Upon arriving back at Hare Krishna Valley on Wednesday after teaching my Bhakti Vaibhava Course at the Melbourne Temple on Monday and Tuesday night, we got straight into preparing a feast for the pleasure of Lord Ramacandra. We had a small, but intimate gathering to celebrate His appearance day. We are developing a small community at Hare Krishna Valley of devotees who regularly come together to glorify the Supreme Lord. The feast was wonderful, as we only have to cook enough prasadam to distribute to a small number of people, so the preparations are of a high standard.
We then began to prepare the facilities for all the guests who were coming to attend Devamrita Swami’s retreat. The retreat was very successful, with 75 people attending, and enjoying an enlightining weekend in the association of Maharaj and the devotees. The guests enjoyed kirtana, prasadam, lectures, dramas and a special bush walk to Erskine falls. Erskine falls is a world famous water fall only half an hour away from Hare Krishna Valley.


The devotees who reside full time at Hare Krishna Valley were fortunate enough to have a personal meeting with Devamrita Swami. He encouraged us in our efforts to preach Krishna Conciousness by showing an example of simple living, high thinking in a rural environment. He especially emphasised that we become as self sufficient as possible in growing our own produce and milking our own cows. We felt greatly enlivened by his encouragement, and even more committed to making Hare Krishna Valley a success.
Until next we meet,
I remain yours in the service of Srila Prabhupada,
Kesava dasa.

This week at Hare Krishna Valley we were involved in our twice yearly wood chop. This time, we also had to build a new wood shed in order to keep all the wood away from the farm buildings. In the summer time, if the wood is too close to the buildings it can pose a fire risk. Virabhadra Prabhu built the frame for a green house many years ago, but it was left incomplete. Because he built the frame in the shape of an octagon, it took us quite a while to cut the corrugated iron in the right shape. In the end, the building is looking quite good, and we now have an attractive wood shed to protect the wood during the winter.
Krishna sent us a nice group of devotees to come and help us cut and stack the wood. It was 2 days of intense labour as we cut 10 cart loads of wood for storage. In the end, everyone had sore backs, tired bodies, and blissful spirits. There is nothing more satisfying than using all of your energy in Krishna’s service. And now we have enough wood to keep the fires going all winter to keep everyone warm.

This is a picture of Vedapriya’s pet King Parrots. She has named them Suka and Sari. They come nearly every morning outside of our door, and call out to her until she comes and feeds them their sunflower seeds for breakfast. Suka, the boy, has the red head, and Sari, the girl, has the green head.

This week at Hare Krishna Valley we continued to apply the first coat of paint to the Temple building. As this is a big building, it is a test of our endurance and devotion to Krishna. The classes we had this week focused on giving pleasure to Krishna through our activities, as opposed to acting for our own pleasure. We received the opportunity to apply the philosophy of Krishna consciousness in our daily life as we painted on and on throughout the day. But as with everything in Krishna consciousness, when we see the result is for Krishna’s satisfaction, we also become satisfied.

We had our third Sunday Feast programme for the year, and once again there were 50 people in attendance, including devotees. This is most encouraging for those of us who are dedicating our lives to making Hare Krishna Valley a success. One of the guest I spoke to was a retired Police Commissioner, who had come to the feast with his wife to investigate what the Hare Krishna movement is about. He participated enthusiastically in the kirtana, asked questions during the lecture, and enjoyed the prasadam to his full satisfaction.
We look forward to seeing more of you at Hare Krishna Valley soon.
Until then, I remain yours in the service of Srila Prabhupada,
Kesava dasa.

The previous week was spent preparing for 40 guests who were coming to stay for the weekend. They were from the Jain religion, and they booked Hare Krishna Valley to hold one of their retreats. They were very happy with the facilities that we provided, and the prasadam that we prepared for them on the Sunday. They decided to cook for themselves on the Saturday, but after tasting Manigriva’s cooking on the Sunday, they said that they will let us cook for the whole retreat next year. Gandhiva took them for a bush walk, which was enjoyed by all.


Manigriva, Gandhiva and myself started to erect four hot-houses, which will be used for growing vegetables and seedlings during the winter period. We have already received an entire months rainfall in the last week, and everything is looking lush and green. The Zucchinis continue to produce themselves profusely, and now the butternut pumpkins are starting to turn the right colour for us to pick. Because the weather has become quite cold in recent weeks, our eggplants are not producing very much fruit. We will see how things go this week.

Until then, I remain yours in the service of Srila Prabhupada.
Kesava dasa.

Another big week at Hare Krishna Valley. It seems the more you serve Krishna, the more service He gives you to do. At least at Hare Krishna Valley, this seems true. It has been non stop. We are now half way around the Temple building with the first coat of the new paint job. Such a big building seems to be taking forever, but, Krishna continues to send us help. This week, a friend of ours named Tom came to our rescue, and helped us complete the painting on the longest wall of the building.


On Friday, Matt Allan, the CFA representative came and assessed the 6 buildings on our property, to rate them in terms of their safety in the bush fire. He will write a comprehensive report, and send it to us in the following week. Overall, he felt that our buildings were in good condition, and will advice us how to make them more defendable from ember attack.
On Sunday, Manigriva and myself, with the help of another of our friends, Rob, put a coat of render on the north and south wall of the mudbrick ashram. This was a long day, and we just had enough render to complete the job. Overall, we are getting alot done, and we always appreciate any help that we can get. If you feel inspired to come and stay for a while to help out, please get in contact with me.
Hope you are all well.
Speak to you next week.
Yours in the service of Srila Prabhupada.
Keshava.