New Vrindaban Brijabasi Spirit

JULY 9TH @ 12 NOON

GO THE BLISSFUL COUNTRY MILE WITH THEIR LORDSHIPS

SRI JAGANNATH, SUBHADRA & BALADEV

Dancing Chanting & Feasting until the sun goes down followed by Jagannath Swan Boat Festival

KirtanS & Exotic Fireworks!

Honored guest H H Bhakti Sundar Goswami

Dedicated to ISKCON Founder Acharya

A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

You can Sponsor the Feast, the Garlands, the Flowers, the Cake, the Dress, the Cart , the Fireworks, or the entire Festival!

Contact: Malati dd: 304-845-9591 servingkrishna@aol.com

Baby swans are called cygnets, and on May 13, four cygnets emerged from their eggs on the shore of New Vrindaban’s lake.  “I brought the parents to New Vrindaban from Ohio four years,” said Malati devi dasi.  “They have been laying eggs every year since then.”

The proud parents took their babies onto the water the very next day after their hatching.  The cygnets swam alongside the adults like experts.

‘These swans are not ordinary birds,” said Malati with excitement.  “Srila Prabhupada told us many times that the residents of Vrindaban in India are advanced souls.  Otherwise, how could they have taken birth in the Holy Dhama of Lord Krishna’s pastimes?  New Vrindaban is non-different from Vrindaban, so any soul who takes birth here is special!”

In Sanskrit, a swan is called a hamsa.  The ancient Vedic scriptures describe that if a hamsa is offered a bowl of milk mixed with water, the hamsa will separate the two substances and drink only the nutritious milk.  Similarly, a paramahamsa is a self-realized spiritualist who appears on this planet Earth, but separates spirit from matter and associates only with spirit.

“Srila Prabhupada, the Founder-Acarya of New Vrindaban, is recognized world-wide as a paramahamsa,” explained Malati.  “He created New Vrindaban so that others could follow in his footsteps and also become paramahamsas.”

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Quote by His Divine Grace A C Bhaktivedanta Swami:

“The people today are fascinated by so much of the glimmering so-called beauty of the external energy, and there is necessity of seeing beautiful pictures of Krishna and His devotees and His pastimes, in order to attract them to the spiritual process. So this is a great service, and there is an urgent need for such paintings.”

A dynamic ten day mini- Art seminar taught by veteran ISKCON-BBT artists Dhriti Dasi and Ram Dasa Abhirama Das. Students should have basic drawing and painting experience. Dhriti and Ram Das are disciples of Srila Prabhupada with 36 yrs plus experience in painting Krsna Art who worked directly on Srila Prabhupada’s books and now wish to share their experience.

This course will help aspiring artists learn the basics of drawing, painting with figures, landscapes and be able to utilize it for transcendental painting. Everyone will have their own painting project to develop with the assistance of Ram Das and Dhrti. They offer behind the scenes` stories of BBT art production, sharing and discussing Srila Prabhupada’s view on Krishna art,which is enlivening and informative.

The atmosphere in the scenic setting of New Vrindaban, nestled in the Appalachian foothills will be free from city lights and distractions. These occasions will bless your efforts with surcharged spiritual energy. You can expect delicious organic based Prasad, some of it coming from our organic gardens along with fresh pure milk from Radha Vrindaban Chandra’s protected cows. (Wireless internet is available for all attendees.)

This seminar is dedicated to His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, ISKCON Founder-Acharya, to provide support, training and inspiration to artists who aspire serve Srila Prabhupada in opening windows to the spiritual world or simply improve their existing skills.

Dhriti and Ram Dasa Abhirama das do not charge for their service. The cost of their air fare, a house-minder (their home was robbed during a recent absence) and required materials will be divided among the attendees. Prasadam and accommodation options are separate. For further details, please contact:

Malati devi dasi or Govinda Mohini dasi: servingkrishna@aol.com 304-845-9591

Please accept my obeisances.

All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

We are celebrating sadhusanga: Association Festival on 25th and 26th of June in New Vrindavan.

During this festival, two illustrious Brahmacaris of Chowpatty Temple India, Govinda prabhu and Gauranga prabhu, will conduct various seminars covering various aspects of Krishna Bhakti, to help devotees progress in devotional service.

26th Sunday afternoon is snan-yatra for Jagannath.

In order to attend the festival and snan-yatra Festival of Jagannath, all interested devotees should book their accommodations at the Palace Guest Lodge by calling 304-843-1600 x 111 .

There is no fee for this festival and it is open for every one.

Your servant,
Yugal Kishore Das

“Cow protection is the business of the vaisyas and along with our preaching, this is the most important work. We must have a good section of Brahmanas in our society and we must also have a good group of vaisyas who can grow grains and tend cows, and thus supply the society with food-grains and milk products from the cow like ghee, curd, cream, etc”

Letter to: Hasyakari  —  Honolulu 26 May, 1975

Tapapunjah (Terry Sheldon) is doing both.

