From Ashram to Condo: Transformation of a Religious Ideal‪.‬

Construction booms in contemporary Vrindaban, the traditional site of the childhood and youth of Krishna. A previous "building boom" occurred in Vrindaban in the sixteenth century, when Vaishnava groups "rediscovered" the sacred places of Krishna's life and established devotional centers there. Then, from the 1960s through 1990s, the Hare Krishna movement and its subgroups established their own temples in Vrindaban. Other Hindu gurus also founded ashrams there as part their teaching, preaching, and cultivation of disciples. Both Hare Krishna and other guru traditions addressed the religious needs of middle-class lay Indian disciples by adapting the traditional structure of the ashram. Recent residential developments (and their marketing campaigns), however, present a radically different image of this ashram institution, displaying changed relationships to guru and tradition, raising serious environmental concerns, and problematizing the future prospects of this pilgrimage center. Geography & History: Construction of the Sacred Pilgrimage Site of Vrindaban