União do Vegetal – a treasure for humanity

| July 22nd, 2025

Today, the União do Vegetal celebrates 64 years since it was founded. Alongside his wife and children, Mestre Gabriel declared its creation in a Session on July 22nd, 1961. In that moment, few people were present to witness the birth of a Christian-reincarnationist religion, which has worked for the responsible use of Hoasca Tea since its inception.

Created in Serginal Sunta, in the middle of the Bolivian Amazon Rainforest, the União do Vegetal was born from the genuine sentiment of the Bahian rubber-tapper, José Gabriel da Costa, who wanted to bring peace to the world. For this to happen, it was – and still is – necessary to overcome many difficulties and much suffering. Thus, from the beginning, the União has been bringing the presence of King Solomon and Jesus, guiding the path of its disciples in search of spiritual evolution.

Today, the União do Vegetal has approximately 25 thousand members, and is present in 11 countries, including Brazil. The disciples that Mestre Gabriel trained gave continuity to his work and continue to seek to fulfill with zeal and responsibility the objectives of the UDV of working for the evolution of the human being in the sense of developing his or her moral, intellectual and spiritual virtues, without distinction of color, political ideology, religious creed or nationality.

To celebrate this important date, the UDV Blog shares words given by Mestre Pequenina during the 1st International Conference of Hoasca Studies, held in Rio de Janeiro, in 1995. Mestre Gabriel’s first disciple, and a founding member of the União do Vegetal, Mestre Pequenina is one of the people largely responsible for transmitting Mestre Gabriel’s teachings over the years, and her words tell us of her love and trust in the Mestre and his Work.

Happy Reading and wishes for a happy July 22nd!

“The treasure is this path that we are following” {Mestre Gabriel}

“(…) And in this struggle, we suffered greatly within the União do Vegetal. Today I have no regrets because he (Mestre Gabriel) always said that he was looking for a treasure, and this treasure is the União do Vegetal. It is a treasure, a richness that no one can steal. And each of us who holds this jewel in our hands, day after day, must take care so that this power does not leave us.

The União do Vegetal is a wonderful path, a path of flowers. The União do Vegetal gives happiness to humanity, it makes a couple happy and makes them have healthy children. And this is what we are after: happiness for ourselves. Because I used to think that I was so happy. I thought I was happy because I was living in a world of deception. But today, I feel happiness receiving this Tea, with all this irmandade that surrounds me.

This large Conference* that is taking place today, the desire that I had, and have, for the União do Vegetal to be free…to not be harmed by any authority in this land.

And the União do Vegetal arriving abroad and them bringing the União with very great sincerity. Because when I was in the United States, I went as if I was an unnoticed person – I entered as if I hadn’t seen anything, while gathering everything I wanted inside of me.

I had some small problems at the beginning, but everything was opened for me. Because there is no one on earth who doesn’t at first have a little suffering before receiving glory later in the future.

And so, with all these beauties that the União do Vegetal comes bringing to us all, giving salvation of all of humanity. The words of Mestre Gabriel that the União do Vegetal would come to the world and bring peace to humanity…I am seeing all of that. From where he is, he is also seeing your desires, your will and mine too.

Because I am a woman, who, this woman, I know perfectly well, that I was born for him. The destiny of my life was already mapped out for him, and he for me. As much as I sometimes have difficulty with both children (Róseo and Bemvino)* that I have, but for me it is a glory that I really have those fruits the way they are. Because if that was how those fruits came to earth, it was with the consent of Power itself, of nature itself. So, they are not imperfect, they have perfection.”

*1st International Conference of Hoasca Studies, held in Rio de Janeiro, in 1995.
**José Gabriel da Costa Filho, known as “Róseo”, was the sixth child of José Gabriel da Costa and Raimunda Ferreira da Costa. At the age of four, Róseo contracted meningitis with after-effects that limited his development. Mestre Pequenina cared for him until she passed away, at the age of 88 – Róseo was 53.
**Bemvino Gabriel da Costa was the youngest child in the family. Lovingly known as “Bem”, he was born deaf and mute because of a medication to treat malaria that Mestre Pequenina needed to use while pregnant. He liked to drink the Vegetal and was in the Instructive Body. When Mestre Pequenina passed away, Bemvino was 47 years old. Today, both sons, have already passed away.