New Vrindaban Brijabasi Spirit

Jaya Prabhupada Prabhu has an extensive background in agriculture, both in his education and in practical application.  He is using these experiences from his life, along with his dedication and commitment to fulfill Srila Prabhupada’s desire for varnasrama,  to put together a paper for  the Agriculture, Cows and Self-Reliance Committee of the Master Plan Vision Team of New Vrindaban. It will describe New Vrindaban’s Natural Resources, including prime farmland locations, soil conditions and water resources.

 Jaya Prabhupada was born in Colombia, South America, but at the age of 17 he left home and moved to Puerto Rico and later to France, where he graduated with two master’s degrees, one in rural space and one in rural development.  Moving back to Colombia, he then worked for a few years for the government, drawing up plans for hydrographical basins. He explained, “Many people live in a certain geographical radius from a river basin, and you need enough good water- both quality and quantity- to maintain those inhabitants.  I would draw up the plans so they would have this facility.” Although the work was interesting, he quickly became disillusioned with the cheating ways of some people and organizations in the material world.

 He reached a turning point in his life when he was traveling back to Colombia from French Guyana along the Amazon River.  He was robbed of all his I.D. and money.  He had lost everything and was homeless on the Amazon.  “So I became a hippie!” exclaims J.P. “I began to make and sell all different kinds of crafts just to stay alive.  Then I met Santendriya, who was another kind of hippie/artist, selling her wares. We were married later on.”  The next major turning point was when they joined the Hare Krsna temple in Peru, eventually moving to the temple in Brazil in 1984. 

 At the Hare Krsna community in Brazil, Jaya Prabhupada began a wonderful adventure in his life.  “They gave me land and a cow and helped me build a house and asked me to live simply, setting an example by following Srila Prabhupada’s instructions and inviting other families to join us and do the same.  I was in bliss! Eventually, five other families came and received the same wonderful facilities of land, cow and house. We lived an ideal Krsna conscious life for quite a while.”  They had two children while living on their farm community there, and there was even a gurukula in Brazil.  But it became too difficult to pay the tuitions and to maintain their idyllic lifestyle so they had to move to Ecuador after some time.

 Eventually, Jaya Prabhupada answered an ad posted by New Vrindavan, for a cowherd man, and he is still here today, one of New Vrindavan’s steadiest and most educated cowherd men!

 Jaya Prabhupada is still holding onto the ideal of living a simple, rural life in Krsna’s service. He maintains that: “If you give priority to living from the richness of the land and the cows, just like Srila Prabhupada recommended, then you will have success.”

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“My six-year old daughter is absolutely blossoming ever since she started attending Gopal’s Garden Homeschool Co-op,” said Jaya Krsna das, Manager of the Palace Lodge.  “Gopal’s Garden is one of the main reasons my wife and I moved to New Vrindaban last year, and it is a major factor in our decision to stay here.”

Jaya Krsna, his wife Taraka and their two children moved to New Vrindaban in the summer of 2011 from a rural devotee community in Kansas.  “Before we moved here, my wife tried to homeschool my daughter, but it didn’t go well,” explained Jaya Krsna.  “But now, she reads to me at night instead of the other way around, and I fall asleep before she does!”

At Gopal’s Garden, students focus heavily on the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic.  But they also receive instruction in subjects not available in most public and private schools these days.  On staff at Gopal’s Garden are two music teachers, an art teacher, and a drama teacher.  Moreover, at the end-of-the year party in December, the students who range from age 6 to 13, recited verses from the Bhagavad Gita in Sanskrit and English and recited dramatic stories from the Mahabharata.  All the guests at the end-of-the year celebration were impressed by the children’s presentations. Following the presentations, everyone sat together and relished the wonderful prasadam prepared by the parents and teachers.  As one parent commented, the Gopal’s Garden is like a family.

“When I saw my daughter standing up there with the other children, I practically started crying,” said Jaya Krsna.  “Gopal’s Garden is one of the best things that has ever happened to my family.”

For more information about Gopal’s Garden Homeschool Co-op, please contact Ruci devi dasi at Story108@juno.com.

