that they can really see here?

We believe that ignorance of what they should and should not do is the root cause of all the problems that people face today. We are trying to rid them of this ignorance and reduce the quantum of the four activities that Prabhupada has called paapa karma. If a person is opulent today, it is the fruit of his punya or accumulated benefit of his good deeds. Similarly, another person will be poor as a consequence of his own wrong actions.

In the beginning, when we first started out, people did ask about this. But when they saw what we were really doing, they realised that we could not possibly have any such connections. Do you really think that anyone would lead this kind of severely disciplined life for money? We wake up at 4 a.m. and occupy ourselves with spiritual activities like chanting the name of Krishna, worshipping him and studying Vedic literature until 9 a.m. This calls for a lot of dedicated commitment.