REPORT ON GHANA VISIT (2 of 3 reports)

by | Aug 19, 2016 | Report

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OM SRI SURABHYAI NAMAH! OM SRI GURAVE NAMAH!

From the Ivory Coast both HH Bhakti Carudesna Maharaja and I flew to the capital city of Accra. Devotees met us at the airport and took us to the main temple that is located some distance out of the city.

I was pleasantly surprised to see the domed structured temple that immediately reminds one of India’s traditional temples. We first took darshan of HH Bhakti Tirtha Maharaja’s Puspa Samadhi close to the entrance of the temple. Maharaja was very instrumental in opening up the preaching all over West Africa and brought many people to Krishna consciousness. We then took darshan of the presiding Deities, Sri Sri Radha Govinda, Sri Sri Gaura Nitai and Sri Sri Jagannatha Baladeva and Subhadra. The temple room is large and easily can accommodate 400 to 500 devotees.

I came to know that the devotees have a Goshala but being late we decided to visit the next morning. We met with the Regional Secretary for West Africa, His Grace Srivas prabhu, who explained a little about the local history. Although earlier the devotees had a temple in Accra city itself, after some time they decided to take some distance from the hectic city and find a more peaceful place. In this way quite a few families are now settled close to the temple. This allows the community to have their own school made up of devotee children from the local families.

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The two main highlights of my visit were the performance of Go Puja and a visit to their proposed land project. The devotees keep some 8 cows with the Goshala being situated close to the temple. Srivas prabhu expressed his desire to get hand brushes for the cows for the cows so that devotees could perform regular Go Seva at least once a week or whenever possible.

The large piece of land that we visited during my stay in Ghana has quite an intriguing story. The devotees had acquired the land during the time of HH Bhakti Tirtha Maharaja’s presence. Maharaja had personally visited the land on a few occasions, even staying there for up to one week. I came to know that Maharaja was fond of corn that grows in abundance in the area. The devotees would have corn competitions when Maharaja would visit.

Devotees all over ISKCON know how HH Bhakti Tirtha Maharaja was a strong advocate of the varnasrama mission through the establishment of self-sufficient communities. With the unexpected political tensions that caused major disruptions in Ghana for a number of years, devotees lost the opportunity to develop the project and had all but lost hope in the land. More recently however, by Krishna’s arrangement, the land has again become a possibility with the previous owners having to contact the devotees to re-establish their own land ownership. This sparked a renewed interest among the devotees.

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The land is quite large covering about 250 acres (close to 100 hectares) and is located some 2 hours from Accra. Although the devotees lost some of the original land that was actually donated by one of the local kings, the land was compensated for with other adjoining lands. As it stands now, the devotees retain their original acreage of 250 acres and have acquired an elevated portion of land where it will be ideal to build a temple and establish a Vaisnava community. The land borders a large river that flows all year round. The devotees are now busy finalizing the Master Plan to begin developing the long awaited project and thus help fulfill the long standing dream of HH Bhakti Tirtha Maharaja and that of our ISKCON Founder Acarya Srila Prabhupada.

Reported by HH Bhakti Raghava Swami

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Laporan Kunjungan ke Ghana (Laporan 2 dari 3)

by | Aug 19, 2016 | LatestNews

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OM SRI SURABHYAI NAMAH! OM SRI GURAVE NAMAH!

Dari Ivory Coast, HH Bhakti Carudesna Maharaja dan saya terbang menuju ibukota, Accra. Penyembah – penyembah menemui kami di bandara dan mengantar kami menuju temple utama yang berlokasi jauh di luar kota. Saya terkejut bahagia melihat struktur temple berkubah yang langsung mengingatkan saya dengan salah satu temple tradisional India. Pertama – tama kami darshan ke Puspa Samadhi HH Bhakti Tirtha Maharaja di dekat pintu masuk temple. Maharaja sangat instrumental dalam membuka pengajaran di seluruh Afrika Barat dan membawa banyak orang ke dalam Kesadaran Krishna. Lalu kami darshan ke arca – arca utama, Sri Sri Radha Govinda, Sri Sri Gaura Nitai dan Sri Sri Jagannath Baladeva Subhadra. Ruangan temple tersebut besar dan muat menampung 400 sampai 500 penyembah.

