By Adikarta das
As the world falls apart, and kali yuga becomes more and more pervasive, the need for Srila Prabhupada’s self-sufficient communities becomes more and more obvious.
We have the perfect lifestyle people need to see, as outlined by His Divine Grace.”This is the movement, that you come here, live with us, and produce your food, produce your milk, be happy, healthy, and chant Hare Krishna.” ” Therefore we are creating New Vrndavana and farm, and we are trying to purchase…. this is our movement, that we give you sufficient food, shelter, health, philosophy, religion, character, everything, purity.[morning walk-April3, Mayapura, 1975]
Unfortunately, this part of Srila Prabhupada’s instructions has proved very difficult to fulfill. We have a nice example in Hungary, one in Brazil, and maybe Indonesia. Bhaktivedanta Manor deserves a mention for it’s exemplary cow protection program, and Balabhadra of ISCOWP is doing great service in this area too. Please forgive me for any omissions.
In America, generally, though, our farms are struggling. Of course there are many reasons for this, and all credit should be given to those devotees who are struggling to keep these places going, often in very difficult circumstances, and hopefully in the future, things will improve for them. It is sad though, because Srila Prabhupada was anxious that at least in the US his farms would show the way, “in human society, therefore, the brahminical culture, ksatriyas culture, and vaisya culture, must be maintained, and people must be taught how to be satisfied with only what they need. In modern civilization there is no such education; everyone tries to possess more and more, and everyone is dissatisfied. The Krishna consciousness movement is therefore establishing various farms, especially in America, to show how to be happy and content with minimum neccessities of life and to save time for self realization, which one can very easily achieve by chanting the maha-mantra.” [SB8.19.21 purport]
Every day the evidence of irreversible damage to the environment increases, the mental stability, especially of young people decreases, and the need for showing people how to live happily off the land accelerates.
Whilst we, as devotees, have the most valuable asset of Krishna consciousness and we have the greatest philosophy, culture, and best way of life, generally we live in many ways like everyone else. We drink bottled water, buy milk from the store, and worry about money.
Therefore, I am personally obsessed with this part of Srila Prabhupada’s instructions. I joined ISKCON in 1974 and
I spend most of my time preaching, especially to young people, and from my experience many young people are attracted to living off the land. It must be worrying to be a young person, with all the environmental issues, especially having to cope with such an unnatural lifestyle.
My family and I have 40 acres in Alachua, we have 2 milk cows, 2 oxen; which one of my son trains, and we grow some food. We are very anxious to speak with like-minded devotees to set up a community based on Srila Prabhupada’s instructions on varnasrama.[A word I feel awkward using, because of all the controversy surrounding it]
I really believe this would be the greatest platform for preaching, and will become more so, as the problems multiply.
Recently we saw a slide show on a project in the Congo, which is being organized by Astotarasata das [Asto]. He is an Iskcon youth, son of Hare Krishna dasi, the famous stalwart of cow protection and varnasrama. He has a degree in economics, and has insight, on how to achieve the goal of self sufficiency. He is keen to help on a project in the States.
So, once again, I feel that this is the most important thing at this time. Although I have spent the past 32 years doing book distribution, and still go out 4 days a week, we have to show people the lifestyle the books talk about. Our book distribution would be much more effective if we could actually show people that we “walk the walk.’ “If we can keep cows sufficiently and grow our neccessary foodstuffs, then we shall show a new way of life to your countrymen–completely spiritual way of life in healthy atmosphere in divine consciousness.”[letter to Satyabhama 30th March,1969]
One reason, I believe, that we are not attracting many new people to Iskcon at this time, is that we are not radical enough. Looking through history, I believe, most societies that had become rotten, like our modern society, were only changed by a paradigm shift. Not that the change was always better, but in our case we do have the ideal change that people need.
Of course there will be many challenges in this endeavor, but the fruit of success would be the satisfaction of not only Srila Prabhupada and the whole disciplic succession, but Lord Krishna Himself, the lover of the cows, and the Prince of Vraja.
So, if any devotees are out there, who are interested in establishing such a project in America, please contact me Adikarta das AKD108.1@JUNO.COM or call 386 4629170[h] or 352 2262855[c] or Akutidasi@hotmail.com
We need land, preferably at least 400 acres, capital, organization, and labor.
So please let me know if you are interested.[time is of the essence]
namaste
400 acres Where ? in Florida Green houses can do a lot in winter ..
I hear Brazil farm has a nice river and crystals everywhere Lush growth.
Why it is sucesful in Brazil & Hungary & not here in USA. or Canada North America .
Every one spends money on vegetables weekly so if devotee’s learned how to grow for sale that would be a big start for supplying Gainesville Krsnalunch & Alachua temple. Every week lots of $ is spent on bhoga. It is a garanteed expense .
Who in their right mind could not be interested at this point .Melting glaciers in NA & world, is very serious problem. These glaciers supply the rivers water . Spring runoff.