Island Community Gardens Now Open

To regenerate a sense of community and to raise interest in growing one’s own food, master gardeners and other volunteers have opened the Island Rat Community Gardens on Wheeling Island, an area once known as the garden spot of the city.

The community gardens, located at 45 Maryland St., behind Madison Elementary School, contain 18 raised beds where area residents can grow vegetables and herbs. Each bed measures 4 feet by 10 feet and is 8 inches deep. All but four of the beds have been claimed; participants include novices and experienced gardeners.

The Rt. Rev. W. Michie Klusmeyer, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of West Virginia, blessed the new gardens and the gardeners during grand-opening festivities Saturday, May 21. “I’m thrilled to be here,” he said before offering prayers for the new endeavor.

Several members of the Ohio County master gardeners group and members of the organizing committee were on hand to answer questions and offer advice to novice gardeners who are participating in the project.

“These beds are free for use by individuals. Children are encouraged to participate with parental permission,” said the Rev. Theresa Kelley, priest of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church on Wheeling Island. For more information, call 304-232-7549.

Frank McNeil, a master gardener and committee member, secured permission from property owner Joey Bishop of Bridgeport, W.Va., for the group to use the vacant lot as a garden plot. Bishop’s mother taught home economics at Madison School many years ago, and he indicated that she would be pleased to know that vegetable gardens were being established in the neighborhood.

D.K. Wright, committee member and vice president of the Ohio County master gardeners, said the committee has received invaluable assistance from Danny Swann, coordinator of the East Wheeling community gardens, and Terry Sheldon, gardener of the Garden of Seven Gates, a six-acre site where organic vegetables are grown in Marshall County.

“They (Swann and Sheldon) took us by the hand,” Wright said. “They know more about starting community gardens than anyone…

See full article here

“Destination:: Navadwip, W. Bengal

“Tour Guide”: is H H Bhakti Purushottam Maharaja.

Time: 7:30 (after Gaura Arati)

Colorful slide show with live commentary by Maharaja!

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7 January, 1974 Los Angeles

Dear Kirtanananda Maharaja,

Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated December 30, 1973.

I was very pleased to hear your report of our cow protection program, and I had part of your letter read aloud to a group of devotees how you have one cow who will be giving 70-80 pounds a day. The cow is so wonderful and valuable in society. But you should also use the bulls by engaging them in tilling the ground. People may call this the primitive way but it is very practical for engaging the bulls – have them work in cart loading, transporting, etc…

Hope this meets you in good health.

Your ever well-wisher,
A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

 

Image: Arya-siddhanta Das

The children also had fun at the festival

Devotees who have attended every annual “Festival of Inspiration” for the past eleven years in the hills of New Vrindaban, West Virginia, have called this year’s event “the best yet.”

Eight hundred devotees and seekers from North America, Canada, Europe and India attended the festival, designed to recharge spiritual batteries and held as usual on Mother’s Day weekend from Friday May 6th to Sunday May 8th.

The event was inaugurated on Friday morning with the traditional morning program in front of Sri Sri Radha-Vrindabanchandra, and the first in a series of three early morning seminars, offered at 7:45am in place of the regular Srimad-Bhagavatam class.

The ninety-minute talk, entitled “Back to Basics—Ph.D Means Plough Department” was given by Varshana Swami, who has served in New Vrindaban since 1973, taking care of cows and growing crops. Speaking on the tenth canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam about how Krishna and Balarama took care of their cows, he urged listeners to revive Srila Prabhupada’s original intent and vision for New Vrindaban as a place of “simple living and high thinking.”

The following two early morning seminars proved to be amongst the top three most popular of the entire festival, along with top book distributor Vaisesika Dasa’s presentation on “Awakening the mood of Individual, Spontaneous and Voluntary Service.”

On the morning of May 7th, Shyamasundara and Gurudasa, two of Srila Prabhupada’s earliest disciples, reflected on memories of their guru, focusing especially on describing his magnanimous qualities.

Meanwhile on May 8th, Radhanath Swami spoke about the departure to the spiritual world of the great devotee king Dhruva Maharaja. Using Mother’s Day as an opportunity to speak about the importance of offering respect to one’s mothers, he pointed out that Dhruva refused to board the flower airplane which would take him to Krishna’s eternal planet until his mother was also assured deliverance.

Morning classes on all three days were followed by breakfast, which, like all the meals at Festival of Inspiration, were inspiringly delicious.

“Breakfasts were prepared by Sankha Dasa, a Prabhupada disciple and master cook,” says Festival of Inspiration organizer and North American GBC member Malati Dasi. “Every morning there were at least two varieties of fresh fruit, fresh home-made yoghurt, and gourmet granola sweetened with organic sucanat and full of quality organic ingredients such as dried apples and figs, raisins and almonds, and seven different types of flakes.”

