Hello dear beautiful beings
As we updated last time, one person has offered to take a personal loan for the total cost of the JCB excavator - $43,000 USD - so that the work does not stall and the road stays open. This way the JCB can be obtained immediately before the monsoon season, while the loan is repaid gradually every month.
But now that the purchase is about to happen we are stopped due to a risk assessment. Before we can allow the individual to proceed taking a personal loan, we need to secure steady support to cover the initial monthly repayments, so that the individual taking the loan in their own name is not left carrying that risk alone and does not have any issues with the bank and the system.
What is needed immediately to allow the purchase of the JCB excavator to happen today is $3,200, and then $600 a month for the installments.
We share this as an update so that you understand why the goal target of the campaign changed.
We also want to express that, as a collective, we must care for the one carrying the loan, and ensure they are never left to bear this burden as an isolated island.
Until this goal is reached, we cannot allow the purchase to happen.
With love,
We are making another update!!
After our update yesterday one of our students made an anonymous donation of 5700 USD to complete the campaign! In fact it was during the same time that Bhairav ji was sitting in solitude and chanting/meditation in our temple room.
This donor did not write their name in public here on the wall, but we can see who it is and we thank you for your contribution. It has lifted a big weight and concern off of our shoulders, since with these contributions we know we are doing all that we can to save the temple and helping to create good grounds for our community to enter, practice, get showered with grace by the Siddhas and pull the attention and awareness to us all. Our capabilities, our talents, our desires, what we need to excel and develop..
So we want to make a great accomplishment update!! Announcing in the ethers that we reached the goal that was set from our side and that this is, and will be pivotal, for the work now with the Kurukulla Temple, for the village, as well as for so many other temple locations that are about to be made more accessible to practitioners and visitors. And this makes us want to give everything we can to you all. We might reach out to all of you who have contributed for a online gathering, we will give more information about that.
Mārga Dāna - the offering of a path - is not a small thing...all of us who are going there will benefit from it.
Even the current Kaulantak Nath of the Siddha lineage walks this road. So this Mārga Dāna opportunity was also enabling to do this kind of incredible contribution...
And those of you who have not been there, this was a chance to give a personal offering to create a Bandh (subtle bond) with that physical area, and with this concrete practical donation, which will touch and mold the physical soil of that sacred place, also pulling your physical self closer to it.
As you know, Kurukulla Devi Ji, Goddess Kurukulla, is the presiding deity of the Siddhas. This was one way of offering all our efforts to her: finding ways to be noticed, to be witnessed, to draw her attention, to let her be amused and enchanted by us - the Mahā Enchantress that she herself is.
“Sakala Kāmākarṣiṇī…”, the One who can do, accomplish, and complete all that is to be done and completed. Through her, we become Siddha.
“Siddha Ho, Siddha Ho, Siddha Ho Maa!”
If you felt that this process went way too fast and that you did not get a chance to give your contribution (we know some of you had opted for donating monthly), you can still donate. It will go toward the loan and ongoing work.
We will keep the campaign open for now and let you know before closing it.
But with that said, this speed was indeed needed and appreciated...the monsoon is coming and the practitioners/construction workers and villagers will have a greater chance to stay safe and receive help with this excavator, and the work can continue!
Take this in everyone who shared this with us, everyone who chose to donate, everyone who wanted to or still wants to. And...as you saw...there is fluidity, there is shifts of even things that one might think is a big unmovable mountain...there are ways, loops and possibilities around each corner...
We can make things happen together!
We have managed to raise $3,000 together for the excavator!
We were about to write gladly that 3 steps out of 43 had been accomplished, but just now, a positive shift has happened. We found out that a person from Peeth has offered to take a loan so the excavator can be secured, but we need to generate 12 lakh INR (approx $12,700 USD) as a down payment.
This means we do not need to raise the full amount at once. Only the down payment, and the rest can be paid over time, slowly.
As part of the effort, we have also reached out to JCB India and Volvo Group India to explore if they are willing to partner with us and support access to this road.
Because yes, this is a road that goes to Kurukullā Devī Ji’s temple, but it is also a road that villagers use every single day. This is their only access. When landslides happen, the road closes, and the entire region gets cut off. Government help is very slow and sometimes not there at all. Last year, apple harvests, which many depend on for their yearly income, could not be transported out, and that livelihood was lost for the villagers.
Medical access becomes difficult. In some cases, nearly impossible. And this happens again and again.
Kaulantak Peeth’s presence there has been crucial for the village in many ways, both emergency, practical and financial on site, as well as in more subtle ways.
With an excavator, the road can be cleared faster. It means the village does not remain cut off for long periods.
And at the same time, it keeps the path open to a place many of us feel connected to and are inspired to support, explore, and protect.
So with this shift, we are now changing the goal toward securing the down payment.
In total, with others contributions we have raised 3.8 lakh INR (≈ $4,000 USD) so far.
If additional support comes in from elsewhere, we will keep reducing the total goal accordingly.
We are very glad that our community is standing for a substantial part of this. It holds its own value, both in spirit and in what it allows us to build and experience together.
Let’s do this!
More donations have come in since the last update. We are grateful for each one
Today is Akshaya Tritiya, one of the most auspicious days in the year for giving. The word akshaya means that which does not diminish.
What is given on this day, the tradition says, always returns manifold.
In that spirit, we are also giving today.
To put it out in the open, Siddha Tantra Arts does not have surplus funds right now, in fact it owes money. What we do is for the tradition, and it runs close. So this donation comes from our day job, from ordinary earnings.
We are matching what you have already given. Around $1,000 has come in so far. We are adding $1,008 more.
That brings us 2 steps closer, out of 43 steps, needed to keep the road open.
2 Steps Taken Out Of 43:
To keep the road open
Yes, 43 steps. It is a mountain. We are not going to pretend otherwise. Blood, sweat and tears- let's see how much it takes to keep that road open for all of us.
But mountains are climbed step by step. Today, on Akshaya Tritiya, we took one. The other was taken by you.
Let us see if anyone else feel inspired, and is able to help us all reach more steps.
With love
The campaign has just begun…
and already, the first contributions have come in.
We are quietly watching this unfold, name by name, gesture by gesture.
So far, almost all of you who have donated, have chosen to offer anonymously.
We understand this well. In the tradition, Gupta Dāna holds its own beauty, and we may have emphasized that many times :)
And at the same time…there is something powerful when names appear. It shows that real people are stepping forward to make this possible. It encourages others. It makes the movement visible.
If you feel to, you can allow your name to be shown, (let us know), we would be happy to include it in the coming updates. You can write comments as well when donating.
Whether seen or unseen, name or no name, we are deeply grateful to each of you. That you chose to give. That you are somehow connected to Kurukullā Devī,
and to the road that leads to Her.
Lets see if it is a long or short way to go until we are able to buy the JCB excavator.
This path to Kurukullā Devī Temple is not built by one person.
It is built exactly like this… through many hands.
This moment and what we begin together now, will be part of that story.
With love,