Major Preaching Reform in Colombia's Capital

July 8, 2003

Since Krishna Consciousness has spread well in Santa Fe de Bogota and that there are now four temples, two farms and many Nama Hatta centers in and around the city, the national Vaisnava Samaj of Colombia met to improve the services. The new dimensions and the recently started Vaisnava Academy gave rise to a new structure to serve the people. The evolution of a community implies that more room has to be created to facilitate the delegations of authority and the training of new leaders.

Colombia now has the great fortune of having 10 Sannyasis traveling among the 30 Centers in Colombia. It is nice to see that more and more devotees want to take up responsibility. New projects are requiring devotees with training and capacity. Thus the Vaisnava Academy started a special course for training new temple presidents in the principal Vaisnava Community of Colombia. Situated at the height of 2600 meters above sea level on top of the Andes, the great facility and beautiful deities are inviting all devotees to study Vaisnava life from top to bottom. In this way the new devotees are given the chance of passing at least six months of their devotional beginning in this project with intensive study.

The higher Institute of Vedic Studies, the Educational branch of the Vaisnava Church of Colombia is publishing many new books and study guides for the Academy. Over 120 publications have come out over the last 7 years. Now the Academy is getting support from all the centers of the country. Swami Hrishikesh is helping to pioneer this educational program which is new to the Krishna world of South America.

The Vaisnava Samaj also expanded to include more members of each program into their meetings to assure a better representation of each center and keep leaders more on the ground of Vaisnava Seva, sometimes forgotten in administrative turmoil. Very happily, all embraced the new reform to be able to guide the movement into a further bright future with many capable self-conscious and selfless leaders.