Swiss Ashram update

January and February of 2008 marked the beginning of the Sri Rupanuga Seva Ashram in Switzerland. Narasingha Maharaja, Madhava Maharaja, Jayadeva Prabhu and Vraja Kishore dasa spent January and February doing the ground work for the mission. Several months of preparations had been made to shift the previous ashram’s belongings and kitchen from Como, Italy to a storage facility in Switzerland. Narasingha Maharaja decided to make the shift from Italy to Switzerland because of its central location to the rest of Europe and because Maharaja prefers the higher mountains.

With the help of Krishna Chandra Prabhu [a leading Swiss devotee and preacher] the move was made almost effortlessly. Jayadeva Prabhu and some helping hands successfully moved all the heavy boxes, the stove and the big refrigerator into a storage facility in the village of Spirengen, where Krishna Chandra Prabhu also has an ashram, the Sanatana Dharma Society.

A program was held at Krishna Chandra’s ashram and many Swiss devotees attended from Zurich and around the country. Since Krishna Chandra and his community of devotees were soon moving to Ticino in southern Switzerland, their present ashram building was offered to Narasingha Maharaja as a place to start the Rupanuga Seva Ashram.

Krishna Chandra Prabhu and the devotees were very kind to make such an offer and their help thus far to us has been wonderful — truly in the spirit of Vaishnavism.

For the past two years Narasingha Maharaja has been visiting Switzerland and searching for what he thinks would be a perfect location for our new Swiss project. Krishna Chandra’s offer was certainly very tempting but Narasingha Maharaja decided instead to settle our ashram in the vicinity of Interlaken and the surrounding areas of Beatenburg, Thun and Emmental. The exact property has not yet been decided upon but several very good locations are being considered. One location in Beatenburg offers a facility which accommodates 30 devotees, an ashram made to order in every respect. The owner has been contacted.

 

The area most liked by Narasingha Maharaja was Beatenburg, which overlooks Interlaken from 1,400 metres above and has spectacular view of the mountains Eiger, Monk and Jungfrau — awesome manifestations of the Universal Form of Krishna.

Narasingha Maharaja said he especially liked the idea of an Alpine mountain named, Monk [the English for Swami].

A temporary ashram facility was rented in Beatenburg and the devotees stayed there for several weeks and researched the area. Sarvashakti dasa and Jagannatha dasa from India stayed for sometime during that period and also Vicaru Prabhu and Kamala dasi from England came to Beatenburg and stayed one week with the devotees.

Disciples of H.H. Paramadvaiti Maharaja [Krishna Vilasa Prabhu and family and Gaura Hari Prabhu and family], who live nearby in the town of Thun, held a program at their home and devotees from Basil, the capitol of Switzerland, also attended. There were long talks about Krishna consciousness and Narasingha Maharaja stressed the importance for devotees to aspire to become Guardians of the Truth and not fall into the misconception of becoming enjoyers of Krishna. There was also fantastic prasadam for everyone via the arrangements of the Mattajis and the mercy of Sri Giriraja Govardhan-sila.

During their stay in Switzerland, Narasingha Maharaja and the devotees took many day trips and visited some of the high mountain areas — looking for an ashram location and also getting into some downhill recreation in the snow.

 

Narasingha Maharaja and the devotees have now returned to India for the Gaura Purnima festival at Govindaji Gardens and plans are already in the making for their next trip to Switzerland. Narasingha Maharaja says that by this time next year [2009] he expects that Sri Rupanuga Seva Ashram will have a permanent address in Switzerland and all our friends and well wishers will be invited to a grand festival. In the meantime several more visits and lots of research will be required. Ultimately everything depends upon the will of Krishna.

After sometime please check in again for the latest updates on the Sri Rupanuga Seva Ashram in Switzerland.