Witness to a Temple The Hare Krishna Movement in Auckland 1972-2004

"Witness to a Temple", by Madri Hardwick-Smith, chronicles in absorbing detail the daunting mission of a group of young, inexperienced devotees in their decades-long struggle to fulfill a bold prediction. In 1972, Founder-Acarya His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada installed the first ISKCON Deities in New Zealand, Sri Sri Radha Giridhari, confidently predicting that “In New Zealand we shall very soon have our own temple”.
The writer brings to life the individual and collective struggles, disappointments and final triumphs of this group of young devotees developing a rural spiritual community under extreme conditions. It creates a rich, historically important picture of those pioneer days as the International Society for Krishna Consciousness finally finds its place in New Zealand and triumphantly installs Sri Sri Radha Giridhari in Their magnificent Temple of Devotion.