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WORLD December 27, 1998 VNN2748 WVA-VVRS Service Report BY SVAMI B.A. PARAMADVAITI INDIA, Dec 27 (VNN) — Service Report from The Secretary Of The WVA-VVRS by Swami B.A. Paramadvaiti for the period 1993-1998 My dear Vaisnava Acaryas, Sannyasis and all members and friends of the Visva Vaisnava Raj Sabha - World Vaisnava Association. All Glories to our President Parama Pujyapada Srila Bhakti Pramod Puri Maharaj to whom this report is offered on his 101 Birthday Vyasapuja celebration. This report also features the final report of the secretary to report the activities of the Sabha, concluding the first five year term of the managing committee since the incorporation of the Sabha in New Delhi. I want to give this report to you of what happened after he first blessed the reappearance of the Sabha, started by Srila Jiva Goswami, and led by the divine master Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Prabhupada. The first five years of Seva was mainly dedicated to inform all Vaisnavas of the re-inauguration of the VVRS-WVA. This was approached by many little leaflets and personal visits to the Acaryas of different Vaisnava missions. It was not easy to convince them that this effort was not another partisan mission inspired by a particular spiritual master, but was rather something which was serving the dignity of our Sampradayas. The fact that more and more Vaisnava Acaryas and Sannyasis came foreword to participate on equal standing as founding members of the VVRS-WVA increased the credibility of this effort. Meetings Yearly the VVRS-WVA has two International gathering in India. All Members and friends are invited. Once a year their is a book and preaching material fair in Mayapur. The managing committee meets a few days before the International gathering. Committees of the managing committee meet at their convenience. In addition since 1997 joint Hari Nam processions are organized close to the meetings. Home Page on the Internet The Home Page of the VVRS-WVA has received many visitors. Many other Vaisnava projects of communication have manifested on the Internet. There are Vaisnava news services and many links to other missions and Home Pages. Address lists of all missions are provided and their festival schedules. Vaisnava calendar are now on line. Commentaries and an extensive picture book is informing the visitor about the developments. Travel schedule of some Acaryas have appeared. The Home Page is at the service of all Vaisnava members and has many plans to expand its service. http://www.wva-vvrs.org International Melas In many countries around the world the spirit of the WVA has created new ideas and positive relationship between members of different missions. Germany, France, Hungary, Switzerland, Mexico, Colombia, Netherlands, Costa Rica and the USA celebrated festivals and retreats of the WVA. Vaisnava Acaryas of different vocations were invited by other missions to visit and give their sadhu-sangas. Such visits are on personal basis of loving relationship of cause, not any type of obligation. New Secretaries The WVA establish almost 20 new Committees to increase the service on different levels and permit more Vaisnavas to participate. Every Vaisnava mission is requested to appoint a secretary to deal with the WVA for communication and to represent their Acarya. A press secretary was also established. A meeting secretary to host the different meetings was proposed. Publications The WVA published 10 newsletters and magazines. The last for were published by Swami B.P. Hrishikesh. He printed them in color and on a good paper. Also you can see some articles in : http://www.wva-vvrs.org/mag/magazins.htm The founding member Tusta Krishna Das established the VINA News page on the Internet while Pancatattwa Das maintained the WVA Home Page. The first Internet Vaisnava library, in Spanish and soon in all languages has been established with 125 titles. VINA: http://www.vina.org Vedic library: http://www.vrindavan.org/isev Exchanges between Missions It has been noted that the relationship between Vaisnava Mission are becoming more close. More interest in the WVA is created. Internationals reports are showing more to the Indian Vaisnavas about the necessity of the WVA and the benefits. Complaints It was noted that the mela in Mayapur was not attractive enough. Even though space was supplied free of cost to exhibit books, tapes or any other preaching material in the style of a fair, devotees did not even occupy their book stands. Thus I propose to postpone these melas until there is a popular demand from the members. We also requested pictures and articles from all members to glorify their spiritual master, but we hardly received anything. Cooperation to restore Vaisnava holy Places Adopting old broken temples has already been highly accepted. Twelve old buildings has been restored and deity worship has been improved greatly. Now, a special committee is working to connect interested people with places in search of new devotees and funds. It has also been put in the agenda to help repair and cleaning Vrindavan Dham For that purpose a special committee was started. The connections with local managers of the government has made a favorable ground for the honest development of projects. Emergencies The WVA was effective in stoping anti-Vaisnava propaganda and litigation in several cases. As a unified world religion, our devotees in the different projects are much more protected than each mission on their own. At least in the western worlds that is of crucial importance. The highest title we could have aspired for. Srila Bhakti Kanana Giri Maharaj, the late disciple of Prabhupada Bhakti Siddhanta proclaimed the World Vaisnava Association to be not less than the Visva Vaisnava Rajsabha which has made its reappearance under the guidance of Srila Bhakti Pramod Puri Maharaj. This was announced in Mayapur Srivasangan at the annual yearly festival during March of 1996. His proclamation was accepted by all assembled Vaisnavas and thus the WVA received the elevated title of "Visva Vaisnava Raj Sabha", the sacred assembly of devotees started by Srila Sanatana, Rupa and Jiva Gosvami. Last Words: I apologize for my shortcomings as secretary of WVA-VVRS. It has been a pleasure to serve you all. I will give my support to WVA-VVRS by helping the future secretaries. It is my pleasure to work from now on with several committees and also to coordinate the siddhanta guru varga dignity committee. I once again request humbly all the assembled Vaisnavas; please remember the divine harmonies Sri Mahaprabhu. Remembering him we should all work hard for the Vaisnava world religion; united and simultaneously recognized as individual units or branches of the same tree of the premabhakti. Your Fallen Servant Svami B.A. Paramadvaiti Comment on this Story This story URL: http://vaishnava-news-network.org/world/WD9812/WD27-2748.html
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