Madhu Pandit Dasa

In the services of His Divine Grace A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

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Madhu Pandit Dasa, Chairman of Akshaya Patra conceives the 300 crore & 210-metre-high project, Chandrodaya Mandir

Chandrodaya Mandir, the Rs. 300 crore and 210-metre-high project by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) was devised by Madhu Pandit Dasa, Chairman of Akshaya Patra Foundation. The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) was applauded by the President Pranab Mukherjee for undertaking the construction of this project. The temple would stand three times  taller than the Qutub Minar. Madhu Pandit Dasa stated that the construction of this temple will enhance the beauty of Vrindavan. It will be a marvel gracing the city and help in making Vrindavan a hub of religious tourism. The foundation  of the temple was laid on March 16 and it will nearly be completed in five years.  The project supports the welfare programmes for the widows of vrindavan and the restoration of important sites of Braj.

“The present project will hopefully generate positive spin-offs both for local society and the economy. I am confident that ISKCON will continue to partner both the Central and the State governments in their efforts aimed at social change and reformation,” said Mr. Mukherjee at the Anantha Sthapana Puja on the temple premises at Vrindavan.

The President said the temple would be an architectural marvel seeking to recreate the glory and the times of Lord Shri Krishna. “It shall enable thousands of pilgrims who congregate at Vrindavan every year the opportunity of experiencing new levels of spiritual consciousness. The temple would strive to disseminate the philosophical message of the Bhagavad Gita and Srimad Bhagavatam in an easy to understand and rational manner.” he said.

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Akshaya Patra inaugurates phase-2 of its Mangalore Kitchen

Moving ahead with its aim of feeding school children, Akshaya Patra recently launched the Phase-2 of the Mangalore Kitchen of Akshaya Patra Foundation on June 17, Tuesday. The NGO is helping students realize their dreams by making their foundations strong. Many grow to become doctors, engineers, sports personalities, and what not.

The inauguration ceremony was held at Urwa Market at Mangalore. It was attended by District in-charge Minister B. Ramanatha Rai, Moideen Bava MLA, Karunya Sagar Dasa, President of the Akshaya Patra Foundation, Mangalore, ISKCON office bearers, school teachers and some other officials.

District in-charge Minister B. Ramanatha Rai delivered an address to the audience and was all praise for the immense work and support of Akshaya Patra Foundation towards school children. He praised the mid-day meal scheme of the government and the important role the NGO is playing in making it a reality.

Sri Madhu Pandit Dasa, Chairman, the Akshaya Patra Foundation said that the foundation started the Akshaya Patra meal programme with feeding 1500 children in Bangalore. The foundation thought that the maximum they could feed would not be more than 30000 children. But today they are feeding 15 lakh children, which he stated is unbelievable for them. This shows the potency of the programme and its scalability, he said.

Sri Madhu Pandit Dasa emphasized that the Akshaya Patra meal has the potential to break the recurring cycle of poverty and promote self-sustainability. Many children have got engineering and medical seats and some got placed in software companies as well.

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President Pranab Mukherjee meets Sri Madhu Pandit Dasa

Sri Madhu Pandit Dasa, the Chairman and Sri Chanchalapathi Dasa, the President of Vrindavan Chandrodaya Mandir, met with Sri Pranab Mukherjee, the Honourable President of India. During the meeting, Sri Madhu Pandit Dasa briefed the Honourable President about the upcoming world’s tallest temple - Vrindavan Chandrodaya Mandir and various aspects of the project. Sri Pranab Mukherjee was very appreciative of the Vrindavan Chandrodaya Mandir project and efforts of its team. He expressed his heartfelt good wishes for the project and said that he will always support any endeavour to spread the teachings of Lord Krishna. He also congratulated Sri Madhu Pandit Dasa for envisioning such a wonderful project to spread the glories of Lord Krishna, following in the footsteps of Srila Prabhupada and Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

Vrindavan Chandrodaya Mandir aims to bring about an awakening among Indians and create a nation that is not only full of talent, creativity and energy but also adorned with exalted values and character.  We wish to make a bold statement about the importance of Lord Sri Krishna and His divine mission in the world, using contemporary architectural language. The tall, imposing skyscraper temple should proclaim the status of Vrindavan as one of India’s spiritual capitals. The temple will draw attention of the world’s thinkers, leaders and inquisitive minds to know more about Lord Sri Krishna and His soothing, healing message for the harried world. Madhu Pandit Dasa thanked The President for his support and said “We feel highly honoured and encouraged by the gesture extended by The Honourable President of India, Sri Pranab Mukherjee. Vrindavan Chandrodaya Mandir will not only house a temple for the worship of Lord Sri Krishna, but will also become a centre for disseminating the profound message of the Bhagavad Gita and Srimad Bhagavatam, delivered in a modern context. This project is dedicated to play a larger role in shaping the future of this country.”  

