Madhu Pandit Dasa

Madhu Pandit Dasa (former name Madhusudan S) was born in 1956 in Trivandrum, India. As a pre-degree student, he was selected by the National Science Talent search program of the country. He completed his B.Tech in Civil Engineering from IIT-Mumbai in the year 1980. During his days in IIT, he became interested in the books of Srila Prabhupada, the founder-acharya of ISKCON. While he was doing his M.Tech course in IIT-Mumbai in 1981, he dedicated himself to the service of humanity by becoming a full-time member of ISKCON.

He began to travel all over South India organizing programs to increase the awareness of ISKCON and its mission. Seeing his potential as a leader, he was soon made the President of ISKCON, Trivandrum. In 1983, he became involved in overseeing the activities of ISKCON, Bangalore along with his responsibilities in Trivandrum temple. At that time a small fledgling centre in a rented apartment in an inconspicuous neighborhood of the city. Under his leadership, soon the popularity and activities of ISKCON-Bangalore began to blossom. In 1988, the Government of Karnataka allotted 6.5 acres of a rocky abandoned hillock in the city to set up a cultural complex. Being dissatisfied with what the commissioned architects were proposing for the cultural complex, he took upon himself to design the complex according to what he had envisioned. Soon he also started organizing efforts to raise funds for the construction of the complex. The next ten years unfolded an unprecedented scale of development on the hillock, now called the Hare Krishna Hill: the design and construction of a colossal cultural complex, mobilization of support and fund raising to a tune of Rs. 38 crores (Rs.380 million or $ 9.5 million) and recruiting and training nearly 100 full-time dedicated members of ISKCON. The monumental Cultural Complex was inaugurated in 1997 by the then President of India Dr. Shankar Dayal Sharma.

In 1994, he initiated an integrated social development project for the benefit of the rural people of Mysore and Mandya districts. A model, prototype organic farm based on natural and earth-friendly farming methods along with an internationally accredited farmer-training center ha