Anyway I would help if right organization is appealing .
satyahit das
satyahit@hotmail.com
There is no denying that Srila Prabhupada wanted rural projects to develop that would successfully demonstrate plain living and high thinking as the ideal Krishna conscious way of life. He said devotees could either live in the cities and vigorously preach to attract others to Krishna consciousness, or they could live in a rural setting close to the land and institute the principles of daivi varnasrama to serve as a model for the greater society.
What is required at this stage is to study the elements that have made some rural projects successful and the factors that have led to the collapse of projects that could not be sustained. We should always be willing to learn from the mistakes and successes of the past.
If we exercise a bit of wisdom, we will begin to groom the younger generation of vaisnavas
to take charge of all aspects of our rural communities. This is their future, and the entire movement will eventually be placed in their hands, so let the training begin. I would like
to suggest that we consider acquiring a property that was formerly a college campus, with buildings for housing and classrooms for educating our children. Then the members of the project could purchase additional plots of land in the nearby area to further expand agricultural production.
In a five minute Google search, I found one such property and I am providing the link here
just to plant the seed of an idea whose time may have come.
http://home.gwi.net/~jbarth/
A former college campus on the East Coast, this property consists of three buildings
on twenty-two acres of land. These buildings formerly housed 320 students. The figures
are given for converting one of the residential facilities into apartments. The total purchase price is not much more than $2 million.
This is just an example of the opportunities our movement can take advantage of to
create a wonderful engagement for young devotees and their families. Leadership means to communicate to the devotee community a vision of future growth and expansion, and an important part of that is the transfer of responsibility to the next generation. I think
Adi Karta prabhu and I agree that we would like to see this transition take place in our
lifetime.
Hoping to be of service to you in this endeavor, I beg to remain
Your servant,
Locanananda dasa
“not radical enough” means ? I feel to relate to that, generally. Way too much emphasis on same ol same ol which disallows for any change in new directions of positive nature.
I think of Tapapunja saying how impressed new comers to the palace were until they saw all the styrofoam in the dumpster in back . Then they left. Gainesville temple is using biodegradable cups,plates and forks but the Alachua temple does not care to ? The price comes to the same when a truck load is purchased.
Many green persons are against use of white sugar because nutritionally it is not healthy but we do not seem to care . That may turn many off also. Any trace of un natural unhealthy lifestyle is abhored by many vegans and vegetarians .
With Locananda prabhu’s coment i seem to see that there will be as many opinions about this as there are people. But still the time as been ripe for this for a long time . Perhaps a meeting of those interested . Green houses can do a lot here in the winter . Theres plenty room for green houses at Alachua comunity .
satyahit das
Dear Adhikarta-ji,
Dandavat pranams. Forgive me for being blunt – we are old friends, afterall – but why start a new project from scratch if there are several NA Iskcon farms already in existence, and – as you are obviously very well aware – they are all in great need of help? Why not focus on assets that our movement already has? Our farms have failed primarily because they were not managed properly from day one, and because they were not based on realistic models. You think you have a team that can take on these types of challenges? People who are practical enough to actually make such a program succeed in practice? I sure hope so.
The “radical” ideas IMO should pertain to using common sense and existing knowledge when it comes to setting up such communities, not to living in some radical fantasy land. Living off the land is hard work and a lot of sacrifices. I doubt very much that you can find many devotees who are up to that challenge, especially in North America. I know lots of devotees who would like to live on a farm, but the greatest obstacle is always the issue of “making a living”. Without solving the economic issues we will not advance our rural projects very far. Anyway, lots of luck with your project.
your servant, Kula-pavana dasa
Why not start small. 40 acres should be able to self sustain your family and the cows. IF you just dig in and till the earth other will be attracted.
Starting something big often leads to trouble. If you want to start something big, start something small..
Dear Adikarta Prabhu,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. I couldn’t agree with you more on all counts, and especially that time is of the essence.
Regarding Locananda’s suggestion to learn from past mistakes I have two suggestions: 1) the first thing is to establish a written ideology that spells out exactly the goals, and what everyone should expect from that project. I suggest that failure to do this has been a major contributing factor to the failure of our earlier (and maybe current) farms in N.A. Everyone who comes to such a project has a different idea of what the project is about and certainly their own unique assumptions and expectations, which may even be unknown to them.
And 2) we unconsciously mix the two cultures that we live in – the Vedic culture that we are attempting to establish, and the dominant culture that we are surrounded by and to a very large degree also live in. Problems and challenges arise from the fact that the two cultures are almost diametrically opposed! We can appear to be successful if we can successfully manage to overlap the two. For example, the Hungary farm is a sterling example. However, their annual budget is in the neighborhood of $4 million (I am told). Gita Nagari’s budget on the other hand, I would expect, doesn’t begin to approach that, and they are therefore struggling to maintain the cows and devotees. It is ironic isn’t it that the source of wealth in Vedic culture – the cows – are now considered a liability that need to be subsidized by city workers, and we have such programs as Save-the-Cow, Care for Cows, etc. I believe that cows will not become a valuable asset unless and until we are out of the money/market economy that subsidizes cow prostitution (milk for sale) with the profits of cow slaughter. The true costs/benefits of cow protection are masked by the artificial way of life of the dominant culture.
