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Gold galore

After several years of wanting to visit, I can finally say that I have been to Prabhupada's Palace of Gold. This place is one of West Virginia's most unique landmarks in the entire state. Most people think of where I live as the place for outdoors, moonshine, and thick hick accents. There is much more to WV thank most would assume. In this instance, we even have a one-of-a-kind golden temple.

Srila Prabhupada (1896-1977) is widely regarded as the foremost Vedic scholar, translator, and teacher of the modern era. He is especially respected as the world’s most prominent contemporary authority on bhakti-yoga, devotional service to the Supreme Person, Krishna, as taught by the ancient Vedic writings of India. He translated and commented on over eighty volumes of the Vedas’ most important sacred bhakti texts, including the Bhagavad-gita (a concise handbook for understanding the purpose and goal of human life) and the multi-volume Srimad-Bhagavatam (an epic biography of Krishna, Krishna’s avatars, and His many devotees throughout the history of the universe.)^{^Source}

I did not want to visit this palace for religious reasons, I simply just wanted to witness its beauty. It was built in 1973 by some of Prabhupada's devotees. The look and feel of this place through pictures made me know I had to go. I imagined that seeing the place in person would be even more unforgettable.

In 1973 devotees decided to build a home for Srila Prabhupada, where he could write his books and enjoy the clean country air. A location was chosen for its potential beauty, the land was cleared and construction was started on a simple house. The plan was a rough sketch drawn on a scrap of paper. But Lord Krishna had His own plan. Somehow or other at each step the trial and error construction produced something grander than the devotees had imagined. Bit by bit, cemented, chiseled, and forged, with loving labor Prabhupada’s Palace of Gold emerged. How it came about may seem hard to understand; after all, how could these inexperienced devotees build something that surpassed their own expectations? A spiritual force was certainly involved, and those who worked on it were aware that they were but instruments in the hands of God. Prabhupada’s Palace is not a memorial of mundane love. Its greatness cannot be understood in terms of marble, teak, silver, or gold. Rather it is a work of unalloyed devotion to Lord Krsna and His pure devotee. No expert architect or experienced artisans were involved. It was built without blueprints by young devotees inspired by their desire to build a modest home for their spiritual master. By God’s arrangement, their work was transformed into a labor of love, accepted by Him who considers not the gift of the lover, but the love of the giver. ^{^Source}

I searched and found https://www.palaceofgold.com/, which gave me all of the information that I needed to find this secluded palace. It is located atop a giant forest in New Vrindaban, just outside of the small town of Moundsville, WV. The drive to find this sacred location was rural as can be, but that also translates to beautiful. Once reaching Moundsville, the only task left is to climb the steep mountain and drive through the curvy roads at the top to find New Vrindaban.

New Vrindaban is named after the holy land of Vrindavan in India where Lord Krishna, the Supreme Lord, resided more than five thousand years ago. Till today, Vrindavan is a pilgrimage site for thousands of Krishna devotees from all over the world who pursue the path of devotion to God. In 1965, Srila Prabhupada, an elderly monk and an astute scholar of the ancient Vedic scriptures, came to the United States to share the knowledge of God from these primeval texts. In a few years, he spread the name of “Hare Krishna” throughout America, giving people a universal message of connecting with God through the chanting of God’s names. In 1968, when Srila Prabhupada heard about a 133-acre plot of land in the lush countryside of West Virginia, he was reminded of Krishna’s holy land of Vrindavan and suggested that his followers excavate and work on the land and build the first Hare Krishna self-sufficient community in the West. “Why not import Vrindavan to your country,” he said, “just as you have New York, New England, and so many ‘New’ duplicates of European countries in the USA?” Thus, New Vrindaban became a holy place, born from Srila Prabhupada’s eagerness to create a pilgrimage site in the West, giving people, from all backgrounds, the opportunity to connect with God in a mood of love and devotion, called Bhakti-yoga. Srila Prabhupada boldly envisioned New Vrindaban as a sacred village that would be known worldwide for cow protection, simple living, holy pilgrimage, spiritual education, and, above all, loving Krishna. This vision has manifested and now, after fifty years. New Vrindaban continues to preserve these ideals and has undertaken several projects to further implement Srila Prabhupada’s vision for a God-conscious society. Plans to build seven more temples are underway, which will fulfill Srila Prabhupada’s vision of making New Vrindaban an extraordinary pilgrimage site in the West. ^{^Source}

This place was much bigger than I expected. We thought all that was there was the palace. After exploring it, we were satisfied with our visit. However, the lady in the gift shop alerted us to the fact that there was much more to see. 133 acres of seclusion and spiritual solitude. We didn't want to miss out on all of the other things around the grounds, so we ventured forth.

We started in the top right of the map, exploring the Palace of Gold itself where the rose garden and lotus pond were. Then we drove down towards the Chandra Temple where everything else was. This included a peacock house, another pond, a vegetarian restaurant called Govinda's, some cabins, and giant statues. There really was so much beauty packed into this place. One would never have guessed that all of this is stationed in the middle of nowhere West Virginia.

Besides the glory of the palace's architecture and design, my favorite part was the peacocks. They were making the craziest sounds, which was very fun to listen to. Plus there was even an albino peacock, which I had never seen anything like before. There were many people there on their own spiritual expeditions and all of them were dressed in the most colorful attire. I love the look and feel of these people, every person that I said hello to was happy to respond.

Now for the main event

One of the things that I was most excited about with the Palace of Gold was photography with @flowerbaby. As you probably already know, we love taking photos with each other. I had been dreaming of taking photos at this gorgeous palace. Some of it was under construction while we were there, but that didn't stop us from admiring the beauty and taking lots of photos.

I bought a new outfit just for this place, it was of course golden. There were many areas of this location that my clothing matched perfectly. The same can be said for @flowerbaby. Without even planning it, she wore peacock colors. It's safe to say that we got our fair share of amazing photographs. I am so happy to finally be able to share all of them.

Be warned, there are some silly photos of both @flowerbaby and myself. I carried around my tripod the entire time, so we also were able to get some stunning photos together.

I really do hope that you enjoy taking a closer look at Prabhupada's Palace of Gold.