Hare Krishna Temple Watford - ISKCON Bhaktivedanta Manor — Attraction in Hertsmere

ISKCON Temple Watford

On 29th June 2024 saturday fortunately visited the Bhaktivedant Manor Temple along with my wife, son,daughter in law, grandchildren and friends.

Bhaktivedanta Manor is a Gaudiya Vaishnava Hindu temple set in the Hertfordshire countryside of England, in the village of Letchmore Heath, Hilfield Lane Watford WD25 8EZ, England. The Manor is owned and run by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), better known as the Hare Krishna movement. It is ISKCON's largest property in the United Kingdom, and one of the most frequently visited Radha Krishna temples in Europe. The house is listed Grade II on the National Heritage List for England.

It was set up by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta and originally donated by the late Beatle George Harrison.

Formerly a manor estate called Picot's Manor it has been around since the 1200 but between the 17 and 1800s a Georgian style manor house was built which remains now as the temple. The devotee named Dhananjaya das encouraged George Harrison to buy it for The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), widely known as the Hare Krishna movement.

The Beatles would often travel to India and found spirituality when they returrned to London.

In February of 1973, the manor house was purchased and renamed Bhaktivedanta Manor,

The manor estate today now has 77 acres of land.

Sri Krishna Haveli

Sri Krishna Haveli was designed so that. it wold sit well between the rustic goshala and does not overshadow Bhaktivedanta Manor. To complement the local area and respect the culture of the locality, oak, timber, tile and traditional red brick with stone paving were chosen as typical of the area of Hertfordshire and wider England. The design was chosen to respect the past and to look to the future, representing authentic construction of today, with sustaining features and characters.

You will be welcomed by a beautiful chakra garden with the heart chakra at the entrance. The heart is central to the Bhakti tradition as everything comes together in the heart. There will be lively kirtans, classes by visiting speakers, weddings and other functions in the Kirtan hall which is a formal and high-quality room with beautiful wood panelling, a stage and lighting. To the rear there are dressing rooms for stage performers and brides and grooms to be.

The Seva hall is conveniently situated beside a fully equipped bespoke kitchen for easy access to serve prasad to all our guests. This hall can also be subdivided into three sections and can be used for clubs, yoga and childrens activities.

The upstairs learning area is called Bhakti Vidyalaya with two areas for teaching: the Atma Vidya and Paramatma Vidya rooms.

Outside there is an exciting space for children in the Haveli playground. This play area was designed with ideas from the children in the Gurukula School and Krishna Club. It is centred around Krishna’s childhood pastimes with the Aghasura and Bakasura demons and Kaliya the serpent. Made from old trees, it is an area where the children play and engage just like Krishna did with His friends. The playground serves as a safe space for children to play and creatively engage, focusing on the pastimes of Lord Krishna. The manor is open Mondays to Sundays between 10am and 1pm then 4pm until 7.30pm.

Tulasi Greenhouse Leaves and manjari of Holy Tulasi are extremely in the puja proceedings of Shree Krishna Temple. On the way to the Krishna Haveli,the Tulasi greenhouse is on the left. Temple Gift Shop The main temple gift shop is located next to the main temple building.

Opening times Mon – Sat 11.00am – 6.30pm Sun 10.00am – 7.30pm

Radharani's Café Radharani’s snacks is based in the Haveli and offers freshly prepared takeaway snacks, pastries and milk sweets, and a wide range of foodstuffs (including eggless cakes). There is an outdoor seating area available. Opening times Monday – Saturday 10:00am – 2:00pm 4:00pm – 7:30pm Sunday / Bank...

Visited after a long time, the gross overdevelopment leaves no trace of the once quaint complex. It's a business now.

Prasad was a spoonful of: mashed potato, cauliflower curry, crisps, salad and soup.

Bad attitude of some servers others clueless: They asked for volunteers 2 minutes before prasadam was served. As though prasadam was new concept. I asked the woman serving for a bit more salad, she refused and said there wasn't enough. Fair enough. But when a devotee just after me asked she gave him a large helping. Thanks alot. Later she was rude to me and said ''I don't take it home you know''. When I replied 'I never said she did', she cut me off by telling me ''I'm not going to argue with you''. So antagonistic. Whilst in the queue the same devotee akept muttering about me for no reason, he was unkempt and frankly hideous looking.

Low cost cooking, full of unhealthy starch served begrudgingly.

