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COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT: The Best Basis

ISKCON New Vrajamandala community is a rural project situated about one hour north of Madrid, Spain. The current President, H. H. Yadunanadana Swami, and community are focusing on education as the basis of their community development. Maharaja was initiated in 1978 by H. H. Satsvarupa Das Goswami and took Sannyasa in 2009. He was Principal of the Bhaktivedanta College in Radhadesa and Member of the Executive Committee of the Ministry of Education.

One history explains that the NVM complex was constructed by the Minister of Health to the Spanish Dictator, Francisco Franco (1892-1975) and used as a summer retreat. I had three swimming pools and hundreds of acres of land for horse-back riding. Weekend educational retreats in Sastric studies and specific occupational skills, Puja etc are now organized there. Children from Spanish schools come for a program called, “A Day in India”, and get to milk a cow and offer incense to Their Lordship’s Govinda Chandra. Breakfast and lunch are a rural feast and the peacock is waiting to take your remnants.

In 2017 Maharaja and the devotees chased the spiders out of three of the lower patio rooms, and cleaned, painted and outfitted three sunny rooms as class rooms for a pre-school program. The progressive model is that they will add one level of education each year. This worked in Manipur for H. H. B. S. Damodar Swami and after 12-years his students were winning State competitions.

The core teacher is a devotional jewel, Mani-manjari Devi Dasi, who joined as soon as she finished a teaching commitment with the Avanti School in Vraja. She has been teaching professionally in the secular world for ten-years and is certified by, and well associated with, the professional educational system in Spain known as NABSS. NABSS is a British system fully authorized and appreciated by the government of Spain. She is continuing to enhance her accreditation to primary school level by taking distance education courses from the NABSS facility in Valencia.

NVM and Maharaja are also integrating with the Avanti School Trust, headed by Navin-krsna Das in England, through their pre-school system, Little Avanti Nursery School.

Several very qualified families have already moved to the community to enroll their toddlers and engage their skills in other community services. NVM is minutes away from the picturesque small town of Brihuega where one ISKCON favorable gentleman runs an excellent health spa. He sends clients to NVM as a weekend retreat and some community devotees are taking work with him. Carpooling to Guadalajara (pop. 84, 803) is less than an hour and quite practical for devotees living at NVM for developing their own businesses, or working for municipal or business entities.

Let us finishing by contrasting Maharaja’s and the NVM communities strategy with that of Aghasura.

“Aghāsura was instigated by Kaṁsa, so he had come with determination. Aghāsura also thought that when he would offer grains and water in memory of his brother and sister and kill Kṛṣṇa and all the cowherd boys, then automatically all the inhabitants of Vṛndāvana would die. Generally, for the householders, the children are the life and breath force. When all the children die, then naturally the parents also die on account of strong affection for them.”, https://www.vedabase.com/en/kb/12 [italics ours]

So let us suggest that when the children live and thrive the householders also live, prosper and preach with great success and introspection.

http://centres.iskcon.org/centre/new-vrajamandala-spain/

Jaya Sri Krsna!

Esteemed Dr. Chakravarty,

We hope this meets you the best of spirits in your war on evil and ignorance in this dark age of Kali.

We have refrained from writing to you because we do not want to tax your valuable time, but now we can report some clear progress.

Specifically, we were able to transfer the interview we made with your good self in Delhi to our team in Peru, South America. All of these steps have been challenges. We had to learn how to use WeTransfer to send the big file, get it off of our cellular etc.

Then Oscar Natars, our film director looked at the clip. He won Director of the Year award for Latin America in 2017 and then was lauded with the highest cultural award from the nation of Peru.

They all had a very hard time following the audio because the microphone was a little distance and then because of the English dialect difference. We looked, looked, looked for a good translator, partially hard because you ideas and expression of them is of a very high level of English.

Finally we got a qualified person and when he turned in the translation and Alejandro tried to pay him, he said that no, this one is for free. It has been an honor to translate this work!

Oscar understood the content and was enthused, "I agree with him". Hector, general for Che Guevara, member of United Nations committee against poverty, who we hope to now present commentaries on your ideas, was enthused. (I thought he would be!).

So, they are moving to the stage of picking images to go with your words, interviewing Prof. Hector Bejar to compare and contrast with your ideas, and then we want to toss in just a few more ideas from Prof. Ravi Gupta whom you met some time ago with us and Beverly Zabrisky, co-founder of the Jungian Society in New York and art critic for the New York Times, and by the Grace of God we will have a 24-minutes movie that will be BBC, National Geographic quality and we will put it to use.

