{"id":4630,"date":"2007-10-26T20:02:11","date_gmt":"2007-10-26T19:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=4630"},"modified":"2007-10-26T20:02:11","modified_gmt":"2007-10-26T19:02:11","slug":"the-greatest-need-and-best-preaching-for-the-modern-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=4630","title":{"rendered":"THE GREATEST NEED, AND BEST PREACHING FOR THE MODERN TIMES"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Adikarta das<\/strong><\/p>\n

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.
\n 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]\n 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.
\n 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]\n 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.
\n 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.
\n Therefore, I am personally obsessed with this part of Srila Prabhupada’s instructions. I joined ISKCON in 1974 and
\n 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.
\n 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]\n I really believe this would be the greatest platform for preaching, and will become more so, as the problems multiply.
\n 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.
\n 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]\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

We need land, preferably at least 400 acres, capital, organization, and labor.
\nSo please let me know if you are interested.[time is of the essence]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"HareBy Adikarta das<\/strong><\/p>\n

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.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-announce"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4630\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}