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By: Vishnurata das
Thursday, August 01, 2019, finally I landed in Kalimantan island, Indonesia. I joined the SAFARI INDONESIA group headed by HH Bhakti Raghava Swami Maharaj (other group members are Kisora Krishna prabhu – Minister for Agriculture and Cow Protection of ISKCON in Indonesia, Yadhava Hari prabhu – Head of Gau Rakshya Indonesia, and Mahananda prabhu) who just came from their tour in Bali island. From the airport we directly headed towards a Hare Krishna project named Lalita Pura Seva Kunja Ashram in Palangka Raya (about 1,5 hours drive from the airport).
This SAFARI INDONESIA is not simply meant for visiting different places, but the main idea is to analyse the development of the Hare Krishna project in different places, thus giving encouragement to the local devotees, meeting new people, and learn so many things from the local devotees such as simplicity, always being perseverant, humble, service oriented attitude, cooperative, enthusiastic, and so on.
Lalita Pura Seva Kunja Ashram is a project where currently two families live and serve- Giri Govardhan prabhu’s family and Balarama Nitay prabhu’s family. The land is close to 2 Hectares. They have a very simple place to stay with presiding deities of Sri Sri Jagannath Baladeva and Subadhra devi. They are growing different kinds of vegetable and fruit trees such as spinach, beans, tomatoes, basils, coconuts, mangoes, bananas, snake fruits, dragon fruits, papayas, guavas, etc. along with flower garden for the deities.
On this land, they also take care of two bulls. These two bulls are very healthy. They have built a small goshala just to keep them at night as most of the time they are grazing outside in the field. They have regular Go-puja every Purnima.
“…This land was purchased about 19 years ago, but due to so many challenges, no devotee was willing to stay permanently and develop this land. So although it was acquired since long time, practically speaking we started to cultivate this land just 7 years ago. Now I am settled here with my wife and trying to please Lord Jagganath with whatever effort we can,” said Balarama Nitay prabhu.
On the August 02, 2019, a few devotees also received spiritual initiation from HH Bhakti Raghava Swami Maharaj. During our stay Maharaj has been giving extensive lecture on Krishna consciousness philosophy and the importance of Varnasrama mission. The devotees were so happy to serve all of us with their organic and fresh grown food and fruits after offering to Lord Jagannath.
We received a few visitors- three young Muslim boys who were very much attracted by the stories and beauty of Lord KrishnaThese three boys could also have some conversation with Maharaj and also got an opportunity to listen to the Bhagavad-gita class for more than an hour.
On the August 04, 2019, before we left this place, we had a simple ceremony of “Laying the Cornerstone” for the new temple construction. By the mercy of the Lord we would like to build a better temple for the Lord, cultivate the land as what Srila Prabhupada’s wanted us to do and also try to be self sufficient. Interestingly, some of our devotees started to build their houses around this project with the idea of making this village like a Vrindavan village.
I wish to thank all the devotees who have been serving and supporting this project, especially Giri Govardhan prabhu’s and Balarama Nitay prabhu’s families.
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