Suddha Jiva das: Recently I watched a vedio of Hridayananda Goswami giving a lecture in Norway about Srila Prabhupada’s mission in the west. One point he said stuck in mind, when Srila Prabhupada was present and his movement was growing all over the world, the public took serious what the Hare Krsna people had to say.
Srila Prabhupada and his followers had the respect of the western ear in America. Then Hridayananda commented now 45 years later, they don’t care what we say. That comment struck in my subconscious and I thought, wow he’s right, how did that happen? Did the American people lose interest in the eastern voice? Did we lose our potency because our founder Acharya left his earthly presence?
In the early 70s Srila Prabhupada wrote an encouraging letter to his young disciples saying, “that the day will come where you will see vegetarian restaurants everywhere and the words karma and reincarnation will be common household
terms.” Now 40 years after Srila Prabhupada’s departure, we see his predictions came true. Today vegetarian restaurants, yoga centers, movies about reincarnation and people talking about karma are common to the American public. Even fast food chains have a veggie burger on their menu.
So the American people have not lost their interest in the eastern voice. And we all know that Srila Prabhupada is still present in his books, instructions and in our hearts. I believe that Srila Prabhupada left his disciples clear instructions on how to solve this problem.
In 1975, Srila Prabhupada was very pleased when he visited his Gita Nagari farm community in Port Royal, Pa. The hearts of his followers felt deep satisfaction watching his glowing face smile as he spoke while enjoying eating cauliflower pakoras cooked in ghee. Ghee produced from his protected brown swiss cows that were freely grazing on the fertile green fields of Gita Nagari. It gave him great pleasure knowing that the cows had no fear for themselves and their family of ever being sent to the slaughterhouse. That the calfs can live with the hope of being protected and cared for the rest of their life. Srila Prabhupada was happy to see his dream come true. His dream that our Krsna conscious society would be self-sufficient and produce for its members, guest & restaurants the most valuable food substance for human society, milk.
Afterwards he went to the New York city temple on 55th St. and spoke to a larger group of his followers. They all jumped for joy when he announced that he just visited the Gita Nagari farm and he’s happy to say that they have solved all of our problems. His devotees did not understand what he was talking about but their hearts were filled with bliss trusting in what ever he had to say & watching his enthusiasm. Srila Prabhupada explained, ‘“there is only one problem in this world and that is the food problem! And Gita Nagari has solved the food problem.”
He continued speaking on how all the New York devotees will be honoring Gita Nagari cow protected milk products for themselves and for prasadam distribution.
The devotees went on to relish that their spiritual father was so delighted that his desires where transforming into reality.
Throughout the next 2.5 years before Srila Prabhupada left his earthly body, he continued traveling world wide to emphasize the importance of his remaining mission that needs to be completed. In lectures, letters and conversations with
disciples, he emphasize that this Krishna conscious movement is for the protection of brahminical culture and cows. And that our first concern is cow protection and without that we can not please Krishna. Our farm projects are an extremely important part of our movement. We must become self-sufficient by growing our own grains and producing our own milk. So develop these farm communities as much as possible. On May,4, 1976 in Honolulu he said, “from the very beginning, I was asking to open restaurants and farms. Produce ghee in the the farm and send to the restaurant and make nice Samosa, Kachori and then there will be no scarcity of money. If you organizing this way, your whole country will be transferred into Krsna conscious country. The whole country!” In New Orleans August 1, 1975 he said, “send our curd to the city. They will convert into sandesa, rasagulla and other nice preparations. So you can keep as many cows as possible and collect as much milk from them as possible. Utilize the ghee and curd and people will purchase when they taste it.”
Srila Prabhupada gave us the formula to solve our economic problems and make the whole country Krsna conscious. That the perfect business for family members, businessman and hard working devotees is to start farms, grow grains, protect cows to produce milk, ghee, curd and supply our restaurants and temples. In a letter to Hari Sauri, August 10, 1977 he said, “if these farms become successful, then the whole world will be envelope by Krishna consciousness.” In Vrindavana, India, May 27, 1977, he said, “that Krsna and the inhabitants we’re so
happy on the farms. This is what I want to introduce at any cost, do it!
Don’t bother about building big big buildings. It is not required. Make a whole field green. I am asking so much here, farm, farm.”
In a conversation in Toronto on June 21,1976, Srila Prabhupada said, “this was my dream. That a place should be there where we can get all nice foods, best of food, milk. Krsna is fulfilling our desire.” In a conversation with Abhiram in Vrindavana, summer of 1977, he said, “my one lamentation is that 50% of my work is not completed. Because I have not established varnasrama.” He said the same words to Tamal Krsna Maharaj in the last days of his departure. On many occasions he has explained to establish varnasrama means developing farm communities and supplying grains and milk products to our temples and restaurants. His last days were spent in Vrindavana India, he also said there in October of 1977, “I wanted to introduce this. Now I have giving you ideas. You can do it. You are all intelligent.”
