By Arjuna Krishna dasa
Panchavati Project
RURAL PROJECTS PREACHING TOUR REPORT
August/Sept-2014
Fourth in a series of 7 articles covering ISKCON Rural Projects
Introduction
Both Rama Laksman prabhu, Director for IDVM Secretariat located in Sri Mayapur along with Arjuna Krsna prabhu, Co-Director for IDVM Department of Education undertook an extensive tour to various ISKCON rural projects in India.
Their travels took them to Nilachal Dham, a new project under ISKCON Juhu temple close to Mumbai in Maharashtra, Nandagram Farm in Gujarat, Pathmeda on the border of Rajasthan and Gujarat, Panchavati in Tamil Nadu, close to Salem, Venu Madhuri in Maharashtra, Govardhan Eco Village in Maharashtra, a project run under the ISKCON Chowpatty temple and last to Gokul Dham near Belgaum in Northern Karnataka.
We were nearing the end of visits to the farm communities that began about a month ago. The place was Salem and we first visited the city temple. We had already heard of its being a very dynamic temple with more than 40 Brahmacaris (Celibate monks), headed by Gokul Chandra Prabhu, an inspirational leader.
The first thing we noticed when we walked into the temple was that all the devotees were very kind and gracious and took care to make us feel at home. The temple and the inmates quarters were all made according to traditional practices in ancient times with compressed blocks made of sand, lime and other ingredients with very little use of cement in the construction. The roofing was made of Mangalore tiles.
Next to the existing temple was a huge site for the future temple which is under contruction. This temple would be a stone structure with a capacity to seat more than 2000 people at a time. It will incorporate various aspects of famous “Goloka chart”, described in detail in the 5th Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam. The inspiring aspect of this construction was that the ‘Sthapati’ (the person in charge of this construction) is a descendent of the ‘Sthapati’ who constructed the famous “Srirangam” temple. He has assured them that this temple structure would last at least a 1000 years.
We met Gokul Chandra Prabhu, disciple of HH Bhakti Vikas Swami Maharaj who hails from Croatia. We were amazed to see how well he was managing the centre, even though he did not know the local language, “Tamil”. Yet he has been inspiring the native people with his lectures. “Purity is the force”, as Srila Prabhupada often emphasised and we noticed that the temple residents were very carefully following the standards that Srila Prabhupada has set during his revolutionary 11 year period.
We noticed that all the offerings, both for the temple residents and visitors were cooked in Ghee. There was no compromise on this principle. We heard with amazement that during their ‘Janmastami’ festival, close to 50,000 visitors attended and all of them were fed with Prasadam cooked in Ghee.
We were invited to the kitchen, where he showed us his dung plastered firewood kitchen, where 5 huge vessels can cook simultaneously, each having a capacity of cooking for 300 people. To finalize this design, he visited many places like the famous ‘Srirangam’ temple. After many trial iterations he arrived at a special design, which would not bring tears in the eyes of the person cooking, even though the cooking is done in firewood. As he jocularly remarked, “we do not want to bring ecstatic symptoms in our cooks so soon, there will be a time later for that.” We all laughed at that witty remark.
We had the good fortune of spending Radhastami in the Salem temple helping out in the kitchen by cutting vegetables. An interesting fact we noted was that Gokul Chandra Prabhu who has a passion for cooking, is probably of the few temple presidents, who spends time in the kitchen during festivals. Despite having lots of responsibilities, he was in the kitchen till 11:30 leaving the kitchen to be in time for his lecture at 12pm. It was an amazing lecture indeed.
The feast that followed was an amazing 22 item feast all cooked in Ghee. I could see the visitors in the temple on that auspicious appearance of Srimati Radharani doubling up on the floor, unable to even stand up after the feast.
Today it is common to see many additions in the lyrics innovative styles creeping into the daily temple songs which were not authorised by Srila Prabhupada. It was nice to see that in the Salem temple, they strictly followed Srila Prabhupada including the tunes during Mangala arati and other aratis without any change.
We had earlier experienced the energy levels of the children that we had seen in ‘Nandagram’. We saw the same here in the the ‘Gurukula’ of 10 children, that was managed by a single Brahmacari, Chittahari Prabhu. He takes care of all their needs as well as teach them all that they need to learn. On meeting him, he joked that though a Brahmacari (Celibate Monk), he already has 9 kids of his own. The boys impressed us with their ‘Sankirtan’ skills and their ability to play ‘Mrdanga’ for hours on end without a break. They get up early in the morning, clean up the Ashram and continuing with their daily routine of study and memorization of shlokas. Also every Brahmacari in the temple had a fixed time between, which was usually between 4:30 to 6:30 pm. This was an everyday compulsory study of scriptures that was carefully monitored by the temple president.
Panchavati – Setting standards for Self-Sufficiency
We then proceeded to visit this farm community project, that is about 2 hours by bus from Salem, located in Karmandurai. This project was initiated by Nandakumar Das of the Damodardesh Yatra (Dubai) as inspired by HH Bhakti Vikasa Swami. Maharaj also directed Savyasaachi Prabhu, a disciple of HH Jayapataka Swami to join hands with Nandakumar Das to take this project forward.
