ISKCON Sydney (Sri Sri Radha Gopinath Mandir), North Sydneyਇਸਕਾਨ ਸਿਡਨੀ (ਸ੍ਰੀ ਸ੍ਰੀ ਰਾਧਾ ਗੋਪੀਨਾਥ ਮੰਦਰ), ਉੱਤਰੀ ਸਿਡਨੀ

Some temples are built once and stay put. Sydney's Hare Krishna temple is the opposite: its deities travelled halfway around the world, were worshipped in eleven different homes, and only settled for good in North Sydney in 1992. ISKCON Sydney, the Sri Sri Radha Gopinath Mandir at 180 Falcon Street, North Sydney, is the Sydney home of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. Its presiding deities, Sri Sri Radha Gopinatha, were installed by ISKCON's founder, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, on 10 May 1971, and the temple now says it is rebuilding its North Sydney home so the community has a lasting place for worship, learning and festivals.

What is ISKCON Sydney?

ISKCON Sydney is a Hindu temple in North Sydney, New South Wales, dedicated to Radha and Krishna in their forms as Sri Sri Radha Gopinatha. It belongs to ISKCON, the worldwide Hare Krishna society, which the temple notes has more than 800 centres globally. Alongside Radha Gopinatha, the temple community also worships Sri Sri Jagannath, Baladeva and Subhadra, and Sri Sri Gaura Nitai, and keeps a daily round of offerings and aratis. The temple is open every day, and its best known weekly gathering is the Sunday Feast, held on Sunday evenings, where visitors share kirtan, a talk and a sanctified vegetarian meal. The temple says it serves more than 350 such meals every Sunday.

How did the first deities in Australia reach Sydney?

The story begins in February 1970, when two devotees sent by Prabhupada, Bali Mardana Das and Upendra Das, opened the first ISKCON temple in Australia at Potts Point in Sydney. In May 1970 the small group moved to Bondi, where they worshipped a photograph and held Sunday feasts. A visitor from India, remembered by the temple simply as Mr Singh, was moved by their devotion and promised to send them Radha Krishna deities from India. The first set he sent arrived after the devotees had moved again without leaving a forwarding address, so it was returned to India. Undeterred, he carried a second set to Prabhupada himself, who was holding a large public programme at Cross Maidan in Mumbai in March 1971. The deities were displayed at that programme, then travelled with Prabhupada through Malaysia and on his flight to Australia.

On 10 May 1971 Prabhupada installed them in Paddington, Sydney, and gave them their name, Sri Sri Radha Gopinatha. ISKCON News, reporting their 50th anniversary in 2021, describes them as the first deities in Australia. The anniversary festival ran for five days in May 2021 and included a 50 hour continuous kirtan, classes by senior devotees, a tour of earlier temple sites, and a flower showering ceremony for the deities. Devotees who had served the temple in the 1970s and 1980s returned for a reunion held alongside the festival.

Why has the temple moved so many times?

In the early decades the Sydney congregation was small and rented its homes, so the deities moved with it. ISKCON News records that Radha Gopinatha moved ten times and were worshipped in eleven different temples before arriving at the present North Sydney temple in 1992. That building is owned by ISKCON, which made it their permanent residence. The official temple site puts the Sydney branch's establishment in 1971 and describes the current project plainly: the community is rebuilding the temple at 180 Falcon Street to create a spiritual oasis and a place of learning for future generations. An earlier plan described adding floors, a larger custom built temple room, and ashram and guest rooms.

What happens at the temple today?

Daily worship is the centre of temple life. The temple's Gopinath Seva programme describes seven food offerings and seven aratis each day, with the deities dressed in fresh outfits and flower garlands made daily. Beyond the altar, the temple runs classes in the Bhagavad Gita and other texts, local education programmes, and a Food for Life programme that, the temple says, has distributed free sanctified meals to the public for more than 30 years. The Sunday Feast remains the easiest way in for a newcomer: it runs from 6 pm to 8 pm on Sundays and is open to everyone, with no need to be a devotee to attend.

Visiting ISKCON Sydney

The temple stands at 180 Falcon Street, North Sydney, NSW 2060, a short walk from North Sydney station and the harbour side suburbs. The official site lists temple hours as 4:30 am to 9:15 pm every day. Visitors are welcome at aratis and at the Sunday Feast, and modest dress and removing shoes before entering the temple room are the usual courtesies at Hare Krishna temples. Because rebuilding work is under way at the site, anyone travelling a long way may want to check the temple's website or phone line first for the day's arrangements. The temple lists its phone as +61 2 9959 4558.