VNN Americas - Second South American Vaishnava Mela


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AMERICAS

December 16, 1998   VNN2693  

Second South American Vaishnava Mela


BY WVA

PERU, Dec 16 (VNN) — Vrinda Peru invites: Second Andean Vaisnava Meeting

SECOND SOUTH AMERICAN VAISHNAVA MELA
19th - 23rd May 1999
Vrinda Family festival

All Glories to Sri Sri Guru Gauranga

The Yearly great festival of the Vrinda Family will be held from the 19 to the 23rd of May of 1999 year.

Location: Panamericana Norte Km.63, Playa Chacra y mar, Chancay, Lima (one hour north of Lima on the Pacific ocean), PERU.
Visit us on the web: http://www.vrindavan.org/trulys

Welcome to the festival inviting their Lordships Sri Sri Radha Damodar to make their appearance in Peru.

This extraordinary festival will unite devotees from all over South America of the Vrinda family. Other devotees interested in participating please contact our festival coordinator at: isevperu@amauta.rcp.net.pe

On Wednesday the 19th of May there will be a big Hari Nam parade in downtown Lima with a festival in a public Hall. Details to be announced a little later. The subject of the parade is chanting the Holy Name in defense of all those who cannot speak for themselves. Participants will have different costumes and banners with messages against the abuse of animals, children, mother earth, etc.

On Saturday 22nd of May. Installation of their Lordship Sri Sri Radha Damodhar in the historic first phase of the Truli Temple Planetarium

The Sunday 23rd of May will be dedicated to a special meeting of the members of the World Vaisnava Association.

In the ECO TRULI ASHRAM in Chakri Mar we will have three days of non stop chanting, dancing and feasting.

The Transcendental Andean Pact will organize theater presentations from different countries.

Many musical presentations including Akarma, the acclaimed protest singer from Colombia.

Special guests:
Our spiritual masters:
Srila B.A. Paramadvaiti Swami Maharaja
Srila Atulananda Acarya

Sripad B.V. Vaisnava Maharaj from Ecuador
Sripad B.V. Hrishikesh Maharaj from Colombia
Sriman Chaitanya Nitai from Miami
Sriman Madhava Prakash das with his transcendental Boleros
Sriman Sridhar das and the Shakti band from La Paz Bolivia
Sriman Akarma and his family band Prema
Sripad Damodara Maharaj and his Dharma band
Sripad Dharmatma and his band from Arica
Sripad Akinchana Maharaj
Sripad Srivatsa and his music band Vraja mandal from Arequipa
Sripad Lilasukha and his group from Huancayo
Sripad Syamal Krishna and his andean Vaisnava songs.
Host is Sripad B.V. Tapasvi Maharaj from Lima with his theater called Conciencia
aunque duela. (Consciousness, even if it pains)

And so many other Vaisnava and Vaisnavis from around the world.

Those who still want to register a cultural event with us should contact Pancatattwa das urgently to include it on the posters.

Those who would like to donate to this festival or to the development of the ECO TRULI ASHRAM may send their donation to Vrindavan Church, Account number: 209001751751, First Union National Bank of Florida, "Routing" Bank number: 063000021, MIAMI.

All Participants shall register at the Lince Temple upon arrival in Lima: Damodhara ashrama: Av. Bernardo Alcedo 259, lince. Phone: 51-1-4708304

Please read the description of this extraordinary Ashram built single-handedly by the devotees themselves on the shores of the Pacific ocean:

Combining the worlds:
The Trulli Ashram in Peru.

Going north on the serpentine road of the Pasamayo we reach the first sign of life in the 8000 km long Atacama desert, one hour after Lima, the capital of Peru. This region is an oasis fed by the water of the Chancay river.

Since time immemorial various Pacific Coastline cultures inhabited this place. Well known by the famous cultures of the Chankay Indians, the Mocha Indians and their ancient mud constructions such as the largest mud city of Chan Chan, this fertile oasis offers relief to the weary traveler. Here at the shore of the Pacific ocean we find the community of the Peruvian Vaisnavas named Trulli Ashram.

