Sri Giriraj Gaudiya Math

Rural farming and preaching community

For many years, our beloved Srila Gurudeva, nitya lila pravista om visnupada astottara-sata Sri Srimad Bhaktivedanta Narayana Gosvami Maharaja was coming to the small country town of Murwillumbah in Northern New South Wales, Australia, and inundating the devotees hearts with his nectarean harikatha. He was also giving us very clear instructions. He wanted this area to have a large vibrant preaching centre, including a temple, school, medical centre, ladies’ ashram and men’s ashram. Murwillumbah is the main Vaisnava centre in Australia, with the Tweed Valley where it is situated giving residence to hundreds, if not thousands of devotee families from the three main preaching missions of the western world. It is no wonder then that Srila Gurudeva stressed time and again that he wanted a temple here, and “a place where 500 people can come and learn this philosophy.”

History

In 2005, land was purchased here in Byangum, only a short drive from Murwillumbah, for the purpose of fulfilling Srila Gurudeva’s desire for our community. Over the last five and a half years, we have mostly had between twelve and twenty residents living here together. Every week we perform harinama sankirtan in the streets of Murwillumbah, often distributing Srila Gurudeva’s books as we go. Our community comes together for all major festivals and Vaisnava’s Appearance Days. Many devotees come from far and wide and we feel blessed to have the association here of so many wonderful devotees on these auspicious days. For many years we held a bhakti sanga program every Saturday in our temple, a chance to come together regularly and chant, hear and glorify the Lord. We are also fortunate enough to host up to six sannyasis every year, and many harikatha festivals have been held here. We are regularly visited by Sripad Vana Maharaja, Sripad Tirtha Maharaja, and Sripad Sridhara Maharaja, all of whom give us so much support with their kind encouragement and instructions. Sripad Tridandi Maharaja is also a regular visitor and he holds his wonderful Japa Retreats here, helping us to deepen our commitment to our spiritual practice.

“Garden Ashram”

Apart from the harikatha festivals, and our regular harinama sankirtana, our other main focus here is on gardening. Once Sripad Tirtha Maharaja sweetly called this project the “Garden Ashram”, and the name has stuck. Most of the residents here have gardens, and under the guidance of Srila Gurudeva and his prominent sannyasis, we are attempting to grow food for the pleasure of the Lord. Many vegetable gardens and fruit trees are being established, and we are working towards eventual self-sufficiency. Given the impending global food crisis, we can now see why both Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva, as well as his sannyasi disciples have stressed so much on the importance of growing our own food for Krishna.

Our other primary purpose is simply to provide a place for devotees and aspiring devotees to associate with one another. By regular association, we feel encouraged to continue to serve Srila Gurudeva and to go deeper into our sadhana. Many devotees from Murwillumbah and surrounds come here regularly to swim in the river, to sing bhajans or to visit the devotees, the gardens and the temple here. We are very fortunate and blessed to have such a sanctuary.

Srila Gurudeva is very pleased with this project also, and in a letter to one of his daughters here he wrote.

“You have a wonderful community of sincere devotees and all things are improving. I am very happy and you should continue to develop the property and community. In future there will a good bridge and many Vaisnava festivals will be held. I will send my preachers again and again to bring new enthusiasm.”

Srila Gurudeva ki jaya!!!

DEVOTEES INVOLVED

All the devotees that have ever lived here or even come here have contributed in some way. We have had so many wonderful devotees come to live here, we could fill volumes with all of their worthy contributions. However for the sake of brevity, I will mainly write about those devotees who live here long term and their main focus of service to Srila Gurudeva.

Mathuranatha Prabhu often gives inspiring classes on the importance of Guru-seva, and for many years I have seen him working very hard to develop this property in order to fulfil the order of Srila Gurudeva. He has gone to great efforts to make the property more accessible to the devotees, placing stepping stones and rocks in the river to make simple river crossings either by foot or by four wheel drive. He has also done considerable earth-moving and landscaping to improve the amount of flat land. He has milled wood and made a wall to divide the existing house into two flats, thus allowing more devotees to come and live here and now his focus is on producing biochar for soil improvement and planting out extensive gardens. Always willing to go out on harinama sankirtan, he often dreams of reestablishing pada yatra, even on a small local scale, and has had many many years of experience in working bullocks.

