ISKCON Temple Delhi

ISKCON Temple Delhi tickets and tours: which one to book

Entry to the ISKCON Temple in Delhi is free, and no ticket for it alone is sold online. You leave your shoes at the counter, pass a security check and go straight up to the main hall for darshan. What you can pay for is the Glory of India Vedic Cultural Centre inside the complex, a set of exhibitions and shows, with tickets sold on site; and meals at the temple's vegetarian restaurant, which serves a large buffet, are also extra. The cultural centre is worth considering if you are curious about the Hindu epics: it includes a multimedia show about the Bhagavad Gita with animated figures, light and sound, a show retelling the Mahabharata, a gallery of paintings on the Ramayana and an exhibit on the Bhagavata Purana.

Allow an extra hour or so if you add it to your visit. Most visitors arrive by metro, taxi or auto-rickshaw. Private and group tours of New Delhi sometimes include the temple, usually together with the nearby Lotus Temple, Humayun's Tomb and Qutub Minar; such tours normally provide a car, driver and guide, while entry fees at the paid monuments are added on. The temple is easy to visit independently, and the Lotus Temple is close enough to see on the same short outing. The page lists any GetYourGuide tours whose route passes the temple.

Visiting ISKCON Temple Delhi: what to see and how to behave

The temple, formally Sri Sri Radha Parthasarathi Mandir, crowns a small rocky rise known as Hare Krishna Hill in the East of Kailash area of south Delhi. It was designed by the architect Achyut Kanvinde, who took on the commission without a fee, and was inaugurated in 1998 by the prime minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Its tall spires mix modern lines with the shapes of North Indian temple towers. Steps lead up to the main hall, a bright, high space with painted ceilings and three altars. The central one holds Radha and Krishna in the form of Parthasarathi, Krishna as the charioteer of Arjuna in the Mahabharata; the others are dedicated to Rama with Sita, Lakshmana and Hanuman, and to Chaitanya and Nityananda.

The ceremonies of offering lamps, food and flowers are performed several times a day to music and chanting, and visitors are welcome to watch or join in. Within the complex, the cultural centre holds what is presented as the largest printed sacred book in the world, an enormous edition of the Bhagavad Gita weighing about 800 kg and more than 2.8 m tall, unveiled here in 2019. The complex also includes an auditorium, offices, a bookshop and the restaurant. Shoes come off at the entrance, and photography inside the main hall is usually restricted, so ask before using a camera. The nearest metro stations are Nehru Place and Kailash Colony on the Violet Line, each roughly 1 km away, and the Lotus Temple lies under 2 km to the east.

ISKCON Temple Delhi: opening hours, ceremonies and the best time to go

The temple opens early in the morning for the first ceremony of the day, closes for a few hours in the early afternoon and reopens from late afternoon until about 9 pm; check the official site for the current schedule. The evening ceremony, with music and chanting in a full hall, is the most memorable time to come, while mid-morning on a weekday is the quietest. Delhi is most pleasant from October to March. The summer heat from April to June makes the climb and the marble floors trying in the middle of the day, and the monsoon from July to September brings humid, rainy weather.

Krishna Janmashtami, in August or September, is the biggest day of the year, when hundreds of thousands of people come through the temple and queues stretch far down the hill. The Rath Yatra chariot procession and Radhashtami are other festive occasions. Allow an hour for the temple, two with the cultural centre and a meal. Combine it with the Lotus Temple and the Kalkaji Mandir nearby, or with Humayun's Tomb.