ECO-Vrindaban – Meet our Cowherds:
Ananda Vidya first came in contact with Krsna Consciousness in 1995 when he was just 18 years old. He received a book that changed his life; after reading it, he started chanting, following the regulative principles, cooking vegetarian meals and even offering them without having contact with any devotees. After around five months of practicing on his own, he met the devotees at the Baltimore temple and they introduced him to the farm community of New Vrindaban. After visiting New Vrindaban, he decided to make it his base and he spent the next seventeen years distributing books across America.
It was not until 2012, when Ananda Vidya and Lalita Gopi “tied the knot,” that he started serving at the temple’s goshala and came in contact with the cows. Now Ananda Vidya cannot imagine his life without milking the cows. Seeing them first thing in the morning, spending time with them and hand milking them is the best thing that could have ever happened to him and the cows have become an inseparable part of who he is.. Furthermore, the fact that Ananda Vidya can live close to nature and far from the craziness of the city means a lot to him.
Being with the cows might be just plain fun; however, his service to the cows is more than that – it is being part of something that was highly valued by Srila Prabhupada. After all, Srila Prabhupada stressed the importance of having cow protection in New Vrindaban. Ananda Vidya wants nothing more than to maintain his service and remain steady in executing it. Milking the cows, making butter and other dairy products from the milk he receives from the cows, that is all he can desire for his future.