Swami arrived in Madhuvan, Costa Rica in early December, bringing with him several monastics from Audarya to join Madhuvan’s staff. Among the new residents is Audarya-lila dasa, Madhuvan’s new director. Swami and the devotees arrived to the joyful ongoing seva of Dauji-Gopala and their beautiful cows and land.
Also waiting for everyone were several newly completed residences, and further construction has quickly begun, including three new visitor’s cabins, with more monastic housing coming in the near future. With a growing population, Madhuvan’s solar/hydro electric system has also been expanded, as has its water supply with the tapping of a new well. In addition to the existing vegetable gardens, greenhouse, and dozens of young fruit trees throughout the property, the devotees have begun putting in more garden beds and making plans for large-scale pineapple, papaya, and banana production in the coming year. Swami is excited to see Madhuvan’s self-sufficiency develop beyond its present status, which includes supplying its own dairy, fruits, vegetables, rice, beans, dahl, and corn. In the same vein, the devotees are currently planning a bio/methane digester to supply Madhuvan’s cooking fuel.
Amid all this development, Swami has continued his lecture series on Srimad-Bhagavatam, delving deeply into Narada Muni’s instructions to Sri Vyasadeva. Swami has also guided the residents through a study of Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura’s Madhurya Kadambini, while Babhru and Audarya-lila have been teaching from Sri Rupa Goswami’s Bhakti-rasamrita-sindhu and Upadesamrita, respectively.
Over the next few months, Madhuvan’s population will grow to a base of ten full-time monastics. Swami has been reminding the devotees that amidst so many varied forms of service, the monks are here firstly as sevaites of Dauji-Gopal. In this regard he cited his Guru Maharaja, Srila Prabhupada, who after he first established his Krishna-Balaram Mandira, expressed a desire to have twenty-five sannyasis living there full-time and caring for the temple and worship. Maharaja has been conveying his hopes that this project will develop such that hundreds of years from now the same worship of Dauji-Gopal will continue here in the mountains of Guanacaste, rich in tradition and built firmly on essential spiritual concepts, its very existence beckoning future generations of Gaudiya Vaishnavas. Everyone is eager to serve such an inspired vision.
Swami will be in Madhuvan through the remainder of February, wrapping up a fruitful three months here in Costa Rica. He will return to Audarya with a few devotees for the annual Vyasa-puja and Gaura Purnima festivities.
