![](\"http:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/wp-content\/uploads6\/tumblr_o2qw9t4bKC1sbj0vuo1_500.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
GUNDAIPALEM Concludes the Fourth Phase of Yatra.
\nAmong the few villages located at the confluence of a river and ocean is Gundaipalem. The village is constantly resounded by ocean roars and influenced by eight types of breezes from different directions. Beautiful Gundlakamma river flowing from west to east is resplendent due to sun rays from east in the morning and from west in the evening. These are some of the distinct features of this remote village. Though fishing is their main profession, agriculture was also practiced a decade or so ago. Agriculture has mostly been replaced with aqua culture due to which the lands have become saline and unfit for agriculture. The ground water is also polluted due to this. In spite of the degraded soil there are a few farmers determinedly engaged in agriculture from many years. Since last eight years, with the efforts of IDVM volunteers, the number of cows and bulls has increased in the village and also the practice of traditional agriculture has been introduced. There is an old temple of Lord Shiva and another for Lord Sri Rama. Remarkably, the deities of Sita Rama Lakshmana as a single stone block were found in a fishing net some fifty years ago. IDVM has also helped set up a small mud and straw Krishna temple eight years ago along with a Bhaktivedanta library. Surprisingly the temple survived two major floods in this area. There are ten devotee-families who have stopped their fishing profession and have sought alternative occupations. Under the auspices of HH Bhakti Raghava swami, who visits this village at least once almost every year, IDVM started the first Shikshalaya center, an educational program for children as a pre-runner for gurukula in this village. Three students qualified from shikshalaya program and are now getting trained in a gurukula in Chirala. This program is continuing under the supervision of HG Vraj Vrindavan prabhu, an active local devotee. Six Varnashrama camps were also conducted wherein people from city got an experience of an ideal village life. This village is also known for SiddaVaidya\u2013a traditional treatment system coming from Dravidian culture. Legend says that Siddha is one of the oldest medical systems having deep knowledge of all types of diseases. Sixty years ago there was a Sidda maestro by name of Butchaiah, who was known in the whole district for his ability to diagnose diseases simply by seeing into the patient\u2019s eyes.Due to lack of purity and interest in the younger generations this system has totally been wiped out, except for two very old persons practicing this system for one or two skin related ailments. Local devotees welcomed the preaching team with kirtan and subsequently they were served Idly and dosa prasadam as breakfast. Later local villagers arranged a boat ride in the river which went up to the confluence of the river and ocean then further into the ocean. Devotees from Hyderabad comprising of Ramsharan prabhu, Sripati Prabhu,Toshan Krishna prabhu and Haridas prabhu had their first experience of the continuous tides in the ocean. The boat was stationed and everyone swam in the ocean experiencing floating in the void, free of gravity. After returning from the ocean a full course meal with eight to ten traditional preparations was served. The evening program started with a procession consisting of spirited villagers. The nagarsankirtan went through all the main streets of the village. The program was arranged in a big open ground besides the newly built Sri Rama temple. People eagerly assembled at the venue and heard with rapt attention to the lectures of Sripati prabhu, Haridas prabhu and Ramsharan prabhu. Power point presentations and videos were also displayed. A reverential gopuja and pradakshina was conducted with more than one hundred people participating in it. The program followed with the pledge for protecting mother cow, arati and profuse distribution of prasadam. Villagers, who were otherwise not serious about ISKCON activities, also showed up in the program and gave a positive feedback.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
![](\"http:\/\/68.media.tumblr.com\/7d306ef627634ee876cd86559490ed47\/tumblr_o2qw9t4bKC1sbj0vuo1_500.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
GUNDAIPALEM Concludes the Fourth Phase of Yatra.
\nAmong the few villages located at the confluence of a river and ocean is Gundaipalem. The village is constantly resounded by ocean roars and influenced by eight types of breezes from different directions. Beautiful Gundlakamma river flowing from west to east is resplendent due to sun rays from east in the morning and from west in the evening. These are some of the distinct features of this remote village. Though fishing is their main profession, agriculture was also practiced a decade or so ago. Agriculture has mostly been replaced with aqua culture due to which the lands have become saline and unfit for agriculture. The ground water is also polluted due to this. In spite of the degraded soil there are a few farmers determinedly engaged in agriculture from many years. Since last eight years, with the efforts of IDVM volunteers, the number of cows and bulls has increased in the village and also the practice of traditional agriculture has been introduced. There is an old temple of Lord Shiva and another for Lord Sri Rama. Remarkably, the deities of Sita Rama Lakshmana as a single stone block were found in a fishing net some fifty years ago. IDVM has also helped set up a small mud and straw Krishna temple eight years ago along with a Bhaktivedanta library. Surprisingly the temple survived two major floods in this area. There are ten devotee-families who have stopped their fishing profession and have sought alternative occupations. Under the auspices of HH Bhakti Raghava swami, who visits this village at least once almost every year, IDVM started the first Shikshalaya center, an educational program for children as a pre-runner for gurukula in this village. Three students qualified from shikshalaya program and are now getting trained in a gurukula in Chirala. This program is continuing under the supervision of HG Vraj Vrindavan prabhu, an active local devotee. Six Varnashrama camps were also conducted wherein people from city got an experience of an ideal village life. This village is also known for SiddaVaidya–a traditional treatment system coming from Dravidian culture. Legend says that Siddha is one of the oldest medical systems having deep knowledge of all types of diseases. Sixty years ago there was a Sidda maestro by name of Butchaiah, who was known in the whole district for his ability to diagnose diseases simply by seeing into the patient’s eyes.Due to lack of purity and interest in the younger generations this system has totally been wiped out, except for two very old persons practicing this system for one or two skin related ailments. Local devotees welcomed the preaching team with kirtan and subsequently they were served Idly and dosa prasadam as breakfast. Later local villagers arranged a boat ride in the river which went up to the confluence of the river and ocean then further into the ocean. Devotees from Hyderabad comprising of Ramsharan prabhu, Sripati Prabhu,Toshan Krishna prabhu and Haridas prabhu had their first experience of the continuous tides in the ocean. The boat was stationed and everyone swam in the ocean experiencing floating in the void, free of gravity. After returning from the ocean a full course meal with eight to ten traditional preparations was served. The evening program started with a procession consisting of spirited villagers. The nagarsankirtan went through all the main streets of the village. The program was arranged in a big open ground besides the newly built Sri Rama temple. People eagerly assembled at the venue and heard with rapt attention to the lectures of Sripati prabhu, Haridas prabhu and Ramsharan prabhu. Power point presentations and videos were also displayed. A reverential gopuja and pradakshina was conducted with more than one hundred people participating in it. The program followed with the pledge for protecting mother cow, arati and profuse distribution of prasadam. Villagers, who were otherwise not serious about ISKCON activities, also showed up in the program and gave a positive feedback.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10650,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[118],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-recent-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10650"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24539"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24539\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40740,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24539\/revisions\/40740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}