Candrakala Didi is most at home in the temple, serving her beloved Sri Sri Radha Vinoda-bihariji, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Gopal Jiu. Her specialities are singing bhajans, often for hours at a time, sewing beautiful sets of clothes for her Thakurji, and decorating Their home. Candrakala didi also has a large extensive knowledge of the pastimes of the Lord and His devotees and also has a special affinity with the children here at the Ashram. She is a very sincere devotee and is an inspiration to all who come here. She has also taught ladies devotional services such as singing bhajans and diety worship.

Jaganatha-suta Prabhu serves the Deities through his wonderful cooking seva, often producing huge wonderful feasts to delight the Lord and His devotees. He has also transformed a once formidable patch of jungle and tangled brambles into a very beautiful sattvik garden. Clearing and landscaping the area by hand, Jaganatha-suta Prabhu has created a unique garden haven, with rock walls, caged and fenced gardens, a playground, a landscaped campfire area and many fruit trees. There is also a small nursery where he grows his own trees, and the beginning of a bunya nut tree trail going from his nursery directly up the hill towards Hattons Bluff National Park. In twenty years time we will enjoy the benefits of this work, with a huge abundance of bunya nuts dropping from the trees. Jaganatha-suta Prabhu is also well-known as the boatman, taking devotees across the river for programs in his boat, when the river rises too high to cross by foot. He was also the creator of the famous raft, which served the devotees for many years.

Akhileshvari dasi is mostly busy raising her three young children, eight year old twins Ramananda and Krishna-priya and four year old Madhurika dasi. However, she likes to distribute Srila Gurudeva’s books and posters and distributes them to both the devotees and to the general public. There is a book cabinet in the temple and we usually have most of Srila Gurudeva’s books available to purchase. Akhileshvari also likes to help organize public preaching programs in Murwillumbah when Vaisnavas or Vaisnavis come to the area. She also has a strong desire to follow the instruction of Srila Gurudeva to start a Vaisnava school for children here, and is waiting for the right time (and the right qualified teacher) to come along. She has taught a kids’ program here before (Sunday Fundays) and would like to start a similar program again.

Caitanya Candra Prabhu is involved in building projects, entertaining the devotees with his music and humour, and he is also involved in deity worship and regularly attending the temple.

The other residents of our ashram at present include Lilasuka Prabhu, his wife Jai Sri didi and her sister Gopali didi and sweet baby Gopal. Lilasuka has contributed a lot over the years including building the wonderful wooden footbridge that unfortunately was destroyed in a flood, and of course bringing three new devotees from the Philippines to Australia. We wish them all the best as they make plans to start a new Vaisnava community in Tasmania. Revati didi is a wonderful cook and along with Jai Sri and Gopali have contributed many wonderful additions to the festival day feasts. They are also always singing so sweetly and bringing great joy and laughter to our community. Revati’s little son Radha Raman also delights us with his two year old wisdom.

Gadadhara prabhu has also established gardens and done some very nice building here, Ramananda Prabhu the most recent addition to our community here has big plans for a garden over on Caitanya Candra‘s share. We are also very appreciative of Balabhadra Prabhu and his visiting (adult) children.

SEVA OPPORTUNITIES

For any devotees wishing to serve Srila Gurudeva here at Sri Giriraja Gaudiya Math, there are many many opportunities to do so. Here are some ideas.

Harinama sankirtan and book distribution

We would love to have many many more devotees join our harinama sankirtan party. The local devotees also travel twice a month to Burleigh for a sitting down harinama sankirtan and books are also distributed there. We also have a book and poster stall that we can set up at many of the local markets and festivals.

