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Last weekend, I was fortunate to visit the ISKCON Zurich temple. It is a very beautiful temple with beautiful deities – Lord Jagannath, Lord Baladeva, Subhadra mayi and Sri Sri Gaura Nitai. In 1980, few young Swiss devotees of Krishna decided to open a temple in Zurich. Later in the Spring of 1980, they were able to acquire a villa in a dilapidated state and remodeled it into the present temple located at Mountain Road 54 in Zurich.
I started my journey from the ISKCON of Silicon Valley and as soon I got down, I met an old taxi driver from Turkey who dropped me to the temple. He shared his story and mentioned that he has been living in Switzerland with his joint family for past 50 years. This reminded me how people lived happily in a traditional joint family culture of South India. He happily accepted a copy of Bhagavad Gita at the end.
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I was warmly welcomed to the temple by H.G. Divyasimha Prabhu. He showed me the Deities and the temple. The next day, I attended the Mangala Arati and felt fortunate to hear from H.G. Nikhilananda Prabhu, a Srila Prabhupada disciple from Germany who shared how all devotees were very happy during Prabhupada times by simple living in the temple. Prabhu shared that he himself is happy thinking that he is amidst devotees while sleeping in the balcony of temple. Prabhu added how the modern society is going in a wrong direction. When no devotee had a medical insurance back then, Prabhu even travelled to Bangladesh from Germany. I am really inspired by listening to the nectar and the faith they had on Srila Prabhupada’s words and mission. Even till today, Prabhu doesn’t have a medical insurance.
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Later, I visited Vaikunta farm with H.G. Jayarama Prabhu. Around six years ago, one devotee couple started a small farm community 25 kms from Zurich. They have four cows now and of them, Mother Kunti is giving milk currently. Bhakta Daniel and Francis are taking care of the farm. They are also training horses for cultivation. A local newspaper published Bhakta Daniel’s story of selling organic cow’s manure. People line up at the local farmer’s market to purchase tomatoes from Bhakta Daniel. If we are dependent on Mother Surabhi and Lord Krishna, who is the husband of Goddess of fortune, He bestows all the blessings upon us. We introduced Surabhi campaign Started by IDVM HH R.P. Bhakti Raghava Swami Maharaj and Europe co-ordinator Jayarama prabhu explained about the campaign objectives. We showed the Sri Surabhi documentary to the devotees. We also distributed some cow products (like soaps) from India. We also brushed the cows in the farm. They are planning to expand the farm. Swiss government is very much in favor of such efforts by local farmers.
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On Saturday evening, we presented our first SOS seminar in the temple by the blessings H.G Vaisesika Prabhu and Navina Nirada prabhu. I shared some practical tips on “Distributing Gita on its own Merit” to the assembled devotees
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On Sunday, I continued with the second session on “Get Sets and Go”. Later on, we had two sunday feasts – one for South India Tamil devotees and another in evening for westerners. The tamil congregation leaders H.G Rajmani prabhu received us warmly and during the Sunday feast lecture, I spoke on “Glories of Srimad Bhagavatam” and also showed Sri Surabhi camgain video. Divyasimha prabhu also presented 50 years anniversary 50 books campaign.
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[/fusion_imageframe][/fusion_builder_column][fusion_builder_column type=”1_2″ last=”yes” spacing=”yes” center_content=”no” hide_on_mobile=”no” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” background_position=”left top” border_position=”all” border_size=”0px” border_color=”” border_style=”” padding=”” margin_top=”” margin_bottom=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”” animation_speed=”0.1″ class=”” id=””][fusion_text]We distributed Varnasrama books and Srila Prabhupada books after the Western group Sunday feast – one devotee from Germany took the complete set of books for 400 euros and another devotee bought a mini set of 10 Srila Prabhupada books.
On Monday, we visited one more ISKCON Langenthal Gaura Bhakti yoga center temple nearby. The temple has a Gurukula with lot of kids.
Written By: Sri Krishna Purusottama Das
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