Saya datang untuk  tahu apakah penyembah memiliki Goshala, namun karena terlambat, kami memutuskan untuk mengunjunginya besok pagi. Kami bertemu dengan Sekretaris Daerah Afrika Barat, HG Srivas prabhu, yang menjelaskan sedikit tentang sejarah lokal. Walaupun sebelumnya penyembah memiliki temple di kota Accra, namun setelah beberapa waktu mereka memilih untuk menjauh dari hiruk pikuk kota dan mencari tempat yang lebih damai. Dengan begini, beberapa keluarga sekarang tinggal dekat dengan temple. Ini memungkinkan komunitas untuk membangun sekolah mereka sendiri yang terdiri dari anak – anak keluarga penyembah lokal.

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Dua hal yang menjadi sorotan utama kunjungan saya adalah pelaksanaan Go Puja dan kunjungan ke proyek tanah yang mereka usulkan. Para penyembah memelihara 8 sapi dengan Goshala terletak di dekat temple. Prabhu Srivas mengungkapkan keinginannya untuk mendapatkan sikat tangan  untuk sapi – sapi sehingga para penyembah  dapat secara teratur melakukan Go seva setidaknya sekali seminggu  atau kapan saja.

Lahan besar yang kami kunjungi selama kunjungan saya di Ghana menyimpan cerita yang cukup menarik. Para penyembah telah memperoleh tanah itu sewaktu HH Bhakti Tirtha Maharaja masih ada. Maharaja sendiri mengunjungi tanah itu pada saat – saat tertentu, bahkan tinggal di sana selama lebih daari seminggu. Saya datang untuk mengetahui bahwa Maharaja suka dengan jagung yang tumbuh berlimpah di area itu. Dan para penyembah mengadakan kompetisi jagung saat Maharaja datang.

Seluruh penyembah ISKCON mengetahui bahwa HH Bhakti Tirtha Maharaja adalah seorang pendukung kuat misi varnasrama melalui pembinaan komunitas mandiri. Dengan terjadinya ketegangan politik yang mengakibatkan gangguan besar di Ghana dalam beberapa tahun, penyembah kehilangan kesempatan mereka untuk membangun proyeknya dan memiliiki semuanya juga kehilangan harapan akan tanahnya. Meskipun demikian, baru – baru ini atas rencana Krishna, tanah tersebut menjadi mungkin dengan pemilik lamanya menghubungi penyembah untuk mendirikan kembali kepemilikan atas tanah mereka sendiri. Hal ini memicu ketertarikan baru di kalangan penyembah.

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Tanah itu cukup besar mencakup 250 acre ( hampir 100 hektar ) dan berlokasi 2 jam perjalanan dari Accra. Walaupun penyembah kehilangan tanah asli mereka yang sebenarnya merupakan pemberian dari salah satu raja lokal, namun sudah diganti dengan tanah lain yang bersebelahan. Seperti yang telah berdiri sekarang, para penyembah mempertahankan areal asli mereka yaitu 250 acre dan telah mendapatkan lahan yang telah ditinggikan yang mana akan ideal untuk membangun sebuah temple di sana dan membangun komunitas Vaisnava. Batas lahan yaitu sungai besar yang mengalir sepanjang tahun. Sekarang para penyembah sibuk menyelesaikan Master Plan. Mulai mengembangkan projek yang telah lama ditunggu – tunggu yang akan membantu mewujudkan impian sejak lama HH Bhakti Tirtha Maharaja dan tentunya Acarya Pendiri ISKCON kita, Srila Prabhupada.

Dilaporkan oleh  HH Bhakti Raghava Maharaja

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