We go to South America March 5th - 30 April and the first even will be a preview of this Art and the Sacred in a co-sponsored conference with the Jesuit University in Lima.

That is all for now.

Of course, we are always at your service in whatever way we can accomplish anything.

With best regards from everyone.

Hanumatpresaka Swami
Prof. H. H. Robinson
NIOS

P.S. Attach last letters from Oscar if you like to see them:______________________________________________

On Friday, January 12, 2018, 12:09:45 PM CST, oscar naters <[email protected]> wrote:

Hare Krsna, 

I have sent already to Hector Bejar the transcription and translation of Dr,Kaylan interview. Now I am waiting for his answer, comments and some questions he can suggest for the rest of meetings you will have in USA. Also I ask to let me know with a few days before when can we do and film the interview with him. We are ready to do it.

It will be ready in march for sure.

When are you planning to do the other interviews?

It was easer also for me Dr. Kaylan s translated text. I liked it very much and I agree with his ideas.

Than you.

Oscar

_____________________

Hanumatpresaka Swami wrote: 2018 January 16

Hare Krsna, Oscar,
I am about to explode, die. <img alt="Emoji" height="16" src="https://s.yimg.com/nq/yemoji_assets/latest/yemoji_assets/1f600.png" title="Emoji" width="16" />   We are under so much stress. I guess it is the same for you. These sane, determined letters from you keep us straight. We want so very much to contribute a little relief to this crazy modern, materialistic world and if efforts like this interview with Dr. Cakravarty have proved a failure then we would be hit like a blow in the chest.   <img alt="Emoji" height="16" src="https://s.yimg.com/nq/yemoji_assets/latest/yemoji_assets/1f611.png" title="Emoji" width="16" />  Of course, we would have to get back up and try again. We have a Captain, Srila Prabhupada, we can't leave the battle.

As soon as we have the ideas for questions from Hector we can get interviews with Radhika and Beverley.

Are we in the range of looking at a budget now?

We have to plan for the meetings in March with Jesuits, Solaris, and September-October in Lima.

With this first interview we can expect to get more support and funding.

Thank you,  then we are waiting for the questions from Hector.

Hare Krishna dear Guru Maharaja,
Please accept my humble obeisances,
All glories to Srila Prabhupada!!!!!!!!!

I hope you are in good health at the time of receiving this letter.

Where in this transient earth are you right now?

HpS - Based in Murfreesboro, TN until 14th February.

I forgot to tell you before that your disciple Vrajendra Kumara Das won the Srila Prabhupada's book distribution marathon here in Santiago with over 3.000 books ! I'm a lucky man because he is my friend.

HpS - He reported, but did not say he had won!

This morning, before FMP, I was working in home all the time and later helping to prepare a delicious Prasadam to the Lord and to share with my daughter, my mother and my sister's family (Vishvanat and their children): its called "Humitas", typical from Chile (and latinamerica but with differents names, for example its called "Tamales" in Peru, but with variations in the recipe. Consists in a paste of ground corn with spices and dressings...). We had a familiar lunch, and then I sat down in front the PC to write this letter. 

I writing to you because I read a letter from your disciple Prahlad Nrsimha Das on the blog. He tell us about his work in Vedabase and says he needs help for importing Spanish. I would like to help, but I don't understand what is the support PND needs for Vedabase. So I would like to know what is the specific service and I hope then be able to know how to help. Off course, only if you consider I could be qualified to do it.

Please, Guru Maharaja, forgive all the mistakes that this foolish human being makes in the communication to you, and also my faults.

HARE KRISHNA !!!!!!
Your aspiring disciple and servant,
Carlos Rold

HpS - Pablo and M. Isvara Devi Dasi are already giving some help, but there is a lot more to do. The Spanish BBT wants all the books on the webpage. If he reads this then we can commnicate here about what he needs. If he doesn't see it then please remind us and we will try through Yahoo...

Your recipes sound like something Lord Jagannatha, Subhadra and Baladeva would like!!!

HpS – ASA --  The questions that come up to my mind, and others, is the function and position within education in ISKCON of the GBC College. Why wasn't it made a part of the Ministry of Education?

Kaunteya Das -- ​I am not sure I understand the question; the Minister of Education himself is a member of the Board of Advisors of the GBC College:

http://www.gbc-college.com/ board-of-advisors/

As a GBC, Sesa Prabhu has been active part of the step-by-step establishment of the GBC College in various presentations to the GBC and the various votes thereby.  

