New Vrindaban Brijabasi Spirit

by Jamuna dd

Paunamasi and Tattva are enjoying the harvest of their first year’s garden. Already the tomatoes are producing an abundance of fruit. Gardening comes naturally for Tattva, coming from a family of farmers in Trinidad. Early this spring he erected a tall (6 feet +) fence. The garden is approximately 50ft x 20 ft. and is quite impressive.

On arrival at their house one is greeted by four boisterous, enthusiastic puppies. This is one of the few gardens on the ridge that has no problems with deer, groundhogs or rabbits. The puppies will collectively chase any intruders who dare to come near the garden.

Their garden contains certain Trinidadian specialties such as loci ( a kind of squash), and a special Trinidadian spinach which can grow into a bush. Also in the garden they have many varieties of peppers such as jalapeno, birds eye pepper, green and banana peppers. They have 3 varieties of tomatoes along with cucumbers, string beans, asparagus beans, bitter melon, pumpkin, black eyed beans, and squash. They have a very clear idea of what they like to eat and this is reflected in their garden.

Their plans for next year include improving the soil by spreading manure over the whole garden and also making the trellis for the beans higher so that they have more room to spread out. They are interested in learning which vegetables they can plant to allow for 2 harvests from one bed.

They are both looking forward to many years of abundant harvests and have one piece of advice for all aspiring gardeners,”Get a dog.”

by Bhaktin Rita

We can touch people’s hearts by talking with them in the temple — even if they originally came to New Vrindaban only as tourists.

For example, on Sunday, a bus from New York visited New Vrindaban. All the guests were from Russia. Although they toured the Palace as a group, they split up afterward. They visited the temple in smaller groups, and I spoke with as many of them as I could. I paid special attention to a 10-year-old girl and her mother.

I was pleasantly surprised at the end of the visit. Although they were in a rush to get to their bus, the mother pointed to the hundi and asked me what it was. I told her that people put donations in the box. She said, “Oh, well then we should make a donation.” She opened her wallet and put some money in the slot.

I walked them to the front lobby. While they were putting on their shoes, the mother asked, “Do you have anything we can read?”

I asked her, “Do you have $10?”

She again opened her wallet and gave me $10. I went into the temple room and brought back KRSNA Book.

Even though she needed to catch the bus, the mother stopped and gave me her contact info. This evening, I e-mailed her and put her in touch with devotees in her local community.

Neither of them had heard of ISKCON or Krishna consciousness before visiting New Vrindaban. But this visit to the holy dham touched their hearts. Their spiritual life has begun. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

Tridandi Goswami A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

Date: January 10, 1972
Camp: ISKCON Bombay

My dear Hayagriva,

Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letters of December 8 and 16, 1971, and I am very pleased that you are making advancement in Krishna Consciousness, and especially that you are observing faithfully the regulative principles of chanting 16 rounds, observing arotik, etc. I have not heard from you for some time, so I had become worried what is your position. As GBC man you should become very responsible to see that the highest standards of Krishna Consciousness should be maintained all over the Society, and therefore it is essential to always be corresponding with the others and cooperating with your all wonderful godbrothers and godsisters to carry out this great mission of Lord Chaitanya. I think that your zone of GBC is South America and at present there is no activity there. But you may begin organizing things so that we may start something there. But your real work is editing work, so you should never forget it. I shall always give you sufficient matter. Under separate cover Shyamsundar is sending you transcriptions of my current translations from Srimad Bhagwatam, 4th Canto, as he types them daily. I am sending one copy also to Pradyumna to edit the Sanskrit, and you can send the finished copies to Jaiadwaita in New York.

I have not yet received the checks which you sent to Delhi, so best thing is if you stop payment on them and send new checks directly to my account at Bank of America, branch 308, Pico-La Ciehega Branch, checking account no. 308 1/61625 in the name of A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, and notify me.

Regarding your proposal to comment on Western writers, that is not very important thing. It is not necessary. We want to comment on philosophy.

Your proposal for board of managers is approved by me, but I do not see Ranavir’s name among the leaders. He is a chief inmate from the very beginning, why his name is missing?

I am sending five copies of gayatri mantra and sacred threads duly chanted by me under separate post. Hold a fire yagna and give gayatri mantra to Prachi dasi, Adi Patite, Sandini dasi, Jimini dasi, and Sureswara. I think Rupanuga has got a tape of me reciting gayatri mantra, so vou may get it from him. One thing, the tape should be heard through earphones into the right ear. So hold the fire yagna for the five devotees.

I am going to Nairobi for a few days on the 25th to 30th, January, and then we are returning to India for our programs in Ahmedabad, Madras, and Mayapur. In March I shall leave India and Tokyo return to Los Angeles via Hong Kong, Australia, and Tokyo.

I hope this meets you in good health and cheerful mood.

