Nadia Pharmacy
NADIA Pharmacy recently celebrated its launch just days ago on Oct 1, 2016. Officiating the launch was Federal Territories deputy minister Datuk Dr Loga Bala Mohan Jagannathan. The pharmacy, located along Jalan Tun Sambanthan in Brickfields, markets a variety of health-based products, as well as over-the-counter medical prescriptions by in-house registered pharmacists.
The 5,000sq ft pharmacy is said to be the biggest in Kuala Lumpur. Its early beginnings that led to its establishment is an interesting one, detailed below.
Nadia Pharmacy is one of many businesses established under Koperasi Hare Krishna Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur, the business cooperative arm of a society called Iskcon Malaysia. The society has affiliations with the Sri Sri Radha Krishna Temple, the Bhaktivedanta Cultural Centre, and the Temple of Devotion and Understanding in Malaysia. These interesting places and others including the 108 temples across the globe are standing today because of the sheer determination and vision of one man – Srila Prabhupada. He is also responsible for establishing self-sustaining faminr communities, founding the Gurukula Schools, introducing the Food For Life programme and translating the Hindu scriptures Bhagavad Gita and Srimad Bhagavatam Purana into English.
Born Abhay Charan De in Calcutta, Srila is also founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (Iskcon) which was established in 1966. It is he who is responsible for spreading the Hare Krishna Maha Mantra among young Americans in the West and preaching the Vaishnava scriptures.
Srila first visited Malaysia in 1971. Purpose for his visit here was to fulfil his vision of building a temple, which though did not materialise initially, eventually did after a bizarre meeting with Toh Puan Uma Sambanthan. The meeting has since seen the establishment of the temple, as well as many preaching centres. It has also grown the number of devotees throughout the country. Nadia Pharmacy, along with a sugarcane farm, vegetarian bakery and other enterprises and undertakings are similarly established under Iskcon Malaysia.