And as Kula-pavana states without solving the economic issues we will not advance very far with our farms. I am working on the economic perspective, as you may remember from our earlier conversations some years ago. Hopefully I will finish my book on spiritual economics within just a few months, and it will be available for interested parties. It is not a solution that can be achieved by just a few devotees, in my humble opinion. It is a Herculean task that requires the combined efforts of many to establish the complete culture of Krishna Consciousness.
My conviction is that we must become truly self-sufficient as far as is possible, to the point where almost everything we need is provided by the earth. But that won’t happen in a day. We must first buy our way out of the system, and re-establish the functional knowledge of handicrafting, etc. that has almost entirely been lost. Once we can supply our own needs we must, must, must be able to realize the benefits of simple living, such as extra time for spiritual pursuits and family. If we cannot show that benefit people will vote with their feet and return to easy life of the cash economy where the undesirable side-effects of their lifestyle are mysteriously and unknowingly foisted on future generations, the earth, and others with no voice, and because of that life seems easy.
I am now preaching in Ukraine with the intention of doing the same thing as you want to do – working to establish a demonstration community based on the teachings of the Bhagavad-gita, varnashrama dharma and spiritual economics. The advantage here is that people are much closer to genuine village life and millions still live in actual villages (far different from the way of life in America). There are many, many villages where people know simple living and hard work all too well. What they lack is the high thinking part. Through proper preaching and combining together we may be able to make something that works. We are acquiring some land in the foothills of the Carpathians and hope to begin building there in the spring next year.
My experience in speaking about self-sufficient farms and varnashrama dharma to devotees (both here and America) is that many will not participate in such affairs except as they can from the city. Most are not interested at all. I think that we will have to make new devotees who have a high desire to change the modern way of life, and there are many who see the need for it, while our existing devotees do not mostly because they are focused on acitivities of Krishna consciounsness and not the environment, etc. Or maybe we need not even aim to make new “devotees” but bring such people who are interested in simple living into the practice of varnashrama dharma and gradually introduce them to the principles of Krishna Consciousness. Adikarta Prabhu, you are a great preacher and make many devotees – why don’t you preach to them on the basis of building a new civilization and build a following among them?
There is a phenomena over here that serves as a good example for this suggestion. There is a very large group of people whom I call “the Anastasias”. Their numbers are well into the thousands, all across Russia and Europe into England, perhaps even America. This is a grass roots movement with no formal leaders. Their interest is in establishing themselves in a simple, more natural way of life simply because they recognize that this needs to be done for the future of all humanity. This movement is based upon several fictional books of a lady named Anastasia who lives in harmony with animals and nature. Simply by reading these books thousands of people are taking up such a way of life, and they are WAAAY ahead of us in appreciating and putting into practice the idea of simple living. I will write more about them in a separate post, but my point here is that preaching on the basis of simple living alone, without Krishna Consciousness, may be the beginning of varnashrama dharma and successful rural communities.
Thanks for doing this important work, and best wishes in all your efforts.
Your humble servant,
Dhanesvara Das
Hare Krishna
Dear Devotees
In this climate a retractable roof greenhouse is best. Florida ranks second among the states in fresh market vegetable production on the basis of acreage and value and third in production of crops grown. In 2006(Florida), vegetables had a farm value exceeding 1.6 billion dollars. Florida ranks first in fresh market value of snap bean,cucumber,tomatoes,sweet corn,and watermelons. Florida ranks second in value of sweet pepper and strawberry. Forty different crops are grow commercially 7 of these exceed 100 million in value. Lord Ram’s kingdom was excellent New Raman Reti has land and there is room to expand it. Devotee’s will work for shelter and food as long as that food is offered. Why is this service not provided at New Raman Reti? Earth architecture is simple and doable. INCLUDED is links to a greenhouse company with color photo’s and a return on investment spreadsheet and the other link is to a site featuring modern earth architecture using super adobe/continuous sandbag filled with 90% aggregate /10% cement just like concrete. If you look at the pictures in the link the pictured refugee camp in Iran shows 15 dwellings in a village like can be built almost anyplace. “Simple Living High Thinking”
http://www.calearth.org/ApprAlumni.htm
http://www.cravo.com/pdf/Vegetable_prod_low2.pdf
Bhaktya
Plse visit http://varnasrama.org regarding HH. Bhakti Raghava Swami efforts of self-sufficient farms in Malaysia,India,Indonesia and cambodia.