Satyahit das: What ever famous persons do, comon men follow. Take your pick. The leaders of the hare krsna devotee’s following the mass ideal of obtaning nice large modern expensive homes have the rest of the devotee’s following suit much to the detriment of simple living high thinking ,self sufficient principles given us by Srila A. C .Bhaktivedanta swami Prabhupada .. Srila Prabhupada wanted his disciples to develope self suffcient farm comunities where working for Krsna,chanting, dancing, and dependance on Krsna’s mercy was prevalent instead of the focus of all church members donating to the church & living separately in expensive homes alone with family members. Neither are we proposing that we all sleep on the same floor. There are happy in between situations that krsna conscious freinds may take up in the endeavour for self sufficiency. Personally the writting methinks has been on the wall for decades .
Apparently some temples spend 1000’s of dollars weekly on flowers for the deities which are shiped from Columbia . For a couple thousand dollars a permanet 1st class green house may be established for growing flowers, vegetables ,herbs, and all sorts of Krsna’s gifts to us. Then devotee’s would be employed in care taking the green houses, the agricultural department. Thus money is given to devotee’s instead of airlines and shipping companies to send us flowers from Columbia. I know devotee’s without employment that would easily fit into this type of comunity self sufficient project, but alas our leaders minds are elsewhere . At the recent New Vrindaban festival of Inspiration presidents meetings the topic of self suffciency and farming was so low on the interest list of topics to be only discussed that it was entirely omited . This would please Srila Prabhupada ! Srila Prabhupada wanted us to be self suffcient so that we would not have to depend on the general society for our foods to be offered to Krsna. If general society suffers calamity so will the devotee’s who are dependant on the supermakets. Srila Prabhupada wanted us to show by example how simple living & high thinking may be performed .
If the leaders focus on self suffciency the general devotee’s will follow and with this focus Krsna will show us how to do everything needed . It will become simple. Brazil has a 100% self sufficient hare krishna farm comunity so why not others ? They sell dried banana’s for income . Others can continue jobs for income but focus on the self suffcient farm cominities of devotee’s .
Easier said that done, perhaps so , since all attempts in North America have failed . The focus must change voluntarily or it will be changed by force. Srila Prabhupada said the automoble industry would come to an end. Unthinkable ? The calamity of such a senerio is disaster . Foods are shiped on an average 4000 miles .
So to start, the 1000’s of dollars spent on shipping flowers can be used to start green houses for the same purpose but without cost of shipments comming from 1000’s of miles away thus saving costs on shipping by air and truck. The added packaging expense may also be eliminated by shipping short distance ourselves and using reusable boxes. . Presently plastic bags and cardboard boxes are daily thrown in the dumpster. Mind boggling waste on a global scale and we simply join in . We must think of reducing gasoline fuel costs and cardboard box costs. Not only these cardboard boxes we are paying for but huge forest have already been wasted so they we may throw cardboard boxes in the dumpster and or burn them as we do at New Vrindaban . Even some throw wood pallets into the dumpsters as if this cut lumber is beneath us, is not 1st class . Wow we have gone so far in our arogance . Srila Prabhupada said that most books were a waste of paper which is made of wood what to speak of simply throwing wood directly into the garbage . North American modern society has come a long way in its arogance towards Mother Nature. Srila Prabhupada once explained that even one grain of rice is important and picked it off the floor. Daily we throw in the garbage tin cans,glass bottles, newspapers, and boxes while in poor countries people starving pick through garbage heaps for sustanence. How long before we wake up to our complacency towards waste and self sufficiency.
It appears that as hare krsna’s we are thinking we are above all these mundane considerations but Srila Prabhupada’s instructions on self sufficiency are anything but mundane and they are direct instructions to us & for us to impliment by hook or crook as He would say .
Apparently “Make Vrindaban” is 1400 pages in 3 volumes of Srila Prabhupada speaking on self sufficiency to us . It is high time that all unengaged devotee’s be engaged
& the leaders must help to make this happen .. If anyone made us do more it was Srila Prabhupada so we should locate all His instructions on self sufficiency and implement them
Gardening should be a major course for all ages of students . Gardening along with the vast types of arts involved in food , herb and flower production. We take such pride in cooking for Krsna, why not in growing for Krsna ? One devotee asked Srila Prabhupada if offering apple cider, (non alcoholic), to Krsna is ok and Srila Prabhupada said that due to uncaring factory type production lines it is not 1st class & we should produce it ourselves . Why not can, jar, & bottle our own home grown food stuffs . All sorts of liquids, vegies, fruits, etc and also these items are sellable in the market place. Simply the focus must change or we shall go along with what ever befalls this modern society.
Even a Wren & Simpy cartoon book declared 10 years ago that modern society as we know it will become completely changed . Now if even Wren & Simpy said this then certainly all intelligent readers should realize the urgency and the benefits of working together in Krsna;s service in these ways . Thats called thinking out of the box isn’t it ! Srila Prabhupada taught us how to think outside the box so why we are behaving inside the box with all our separate homes mentality instead of instituting various types of comunity living mentatlity. As Srila Prabhupada would say,”where’s the difficulty?”
