43rd issue - Nitya-seva Newsletter

 April 2019.

Dear Devotees,

This month Krishna-Valley was flooded with mercy as many of Srila Prabhpada’s disciples came to grace us with their association. H.H Bhakti Raghava Swami, a French-Canadian sannyasi who is presently travelling around Europe doing a research study about farm communities, came to our farm on the 23 of March. During his visit he interviewed Krishna-Valley’s resident devotees and leaders hoping to gain deeper insight about what makes our community exceptional. He was very impressed by our well organized project and particularly appreciated how enthusiastic devotees were to implement Vanrasram and self-sufficiency.

Only two days after Maharaja left H.G Partha Prabhu and his wife, H.G mother Uttama arrived, coming all the way from Canada to stay with us for one week. They are part of ISKCON’s Grhasta Vision team whose mission it is to help devotees develop the knowledge and skills necessary to have healthy and happy grhasta lives while engaging in Lord Krishna’s service. Invited by the Hungarian counselling system leaders, they gave seminars and held discussions about how to maintain aparada (offence) free relationships. All the devotees from the community were invited to a six-hour seminar on empathic listening.  Those who attended said they found the information extremely beneficial because it provided practical tools for dealing with everyday conflicts. In addition, hearing the seminars and discussion helped our own Krishna-Valley counsellors feel more prepared and confident to do their service of helping to coach devotee families who might be experiencing difficulty in their marital relationships.

After a week Partha Prabhu and Mother Uttama, went on to visit the Budapest temple and H.H Prahladananda Swami came to visit for a few days.  Since he was with us on Ramanavami he gave an inspiring class on Lord Ramachandra’s appearance.  Maharaja spoke about the exalted yet notorious position that demons such as Ravana hold in the Lord’s pastimes.  His talk was filled with unique pastimes many of us had never heard before.

Only two days after Prahladananda Swami’s arrival, our very own Sivarama Swami returned to Hungary.  First, he stopped for a few days at the Budapest temple and then he arrived at Krishna Valley for a ten-day visit. Having Maharaja with us is always the most inspiring time of the year. His presence lifts our spirits, provides renewed energy and reminds us of our spiritual goals. His classes and personal meetings with leaders and community members help keep us in line, show us the right path and tell point out the improvements we need to make. We always look forward for Maharaja’s return, but we are also saddened when he leaves us.

Another special visitor to Krsna Valley in April, was H.G Balabhadra Prabhu and his wife, H.G mother Chayadevi.  They came to offer a seminar on how to train oxen by voice command. Eight attendees from other European countries as well as five of our own community members came to participate in this one-week seminar.  The feedback from the participants was extremely positive. Everyone found the seminar to be very instructive and helpful. This method of training oxen is not widely used in Europe and has just recently been introduced on our own farm. Attending the presentation provided further encouragement for participants to try this method out in order to experience its positive results for themselves. Bhalabadra Prabhu and mother Chayadevi were the last Srila Prabhupada disciples to visit us in April.  Making it an information packed, spiritually enlivening month for all of us.

April was an exciting month for us in other ways too!  Two of our previous donors decided to donate for additional Nitya-Seva days.  This marked the second Nitya-Seva day for one of them. The other donor, a couple that had pledged for two Nitya-Seva days already, became so inspired to see how dedicated the Krishna-Valley devotees were to establish simple living and high thinking centered around their beautiful Lordships, Radhe Syama, that they decided to give a special birthday gift to H.H Sivarama Swami—A Nitya-Seva pledge in the name of their son, who was born last year, making the third legacy gift for their family. They themselves have experienced so much mercy in their lives coming from Radhe Syama and now they wished to show their gratitude by pledging further support.

We look forward to your continued support and to welcoming new donors next month!

Finally: the beginning of May is almost fully booked in the calendar, we mostly have days left at the end of the month. The free dates are the following:
5th, 9th, 14th, 16th, 21st, 24th, 26th, 27th, 28th, 29th, 30th and 31st.

In the name of the Nitya-seva team your servant,
Syamajiu Dasi

7th May, 2019., New Vraja Dhama