New ISKCON Preaching Center in Bolivia

July 8, 2003

A small but beautiful ISKCON preaching center will open next Janmastami in La Paz, Bolivia. The center is located in one of the most residential areas of La Paz, just in front of the US Embassy. This place is the result of the effort of several ISKCON devotees, most of them disciples of His Divine Grace Jayapataka Swami.

A beautifully decorated auditorium with capacitiy for forty seated visitors, a large kitchen, an office for receiving guests, and a temple room is what this new preaching center has to present the mission of Srila Prabhupada to the bolivian comunity.

The activities of the new ISKCON preaching Center, called "Centro de Estudios Vedicos" include weekly conferences on topics of vedic philosophy open to the general public, training on vaisnava philosophy for initiated devotees, bhakti sastri studies of Bhagavad-Gita, and classes of devotional music and vegetarian cooking.

Bolivia is a country where ISKCON devotees are working since 1975. Now the International Society for Krishna Counciousness is lead by Ranga Puri das in Cochabamba, and Hari Sankirtan das in La Paz, both disciples of HDG Jayapataka Swami.

The history of the Hare Krishna movement in this country has been quite extraordinary, including police assaults to the temples, and deportations and arrests of devotees. Nevertheless, the resistence of the Bolivian devotees has been more stronger than the government attacks, and the movement of Srila Prabhupada is still present. The opening of the new preaching center is a demonstration of the desire of the Bolivian ISKCON devotees for contributing to the expansion of Krishna Counciousness.