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The past year has
been unique. Beside dealing with the day to day running of the
community - looking after the animals, catering for the
increasing numbers of pilgrims, improving the ashram’s
infrastructure and caring for patients at our Hospice - the
monks and nuns at Skanda Vale have had to come to terms with a
changing landscape. Behind the scenes a great Divine drama has
been unfolding, and continues to do so. In our different ways we
have all been pushed to new levels of experience, being forced
to forge an ever stronger link with God. It is only through
learning to completely surrender and by being totally obedient
to the will of God, by relying on Divine grace and guidance in
every aspect of our lives, that the Lord and Divine Mother can
begin to occupy every one of us slowly creating a perfect
instrument for the fulfilment of Divine Will. We hope this
newsletter gives a small insight into the experience of 2006, a
challenging but extraordinary year.
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Wintertime is when we can focus more on projects. At the
beginning of this year we made some more progress towards
refurbishing the old goat shed, into monastic accommodation,
Valli the elephant keeping a close eye on the development. The
glazing and finishing touches were applied to the olive house
and Yagasala, the wind generator and associated electrics
installed and more progress was made on the peacock run. As
Easter approached, coinciding with warmer weather and school
holidays, the number of pilgrims escalated and more of our time
was spent in the temples and public areas caring for the
pilgrims. Agriculturally we have celebrated several births
amongst the animals – buffalos, cattle, donkeys and birds. We
also had a successful run of haymaking due to the fine June
weather which will sustain them all through this winter.
We have not been exempt from the same difficulties, both serious
and trivial that can bedevil anyone in this world. We have met
frustrations with local government, pettiness from neighbours,
the expense and uncertainty of a legal process and experienced
the tribulations of ill health. We have had to satisfy insurance
assessors, accountants, grant conditions and health and safety
regulations, in other words all the administrative paraphernalia
that a large family or organisation has to face, and this has
required much work and commitment from the Swamis, the Brothers
and Sisters.
The Divine Mother has set many dramas in motion for Skanda Vale.
Our job is not to question why but to carry on working as a
centre of excellence in the guiding principles of Dharma.
Guruji has continued to withdraw from the day to day running of
the Ashram. It has been a time for everyone in the community to
stand on their own two feet before God, without the penetrating
insights and challenges from Guru; a time to fearlessly examine
the validity of their commitment for themselves and an
opportunity to take more responsibility for their own and
others’ spiritual evolution. The Swamis, particularly Swami
Suryananda and Swami Brahmananda have extended their spiritual
authority and the remit of their activities to ensure the divine
work of Skanda Vale carries on as it should at all levels.
In 2005 we constructed and opened our new coach park on the
advice of the local highways department. This provided a
solution to the problems of transfer from large coaches unable
to come via Skanda Vale’s main entrance. Retrospective planning
permission would be a formality we were advised but to our
surprise, towards the end of this summer, a completely
contradictory ruling refusing planning permission was issued by
the local council. We have subsequently lodged an appeal against
the planning committee’s decision with the Welsh Assembly. This
was also turned down in march 2007.
Click here for further details or if
you would like to support the Temple on this issue.
Our trustees have unanimously put
themselves on the line, along with our unstinting supporters, to
ensure that we have the resources to respond to any challenge.
Many thanks to all of you.
Our only concern is the continuing freedom of devotees to come
and worship God in what ever form they choose.
Towards the end of the year we launched a major health and
safety review which was a useful opportunity to generally
tighten up our policies and procedures and to build upon our
efforts to improve public safety in all areas of the ashram.
We have embarked upon a major shift away from expensive gas,
electricity and oil dependency and have started building a
structure to house a log boiler providing hot water for the
showers and heating in the toilet block. Meanwhile up at the top
near the Shakti Temple a large shed for the storage of all our
fire wood which we will use in the various wood burning
appliances throughout Skanda Vale is being constructed. We have
successfully obtained a grant from the Forestry Commission and
the work must be complete by the end of February to qualify for
this, so it’s been a busy winter.
Against this background of work we have celebrated poojas, the
festivals and other events in our calendar and it has been our
privilege to share them with the many pilgrims visiting Skanda
Vale. Thank you to all the volunteers who have come and helped
as gardeners, builders, vegetable choppers, consultants and
stewards this year. It is only with your support that Skanda
Vale can continue to flourish in it’s ability to serve humanity.
We look forward to seeing you all this year.
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