The Role of Sacred Place on Quality of Life: A Temporal Study at International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), Mayapur, West Bengal

Sacred places do not only help to preserve the bio-cultural environment but also help to heal the difficulties of an individual's life. In this study, an attempt has been made to understand the therapeutic importance of a sacred place to improve the overall quality of life of individuals. This temporal study was conducted on 170 devotees residing at ISKCON, Mayapur, West Bengal in May 2021 and the same devotees again interacted in September 2022 with the help of the WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire to assess their Quality of Life (QoL). To examine the internal consistency of the WHOQOL-BREF scale in the study area, Cronbach's alpha coefficient was calculated. Paired t-test was used to compare the differences in the quality of life of the devotees after a certain interval. In this study, internal consistency (α = 0.722) for WHOQOL-BREF has been observed. The results of paired sample t-test show that there is a significant (p < 0.05) improvement in the quality of life of the devotees residing at ISKCON, Mayapur, West Bengal. The sacred place i.e. ISKCON, Mayapur has helped to improve individual’s quality of life of the devotees through different religious, and spiritual practices and therapeutic activities.