Table of Contents
Foreword
Welcome to February’s newsletter.
This month was filled with a variety of events, since our team was split into 2 countries, we had twice more adventures! A trip to Malaysia, the day-to-day life at the ashram, launching of the fundraising campaign, a Hindu wedding, and UPC’s Kalpataru festival. Enjoy the read.
How are things going in the ashram?
We have a new calf in the UPC! One morning, going for our everyday cleaning of the Gosala, we found this beautiful baby lying close to its mother. A new cow is there! After one day only, it could already walk, drink milk, and wag its tail, Nature is great indeed. And one week later, we had a stillborn baby. Its mother was already old and had a miscarriage. It was sad, but still, this is Nature’s way.
The vegetable garden is going well, we had a little bit of rain, and some foggy days during this winter. The side where we do traditional Indian style is blooming with flowers, and the one where we practice natural farming shows encouraging results from our experiments.
Prasenjit Wedding
Congratulations !!! On the 22nd of January, our very own Prasenjit got married to Sovona!
The ashram’s accountant and treasurer, Prasenjit finally got married at the age of 30, which is a little late in Indian society. Why? you ask. Because it is a love marriage! For years, Prasenjit’s parents kept presenting him as a spouse, and he kept on refusing. Then one day he revealed that he had fallen in love with a girl and that they both wanted to marry!
The whole ashram got invited, staff and devotees, and we went about one hour from Lachhipur in the village of – NAME – The first evening was at the wife’s house. Prasenjit went there beautifully dressed, but had to dodge several pranks: a bunch of children sitting on his wedding throne asking for money to leave the seat, being served some salty sweets that he had to refuse, people tried to separate the couple while they had to cling to each other, or kids stealing Prasenjit’s shoes and selling them back for an absurd amount… In between these jokes were the very detailed Vedic rituals guided by a priest, and both bride and spouse performed very well. Then we had a sumptuous dinner of course.
The next day, the celebration was at Prasenjit’s house (5 minutes walk from the bride’s house, good thinking Prasenjit), but we had an interesting activity beforehand. There was a cricket match in the stadium nearby, the big final of the local competition. Around 5000 people gathered, and the ashramites went there as well to enjoy the atmosphere. Then at night, the bride was welcomed into her new home, and a long photoshoot session started in the reception hall, with every guest wanting a picture with the newlyweds or to offer them their presents. Then we had a delicious dinner, followed by the traditional digestive dynamic dancing in the reception hall. A great time for a very special event, congratulations Prasenjit!
Kalpataru Festival 2024
Every year on the 28th of January, we celebrate our Kalpataru festival. This date is to commemorate Swamiji’s mother donating the land to start the ashram. We usually make a huge feast, feeding around 2000 people, students from the school, neighbors, trustee members, devotees, friends, and family. This time we had a lower budget because of the fundraising, and about 50 people joined the event.
For this 11th edition, we had the flag hosting, then Puja in the prayer room, and in the mother’s home a few houses away from the UPC. Men and women had prepared vegetables the night before, and the morning was spent cooking different items. We ate a tasty khichuri with some vegetable curry and chutney, followed by some papad and rosagollas.
Our president Smitta Chatterjee and the ashram trustee members were all there, and they had an administrative meeting with our ashramites regarding our current projects.
All and all it was sweet reunions, good food, and a very nice atmosphere. Kalpataru festival was on a smaller scale this time, but we had as much quality time as usual.
Universe-City Land on the Way
Dear friends and family
We are buying the land for our Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam Universe-City!
We got an extension of time for collection of funds until 5 February 2024. We need 50 lakh INR to buy the first 5 acres and cover the first legal fees out of the 500-acre total area of our land.
The next step will be at the end of April when we need to pay 10 crore for the land agreement. The total cost will be 30.8-33.6 crore.
For now, we have received more than 15 lakh (30%) in total together with our international bank account! Thank you everyone for supporting the project. We are so happy that we have that many supporters who are willing to help and contribute. We thank you so much. Now we need to claim the last 70% in the next few days. Let’s finish strong and we will make it. Please continue the flow of money for a good cause!
Our Universe-City’s 5 main causes:
– alleviating poverty
– healthcare cause
– socio-economic cause
– education cause
– protecting the environment cause
For international donations send them to the following bank account:
Important: Send also the details of your transaction to sunyogiindia@gmail.com otherwise we cannot receive your contribution.
Name of the Beneficiary – Sunyogi Umasankar
Name of the Bank – State Bank of India
SWIFT CODE – SBININBB339
IFSC CODE – SBIN0009891
Account Number – 30020784872
Branch Code – 009891 (Branch code is always the last six characters of the IFSC Code)
Branch – Kutikonarpur (West Medinipur), West Bengal, India
Be aware that even though It is a personal account it is directly linked to Universal Peace Centre.
Comments
Leave a Reply
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *