New Delhi. The world famous Shri Banke Bihari Temple located in Vrindavan has been issued FCRA license by the Union Home Ministry. The big thing is that the decision to issue FCRA license was taken by the Central Government without any application from the temple administration. Now Banke Bihari Mandir has been registered under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), 2010. The advantage of this will be that the temple administration will now be able to take donations from abroad for religious work. Banke Bihari Temple is owned and managed by the Sevayat Goswami priests, Saraswat Brahmins and the descendants of Swami Haridas.

According to The Hindu report, Ashok Goswami, a priest of the temple, said that no application for FCRA license has ever been made by the temple committee or any priest. He also said that it is the responsibility of the temple committee to run all the religious functions of the temple smoothly. The temple committee is constituted by the Civil Judge, Junior Division. When asked about the rights over the temple property, he said that apart from Goswami priests like us, its owners are also many outsiders included in the committee.

Currently donations are taken in three ways in the temple

According to priest Ashok Goswami, Banke Bihari temple receives a large number of donations from devotees. There are three types of donations taken in the temple – firstly, the devotees donate directly to the priests. The second way is that some devotees donate to the temple administration through bank checks or other digital payments and thirdly, large amounts of cash are also offered by devotees through donation boxes kept in the temple. Every day a large number of devotees from all over the country and abroad come to Shribanke Bihari Temple for darshan.