Question: We would be very enthusiastic to hear about the story of Sri Sri Gouranga Radha Brajeshvara.
Answer: Welcome to Varsana, this farm is situated one hour from Bogota in the beautiful, emerald colored mountains in the beautiful Andes. The farm offers a wonderful panoramic view over the valley where Fusagasuga can be seen.
Varsana is the mother temple of our mission. In 1980 by the mercy of Sri Sri Gour Nitay, the first deities of Colombia, Krishna revealed this place where He wanted to manifest His pastimes. 2400 meters above the sea level the first Radha Krishna temple of Colombia was constructed and their lordships Sri Sri Guru Gouranga Radha Vrajesvara made their appearance in 1983, during the day of Narasimha caturdasi.
The great vaisnava Srila Harijan Swami, first sannyasi of Colombia, established the first school of Bhakti Yoga for the training of new leaders of the mission. Practically all leaders of the Vrinda mission in Colombia received their training there. The beauty of the place is unique. The local government of Colombia declared the temple as a national monument.
The temple is situated at the Panamerican highway that crosses all the continent. On the other side of the highway there is Govinda's Restaurant, parking lots and stands selling handicrafts made by devotees.
Years of hard work of countless devotees formed Varsana into the best place for spiritual retreats you can dream of, with the samadhi of Srila Harijan Swami, a spacious guest house and the large event hall with a professional stage for festivals. Wonderful gardens surround the originally constructed temple built in the architectural style of Rajastan. Behind this temple there is a gigantic kitchen for festivals with the capacity of feeding even 1000 people on sacred days. Above that kitchen there is the Gallery of Conscious Art and the festival hall for yoga and events provinding a favourable place for the frequently visiting Inbound Yoga groups. The organic gardens and the beautiful forests full of native trees add to the propituous atmosphere.
In the heart of the farm the construction of the yoga planetarium has already started. The 18 temples will be constructed in the style of the famous Trulys, representing all platforms of consciousness and dimensions of the vedic cosmology.
We are planning to build a beautiful temple for their lordships. A place for vedic education. We ask all members of the Vrinda mission to be enthusiastic about that project and to help constructing it as their lordships are the isthadeva for the whole Vrinda family. We have to be proud from all our heart to help in the construction of at least one of the Trulys, and in this way be part of the project.
Our Madhusudan Maharaj from Ecuador is supervising the construction with a lot much enthusiasm. Also to compensate the beautiful temple of Guru Gouranga Radhika Gopinath in Quito which was donated by prabhu Sudhama.
Passing the temple we arrive at the park called 'Krishna the Conqueror of all Obstacles', but first, at the right side, there is the beautiful Visnupriya ashram, 2 houses and the school for small children.
At the other side the artistic studios and the large guest house is situated. The park of art includes a wonderful theater, with a beautiful sight at the formation of rocks full of natural caves, that I discovered many years ago, to make wonderful artistic installations unique in its genre.
The artist's studio can be found there too. By crossing all these areas we come to the way that leads us to the Imlitala at the right side. Imlitala is another house where the devotees produce art and cook deliciously. There are some houses of grihasthas who take care of that area as well as beautiful mountains and a temascal, used for Inbound Yoga retreats. Varsana has great potential, is the center where, once again, we can go deeper into our efforts to become humble in this life.
Varsana is my personal offering to my spiritual master. Not only as a place of spiritual retreats, but rather as cradle of all temples of Colombia and in the world of the Vrinda mission. I don't have so much time to be there as I would like to, but I trust that the devotees who always pay attention to Varsana, continue to protect the purity of the purpose, even in the time after I have left this material body; and that is difficult.
When something is very beautiful and works fine, problems will come too. But don't worry, nothing bad happens without a good reason. All problems exist so we can grow spiritually. Finally we are devotees of the essence, not of any form. Varshana is an artistic devotional offering, without the contamination of private property, and it is my desire that this beautiful farm continues being the main program in order to be able to train excellent devotees so that they can lead Sri Caitanya's mission wherever they might go later.
When I think of Varsana, I also think of all my loyal supporters that have been helping me all those years so that Krishna consciousness is becoming really better every day, more consacrated.
To all of them, like the sannyasis headed by B.V. Vamana Maharaj, the renounced matajis, the devotees giving protection to all aspects of a growing movement and all the temple presidents that practically carry my responsability to take care of the devotees. To all of them I express my love from the heart, the gratitude on behalf of my spiritual master to make and defend a beautiful mission in Colombia despite the civil war that has been afflicting Colombia for so many years already.
This difficult situation makes the work of all of you even more glorious. I pray to Krishna that you can become completely attached to the holy name of Krishna, and that you can expand the name of Krishna in all directions and one day we all come together in Varsana to watch the sweetness of our lords. All readers of this message are wholeheartedly invited to come to Varshana to the festivals with the desire to purify themselves and to get inspiration from our lordships. The yoga monastery is a place of shelter. It is not a material shelter, it is a shelter where one can learn how to get out of this material world.
The Yamuna river of Varsana is an extraordinary phenomenon. It is like a subterranean river that appears from the subsoil immediately in the form of a substantial river. I have never seen anything like that in my life anywhere else.
Very close to Varsana there is our future clinic of prabhu Pandava Vijay, the atma clinic is situated in the mountainous region of Silvania, surrounded by 30 hectares of beautiful tropical forest, 30 minutes away from our yoga monastery named Vrindavanita.
Vrindavanita is the training place for the new devotees. It is a yoga monastery which is distinguished by its devotees that travel all over the country spreading the holy name.
The beauty of Vrindavanita is undescribable; you have to visit it. Really, the area around Bogota has been blessed by Lord Krishna. There is also the Rupanuga bhajan ashram in the mountains of La Calera. There, Sridhar Maharaj, our architect, has a beautiful rural place accessable by a 2 hours walk from the Gour Nitay temple in the center of the city, passing by the beautiful mountains which ends in front of Bogota with the church of Monserrat. Countless ways to preach Lord Krishna are there, including some great preaching in the National University by the Vrindavan Alliance.
At the time of the opening of the Ecotruly yoga planetarium in Varsana, we are going to invite all of South America to come to the inauguration ceremony. Again I ask everybody in the world to help us according to their possibilities to build this beautiful jewel of Vaisnava architecture, always when such an effort is made it is challenge against Maya, but Maya doesn't keep quiet.
We are so happy to be part of that artistic work that is not going to raise the envy of the people because actually is an artistic and cultural offering. We do not have a plan to increase the residential areas a lot, because the temple we want, is the temple in the hearts of everybody, without payment of taxes, rent, etc.