Your ever well-wisher,

A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

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by Navin-Shyama dasa

Age of Garden: 14 years

Size of Garden: Porch

Food-bearing Crops: Arugula, Basil, Cucumbers, Lettuce, Parsley, Pole beans, Swiss chard, Tomatoes, Peaches, Apples, Black Walnuts

Don’t let the size of Krishna Bhava’s garden fool you. It may be small, but her love and enthusiasm for gardening are not. “It’s just so grounding. It’s an ecstatic hobby.” She also recommends it as a way to get organic produce without paying top dollar.

When she and Kripamaya first moved down to Talavana, they made their entire front yard a garden. Realizing it was too much work, they downsized to a 20 foot by 30 foot plot. This worked out well for four or five years, until the groundhogs finally noticed the free feast they had been missing.

Now, she grows in containers on the porch outside her bedroom, and takes a more laissez-faire approach. The deer and groundhogs don’t give any trouble in this raised and enclosed area, but the bugs can be an issue.

Although she will occasionally collect some Japanese beetles, she usually lets insects have their way in the end. “With my cucumbers, I’ll harvest until the bugs start to invade, and then I’ll just give up and plant something else.”

Watching the cyclical ebb and flow of life unfolding outside her kitchen window has helped Krishna Bhava realize some of our philosophy. “All living things are born, grow, exist for some time, reproduce, dwindle and then die. It’s ecstatic when the plants flower and are so big and beautiful, but then the insects come and spoil everything. Like every living being, the plants are beautiful in their youth, but don’t look so great in their old age.”

The couple has plans to enlarge the garden again within the next year, so be sure to drop by and see how it’s going. If you’re lucky, you might get to sample some of her garden-fresh pesto pasta!

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by Bhaktin Rita

Today, another bus load of school children from Wheeling’s inner city toured New Vrindaban. There were eleven children, age 8-11.

The first stop was Prabhupada’s Palace of Gold. The children loved everything! They saw the hills and forests of West Virginia from the balcony. They visited the rose garden and threw coins into the fountain. And they gazed at the lake and the tri-state view from the other balcony.

Inside, I told the children that the devotees built the Palace so that when he was there, Prabhupada would feel like he was in the spiritual world. I said that in Vrindaban, all the houses have gold. I said that peacocks are everywhere, so Prabhupada liked having peacocks in his palace. One of the children pointed to the stained glass windows and said, “He must have really liked having lots of colors, too!”

The highlight of the Palace visit was Prabhupada’s study. The children loved the decorations. They were very impressed with the Chinese vases and the peacock decorations. But the children were most impressed with Prabhupada himself. They were so impressed that Prabhupada rose at 2:00 am to write his books. One little girl stood next to Prabhupada for quite a while, and looked at him. Finally, she told the group approvingly, “He has good handwriting.”

by Bhaktin Rita

On Tuesday, a group of fifteen 12-15-year old kids from the inner city of Wheeling visited New Vrindaban. They arrived promptly at 10:30, and went straight to the temple room. In the temple, they chanted the maha-mantra only a few times – just enough so that the kids heard the Holy Name. The group spent 30 minutes in the temple room.

Afterward, the kids visited the organic teaching garden.. They got a small taste – literally – of some of the plants such as basil and stevia. Because people in Kali yuga have short attention spans, they spent only 30 minutes in the garden and then moved on.

They spent 30 minutes in the kitchen, learning to make chapattis. It was exciting to watch the chapattis puff up, like magic!

After the cooking lesson, I walked with the kids to the Palace. It was 12:00, and quite hot out. The kids started complaining about how hot it was. And they kept asking where they were going and when they would get there. The interns in charge of the kids told me that the kids complain about the heat every day, and that I should ignore them.

Suddenly, one girl said to me, “I can’t get that song out of my head.”

I asked, “What song?”

“That song from the temple.”

Another boy said, “We should sing it right now.”

A few kids shouted, “Yeah! Sing it!”

He sang loudly, “Krishna! Krishna!”

The kids all laughed, and we continued walking to the Palace.

All glories to Lord Caitanya’s sankirtan movement. Everything is happening by His mercy alone.

While it is well known that Tapah Punja does a garden for the temple, that is not the only vegetable garden in New Vrindaban. We are going to do a series of articles about some of the vegetable gardeners in New Vrindaban. Here is the first, by Navina-Shyam das, who visited NV this summer and graciously agreed to interview some gardeners while he was here.

Age of Garden: 9 years in this location

Size of Garden: 1/2 acre

Food-bearing Crops: Acorn squash, Apples, Beets, Blackberries, Butternut Squash, Carrots, Coriander, Cucumbers, Dill, Green beans, Jerusalem artichoke, Kale, Karela, Lettuce, Mint, Okra, Peas, Bell Peppers, Potatoes, Spinach, Swiss chard, Tomatoes

This may be home to the International Society for Cow Protection, but there’s more than grass growing here! Chayadevi and Balabhadra have been cultivating vegetables in New Vrindavana since 1996 when they lived in what is now Ruci and Sankirtana’s house. Before that they had a garden in Gita Nagari.

