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H.G. Samba Prabhuji born in Goudiya Vaishnav associated family and started his spiritual journey at very young age of 17Yrs. Attracted by the teachings of Srila Prabhupada, inspired by one of his cousins who joined iskcon in1976, Samba Das prabhu joined ISKCON full time on March 1980. As per the instruction of his Spiritual Master H.H. Jayapataka Swami Maharaj, he started serving for ISKCON Guwahati temple project. preaching area includes Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh. He was one of the very pioneer in building of ISKCON Guwahati temple in the beginning of 80’s. Later, he was shifted to Vrindavan and assisted H.H. Surabhi Maharaj as his secretary in construction of many projects including construction of Srila Prabhupada’s Samadhi in Vrindavan, Mayapur n designing many temples Worldwide. Surabhi Maharaj used to be called as the Viswakarma of ISKCON by Srila Prabhupada. Samba Das prabhuji got very close association with him as his secretary for ten years.. He learnt many skills from Surabhi Maharaj like office management, construction supervision etc. ISKCON got a very nice property in west Delhi, Punjabi Bagh area and the same was converted into a small temple. Samba Prabhuji became the founder president of it at the age of 21 years. He developed the temple and used to organize grand Janmashtami Melas where lakhs of people used to participate from 1983 to 1992 . Delhi being the transit point many iskcon Guru’s,GBCs, many senior devotees, sannyasis from worldwide used to visit and stay in that temple. Samba Prabhuji had the fortune of serving and associating with those saintly souls. Today ISKCON Punjabi Bagh centre in Delhi is one of the most vibrant centres in India with two big branches in Bahadurgarh and Rohini. He also served as president of ISKCON Abids temple in Hyderabad in 1996 for one n half year.. He is also travelling preacher covering USA, Europe,midlle east and East Asia from 1984 . Few leading devotees India were initially cultivated by Samba Das prabhu ji. With the directive from his Spiritual Master and the ISKCON authorities, he along with his good wife H.G. Nitai Sevini Mataji started ISKCON Visakhapatnam centre in the year 1999 to spread the message of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Srila Prabhupada. This centre has been started from scratch, with a picture of Radha Krishna and few books of Srila Prabhupada in a small rented house and in the past 23 years it has grown in both size and reach. Today ISKCON Visakhapatnam is preaching Sankirtan movement from its own temple set up in 3.5 acres of land in a serene atmosphere facing sea and surrounded by green hillocks. Prabhuji got divine vision and ambitious plans for Visakhapatnam. He embarked upon constructing one of the biggest Radha Krishna temple in South India with world class amenities and unique architectural designs. The project also includes 110 room guest houses, three Kalyana Mandapams, Govinda’s Restaurant, Open Air Auditorium, Audio Visual Library, Dioramas, Under Water Meditation Hall, Old Age Home etc. It facilitates spiritual advancement of its devotees as well as general public. It will also be a strong preaching base for all the required resources. Right now there is a very big spacious make shift temple for idols, mechanized kitchen, rooms for devotees, office rooms, nice guest house for Life Members and devotees, a Goshala with around 42 cows in the centre. There are about 46 resident devotees serving full time for Krishna. ISKCON Visakhapatnam centre is vibrant with around thousands of active congregation devotees and 5000 life members. Obtaining the land from the Government, getting CRZ clearance from Ministry of Environment and Forests, collecting funds to build such a gigantic temple maintaining the day to day affairs of the temple, overseeing the execution of the project, it is not a normal for an ordinary human being. This is possible for those who have blessings of Guru n Krishna . And this blessing upon Samba Prabhuji is the result of his unflinching faith on Guru and Krishna. In addition, ISKCON Visakhapatnam got an extension centre in Vizianagaram spread in 2n half acres of area which is being used mainly for organic farming and cow protection. There is an ashram building constructed here and beautiful deities of Gaura Nitai are worshipped here.The construction of big size temple already started. |