We noticed the temperature drop steeply by almost two degrees, as we did the ascent to the 2000 ft above sea level. Shyam Chaitanya Prabhu transported us to the 25 acre farm of which 12 acres are being used to cultivate pulses, ragi, samu, sesame, some paddy and many varieties of vegetables. We were given a tour of the farm where Vastu principles had been incorporated in deciding on the location of the houses and the fields. One open well reasonably supported the requirement of water for the fields and the water needs of the three Grhasta families. The Grihastas managed most of the farming activities themselves while occasionally, external labour was used. Intelligent multi-cropping techniques, natural cow based pesticides & manures were used to increase the yields in the farm.
We also noticed some very interesting arrangements with the Grhasthas, similar to that in the ‘Nandagram’ farm which is also managed by Savyasaachi Prabhu. Land was clearly distributed to the 3 Grhastha families for their cultivation. Initially the families were paid Rs. 7,000 monthly, which was reduced periodically as planned & agreed, to Rs. 3,000 before it was finally stopped after the recent cash crop harvest (Tapioca).
The families who are very close to being food self-sufficient, recently became financially independent when the bumper tapioca harvest brought in enough cash. Now they can buy what they were unable to produce or are yet to produce, apart from managing all of their other expenses.
We were astounded by the fact that they had achieved this within 3 years. While there are many devotees in our movement who are very vocal in declaring that self-sufficiency is not possible and ‘Varnashrama’ based farm communities are utopia.
The residents have made progress in adopting to high Ragi content diet, as it is a rain-fed crop that grows very well there and is very healthy.
We met Savyasachi Prabhu, a man of few words. His passion and dedication to making farm communities a reality was evident from the state of the project and the team’s enthusiasm. He has been inspiring all the members of the community on the field, as individuals and in their daily spiritual lives.
We were astonished to see some of the residents get up as early as 1:30am to chanting many of their prescribed rounds before Mangala arati. As we rose for our morning ablutions, all inmates were up and chanting. Mangala Arati was immediately followed by Srimad-Bhagavatam class and Guru Puja after which many of the members take to their respective sevas on the field, milking the cow or cooking. After Prasadam, they dive into the fields and they generally hit the bed by 7:30PM.
This was also partly the reason for their seemingly phenomenal success, in such a short time. In stark contrast to the spoilt city lives that people lead today and the late nights that hamper effective morning programs, the residents of Panchavati are blissful because of strong morning program and spiritual practices. This was also attributable to their opting not to use grid electricity, which even the villagers in the neighborhood are now addicted to.
Another major aspect for success, was the thorough selection criteria adopted in selecting this near perfect location, with good soil and water resources. The land was selected to ensure that it would yield results without draining the resources; land, labour, capital and management. These were instructions Srila Prabhupada mentions in his purports. Uncultivable land and third class cows in the Goshala are a liability. Close to about 100 visits were undertaken to various possible locations that were prospected before closing out on this land. Experts were brought in as part of this thorough effort, due to which they could, with minimum fuss and maximum efficiency make the land cultivable and produce good results that speak for themselves.
The Grhastas are happy with well-built traditional mud housing with Mangalore tiled roofing. Very little cement was used in their construction. They have a good cow and a calf which they plan to breed carefully, to maintain a small herd size. Guests are well cared for and a guest house for the
visitors is almost ready. A Gurukula is on the drawing boards as the community has five ‘bubbly’ children of that age. The enthusiasm of these children showed clearly in their welcome and energetic participation in kirtans. Some of the children have already begun taking up sevas on a daily basis by cleaning the ‘Goshala’ and removing the cow dung etc.
Another family is being considered for the community in 2015.A couple of devotees from Damodardesh(Dubai) have quit their jobs to dedicate themselves to the community.
Their Bio-waste disposal system was one of its kind. Implemented by an Italian expert, there is segregation of urine & stool in a safe & hygienic manner. Thereby they ensure that there is no contamination of underground water resources. There is an urgent need that such systems be implemented in the cities which are the worst polluters of ground water.
We really had a tinge of regret that we had to depart within a day. We made a promise that we would come back soon for a longer visit, to dirty our hands in the fields with the devotees and trying to follow the super-austere ‘Sadhana’ at Panchavati.
Written by Arjuna Krsna das
IDVM Co-Director for Department of Education
For inquiries: Arjuna.Krsna.BRS@pamho.net
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VENU MADHURI
RURAL PROJECTS PREACHING TOUR REPORT
August/Sept-2014
Fifth in a series of 7 articles covering ISKCON Rural Projects
Introduction
Both Rama Laksman prabhu, Director for IDVM Secretariat located in Sri Mayapur along with Arjuna Krsna prabhu, Co-Director for IDVM Department of Education undertook an extensive tour to various ISKCON rural projects in India.
