May June 2020 - Radhadesh ENGLISH Newsletter

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Radhadesh E-Newsletter

May - June 2020

Dear Reader,

First of all, I’d like to thank you for your patience. We have been undertaking for some time now a reboot of our outreach department in Radhadesh. And as everyone knows, as with so many things in life, nothing goes according to plan! It has taken a long time and we swam through some difficult waters, but now we are back with the bimonthly Radhadesh Newsletter. And what a one we have for you! One of our goals is to give you more insight into the ins and outs of what is happening at Radhadesh. That’s why we chose to reintroduce an e-magazine, embracing the ongoing need for more of an ecological point of view and therefore not on paper anymore. Hereby I would like to welcome you!

A newsletter, and certainly a magazine, doesn’t just write itself. There is always the challenge to find new and fresh content. So we request, if you have any messages, nice pictures, reflections, etc. about Radhadesh, you can always send them to me (kim@radhadesh.com). Together with the editors, we can take them into consideration and publish them. After all, many hands make light work!

2020 had promised to be a beautiful year with the 40th anniversary of Radhadesh. Of course, as with the world over, the current Corona crisis has decided otherwise. The crisis has forced Radhadesh to close its doors to all audiences since 16th March. This has been a very strange experience. For two months now the devotees have been walking around the grounds without the presence of visitors, tourists, groups, schools, and even without a Sunday Feast!

But we didn’t just walk around aimlessly! We took the bull by the horns and used the opportunity to carry out a number of major renovation works, for which there would otherwise be no time.

What does this mean ??

• The restaurant is completely freshening up, both the customer area and the downstairs kitchen.

• Radha Gopinatha’s flower room is getting a complete makeover. There will be a completely new tiled floor, newly tiled walls and all new furnishings.

• The storage space underneath the restaurant, where materials are kept for our many festivals, for weddings and dramas, has been completely emptied and tidied up.

• The garden team has used the opportunity to make a second conservatory operational and has planted a lot of vegetable seeds. So we will be able to offer much more home-grown vegetables during the summer and autumn to the deities and devotees.

• The forest around Radhadesh had suffered a lot of damage from the spring storms. Many trees had been uprooted and many branches had broken off.

A team of devotees is cleaning up the forest and removing the trunks and branches. These will continue to be used for the biomass plant for heating Radhadesh.

Radhadesh Flower Room BEFORE

IN PROGRESS

Stay tuned for more updates!

The pictures already give a hint, but when it’s allowed, we’d like to invite you to come and have a look for yourself!

And hopefully we can welcome you back soon. If everything can go ahead as planned by the government, we will have a first try-out weekend to get Radhadesh out of the Corona crisis. From Thursday 21st May, the boutique, bakery, guesthouse, and temple room will be open to visitors for four days.

If there is sufficient response, we will remain open and hope to resume tours soon, as well as the opening of the restaurant.

For more information about this, keep an eye on our Facebook and Instagram page, as well as the website. Updates will be mainly through these sources.

I would like to inform you that no final decision has yet been made as to whether or not to hold the annual Summer Festival (25 and 26 July) and the public Janmastami Festival (9 August). While it is unlikely we will be allowed, we are still waiting for more guidelines from the government, which are not really clear at the moment. The Radhadesh management will decide by June 1st at the latest.

What we can be 100% certain about, is the Annual Members Weekend! Make a note of the weekend of 26 and 27 September in your agenda. An exciting, educational weekend offered to our members (excluding accommodation), and also accessible to non-members at a concession rate. You can find more information about this in the newsletter.

I hope this will have answered any questions you might have had. I wish you and your loved ones all the best in these challenging times and pray you are safe both physically and spiritually by Krsna’s mercy.

See you soon!

On behalf of the ROSE department, Kim

40 years of Radhadesh This year celebrates the 40th anniversary of the installation of Radha Gopinatha in Radhadesh. We have been dillegently uploading fresh new content on our social media pages, which we have lovingly called the “Nostalgic Tour of Radhadesh”.

Here we describe the different events that have brought us to this year’s milestone of being a succesful ISKCON community in these troubling times. What really stood out to us, is that the success or failure does not solely depend on the management, but mainly on the cooperation of the devotees in the community and on the altar. With proper guidance many big achievements can look doable, and bring us forth during this age of uncertainties, quarrel and duplicity.

We therefore would also like to take this opportunity to thank all the people who have lived here and maybe do not anymore, but have contributed to making Radhadesh a beautiful home for Sri Sri Radha Gopinatha. Although 40 years makes an impressive milestone to have arrived at, we still look forward to making it many more years and bringing everfresh activities forward to you and your family.

We thank you for all these years of support and welcome you to join us on all our social media platforms.

@radhadesh.official

facebook.com/radhadesh

www.radhadesh.com • www.radhadesh.tv • youtube: ISKCON Radhadesh

Clearing the Path

by Syamananda Dasa

In the Srimad Bhagavatam we hear this wonderful verse from the first canto “Living beings who are entangled in the complicated meshes of birth and death can be freed immediately by even unconsciously chanting the holy name of Krsna, which is feared by fear personified.” We can all certainly relate how our lives in modern times are correctly described as ‘entangled in complicated meshes’. The world seems to get more and more complicated every day with more procedures, paperwork and bewildering bureaucracy to work thru to get even simple things done. Most of us are so bewildered by many day-to-day challenges, that there is a whole world of lawyers, advisors, and government bodies to work it all out for us.

How is anyone supposed to stay sane in such a constant tidal wave of complexities and challenges? Most turn to the external world and its offer of endless distractions, thinking there is nothing else to do but numb ourselves to these miseries so built into modern life. But recently there has been a healthy growing trend to not just turn outward but to turn inward. To seek a peace that is not dependent on any gadget, entertainment corporation or an array of activities that are universally understood as destructive to our bodies. The cry rising from many is that there has to be something more. So many instinctively feel it and yet their voice gets lost in the deafening roar of modern life and its ability to overwhelm us.

And how much more we have seen this in the last few months, when our modern complicated world is very fragile and very vulnerable to disruption. And this is just the complexities that we encounter in this one life. The Srimad Bhagavatam makes it clear that the real entangling problem is in the very sticky web of repeated birth and death. But of course Srimad Bhagavatam doesn’t leave us in a state of bleakness but is pointing out these truths to inspire and incite us to take advantage of the remedy for both our day-to-day challenges and our life-to-life challenges.

That is it encourages us to embrace sincere, heartfelt chanting of the Holy Name of Lord Krsna. In the verse above it establishes that even if the chanting is poor hearted with little effort, Krsna still accepts our effort to chant at all.

Of course the verse is not encouraging poor-hearted chanting but is to confirm how incredibly merciful Krsna is to accept any offering we make in turning to Him, like a small child trying to pronounce its first words always melts the hearts of the loving parents. How much more unconditional love, Krsna has for all us, His children, when we turn to Him in difficult times and make our attempts to chant His names. We can be assured it will also melt His heart and thereby ensure His mercy.

Members Retreat Join us at our annual Members Retreat at Radhadesh. Connecting you with other members, sharing, learning and enjoying each other’s company. The reason people have said they became members is to feel close and connected with a community of likeminded people. We also would like to say that children are very welcome, and if you notify us beforehand, we will provide wonderful activities for them.

Date: 26 -27 September 2020 Who can attend?

If you are a member, you can attend the retreat for free. You only need to pay for your accommodation. If you are not a member yet, but would like to become one and join this free event, please go to this link to find out more about our Membership Program www.radhadesh.com/members There are limited spaces available so please book your place now at the Radhadesh Retreat Centre.

Please RSVP to kim@radhadesh.com