Experience with KRISHNA NAM aka THUG. I was told to speak to a tall, thick set man, arms covered in tatoos, in a yellow t-shirt, who was ''in charge''. I tried to call him, and later found out he'd pretended not to hear. When I reached him and tried to speak, he angrily said: ''I didn't hear you, I'm very busy, I have things to do''. Everytime I tried to speak he talked over me. For no reason, he was waving arms in the air, towering above me, and with great hostility he said: ''What do you want, I don't know what you want, who are you?'' ''I'm busy, I've got a lot to do''... Perhaps if he let me speak I'd have told him. But he didn't care it was all for show and I later found out why.

If you act like he did, the impression given to onlookers would be that the lay person was the problem. That was his intention. Even though all I'd manage to say was I'd like to talk to you.

Veteran Devotee left to rot: Later I saw and spoke to an elderly devotee I'd first met 20 years ago. When I tried to speak to him, he cut me off and defensively tried to justify the THUG ''he's suffering''. He said being irrate was because of being busy. No his rudeness was well honed. I was gaslit again. This frail man was once a pious and loyal devotee who ensured the smooth running of the prasadam. Now he just looks sad and broken. With no where else to go.

When I was leaving the centre THUG was chilling with his lookalike but shorter friend. No rush then. I asked his name and he said he wouldn't tell me. He came up to my car in a threatening way. Then kept shouting ''You're a horrible person'' over and over again. Why? If you scare people off they leave you alone and don't ask questions. Wrong! I do ask and I know who to ask. If he is so abusive to a lone female in public on the grounds, how does this clearly violent man behave in private?

As an anonymous doner, my donations end today. I will not pay for the 6 bed house his friend claimed THUG owns outright. Volunteering is a rouse for him to get easy cash from the Temple. How many others have their snout in the trough? Or get well paid contracts?

Shop The entire ethos is to make money, selling cheap and nasty tat. It's a bad theme park not a spiritual center. Whilst claiming charitable status and its perks. Who benefits?

Summary Donation stations everywhere. But they can't give enough, decent, prasad in a respectful way. Devotees rude to lay visitors. Dodgy volunteers with...

I've lost respect for these people ergo doubt I'll visit this place again.

After talking to a few of the residents about the fact Shri Krishna advocated not eating dairy as an adult (which they should already know considering the most revered scripture that contains Shri Krishna's words on attaining enlightenment which includes not eating dairy, meat,eggs, root produce and garlic) in the Srimad Bhagavada Gita scripture I was met with dismissive behaviour, opposite thinking, disbelief - disgusting behaviour really.

Addendum: this review comes about after a few decades with ISKON

These Hindus state that they're followers of Shri Krishna but don't disclose at all they don't follow him properly therefore misrepresenting what Hinduism's popular sect Sanatan Dharma is about; it seemed that the female Shopkeeper definitely is so attached with consuming what comes out of cows teats that she refuted me with her opposing belief (she tried to make out as fact ) that Shri Krishna advocated consuming dairy overall in his lifetime (LOL).

It's a shame these Hindu followers of Shri Krishna don't read the scripture associated with their revered diety so to see the truth... They don't think about how much suffering they cause to cows - especially their children by stealing milk meant for the calves ( let alone the forced ,repeated insemination unto cows via injecting bull sperm into them to make them consistently produce milk and strain their bodies to live less on this earth and painfully due to the repeated strain of consistent pregnancies and captivity ..All this information and more is on YouTube videos for years and these Shockingly-Behaving-'Followers' have chosen to ignore it for so long - being so narrow minded it's disgusting, shameful and honestly makes me ashamed to be associated with them as someone who is from Hindu descent by birth herself...Unlike them I'm actually vegan (not consuming anything from an animal), follow the Jain diet as much as possible (Jains are another group of people who follow Shri Krishna but typically do it much better than Hindus- shameful that Hindus can't follow the diety which came from their own religion)

Misrepresentation of Hinduism comes from here and all bases ISKON are located - being refuted by ISKON members in different cities when telling them Shri Krishna's actual recommended diet.

As a result I refuse to enter any building which ISKON run - having given up on these group of people in being proper followers of Shri Krishna.

I'll practice my devotion to Shri Krishna, Sanatan Dharma, Hinduism on my own if I must.

N.B. Shri Krishna only ate dairy as a child for the purpose of Ram-Leela and to try and antagonize his evil-behaving uncle (Kamsa) to fight so to fulfil their destiny...