Also it is lots more fun working together than separately isn’t it . Now we just need the leaders to put their thinking caps on in these directions and we will please Srila Prabhupada moreso.
hare krsna
satyahit das
This poster speaks as though he attended the recent FOI at New Vrindaban. I’m assuming that the generalizations that he makes are in regards to N.V. devotees and N.V. community.
6 families have built 7 new homes from the ground up. 5 of the homes were constructed with alternative technologies/architecture: passive solar heating; straw bale construction; logs; A-frame; earth-banked. 4 other families built homes on existing foundations, including a former chicken coop, two garages, and a place so run down it should have been razed. Only 1 NV family built a conventional home and this was because they needed a bank loan. Banks want a house to have a market resale value (no log homes). Another family is constructing its own log home.
These families include sankirtan & temple devotees who spent their devotional lives in vans/ashrams/NV temple building, or being shifted from temple to temple around the world. One family worked hard for years in NYC in order to afford a move to NV.
If you would speak with ISKCON gurukulies/second generation youth, you would understand the importance of establishing a stable home. All of the ideas you mention–greenhouses, gardening, etc., require the efforts of devotees who are physically fit, stable, and intelligent. Stable personalities come from stable families. The continual influx and departure of people through various communal projects in NV and ISKCON did not lead to success for the projects.
Communal doesn’t work. It didn’t last in the former Soviet Union, it didn’t last in the kibbutzes, and it didn’t last in ISKCON. Time will tell if the Hungarian farm will endure.
There is a community greenhouse in NV. The cost to heat a greenhouse with propane through a NV winter would be huge. Due to the gurukuli settlement, I don’t think that there is much to be spared for either starting new community projects OR employing devotees at LIVING wages.
No society or peoples in the world is “self-sufficient.” The term is “self-reliant.” Those devotees in NV who are making strides along this path are doing it on their own, as a family endeavor. Ruchi & Sankirtan: gardening,flower craft business. Balabhadra & family: ISKCOWP, gardening, food preservation. Ghosh family: gardening, gourd craft business, food preservation. 1 family has planted fruit trees, 2 have their own greenhouses, many others grow small amounts of flowers and vegetables and offer surplus to the deities.
I’d write more but I’ve reached limit.
>>At the recent New Vrindaban festival of Inspiration presidents meetings the topic of self suffciency and farming was so low on the interest list of topics to be only discussed that it was entirely omited<< I agree with the general mood of you presentation but would make a couple points of clarification. At the temple president's meeting held in New Vrindaban, there were some talk about these topics, albeit given a low priority, and I suspect nothing published will come out of the meetings on those topics. Still, a few leaders did bring it up, so some progress is there. Even if too little, it is a glimmer of hope. Gardening and self sufficiency were on the agenda at the Festival of Inspiration (which was a separate event from the TP meeting). There were open and constant tours of the actual gardens and Balabhadra took several tours of his space where there are gardens and a greenhouse in addition to cow protection. The two, cow protection and gardening, are inseparable in fact. As for presentations on the schedule there was: Spiritual Recovery from Consumerism: Varsana Swami The Magic of Cow Protection (Excursion/Tour): Balabhadra Das Preaching Power of Rural Communities: Tapahpunja Das I agree with you that too little attention is paid to these topics but some was and it never hurts to accentuate the positive.
Hari Bol,
PMAHO. AGTSP.
I entirely agree that running a greenhouse will not be cost-effective in cold climate in West Virginia. But then we are talking about dirty energy like oil, regular electricity etc.
We can explore following sustainable energy options.
1. Solar panels
2. Wind turbines.
3. Gobar gas(Bio-gas) plant.
I understand that New Vrindavan has many cloudy days in a year, so we have to use all the above 3 at the same time. We have 20+ cows/bulls in the Goshala, we can run Gobar gas plant to provide electricity for the greenhouse. We can place greenhouse close to Goshala. With using all 3 at the same time, Krishna willing, we can feed electricity back to the grid and actually earn energy credits for the temple.
Where does money come from these options?
Options 1 and 2 are almost free. Many states in the US refund you the cost of Solar panel and Wind turbine installations in the first year itself.
Gobar gas plant will incur some cost of installation and maintenance.
New Vrindavan has earmarks for some projects, Eye surgery for poor people in Vrindavan, India is an example. I donated for that project.
So, the temple management can have earmarks for maintaining a greenhouse.
Where the workers to maintain greenhouse come from?
1. We can involve local devotees
2. We can spread the word out in the Iskcon world and ask for short-term volunteers, train them to work in the greenhouse.
3. we can get devotees from other parts of the world on temporary farm-workers visa.
What are advantages for doing all this?
1. We can attract more western devotees who are eco-friendly. Preaching to westerners was a major mission of Srila Prabhupad.
2. We can use this as a showcase to show Iskcon’s commitment to eco-friendly living.
Hare KruShNa
your servant
aspiring vaishnav