His instructions were simple, he wanted every temple to have a farm and restaurant. Now forty years later since Srila Prabhupada has left, very few new farm communities and restaurants have been developed in America. But what has developed is a large vegan community that speaks against the dairy business and anyone who uses milk products. They can make no distinction between the commercial dairy business and cow protected dairy business. They can make no distinction between the milk product of commercial dairy and the milk product of cow protected diary.Thats because the mass of them have never seen an example of cow protected dairy and real milk. The commercial dairy business whether it’s organic or not is directly linked to the animal slaughter business. Therefore this product called milk from the commercial diary business is not even the real milk that Srila Prabhupada speaks of. So no wonder there’s a widespread lactose intolerance mass of people. It’s a direct result of karma from the commercial dairy business feeding the cow killing business.
Therefore the vegans cannot understand when Srila Prabhupada says, “that milk is the most important food substance to human society because it’s necessary for developing the finer tissues of the brain to understand the intricacies of transcendental knowledge”. He referred to real milk as being the principal of religion in liquid form.
The vegan and yoga community are our friends and allies that can help us transform the earth into a higher conscious society, a Krsna Conscious society. At this
point talk is cheap. We have not fulfilled our founders instructions that ever temple should have a farm to restaurant connection using cow protected diary.
We have to give much thanks and gratitude to the hard-working devotees all over the world that have started and maintained the cow protection that exist today. We need to approach them as teachers to learn how to establish self-sufficient farm communities and restaurants for every temple.
Do it at any cost were Srila Prabhupada’s final instructions. The statement
“at any cost” means it will not be easy. Sacrifice and hard work would have to be made. But if we want to get the attention of the western people and the entire world as Prabhupada put it, this sacrifice and hard work must be done at any expense.
So where do we start? We have to have practical short-term goals while we reach for long-term goals. The first step is to realize and visualize the long term goal. To make our dream the same as Srila Prabhupada’s dream. Start a business plan with finances and personal management to secure land/restaurants. See the dream, preach the dream and make it happen. If we make it a genuine desire then Krsna will fulfill that desire. Communicate with other devotees and farm communities that have experience. Attract the attention of other like-minded groups. Department of agriculture and engineering departments at universities are full of teachers and students that will share this dream. Protecting the earth, protecting the animals, protecting our food supply, and preserving our energy are big concerns taught at these universities. We have many allies and the seeds have been planted. There still are so many experienced devotees that can pass on knowledge from their success and failures in accomplishing this mission.
Meanwhile in our short-term plan we can up grade our menu for prasadam distribution. Make preparations vegan friendly and where ever possible try to get cow protected dairy and gradually wean ourselves from depending on commercial dairy. Until we can grow our own grains, ancient non-GMO fresh grains are available. Best to avoid store-bought process flour and grind your own grains fresh before cooking. Simple home use grinding machines are available at reasonable prices. Can you imagine the power of our prasadam distribution by attracting the lactose and gluten intolerant population?!
The Hare Krsna’s should become known for protecting the earth, cow, bull and solving the food problem! Then they will listen to us!
written by Suddha Jiva das
Networking References:
International restaurant and food service show, March 5-7/17, Javits Center,Ny
iskcondesiretree.com-click rural to find all ISKCON farm communities world wide
Gita Nagari farm, Portal Royal, Pa. 7175274101, www.gitanagari.org
dhruva@the yogafarm.com
New Vrindavana,Moundsville,West Virginia, 3048431600,
www.newvrindaban.com
New Talavan,Carriere,Miss., 6017499460,www.newtalavana.org
ISCOWP, International Society for cow protection, 3527926777, Gainesville,
Flordia,www.iscowp.org
Govordhan Eco Village, Mumbai, India, www.ecovillage.org
New Vraja Dhama, Budapest, Hungry, www.navavrajadharma.org
Murari savaka, Mulberry, Tenn. 9312276156,murari_sevaka@yahoo.com
bhaktivedantamanor.co.uk, New Gokul cow protection
Pleasent Hill grain mills-8003211073
Organic Einkorn berries 2085574351-Jude Koyle
www.einkorn.com
support@einkorn.com
Green Restaurant Association,6177374422,www.dinegreen.com
ben.prentice@dinegreen.com
tukarama youtube vedio on Srila Prabhupada on cow protection
Dhruva Latorre, architect on passive, solar & sustainable design,
2014782047, dhruvalatorre@gmail.com
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Suddha Jiva das- experience rural farm communities, cow protection, restaurants
9193455670, jimlatorre108@gmail.com
Vamanadev- experience rural farm communities,cow protection 6622342211
vamanadev108@gmail.com
Advaita Archarya-experience rural farm communities, cow protection
2104201182, aadasa@gmail.com