Vedic Culture Education Center (VCEC) First Development Report

Written by: HG Guna Avatar Das

Edited by: Vrindavanlila Devi Dasi

The new plot for VCEC, 43×102 m2 equals to 1.08 acres which we purchased a few months ago at the Prasat Village. Now its development has begun.

The first phase of development includes: 1. Fencing, 2. Land markings according to the master plan, 3. Open well, 3. Install wooden Balleho.  In another five days this will be complete.

One of the family from our farm has been helping us put the fence from more than a week. The husband and wife come every day to help us, taking the hardships as we don’t even have any building. They just take rest under the trees and continue the help.

After that we started to dig the open well using the cement rings. In five days two men have installed 5 rings with each of them measuring 1 m, so now we have about 5 m deep well. The water comes out around 40 cm itself, so we decided to stop digging. Our water pumps don’t work so we had to have a well. We also stopped digging as hard stones had begun appearing, making the digging work difficult to continue. Water is very good and clean. It can thus be easily used for baths, cooking etc. Now we are using a bucket to lift up the water from the well.

According to the master plan drawn by Kisora prabhu with the help of Arjuna prabhu (Indonesia) under the guidance from HH Bhakti Raghava Maharaja, the land will be divided into three plots:

1. West plot 43×34 m²; having 4 kutirs 6×6 m², one Yogashala 6×11 m² and two outside bathroom 6×4 m².
2. Middle plot 43×43 m² including 3.5 m road around, inside having shrine, kitchen & prasadam hall, Yajnasala, pond and Goshala.
3. East plot 43×25 m²: Raja Marga on middle 8 m, two Grihastha kutir on both sides 6×6 m². In the new design there are 4 types of kutir: 1. Two Guest kutirs in west north, 2. One Vanaprastha kshatriya kutir on south west, 3. One Brahmacary kutir on south west (east of Vanaprastha Kutir)
4. Two Grihastha kutirs both in south east and north east. All the kutirs are of same dimension i.e.6×6 m².

Maharaj suggested to make just a small kutir with 2-3 rooms inside because big buildings might not be suitable for countryside. “We should not build big temple. Build shrine and keep a lot of open space for open air theatre and Kirtan. No need of big temple in the country, big temple can be in Phnom Phen later.” (- HH Bhakti Raghava Swami, VCEC, June 2020)

We have started the first Guest Kutir in the north west side with the estimated budget as: 

Budget for the one kutir at VCEC

Our present fund balance may be enough to cover just one or two kutirs, as we see in this account report of VCEC;

This is the account report for the new project, and already withdrawn of about $700 more has been made for the well and the first kutir.

Jay Radhika Mataji, our well-wisher from Malaysia suggested us to write a letter humbly requesting for help for this VCEC development, beginning with the setting up of six kutirs. Hopefully this writing is able to give a clear picture of the developments that are taking place in our project and it will inspire more people like Jay Radhika Mataji to support this new project of ISKCON Cambodia.

After the Kutirs are ready and coconuts, bananas and different fruit trees have been grown it will mean that the second phase of the project also has been done. Then we will be in the third phase of the project related to the development of the middle plots. It will begin with kitchen and prasadam hall and also building the shrine. We want to keep clean goshala here and make facility for keeping at least one cow for puja. The rest of the cows are at the Yashodapura Eco Village, our main land community project at about 3 kms distances from VCEC. These two projects will be interconnected and devotees who come can spend time in both the places. As soon as we have the necessary facilities for the devotees to stay at VCEC, we would invite people to come. It can also help the government in attracting tourists especially post-Covid 19 crisis.

Some of foreigners who know ISKCON have already been contacting us to be volunteers. They are now staying in Cambodia because of the difficult situation in the countryside. Since they are interested in experiencing village life, they wish to join us for some time.

Vishnurata prabhu, the Director for this project, plans to come here with his wife and son around the end of this year if the situation normalises. He now conducts the Bhakti Sastri online course and also serves at the Varnasrama Ministry office in Sri Dham Mayapur.

Bhakta Khear from the Chub Basecamp has also been helping us in the new project. In the evenings, he also teaches English to the village children and youth. Recently we took FFL program together with Kumudaksa prabhu in the neighbouring village,Tep Sway village, with about 50 people and children joining the program. We also installed Sri Sri Gaura Nitai (Happy Doll) in the owner’s house. She is the village staff who used to help us in several programs in the village. During the program we did kirtan and different aratis for the lordships.

We hope that with the support and cooperation from all our friends, devotees and well-wishers (inside and outside the country), we can improve our service to Krishna in Cambodia.

We welcome anybody who would like to participate in this project in whatever way they can. We acknowledge and appreciate the efforts of all those who have already been helping us and those who are willing to help us in near future. We wish and pray that by Krishna’s mercy every one of them remains always happy and healthy in Krishna Consciousness.

Please contact us if you want to know and/or give support to this project:

+62 852-3844-4436 ( Kisora Krishna dasa Prabhu )

+91 98620 84531
( Vishnurata dasa Prabhu )

+ 85511369114
( Gunaavatara dasa )

kala.dasa@gmail.com (Kala Dasa Prabhu)

+62 812-7291-9643
(Yadava Hari dasa Prabhu)

+91 91 77764 311
( HH Bhakti Raghava Swami Maharaja)