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Ananta Shesha Sthapana Puja

“The incarnation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead known as Shesha or Ananta has unlimited strength, fame, wealth, knowledge, beauty and renunciation. Ananta’s strength is so great that the innumerable universes rest on His hoods. He has the bodily features of a snake with thousands of hoods, and since His strength is unlimited, all the universes resting on His hoods feel no heavier than mustard seeds. We can just imagine how insignificant a mustard seed is on the hood of a serpent. Lord Visnu's incarnation as the serpentine Ananta Sesa Naga supports all the universes on His hoods. By our calculation, a universe may be very, very heavy, but because the Lord is ananta (unlimited), He feels the weight to be no heavier than a mustard seed."

-    Srimad Bhagavatam commentary by Srila Prabhupada  

“The idea of this ceremony is that the entire Temple building will be resting on the hoods of the Ananta Shesha (snake), and this is very auspicious.” – Srila Prabhupada

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INNOVATIVE PRESENTATION OF ANCIENT INDIAN HERITAGE

Madhu Pandit Dasa envisions to showcase the rich Indian heritage through legendary stories of Mahabharata and Ramayana on platforms of world class presentation like 3-D Animation and Theme Parks on the likes of Disney Land. The India Heritage Foundation’s first project was ‘Little Krishna’, a 3D state of the art animation serial depicting childhood pastimes of Krishna. Impressed by its world class quality and business prospects internationally, The BIG Animation of Reliance Big Entertainment Pvt Ltd entered into a partnership with India Heritage Foundation to complete the 13 episode serial with a production cost of over Rs.50 crores. ‘Little Krishna’ has today won several national and international awards to its credit. To name a few it received Best 3D Animation – Asian Television Award- 2009;  Outstanding Indian Animated Content- FICCI Frames 2008;Best Animated T.V. series- FICCI Frames 2008; Best 3D Animation Film- Golden Curser 2008; Best Animated Film-24FPS Animation Awards 2006-07.

Currently Madhu Pandit Dasa is working on setting up a Indian Heritage and Culture Tourism  Park. The ‘Krishna Lila Park’ will be built with an integrated spiritual township  in Bangalore  on a 75 acre land in Bangalore city at an estimated cost of over Rs. 750 crores. This is the first attempt in this country to bring in the same technology that is used in Disney Parks around the world to create attractions centered around  themes of Mahabharata and Ramayana etc. The unique funding strategy of realty cross subsidizing a major heritage and cultural tourism project on a grand scale by a non-profit organization is a startling combination of concepts brought together by Madhu Pandit Dasa.

One common  personal trait of Madhu Pandit Dasa can be observed to run through all these projects in the last three decades. His courage and faith in daring to dream and make the impossible happen out of nothing and engage the glorious results in the selfless service to humanity. The traits of a daring selfless social entrepreneur.

Governing Body Commissioner – ISKCON Bangalore Group of Temples President and Governing Council Member, ISKCON Bangalore Society Temple President, ISKCON Sri Radha Krishna Mandir, Bangalore Chairman, The Akshaya Patra Foundation Managing Trustee, Hare Krishna Movement

Pasted from http://www.madhupanditdasa.info

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AKSHAY PATRA, FEEDING OVER ONE MILLION UNDERPRIVILEGED CHILDREN EVERYDAY

Madhu Pandit Das then set about addressing the issue of supporting education through a mid day meal scheme. He worked at leveraging technology and philanthropy towards the cause of alleviating hunger of school children of this country. Thus was born the Akshaya Patra Program. It began as a scheme that fed 1,500 underprivileged children in the year 2000. In less than 10 years the Akshaya Patra Foundation has becomes one of India’s best conceived, technology-intensive social sector initiatives. A strategic intervention in the education of underprivileged children that provides unlimited, free, hygienic, nutritious meals every day.  This programme reaches over a million school children in eighteen locations in eight states in the country. The growth of Akshaya Patra Foundation demonstrates Madhu Pandit Dasa’s organizational ability in bringing together the best technology and innovation-talents ,  principles and practices  of corporate governance, corporate donors, individual donors and the government into the social sector to address, in a scalable manner,  one of the most pressing needs of the country, that of supporting education among underprivileged children.

The efficiency and intricacies of this Akshaya Patra program has attracted the Harvard Business School to make a case study of it. The practices of corporate governance in Akshaya Patra has attracted the CNBC India Business Leader Award-2008 under the category ‘Society Enterprise of the year’. The transparency and accountability has attracted ‘ICAI Award for Excellence in Financial Reporting’ conferred by The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India for the year ended March 31, 2009. The leveraging of technology in education sector has earned itself the coveted Tech Awards Laureates 2009, as one of 15 global innovators recognized each year for applying technology to benefit humanity and spark global change. The Tech Awards, a signature program of The Tech Museum, and presented by Applied Materials, Inc. USA, selected Akshaya Patra from among hundreds of nominations representing 66 countries. These are just a few of the several accolades received by this program which has attracted leaders in business and politics all over the world as a model. His vision is to scale up the Akshaya Patra Program by 2020 to feed five million underprivileged children in India.  www.akshayapatra.org

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RURAL DEVELOPMENT - Madhu Pandit Dasa

Inspired by the idea of simple living and high thinking, Madhu Pandit Dasa envisioned a  eco-friendly and sustainable organic farm. His initiatives led to creating the Hare Krishna Nature Farm, in Mysore. This concept of impacting rural development through sustainable agriculture was conceived by him  long before the organized sector realized its potential..The Hare Krishna Nature Farm grew to be a model farm and a case study in sustainable and organic farming in Karnataka, specific to the farmers of dry lands. Thousands of farmers all over India have benefitted from this project.