As you may remember, we personally invited you to also become a member of the Board of Advisors. 

I am personally open to any suggestion on how to further collaborate or interact. 

HpS – Wow!   We, me, Rama-giri-dhari Das et al were very misinformed about this. Thank you for clarifying it, but we never received any invitation to be on the Board of Advisors. We are very humbled and will read the information that Rupanuga Ji sent us and go ahead.

Hare Krishna Estimado Gurumaharaja,
Por favor acepta mis humildes reverencias.
Todas las glorias a Srila Prabhupada.

Recientemente hemos agregado índices palabra por palabra en la nueva versión de Vedabase (https://vedabase.io/en/search/synonyms/). Hasta ahora solo en inglés, pero lo agregará a más idiomas.
Nadie ofreció ayuda para importar español. Es un poco frustrante, pero así es la vida. Entonces mi esposa estará importando español a una nueva versión lenta pero segura. (Estoy seguro de que Srila Prabhupada está feliz con ella)
Preparar un buen almacenamiento en caché, por lo que vedabase.io será muy rápido. En general, tenemos entre 35-55 personas en el sitio al mismo tiempo, nos gustaría ver a cientos :)
El cliente de escritorio fuera de línea está en progreso (Ekanatha Prabhu de Archives acordó usarlo, si es agradable, en lugar del antiguo software Folio) - Debería funcionar en Mac, Linux y Windows
Tener el primer libro en hindi (https://vedabase.io/hi/library/) y primer libro en bengalí (https://vedabase.io/bn/library/)
...
El servicio de Vedabase es muy satisfactorio pero frustrante ya que algunas veces recibimos cartas groseras sobre por qué este y ese libro en este y ese idioma no están ahí. Probablemente reacciones por mi mentalidad grosera y egoísta en vidas anteriores.

Pero también hay cartas alentadoras y nos alegra ver cuántas personas están obteniendo la asociación de Srila Prabhupada a través de ella.

Estoy muy agradecido con usted, Srila Prabhupada y Krishna por permitirnos hacer este servicio ya que fue nuestro refugio y esperanza en los momentos más difíciles.

Tu sirviente Prahlad Nrsimha das

Mono y Piggy! - ¡Nuestra cara está en la tierra! ¡No tienes ofertas para ayudarte a migrar a los españoles! (Tal vez deberíamos haber publicado en español (Haremos eso)). Incluso si ya terminaste, habrá más trabajo para el español en el futuro.

Vedabase.com es un desafío directo a Maya The Black Witch. Solo estamos resistiendo sus ataques porque White Whitch lucha para protegernos. ¡Necesitamos ayudarla no siendo traviesos!

Hare Krishna Dear Gurumaharaja,
Please accept my humble obeisances.
All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

• Recently we have added word-for-word indexes into new Vedabase version (https://vedabase.io/en/search/synonyms/). So far only in English, but will add it into more languages.
• Nobody offered help for importing Spanish. It is little frustrating, but that is life. So my wife will be importing Spanish into new version slowly, but surely. (I am sure Srila Prabhupada is happy with her)
• Preparing good caching, so vedabase.io will be blazing fast. Generally we have between 35-55 people on site at the same time, would like to see hundreds :)
• Offline desktop client is in progress (Ekanatha Prabhu from Archives agreed to use it, if it wlll be nice, instead of ancient Folio software) - Should work on Mac, Linux and Windows
• Have first book in Hindi (https://vedabase.io/hi/library/) and first book in Bengali (https://vedabase.io/bn/library/)
• ...

Vedabase service is very satisfiyng yet frustrating as sometimes we get rude letters why this and that book in this and that language is not there. Most probably reactions for my rude and selfish mentality in previous lives.

But there are also encouraging letters and it makes us happy to see how many people are getting association of Srila Prabhupada through it.

I am very thankful to you, Srila Prabhupada and Krishna for letting us to do this service as it was our shelter and hope in hardest times.

Your servant Prahlad Nrsimha das

Monkey and Piggy! - Our face is in the dirt!    You had no offers to help you migrate the Spanish!!  (Maybe we should have published in Spanish (We will do that)). Even if you are done now, there will be more work for Spanish in the future.

The Vedabase.com is a direct challenge to Maya The Black Witch. We are only withstanding her assaults because the White Whitch is fighting to protect us. We need to help Her by not being naughty!