Minnesota has had three ISKCON home temples over the last 40 plus years, all residing in South Minneapolis, but for whatever reason none of them sustained, and eventually closed their doors.
We continue to have a huge devotee community, and it is constantly growing. We have various home programs within the suburbs of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, and within the cities. All these groups coordinate in cooperation to celebrate annual festivals, e.g., Janmastami, Ratha Yatra, Gita Jayanti, just to name a few.
Our community has been talking about renting a location or buying a building for an ISKCON temple in Minnesota for over 30 years. Earlier in the spring of 2023, a small group of devotees came together to discuss forming ISKCON Minnesota for the sole purpose of unifying all the devotees under ISKCON “International Society for Krishna Consciousness,” to directly serve Srila Prabhupada’s seven purposes of ISKCON and deliver his mission to spread Krishna Consciousness throughout the western world. These five devotees attended the grand opening of Naperville temple in Illinois, and from this ecstatic experience grew the vision, desire, and determination to form ISKCON Minnesota and open a center/temple in 2023. The five devotees met with His Holiness Romapada Swami, and they asked for his blessings and advice, which he gave with great mercy and love with one key statement “Start small,” and so began ISKCON Minnesota.