Pot-plants for Swamiji and the SPN Centre

Here is a request from Mataji Prajna, who is responsiple for all our pot-plants inside and outside the ashram:

Jai Gurudev dear friends and spiritual family,

Until now many of you have brought beautiful pot-plants for Swamiji and Shree Peetha Nilaya, beautiful orchids and other flowering plants. They have certainly  enriched the temple and the center.

The idea to bring pot-plants instead of cut flowers is also very thoughtful because they are longer lasting than cut flowers and bloom several times. For that we would like to thank all of you whole-heartedly.

However, from now on we kindly ask you not to bring anymore pot-plants as we have reached our maximum capacity. We have 40 orchids and there are also more than enough large plants. It takes a lot of time to look after them and this time pulls us away from our daily seva for Swamiji´s mission.

For that reason we make this request: Please, for the time being, do not bring any orchids or other plants. We will not accept them anymore. On the other hand, cut flowers  are always welcome.

Thank you very much for your understanding and  cooperation.

Prajna 

in the name of Shree Peetha Nilaya

Reconstruction of our balconies

As you know, we bought this property in 2008. It's an older building built in 1968*. The price was very competitive and it was clear that it gradually needs to be restored. 
The roofs we have now are solid and insulated. The next necessary step was to reconstruct the balconies. The concrete on them has already been cracked in many places. 

Rainwater was penetrating through the cracks which made the steel rust. In the winter the water freezes and the cracking of concrete continues. 

It was high time to do something with it. 

The scaffold was erected on the south side of the ashram in September. Right now the damaged concrete is being removed and the steel reinforcement is exposed. 

Subsequently, new concrete will be applied after the appropriate treatment of the steel. 

Here you can clearly recognise: before (top) and after (below). 

We believe that the work on the south side of the building  will be finished this week. Then it can be nicely painted and will look like new again!

*Sorry, I wrote 1868! Of course this was a mistake, it was built 1968 and was first time renovated 1986 - and than we took it over.

Our new "Veggie-Cellar"

The construction works here at Bhakti Marga are actually always an ongoing process: Now we are building a "veggie-cellar" outside of the Building A (temple/church- building):

As you can see, the construction company digged already a huge new hole on the back side of Building A

There will be soon 3 veggie-cellars for the fruits of the garden (potatoes, apples and, and  - its a lot what Giri produces !). 

One of our goals in SPN is to be self sufficient, and therefore it is important that all vegetables from our garden can be stored for the winter months when there is not much harvest.

Last week all the earth was brought away, stored at our parking area outside - this will go back where it was after the construction is finished, because the cellar has to be covered with earth and plants so that there will be a natural climate in the rooms (not too cold and not too warm). 

Only the entrance will be seen and the green hill covered with grass, plants and bushes will be back.

You can see the groundplan of the 3 cellars, we did apply for building permission already some time ago...

Now we finally build it :-)