Bangalore:

The soft strains of 'Hare Krishna' welcomes the visitors to this neo-classical temple, biggest of its kind in the country, which will soon be inaugurated by President Shankar Dayal Sharma as part of the centenary celebrations of Srila Prabhupada, founder of the ISKCON movement.

This Rs 26-crore temple on the Chord Road has been designed by a devotee architect. It is an architectural blend of the elements of traditional vedic temple and the modern technological faculties and materials.

A tour of the temple first takes you to the Sri Narasimha and Prahlada mandir. Further up is the Sri Balaji Venkateshwara Devasthanam and the main hall, which houses the Sri Krishna Balaram mandir, Sri Radha Krishna Chandra mandir and Sri Nitai Gauranga mandir.

Some of the features of the temple include the gold-plated kalasha (23ft) and the tallest dwajasthamba (55ft) with various gopuras and vimanas. Another unique feature, not found in the temple architecture, is the galleries and the chandelier in the form of a lotus in the main hall, spanning 100 ft. The other features of this monumental wonder include the glass and polished granites that have been used prominently.

The temple area also covers the living quarters of the inmates, with only 15 percent of the floor area housing the actual temple. It has taken six years to complete this structure, built at a cost of Rs 26 crore. Another Rs 4 crore is required to complete it, says the temple president and project director Madhu Pandit Dasa.

It is already attracting a large number of devotees and visitors and Madhu Pandit predicts the temple could soon become one of the most popular tourist attractions in Bangalore. The entire amount for the project has been mobilized locally through voluntary contributions from well wishers and patrons. This is in fact, the largest, public fund-raising ever taken up in Karnataka.

The Centre for Advancement of Culture proposes to organize several devotional and cultural utsavas at the Bhakthi Kalakshetra throughout the year.

The complex will have an open air amphitheatre, multimedia auditoriums, recording studious and landscaped gardens. It will also offer refresher courses and introductory lectures on Bhagwad Gita and vedic sciences.

A multipurpose 800-seater Samsara Kendra that can accommodate 1,500 people is also being constructed in the temple. A special 450-seat air-conditioned theatre with the world's best in built sound light and projection equipment has been completed. Besides, the temple plans to feed 10 lakh needy and deserving people in its first year.