Gardening

If you like gardening, you could come and start your own garden somewhere here or help one of the devotees who live here with their garden. We especially want to establish many fruit and nut trees for the future. Any donations of fruit trees or money to buy trees, fencing etc very gladly appreciated.

Temple programs

You can help organize programs, cook, clean, cut up, serve out, clean up, lead bhajans or give class.

Teaching children

We would highly encourage anyone with experience in teaching children to come and teach Krishna-consciousness to the children of all age groups in our wider community of devotees. Srila Gurudeva really wants us to start a school here, so whether a weekly class for children or a full school curriculum, if you have an inspiration to teach, please come and we will support you in any way we can. This service is very pleasing to Srila Gurudeva.

Medicine or alternative therapies

Srila Gurudeva also strongly desires a medical centre here in the Tweed Valley. Anyone with administrative skills, medical background or background in alternative therapies could help us to fulfill this desire of Srila Gurudeva’s.

Artists

There are many large rocks on the property and one day we would like to see them painted with depictions of pastimes of the Lord and His devotees. Also, if and when we build a larger temple on the property, we would love to decorate it with paintings, dioramas, and relief paintings.

Cow seva

At present we have three old bullocks roaming around keeping the grass down and supplying cow dung for our gardens. However we often dream of acquiring a milking cow, to have fresh milk and milk products to offer Krishna. We really need a dedicated cowherd boy or girl to take responsibility for this seva, as we are busy with other projects and we also often all go to the festivals in India.

Building

There is great potential here for building cabins, studios, and a new temple. We are open to any ideas.

Fundraising

All fundraising ideas, and activities are very welcome.
Anything is possible.

SUPPORT THIS PROJECT

Obviously there is a lot we want to achieve here for the pleasure of Srila Gurudeva and Sri Sri Radha Vinoda bihariji. The more resources we have the more we can achieve. The resources come in the form of person power, expertise, time and money. Another precious resource is moral support. As more devotees, especially the senior devotees in our sanga, support the idea that we must preserve and distribute what Srila Gurudeva has given us through establishing centres and communities, then these other resources will flow more easily.

If you are inspired by the potential of our community here, you may feel like you would like to contribute somehow. There are a number of ways you can do this.

Buy shares

We are all aware of the understanding that this land is completely owned and controlled by the presiding Deities Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Sri Sri Radha Vinoda-bihariji. However as this is not recognised by government officials here in Australia, we have had to present ourselves as the so-called owners of the land. We are set up as a company so that if devotees want to establish themselves here and be part-owners of this land, they can do this. We are selling only two or three more shares and one of those shares will include the use of one of the flats created when the house was divided in half, complete with full kitchen and bathroom facility, internet, phone and large verandah, as well as some farming land to grow food. The other flat we are planning to reserve for visiting sannyasis. Even if you cannot live here immediately, it would be an investment for the future, as one day many people will be looking to live in a place where there is abundant water and space to grow food, and a community of like-minded devotees. Other shares will include farming land, and the right to build a garden shed and/or studio, and also the right to build an extension on the house in which to live.

Donate money

You can either make a one-off donation whenever you like or set up a regular donation. This money will be used as the shareholders of the company see fit, but rest assured the money will definitely be used in Krishna’s service.

Sponsor a project

If you have read about all our plans for the future and felt particularly inspired to help make something happen, you can donate money specifically to a project of your choice. For example, a new temple, a school or a medical centre, fencing, plants and trees for the gardens, cabins for more devotees to stay, extensions onto the house for more devotees to live here, or improvements to the very rudimentary toilet and shower block. We could also improve the access to the property by building a bridge across the Tweed River. The possibilities are endless. Please allow Srila Gurudeva to guide you in how to get involved in this project.

Jaya Sri Radhe! Jaya Srila Gurudeva!

Bhakti Projects, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) federally approved non-profit religious organization that
provides tax exempt receipts for all donations.

GVP (Gaudiya Vedanta Publications)Radha Govinda Temple, Los Angeles

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