When a lone Indian missionary founded the International Society for Krishna Consciousness in New York in the 1960s, he had nothing but a trunk full of books, $7 in rupees and a typewriter with which to spread the so-called "Hare Krishna movement."

That mass-media starter kit has since evolved into Twitter, YouTube, podcasts and Facebook, and you can bet that with those kinds of tools, members of the Sri Sri Radha Krishna Temple in Spanish Fork aren't going to just sit around waiting for visitors to come find them.

Sri Sri Radha Krishna Temple president Caru Das began his Spanish Fork ministry at a local AM radio station, where he broadcast daily classes, scripture readings and music about Krishna, the Hindu god; digital publishing and social media are natural next steps for him.

"We've tried in the last year or so to make the temple programs more 'seeker' friendly," Caru Das said in an e-mail sent from India, where he's currently lecturing on multimedia at other ISKCON temples. "We already receive around 50,000 visitors a year and have festivals, yoga classes, school tours and yoga retreats, but we also wanted to do something for people who can not make it to the temple."

Caru Das and other temple volunteers launched a new Web site, UtahKrishnas.org, in the fall of 2009. With it come 24-hour live webcam feeds (including high definition) of the temple, weekly podcasts, online radio and YouTube videos.

"The first change we made was to make the lectures at our weekly 5 p.m. Sunday services available online both through our own Web site and as podcasts from iTunes," Caru Das said. "They address issues of marital discord, depression, financial management, low self esteem and personal fulfillment."

The temple's iTunes channel alone has seen 1,000 downloads in two months.

Volunteer Jerry Proudlock, manager of Deseret Book in Spanish Fork, has donated his spare time helping Caru Das upload his lectures onto iTunes. He's also worked to make each track available alongside its corresponding Powerpoint slides. Proudlock, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is excited that the non-sectarian ISKCON messages can now reach so many more people.

"When you don't reach out to understand, you inhibit yourself," he said. "He [Caru Das] has had e-mails from India, New York and all over from people that found his site and enjoyed the podcast."

Caru Das has uploaded around 100 videos to his site, ranging from instructional videos about vegetarian cooking to virtual tours of the temple. On the social media front, Caru Das has 1,700 Facebook friends, blogs bi-weekly and tweets every day. Proudlock's wife, Lisa, manages a visitor database to whom she sends a self-published newsletter.

"We're doing the same thing as ISKCON founder A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada," temple priest Sri Hanuman Das said. "We've still got our typewriter and trunk full of books." Sri Hanuman Das, whose yoga classes are taped for later online viewing, said ISKCON's founder was a big believer in mass communication, and the Spanish Fork temple's contemporary media efforts are a continuation of his goals.

As for the old AM radio station where it all began, the radio tower still looms in the background behind the temple. Realizing that AM transmissions were limited in reach, Caru Das leased the broadcasting rights to another company and converted hundreds of VHS tapes and records into digital form. This collection of years of broadcasts, which includes 3,000 songs, loops 24-hours a day online on the temple Web site.

Next on the slate is beefing up the Web site's online member community, wherein devotees and newcomers alike can get to know each other and share lessons, Proudlock said. They're also looking to add a vegetarian cooking guide section.

"We have been immensely grateful that the community volunteers time and labor in a myriad of ways to support the outreach," Caru Das said. "Without lessening any of that, we've started to 'boil the milk' this past year. That means we are offering more in-depth training at our center and thickening our relations with special members."

• Matt Reichman can be reached at (801) 344-2907 or mreichman@heraldextra.com

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