Their travels took them to Nilachal Dham, a new project under ISKCON Juhu temple close to Mumbai in Maharashtra, Nandagram Farm in Gujarat, Pathmeda on the border of Rajasthan and Gujarat, Panchavati in Tamil Nadu, close to Salem, Venu Madhuri in Maharashtra, Govardhan Eco Village in Maharashtra, a project run under the ISKCON Chowpatty temple and last to Gokul Dham near Belgaum in Northern Karnataka.
Venu Madhuri – Vision of transforming villagers into devotees
Kolhapur is a town famous for temple of “Mahalaxmi”, in fact it is mentioned that even if one visits Balaji temple in Tirupati, still if one doesn’t visit the temple of “Mahalaxmi”, then they will not derive the full benefit of a pilgrimage. But, these days Kolhapur is also becoming famous for beginning at project, which has a far-sighted vision of making villagers into devotees by teaching them ideal farm practices. As Srila Prabhupada explains in his purports, a devotee is also called ‘Kavi’, which means ‘Expert’ and thus a ‘Vaisnava’ is an expert in all fields. We had till now seen lands and farm communities owned by ISKCON, where devotees are managing cultivation, but an alternate project has begun, which will make villagers into devotees and thereby circumvent the issues such as ‘ all devotees cannot be farmers’, The Venu Madhuri approach states, ‘but all farmers can be devotees.’
Rupa Vilas prabhu, who has done his degree in Environmental science, has been working hard for the past 14 years on this visionary project as envisioned by HH Bhakti Rasamrita Swami Maharaj and is a disciple of HH Radhanath Swami Maharaj. He has always looked at things differently and as a ‘Grhastha’ with two children, has taken it upon himself to transform this sleepy village, which was fast losing its sheen to the glitter of the city by bringing in some practices, which have shown to the villagers, how certain things don’t change with the onset of time. Many agricultural practices, which have stood the test of time right from ancient periods had been abandoned and as a result many farmers lost interest in cultivation of land and went to the cities to make a living for themselves and their families.
The two most important aspects of cultivation for a farmer is water and cows. Both of which were lacking in Venu Madhuri, a farm about 60 kms from Kolhapur. It is a place not very easy to approach and that turns out to be more of a boon than a bane, because wherever roads have made their inroads, they have also brought commercialism and exploitation in traditional practices. Rupa Vilas prabhu states that we actually solved the problems of the villagers by consulting with some villagers, who were knowledgable and knew how to solve the problem. The water problem was solved by adopted a 3 pronged approach, which began with a water percolation reservoir and followed up two massive projects, which involved laying of PVC pipes, which used the gravity technique by bringing the water from higher to lower level from existing streams.
The efforts of Rupa Vilas prabhu in simultaneously exposing the villagers into spiritual practices was the turning point in the whole project. As Srila Prabhupada emphasised that one pure devotee could manage the entire affairs of ISKCON, similarly one devotee, seriously practising Krsna Consciousness can turn the tide in his favour and the 3 Grhastha families, cultivated by him are showing and slowly changing the minds of other villagers, that for living happily, one must be a devotee. The farmers had abandoned having cows as their mainstay and before the project started they hardly had 2-3 cows and now the tide has really turned by the village having close to 70 cows and thereby bringing in auspiciousness in their activities.
The Village has a small school till 6th standard and the children earlier had no means of ‘Prasadam’ and now the devotees have made morning breakfast ‘Prasadam’ a reality for the children, who joyously chant, ‘Hare Krsna’, whenever they see devotees approaching them. The Gobar and Cow urine are also providing a major earning opportunity for the Venu Madhuri farm management, as their products are in demand in many places. Their ‘Go Bhandar’ shop deals with cow products exclusively and they have plans to increase such outlets in many other places. Rupa Vilas prabhu and his wife are now seriously working on educating their children without depending on the ‘official’ school system, which Srila Prabhupada used to refer to ‘Slaughterhouse’ schools and it is rather unfortunate that close to two lakh devotee children are being put into such schools and as an ideal couple, they have taken up the challenge to look for alternatives, which is an important message for all devotee parents to take up the hard work of ensuring that their children remain devotees and are not lost to the ‘demoniac’ civilization.
Also, understanding the need to live simply, they embarked on constructing a house, which was made of locally available materials and also wood and other items, carefully chosen from ancient houses, which were being demolished. Gobar gas and firewood based cooking was adopted and even meticulous care to cook in brass, which was the ancient standard was adopted. Laterite stones were used as bricks and the end resulting was a structure, which has been described as a ‘dream’ house by most of the people, who are accustomed to living in cement diffusing modern structures. We had the good fortune of living in their ‘cozy’ home for close to 3 days and we really felt at home, where one actually feels comfortable inside, even though the temperatures outside are extremely cold or searing hot.
Now, the goal of the Venu Madhuri team is to cover other villages surrounding their own and already holding of festivals such as ‘Janmastami’ has begun and villagers are being exposed to the powerful process of devotional service and the sky is the limit for the team, for whom success has been slow but sure in coming.
Written by Arjuna Krsna das
IDVM Co-Director for Department of Education
For inquiries: Arjuna.Krsna.BRS@pamho.net