(Appeared in Back to Godhead Magazine - September/October 2004)

By the shores of the Ganges in Mayapur, West Bengal, an educational institution is arising to fulfill a global prophesy of ISKCON’s founder-acarya, Srila Prabhupada.

Although his friends in Melbourne, Australia, went to Krishna schools, Mahamantra Dasa always attended public schools and visited the local temple only on the weekends. But when he reached puberty, Mahamantra started to see what Srila Prabhupada meant when he referred to materialistic schools as “slaughterhouses.”

“Sexual promiscuity was the norm,” he says, “both inside and outside the classroom.”

After he finished the ninth grade, his devotee parents gave him permission to leave school and move into the temple as a full-time brahmacari.