OM SRI SURABHYAI NAMAH! OM SRI GURAVE NAMAH!
This is the second Quarterly Report summarizing the on-going developments of the OM Sri Surabhi Campaign.
MEETINGS AND CONVENTIONS (Kanpur, Mysore and Chirala)
At the beginning of April 2015, I attended two leadership conventions in Kanpur, one being the India Continental Committee (ICC) meeting (April 5th and 6) and the other being the mid-term ISKCON India Advisory Committee (IIAC) meeting (April 7 to 9). At the ICC Convention I presented our video documentary and briefly explained about the Surabhi Campaign. The reception was very positive with many devotees wanting a copy of the documentary and inviting us to visit their temple.
At the IIAC meeting, on behalf of IDVM-India I presented a formal proposal requesting that all temples in India help promote the ideology of sustainable living for which a resolution was adopted requesting all temples to establish a department in their temple for such. Also, I informed all leaders about the Surabhi Campaign and met the National Coordinator for ISKON’s Golden Jubilee Celebrations, His Grace Suradas prabhu whom I interviewed as well. I also met with the global Chairman of ISKCON’s Golden Jubilee Celebrations, His Grace Pancharatna prabhu. Both Chairmen’s were very supportive and encouraging in our efforts to promote this 12-year campaign.
On April 19 I attended a National Conference on Sustainability in Mysore and was able to deliver a short message about our OM Sri Surabhi Campaign. Details of that conference have been published on our Surabhi Campaign website at www.srisurabhi.org.
There were mid-term leadership meetings for IDVM-India held from 24th to 26th of April in Chirala where I summarized some of the information about our on-going developments of the Surabhi Campaign. On April 27th, a large gathering of devotees and congregational members officially took the Sacred Oath to Mother Surabhi thus making ISKCON Chirala the very first temple to take the formal pledge.
OPENING OF GIFT SHOP AND OFFICE
The month of May saw the official opening of the Sri Surabhi Gift Shop cum OM Sri Surabhi Campaign Office in Hyderabad under the leadership and inspiration of Sri Rama prabhu. This initial undertaking will serve as a model to inspire other devotees serving in different cities to establish outlets where panca-gavyah products and other materials can be easily made available to interested persons. In many ways it is part of the much-needed propaganda that our campaign needs to develop in order to involve more and more devotees and the public at large. The ceremony was reported along with photos on our campaign website at www.srisurabhi.org.
TOURING INDONESIA, CAMBODIA AND GULF AREA
The next day after the opening of the Sri Surabhi Gift Shop in Hyderabad, I left India for a one-month tour of Indonesia. One of the highlights of the tour was the visit of our Surabhi Campaign Yatra, a group of 20 devotees who visited both Bali and our small village community on the island of Sumatra. Devotees flew all the way from USA, India and the Gulf countries to associate with devotees in Indonesia and visit the Gaura Hari community in Bali that consists of some 20 families as well as the village of Gita Nagari Baru consisting of some 35 families. Close to 300 devotees attended the festivities at GNB. For the rest of the month of May, prabhu Kisora who is the National Coordinator for the Surabhi Campaign and I toured various centers in Yogyakarta, and then toured both Kalimantan and Sulawesi islands introducing the art of making simple incense and natural soaps from pure cow dung.
The month of June was divided between Cambodia June 1 to 12th), with a return visit to Indonesia (June 12th to 16th) before leaving for a tour of some of the Gulf countries (June 17 to 27th). During my Gulf tour, I was gifted a cow by two children of our congregational member as well as some pure ghee from another devotee who had received this ghee from his father’s cows in South India.
On the 27th of June I travelled to Canada arriving on time the next day, June 28th, to give the Sunday Feast lecture at the Montreal temple. I made a presentation of our Surabhi Campaign showing our documentary video and met with our newly appointed Provincial Coordinator for the campaign, His Grace Vedavyasa prabhu who I interviewed briefly as well.
NEW PAMPHLETS
During this three months period we were able to finalize some important pamphlets to help promote the campaign. Those pamphlets include the general pamphlet entitled OM SRI SURABHI CAMPAIGN, giving a general introduction to the campaign. The other pamphlet is entitled IDVM-India SUSTAINABLE ECO ALLIANCE explains how individuals can become connected with our Surabhi Campaign. The third pamphlet in print is entitled MEMBERSHIP FORM gives information about the five types of memberships available. There is a fourth print out just about ready entitled SACRED OATH to MOTHER SURABHI. This should soon come out and will allow for individuals to take the formal pledge to protect mother cow.
WEBSITE
Shantibhushan prabhu has been busy updating and improving out website in various ways. We now have the opportunity to view more easily various documentaries. We have also received the first PROJECT PROFILE from Yamuna Prana prabhu in Ukraine. We hope to receive more and we invite readers who are connected with a rural project to fill in the template we have provided to share news of their community developments.
UP-COMING TRAVELS
For the month of July I will be visiting Sweden to attend the yearly Scandinavian Bhakti Sangam Festival to be held from July 11th to 20th. After spending another week in Montreal side, I will likely travel to our Saranagati Village community in Western Canada till the end of the month.
For the month of August, I plan to visit both Russia and Ukraine to spend time with our Continental Coordinator for Europe, His Grace Yamuna Prana prabhu who is based in the Ukraine.
UP-COMING EVENTS
Devotees in India are organizing a one month Go Gram Yatra, visiting some 108 villages bringing a revival to the local residents underlining the importance of preserving our villages and protecting Mother Surabhi. This program is being organized by a group of IDVM-India members headed by Sripati prabhu.
IDVM-India along with the Ministry for Cow Protection will be organizing the First National Farm and Cow Protection Convention at the Neelachal Dham community in Talasari on the outskirts of Mumbai.
Devotees involved with the Sustainable Vaisnava Communities initiative committee are discussing plans to hold a proposed Global Farm Symposium as part of ILS-2016 in Sri Dham Mayapur. More details of this will be available on our website in the weeks and months to come. A wonderful platform to promote the aims and objectives of our campaign.
PROMOTING PAMPHLETS AND GARDENS
We also plan to promote our Surabhi Campaign by inviting devotees to submit samples of any pamphlet or literature they have promoting their project. We will also invite devotees to send photos of their gardens so that other may see what they are doing. Viewers will soon see more information on this on our website.
Prepared by RP Bhakti Raghava Swami
APPOINTING NEW COORDINATORS
We are still in the process of appointing individuals to the post of Continental, National and State/Provincial Coordinators. Description of duties is given on our website. We invite devotees interested to take up such positions to contact us giving us details of their situation.
NETWORKING
There have been many other activities taken up by our Continental Coordinators as well as Coordinators at other levels, including our Webmaster. We are working on some reporting system so that more information can be shared with our viewer to keep everyone as informed as possible.
I wish to invite our viewers to contact devotees appointed at different levels. We will soon be posting such contacts on our webpage. Thank you for your support and participation. Krsne matir astu.
Yours in service to Mother Surabhi,
RP Bhakti Raghava Swami