In this world of anxiety and FEAR

Where some kind of  misery is always so NEAR

Where smiles and giggles are interspersed with TEAR

Where sometimes the burden of uncertainty gets difficult to BEAR

There is only one thing you can do right my DEAR

Surrender to the Lord with all your GEAR

To His instructions lend your EAR

Listen to His Message loud and CLEAR

Only His sweet pastimes you must HEAR

Make a sincere devotee your PEER

The dust of Vrindavan on your body you should SMEAR

A Vaishnava attire is what you should WEAR

Let not time pass away year after YEAR

Just take shelter of the Lord and move ahead like a SPEAR

Eternally your Servant

Shankararanya Das

With best wishes to you all. Hare Krishna!

Yours in the service,

Premabhakti das

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Here is a link to a story about Nitai das,  Yadupati das, and Bhakta Tim.

Memorials and funeral services are as follows:

Nitai Prabhu, 11:00 am, Sunday, Feb 5, at Milan Funeral Home, Gainesville. A full service with guests able to speak about him. After services, memories can continue back at the temple.

Bhakta Tim (Gopinatha) Prabhu, 4:30pm, Monday, Feb 6, at Milan Funeral Home, followed by a gathering for kirtan and appreciations at Westside Park. A potluck dish is encouraged.

Yadupati Prabhu, 7:00 p.m., Tuesday Feb 7, at the Alachua temple. Please come and share your memories

Phosphate deficiency can be the limiting factor for crop production in our soils here in New Vrindaban

Chemical fertilizer is commonly referred to as NPK –Nitrogen Phosphate and Potassium. These are the main necessities for plant growth.

Organically, you can get nitrogen from manure, nitrogen fixing green manures, or supplemental fertilizers that are composed of things like soybean meal, whatever.

The soils here are naturally high in potassium and it can be supplemented with wood ashes, which are valuable for trace minerals as well.

What the soils are lacking here is phosphate.  We supplement this with soft rock phosphate

“Phosphorus, an essential macronutrient

“Phosphorus (P) is one of the most important elements for plant growth and metabolism. It plays key roles in many plant processes such as energy metabolism, the synthesis of nucleic acids and membranes, photosynthesis, respiration, nitrogen fixation and enzyme regulation (Raghothama, 1999). Adequate phosphorus nutrition enhances many aspects of plant development including flowering, fruiting and root growth. ”

 http://www.enhanceability.com/whitelupinacclimation/introduction/nutrition.html

Rock phosphate is not easily found locally. Mostly you will find super phosphate which is the chemical version.

We have bought a pallet of rock phosphate from Ohio Earth Food and trucked it here.

 http://www.ohioearthfood.com/fertilizers.htm

We are making this available to devotees for $15.50 per 50 pound bag.

They recommend applying at the rate up to 1000 pounds per acre.That amounts to about 2# per 100 square feet.  50 pounds will cover about 2500 square feet. Talk to your friends and share a bag if you have a smaller area. I will split small amounts as a favor for devotees until the end of Feb but after that I am too busy.

As this is a slow release material, one application is good for 10 years.

Please contact Madhava Gosh for how to get this.

FYI, this also has a slight neutralizing effect like an equivalent amount of lime.

Please tell your friends who don’t have internet access.

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Please come and help us celebrate the glorious Appearance Day of Lord Nityananda Prabhu.

ABHISHEKA FROM 11:45 AM

ARATI AT 1:00 PM

AT 7:30 AM DEITY GREETING ON LORD NITYANANDA’S APPEARANCE DAY, SUNDAY MORNING FEB 5, COME AND SEE THE WONDERFUL NEW BACKDROP FOR THE DEITIES PAINTED BY A RESIDENT ARTIST, MAHATI DASI.

Please note that the abhisheka will be held on the altar so only second initiates will be invited to bathe their Lordships directly. Therefore any second initiates who would like to help prepare abhisheka ingredients are invited to please come to the pujari room altar, clean, at 5:15 pm or earlier.

Bhajan and lecture schedule to follow.

Please bring your offerings from home and have them in the pujari room by 6:00 PM. Thank you very much.

All Glories to Lord Nityananda!

This Saturday February 4th 2012 , Once again we present the Super Saturday Kirtan for the pleasure of Sri Sri Radha Vrindavan Chandra

Chant Chant Chant, & Bring everyone together, relishing the holy names of KRISHNA

Come! Participate and Get Purified !

4pm – 9 pm

Contact : Rasikananda pr, Bhakta Garrison pr or Gaur Natraj Das

HARE KRISHNA

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We started a “Remembering Nitai Das” Facebook page, the url is: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Remembering-Nitai-Das-Elisha-Drury/235531963197470?v=wall

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