Founded in 1992 by Swami B.A.Paramadvaiti the project became the first ecological farm community in Peru. Here the most ancient American construction style was combined with the culture of the Vaisnavas from India. First found on the Andean high planes, these conical structures were built by the Chulpa Indians and were called Putucus. Similar structures are found in India, Italy, Sicily, Marocco and Tunisia. It is definitely one of the most original and natural ways of building high structures out of different materials such as earth, mud and stone. The temple structures of India always had a round base for the altar area. Antonio Gaudy studied those natural lines and explained its stability which gave an obvious reason why this construction style was in the line of nature and not against it. Thus the domes did not even need reinforcement with steel, wood or any other material. This conical shape resembles the natural fall of a chain in the reverse position making it stable against earthquakes or heavy storms.

The Peruvian Trulli Ashram owes its name to the Trullis of Arbolbello of the Pulia region of southern Italy. There the Trullis ornamented them. The Peruvian Trullis are decorated with vedic symbols of India, creating the atmosphere of a gigantic space station. Sending messages into the hearts of the visitors, these Yantras, or sacred pictorial invocations teach us the higher awareness of the universal reality.

The largest project here is the vedic planetarium which has already started to manifest. The vedic scriptures teach us the structure of the fourteen worlds of the universe and the development of consciousness from dimension to dimension. The vedic planetarium takes us through twenty Trullis and their respective levels of teachings, deities and perceptions to finally reach the topmost combination of the transcendental island in the three world Trulli. This island is the chamber of love. This is the temple of Sri Damodar, the Lord who can only be tied into our inner self by the binding force of Love. In the beauty of nature at its fullest of realms, there is Vrindavan, the Forest of Vines and the Holy Tulasi trees. Surrounded by the seven major temples of Vrindavana we will enter into deep meditation which will lead us to our very limits. There the Holy Mantras will set us free to fly into the endless world of positive unity in Love.

Natural simple living, art and meditation are the guiding principles of the Ashram community. Art director Julio Mayo explains that the Harmony School of Conscious Art, started in Germany in the early 1980's. It provided local artists lots of inspiration to join this monumental living art project. This is the biggest installation using nothing but mud and stones. Painters, musicians and sculptures from different South American countries have contributed to the Trulli Ashram and Program Director Sriman Prapanna Prabhu is inspiring other similar communities in South America to learn from the combined ecological, artistic and spiritual atmosphere of the Trulli Ashram.

Already people from many universities and countries come to see with their own eyes that ecological living with higher consciousness is a true delight even renouncing modern luxuries, which have shaped today's world. There are dry toilets not contaminating the water and soil, compost and recycling of materials, pure organic cultivation and vegetarian lifestyle, wind power and solar cooking. Here you can see first hand people cooperating with nature. No electricity has reached this region and thus at sunset, we are left with the light dwelling within us. Time to meditate and talk over the spiritual substance which has brought us this far in our existence. Vedic teachings pervade the entire premises. Following the guidelines for the project set by the founder and architect of the Trulli Ashram, Swami B.A. Paramadvaiti, every brick of mud and each wave should remind us of the absolute harmony.

Mantras are transcendental sound vibrations which are reverberating around construction sites and meditation rooms. The Sancto Sanctorum is the dedicated heart of every ashram member and visitor. Harmonious relationships are allowed to blossom in this environment. The Chulpa Indians had lived in these round Putucus, teaching in their tradition that in round dwellings, negative energies have no where to get stuck. Later again amongst the Incas this construction style resurfaced and was called chulpas; the name of the original constructors on the Bolivian high planes.

Timeless art, message of the heart, the art of living culminates in finishing our earthly visit with divine consciousness. Migrating away from gross matter, the goal of the Ashram is to end the cycle of birth and death, its motor being illusion and egoistic attachments. In the days of Internet and space technology we have returned to our roots. Back to nature and to the common basis of all people, all races and all cultures. Love is our all and only need.

The Harmony School of Conscious Art has invited us to visit this unique experience of the Trulli Ashram. The secretary of the Trulli Ashram, Eliseo Franco, has created international awareness of the Trulli Ashram through the Trulli Home Page URL: http://www.vrindavan.org/trulys We invite all artists and craftspeople, benefactors, and of course, you to visit us and to contribute to this project through your generous donations or any artistic contributions. write us for more information: isevperu@amauta.rcp.net.pe


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