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Dear devotees and friends,

I offer my humble obeisances to our spiritual master Srila Prabhupada and to all the great acaryas and their faithful followers.

The first stone in Nueva Vrindavana, Argentina

Yesterday we put the first stone of the temple of Sri Sri Radha Madha Mohan in the rural garden of Their Lordships. They reside in Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, and they have a nice farm where they use to go accompanied by Their devotees. Nueva Vrindavana is a very nice oasis, Srila Prabhupada blessed the world by creating many New Vrindavanas, and permitting that any person who wish to have another New Vrindavana in his farm, or even in his home, can have it. The installation of Sri Ananta Sesa, from Mother Earth was realised with a nice kirtan.

A new start in Uruguay

Some days before, I had the opportunity to visit the devotees who are preaching in Uruguay in the city Punta del Este, or more concrete, in Maldonado. Prabhu Kaustuba and his wife Kakudmini started the preaching in a district near the beach of this famous resort. There they managed to get a very nice house with a very big land, and started the Vaisnava Academy. The success came almost instantly and is amazing; it shows that when there is a wise and dedicated couple in a place, they can open a small centre of Yoga Inbound School and obtain acceptation from people around. This was my first preaching visit to Uruguay, and it gave me great joy to be able to be a part of that Srila Prabhupada's message can come to a new country. In the past there were devotees from Uruguay, inclusive Gurudeva Atulananda was there more than 20 years ago, but like Lord Krishna wanted, this is a new start.

An instrument of love of the Lord

We wish all of those pioneer devotees like Prabhu Kaustuba or Prabhu Mukunda in Hancayo, or Prabhu Haladara in Santo Domingo de los Colorados, or Mother Rati Manjari and Hari Seva in Tucuman., that they have great success, joy and enthusiasm in establishing new oasis of our spiritual family. The charge of the new project in big parts lies on their shoulders, but successful preaching is impossible if it is not for the mercy and the support from Sri Guru and Sri Paramatma. Otherwise we would stay alone with a giant mental plane. But Sri Guru and Sri Paramatma are fully disposed to give their support to all those who wish to be their faithful representatives. This is proved by the success that a person can experience who makes a brave attempt with this predisposition to become an instrument of the love of the Lord.

Loving relations heart to heart

Loving relations from heart to heart is the only thing that is worth anything in this life. And heart to heart without considering the Lord who lives in the hearts, results in a new failure, a new frustration. Really, this thing of heart to heart relations is a very interesting topic, because it is there where one needs the full support from the transcendental realities. Mundane relations, that initially can appear to be heart to heart, are very fragile and defective at the same moment as it ends. Because everyone wants to be the enjoyer of the other, the controller of the other, and one feels to be the owner of the other. Therefore, in the world of exploitation, the so-called heart to heart relation is rather an attempt to conquer another heart. And therefore, in this attempt, appears that which breaks the hearts. For a certain affinity, the exploiter thinks that he will find someone who unconditionally submit to his own insufficiencies, and when this does not happen, he starts to utilize all the fatal methods like the emotional blackmail, the threat and even physical violence, with the desperate attempt to reach his purposes. But if you ask him what madness he is doing, he still insists that it is a matter of his heart. Like this acts the illusion.

Total war against the mentality of exploitation

Until when will we continue with this illusion? Inclusive, in the parents and children relation we see very similar currents, ruin the innocence and the joy of this nice natural relation. Therefore Srila Guru Maharaja encouraged us to declare total war against the mentality of exploitation that resides in each one of us, and that we have to erase it with a lot of maha mantra and much daily unselfish service. Those who want to erase the exploitation by pure intellectual exercises and without unselfish service to the transcendental cause, will surely become frustrated.

The function of the Spiritual Master

The same intellectuality is a certain audacity before the necessity to be a true collaborator, dedicated to the common cause, disposed to be loved by the others, becoming a transparent representative of the Lord of the heart. Here is where the function of the spiritual master comes; he inspires the unselfish work, he creates a field that truly can be called a common and transcendental cause. He represents what is beneficial for husbands and wives, parents and children, with other words, for everyone. He is not partial and has no prejudices against any sector of the human society, neither against the animals.

The spontaneous service is not capricious

The unselfish service is loving service, it is regulated service, or even better, spontaneous that is executed in the sweat of one's brow for something that has been projected by the spiritual master and / or that has been approved by the brahmanic parliament. For example, this is not capricious, it does not favour any provincialism, this is the cause of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu who wants to invade the entire world with Prema dhama, the path of pure love.

Be careful of the apparent

That is the direction where we want to go, the light that gives hope in the darkness of the era of Kali. Be very careful of the appearances; Kali Yuga is very cunning, and very often presented in the most beautiful masks. For instance: Who can imagine, seeing a sweet young couple in love, with apparent innocence - one, two three - will end in the murder of an embryo, beating, drugs, cruelty and one abandoning the other? People like to guard the appearances; even though everything inside is already putrid, on the exterior the lights and the colours give the name.

A humble disposition in every circumstance

Therefore, those who want to be representatives of the spiritual ideal, have to be very brave, very dedicated, very encouraged and very compassionate. There is unlimited service waiting for us, at least we have to be disposed to begin on a very, very humble level, washing plates, making bread, or sitting in a reception every day to attend not more than a few persons that apparently do not have much interest. One must accept all of this, and even if you by Krishna's arrangement have managed to achieve a nice temple, a precious farm for the devotees, to print plenty of books or make films to glorify the Lord, all the same you have to remain the same humble devotee.

Our acaryas do not abandon us

Our acaryas are the best example of this. Despite that they had much influence and nice achievements in their missions, their modesty never changed, and in fact their conduct proved that they are representatives of the supreme cause. They did not have any hidden agenda of poor interests and therefore they could and can inject hope in the entire world, or rather to one who asks for it. Hope and moral strength, enthusiasm and capacity, because our acaryas do not abandon us, they provide us with an immense quantity of instructions, didactic material and formulas to stand up against this world with simple living and high thinking.

Always your well-wisher,
Swami B.A. Paramadvaiti