The Nature Farm believes in making a difference to the lives of farmers, who comprise over 55% of the nation’s population. It is founded on the understanding that the diverse culture of farming rests with the rural population and any drain of rural population to the urban settlement results in the extinction of the delicate and diverse cultural fabric of the nation. The motto being, ‘Taking prosperity to the door steps of farmers’.

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A visionary organizational leader - Madhu Pandit Dasa

Madhu Pandit Das has demonstrated ability in building organizations of excellence in the non-profit sector and is held in high esteem for his contribution to the society in humanitarian, cultural and spiritual spheres. He has been instrumental in conceiving and implementing many social initiatives that impact million of people in this country, giving them a better quality of life. Besides his achievements in the social sector, he has evolved innovative ideas in presenting the ancient cultural ethos of India in a modern scientific and technological context.

The first few years after leaving IIT was dedicated to the challenges of his internal spiritual self-development guided by the teachings of Bhagavad Gita As It Is by His Divine Grace A.C.Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada .  In the year 1990 he took up the challenge of building one of today’s most  popular cultural and spiritual centers,  a landmark destination in Bangalore: The ISKCON Sri Radha Krishna Temple .  Starting with practically nothing, from a fledging two room rented premises, Madhu Pandit built and led a team of selfless volunteers in what can be considered as one of India’s largest fundraising efforts of those days, to set up this cultural monument at a cost of over Rs. 40 crores on a seven acres plot in the heart of Bangalore City. It was inaugurated in 1997 by the then President of India. The successful completion of this project was due his applying his training in IIT on a foundation of spiritual maturity for a selfless cause.  www.iskconbangalore.org

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Madhu Pandit Dasa

Madhu Pandit Dasa (former name Madhusudan S) was born in 1956 in Trivandrum, India. As a pre-degree student, he was selected by the National Science Talent search program of the country. He completed his B.Tech in Civil Engineering from IIT-Mumbai in the year 1980. During his days in IIT, he became interested in the books of Srila Prabhupada, the founder-acharya of ISKCON. While he was doing his M.Tech course in IIT-Mumbai in 1981, he dedicated himself to the service of humanity by becoming a full-time member of ISKCON.

Madhu Pandit  began to travel all over South India organizing programs to increase the awareness of ISKCON and its mission. Seeing his potential as a leader, he was soon made the President of ISKCON, Trivandrum. In 1983, he became involved in overseeing the activities of ISKCON, Bangalore along with his responsibilities in Trivandrum temple. At that time a small fledgling centre in a rented apartment in an inconspicuous neighborhood of the city. Under his leadership, soon the popularity and activities of ISKCON-Bangalore began to blossom. In 1988, the Government of Karnataka allotted 6.5 acres of a rocky abandoned hillock in the city to set up a cultural complex. Being dissatisfied with what the commissioned architects were proposing for the cultural complex, he took upon himself to design the complex according to what he had envisioned. Soon he also started organizing efforts to raise funds for the construction of the complex. The next ten years unfolded an unprecedented scale of development on the hillock, now called the Hare Krishna Hill: the design and construction of a colossal cultural complex, mobilization of support and fund raising to a tune of Rs. 38 crores (Rs.380 million or $ 9.5 million) and recruiting and training nearly 100 full-time dedicated members of ISKCON. The monumental Cultural Complex was inaugurated in 1997 by the then President of India Dr. Shankar Dayal Sharma.

In 1994, he initiated an integrated social development project for the benefit of the rural people of Mysore and Mandya districts. A model, prototype organic farm based on natural and earth-friendly farming methods along with an internationally accredited farmer-training center has been setup in the 110-acre land on the banks of river Kaveri in Srirangapatam.

The primary purpose of this is to establish self-sufficient farming communities. The farming techniques employed are traditional and organic to promote pro-environmental agriculture. Hundreds of farmers are deriving inspiration to adopt environmental and soil friendly agricultural methods researched and disseminated scientifically from this model farm. Rural women are trained in this farm in the practices and methods of organic farming. This farm is also supporting hundreds of farmers during the transition from chemical to organic farms. Many neighboring farms have successfully converted into organic farms.

He initiated the Akshaya Patra program to provide mid-day meals to underprivileged children in the Government schools of Bangalore Rural District during July 2000.