The Year of the Ashram
by Hasyapriya Das
Photos courtesy of: B.C. Parvat Maharaj and Ranajit Prabhu.
Our hope for many years has been to expand the facilities of the Soquel Seva Ashram. The limited guest and residential facilities here necessitate the building of a larger temple and additional guest rooms to serve the needs of the devotees. During the last year we hired many engineers and other professionals to help prepare the plans for this expansion.
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During his recent visit, we had the opportunity to show these plans to Srila Govinda Maharaj.
Srila Gurudev again expressed his support and gave his blessings to our proposal. He assured us that Krishna would send us everything that we needed to make this project successful! |
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This will be an important year for our Ashram development. In February we will be submitting our application to the County of Santa Cruz for permission to modify the use of our property to accommodate our development plans.
Then over the following months we will have meetings with the neighbors and additional meetings with various county departments. If all goes well, by Gurudev's mercy we should have permission to start building by the end of this year!
Many devotees have helped with their time and money to get us this far. However, within the next 30 days we need to raise $25,000 for professional fees and county fees to submit this application. We humbly ask for your financial assistance to reach this goal. Here is a link to our Pay Pal account that can be used for your donations.
With the support of Srila Govinda Maharaj and the help of our community of devotees and friends, we pray that we can help serve the desire of Srila Gurudev for the development of the Soquel Seva Ashram and the service of Sri Sri Guru Gauranga Gandharvika Giridhari.
Artistic rendering of our proposed temple center.
Painted by Sushila Devi Dasi
Seva Ashram Development Project
by Hasyapriya Das
In 1993, on the Holy Appearance Day of Srimati Radharani and by the mercy and blessings of Srila Govinda Maharaj, with the help of all the devotees in our community, we purchased the 29-acre Seva Ashram property in Soquel, California. Over the past 14 years the Seva Ashram has been the center of our devotional community. Many guests, friends, devotees, their children and even grand-children, have found nourishment for their spiritual lives at the Seva Ashram.
Today we are faced with the challenge of expanding our facilities in order to accommodate those who wish to participate. On these pages we wish to share with you our plans and aspirations for the development of our beautiful Seva Ashram. We invite you all to help us manifest this dream and fulfill the desires of our beloved Srila Govinda Maharaj.