24th issue - Nitya-seva Newsletter

 September 2017 - 24th issue

 Dear Devotees,

The month of September brought unusually cool weather, so the days tended to be quiet in New Vraja Dhama.  This season brings to an end not only working on the land, but tourism too, as each week fewer guests come to visit Radha-Syama.  We only have one more big national festival left to be celebrated here in Krishna Valley, and though we will celebrate many Vaishnava festivals during the upcoming month of Kartik, none will be as monumental as the Govardhana-puja celebration!  However the exceeding beauty of Radha-Syama never changes and Their devoted servants see Them appearing with increasing beauty by the passing of each day.

September was a quiet month Nitya-sevawise too:  only one devotee joined the team of others offering full Nitya-seva payments; but the devotees who are paying by instalments did very well:  we have received many, larger payments for the pleasure of Radha-Syamasundara and Gaura-Nitai.

With our minds thinking about the distant future, many of you mentioned that you would like to offer your homes, property, money and/or other valuables to the Nitya-seva fund of Radha-Syama, so you enquired how to add Radha-Syama in your will. You can read the guidelines about this HERE for your information, and we hope you will find this helpful.  If you have any further questions in this regard, please feel free to contact any of the members of our team.

We would like to make a humble request in connection with another type of donating too. Our experience in the last few years is that visiting devotees naturally develop deep, personal and friendly relationships with local devotees, living in Krishna Valley.  Rupa Goswami speaks about the loving relationships among devotees in his Upadesamrita and how to develop them, so the question of giving and accepting gifts also naturally comes up in these relationships. As you know, Krishna Valley is a cooperative system and we - the devotees who live here – are volunteers and missionaries and as such we get everything we need for our living requirements.  We have a place to stay, food to eat, clothes to wear and so many other things that are necessary for our maintenance and our service.  It happens many times that you – visiting devotees – kindly offer us gifts (sometimes valuable ones) out of your love and appreciation, or because you would like to offer some service to those of us who live and serve in the dhama.  We are very grateful to you and it is natural to have and express the desire to offer something to devotees, but because we get all our necessities supplied from the temple, we would like to request that you please do not give any gifts to individuals. Rather, if you would like to offer extra gifts or more valuable ones, then please contact any members of the Nitya-seva team (Mohan Dasa, Syamajiu Dasi, Anuragi Dasi) by phone or email ([email protected])  before doing so, and let us know what you would like to donate. We would prefer to do it this way to help both you and the local volunteers or missionary devotees, by ensuring that donations are accepted and dealt with in the correct way.

And finally here come this month’s available Nitya-seva days: each week of October has three days booked and four days free! The booked dates are the following:

first week of October: 5th, 6th, 7th.
second week of October: 10th, 12th, 13th.
third week of October: 18th, 19th, 20th.
fourth week of October: 23rd, 25th, 28th.

Apart from these and 31st of October all other days are available!

6th October, 2017. New Vraja Dhama

In the name of the Nitya-seva team your servant,
Syamajiu dasi