Damodara dasa on Comcast Newsmakers
PALACE OF GOLD & PALACE ROSE GARDEN TO BE FEATURED ON CNN HEADLINE NEWS
This May and June, the Palace of Gold and the Palace Rose Garden will be featured on CNN Headline News. The five-minute interview with Damodar dasa, Vice President of Guest Services in New Vrindaban Community, will air approximately 50 times in over 875,000 homes in the Pittsburgh, Laurel Highlands and Ohio Valley regions. The interview was conducted by Comcast Newsmakers, whose guests include federal and state legislators, local elected officials and nonprofit organizations. Comcast Newsmakers is seen on CNN Headline News by Comcast subscribers.
“The Palace of Gold is being featured due its international and historical significance,” said Damodar. “The Palace Rose Garden is being featured due to the extraordinary beauty of the rose varieties, as well as the fact that this garden blooms three times a year from June through September.”
Last year, the Palace of Gold received over 15,000 visitors from around the world. “The Palace was a labor of love,” explained Damodar. “It was built by young Hare Krishna devotees as an for their teacher or guru, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the Founder-Acharya of the modern Hare Krishna movement.”
The Palace was originally intended be a home for Srila Prabhupada, but he passed away shortly before the seven-year construction was completed. Thus, the Palace of Gold was converted into Srila Prabhupada’s pushpa-samadhi or memorial. For this reason, the Palace of Gold is a place of pilgrimage for the international community of Vaishnavas, Hindus and Asian Indians.
Moreover, the Palace of Gold is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the Ohio Valley due to its architectural beauty and historical significance. “The Palace of Gold is America’s Taj Mahal,” said Damodar. “A visit to the Palace is like a visit to India. It is a cultural experience.”
Outside, the Palace Rose Garden boasts over 100 different varieties of roses. The Palace Rose Garden is one of 130 gardens in North America that is accredited by the All-America Rose Selections (AARS) is a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the vitality, strength and beauty of garden roses. Currently, close to half of the 850 rose plants at the Palace of Gold are AARS winners, ensuring the exceptional overall beauty of the garden.
Inside the Palace, there are thirty-one stained glass windows, including four peacock windows with over 1,500 pieces of cut glass in each window. The floors and walls are all polished marble inlay and include fifty-two varieties of marble and onyx from Europe, Asia and Africa. All the furniture is carved teakwood from India. In the Grand Hall, there is an unusually large French chandelier that is over 150 years old, as well as a 4,200 piece crystal ceiling designed in a style similar to the ceiling in the Dilwara Jain Temple in Mount Abu in Rajasthan.
Please visit the Palace of Gold and the Palace Rose Garden this summer. The entire site is surcharged with the spiritual potency of Srila Prabhupada and his presence is especially manifest there.
Just completed my first visit to New Vrindavan Ratha Yatra and I couldn’t get over the fact that it was the most beautiful place I have ever seen. But it needs a lot of exterior restoration work. From now on I will make a pledge to contribute for its restoration and convince other people to do so. This I’m doing for Srila Prabhipada.