Lunchtimes were no less sumptuous, prepared by a crew from Saranagati, British Columbia headed by husband and wife team Govinda and Bhava Ghosh and featuring a different international menu each day.

“On Friday, there was a Thai theme with stir fry and coconut rice, and hugely popular cinnamon rolls,” says Malati. “The next day was Italian, with baked pasta casserole and Tiramisu cake. On Sunday was a good old-fashioned ISKCON Sunday Feast. Each meal was accompanied with salad with a different dressing each day, and drinks such as strawberry lemonade or fennel and ginger drink. And in the evenings, a gourmet snack was served up by another husband and wife team, Urugaya and his wife Damodara-Priya from Slovaki and the Czech Republic.”

After breakfast on both Friday and Saturday, a wide variety of philosophical and practical seminars ran until around 6:00pm, each lasting ninety minutes.
Attendees could learn about interfaith dialogue with ISKCON Communications Director Anuttama Dasa; the seven verses that are guaranteed to take you back to Godhead with BBT editor Dravida Dasa; and what pushes us towards Krishna and what pushes us away from him with ISKCON educator Laxmimoni Dasi.

Practical workshops included clear thinking and how to make better decisions with ISKCON Resolve ombudsman Braja Bihari Dasa; kirtan with Bada Hari Dasa; yoga with Krishna-Priya Dasi; and relationships with members of the Grihasta Vision Team.

Evenings, meanwhile, were full of spiritual activities, cultural presentations, and entertainment. Friday saw such celebrated kirtaniyas as Bada-Haridasa, Radhanath Swami, and Havi Dasa lead the chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra in a special “Nama Yajna.”

It was on Saturday, however, that all the stops were pulled out.

First off, a group of preteen girls from the New Vrindaban community delivered a short, self-choreographed Bharat-Natyam dance performance based on Bhaktivinode Thakura’s Gitavali. Next, local performer Devananda Pandit served up rockabilly music with a Krishna conscious twist, followed by some foot-stomping spiritual rock ‘n’ roll with Titiksava Karunika and the Namrock band.

“After that, Komala Kumari and seven other members of Alachua’s Bhakti-Kalalayam Dance Academy, who hav been performing together for ten years now, gave us a very professional, mesmerizing Bharat-Natyam performance,” Malati says. “And finally, we ended the evening with a soul-stirring kirtan by Bhakti Marg Swami.”

On Sunday, the final day of the festival, there was only a half-day of seminars, followed by a brief ten-minute slideshow presentation on the Temple of the Vedic Planetarium in Mayapur.

Then it was the time for the grand finale.

“The Three Lives of Jada Bharata, an incredible drama by Bhakti Marg Swami and the Toronto Players, was performed live on our newly constructed stage which had been finished only a few hours earlier,” says Malati. “Four hundred devotees packed in to see it. It completely brought the house down.”

While the adults were busy with the seminars and shows, children had the time of their life at the playfully titled “Festival of Kidspiration,” a full schedule of guided activities led by Radha-Rajya Dasa, Kirtida Dasi, and their daughter Vrindavani for the second year in a row.

“It was done in a highly professional way, with lots of love and devotion,” Malati says. “We had a bouncy house, an orbitron—which is a ride originally designed by NASA that simulates a zero gravity environment—and plenty of other activities. It was an extremely important element of the festival—happy children means happy parents!”

Throughout the entire three days, the weather was pleasant, providing smooth sailing for the festival organizers—quite a change from last year’s event, which saw hurricane force winds bringing the tents down and cutting electricity out for eighteen hours.

The festival also brought many devotees from across North America together in a bonding team effort to serve. A crew from the preaching center in Gainesville, Florida, arrived a week early to help prepare the site, Detroit devotees kept the grounds clean, and the office staff worked hard to keep everything organized.

“I think that for many people—attendees and staff—Festival of Inspiration is a highlight of their year,” says Malati. “The atmosphere created from having so many devotees congregated together for three days is wonderful, and the quality of the seminars and presentations is a noveltyfor many people, especially newcomers. Up to that point, they may have only experienced Krishna consciousness through a visit to the Sunday Feast at their local temple—and that’s very nice, but here they get to see a full display of Krishna conscious possibilities.”

She smiles. “Year after year, one of the most common things people tell me is ‘I had no idea you could do things like this in Krishna consciousness.’”

Thanks to the Norwood Bhakti Club for recording and making accessible images and  audios of kirtans and classes from the New Vrindaban 2011 Festival of Inspiration.

Bhaktimarg Swami, aka the Walking Monk is visiting New Vrindaban for the Festival of Inspiration and GBC/temple president’s meetings.

To see a swami’s eye view of New Vrindaban, visit his blog at The Walking Monk.

Start reading at his Friday May 6th post and follow to through his departure, which hasn’t happened yet as of this posting.

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