But gardening wasn’t quite the same here, as they discovered early on. “We had a big field of pumpkins and beans across from the house. Everything grew well and we started picking, but within a few days, everything was eaten up, everything was destroyed. We had no fence and we had no dog. The deer were even coming up around the house, eating anything we had planted right on the doorstep.”

When they moved to their current home, they enlisted the service of Rudra the Destroyer, their loyal dog, as leader of their pest control efforts. Up until a couple years ago, he was all they needed. But then the deer became bolder and there were more of them, and Rudra wasn’t able to keep up the chase.

Currently, a fence encloses the acre around their house to help with this problem, although Rudra is still the frontline defense for groundhogs. After catching them, he will generally bring them to a spot near his bed along the side of the house to show off as a trophy. After it has been admired and he has been rewarded with affection, he lets his inherent carnivorous nature loose and that’s that.

“Our motivation was to have good quality food for our deities and for ourselves. We understand that all these living entities that take birth in these vegetable and fruit bodies, they’re all being engaged in serving Gaura Nitai and Prabhupada in the form of prasadam. So their lives are perfect and complete.” But many others benefit as well. As any ISCOWP supporter knows, the Dove family annually dries hundreds of quarts of tomatoes, zucchini and bitter melon to send out as premiums to their members.

So even those who don’t live here can experience some locally grown produce from the dhama!

Tridandi Goswami A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
4th January, 1972
ISKCOK, 89 Warder Road, “Akash Ganga” Building, Bombay-36

My dear Hayagriva,

Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated December 16th , 1971 along with an enclosed copy of a letter dated December 8th. addressed to Madras. Actually, I have come from Delhi to Bombay. So your letter addressed to Delhi was not received by me. So Shyamsunder is in Delhi and he is bringing letters so maybe your letter is there. Until he comes in two or three days I cannot say whether your letter is there or not. When he comes then I shall let you know.

I was simply surprised not to hear from you in so long and therefore I am so much pleased to hear from you. May Krishna bless you for pushing on so sincerely our Krishna Consciousness Movement.

Please offer my blessings to all the inmates of New Vrindaban. Especially the younger generation and Samba. Also next time when I come to U.S.A.. I wish to visit New Vrindaban positively to see how things are developing.

I hope this meets you well.

Your ever well-wisher,

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

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Back in May, New Vrindaban hosted another visit from the Global Leadership Project at Ohio University. Student groups from OU have been visiting for several years, staying overnight, and interviewing devotees, each time focusing on a different topic of study.

Several of the students even came back for the 24 hour kirtana in June. Below are excerpts from 2-3 page reflections of most, but not all (just didn’t get around to it), of the students on their visit in May. It’s always interesting to get a glimpse into what visitors think about the community.

ys, Sankirtana das

***

“What I experienced at New Vrindavan was entirely different than what I expected…. Because it’s part of the Krishna religion to be evangelists, I thought that the devotees would be extremely pushy in showing their beliefs to us. I found most of them to be extremely understanding and they were not pushy at all.”

“It was fun dancing at the service although I was afraid I would do something wrong… The next morning I went to the 7:30 service. Once again I was shocked at the dancing and liveliness from everyone in the temple, especially it being that early in the morning…We had a session where many devotees told their stories of how the came to the Hare Krishna religion…. It was definitely an interesting experience and very unique.”

“Tapapunja, the gardener, was very knowledgeable regarding organic gardening and made a whole lot of sense…In comparison to Catholicism, the religion I grew up in, I felt that the Krishna religion was so much more exciting and enjoyable… I wirily dug my spoon into the meal and was pleasantly surprised. The food tasted so pure and natural… My New Vrindavan experience will be two days in my life that I will never forget.”

“I have never seen such jubilance and happiness in any religious ceremony… I definitely want to include kirtan into my religious practices….I love the whole idea of ‘simple living, high thinking’…. I realized that constructing a spiritual community is very difficult and carries with it much responsibility and care.”

“It was an experience filled with spiritually evoking thoughts accompanied by a tranquil external environment. Before visiting New Vrindavan, I could not remember the last time where I was at peace with the world and not concerned about the stresses of school and work…. The prasadam meals are the most fresh and delicious meals I have ever had…. The devotees are more that willing to answer questions and engage in meaningful conversation…. Almost every aspect of New Vrindavan has something to offer spiritually….I will remember this trip for the rest of my life.”

“Before arriving, I envisioned New Vrindavan as a place of tranquil meditation and communal living…. I could not figure out the spiritual relevance of the huge concrete elephant…the call of the peacocks served as a reminder to the celibate monks that sex is an integral part of nature,,,,, the sights and sounds of New Vrindavan were similar to that of a circus equipped with a semi-religious theme…Is a remote controlled swam boat related to Prabhupada’s ‘simple living , high thinking’ standard?…. It seemed that college educated devotees were placed at a higher level of the hierarchical system and asserted control over the others.”

“Before the trip, I was most excited to interact with the devotees and try to understand their lives and their devotion to their beliefs. I’m not sure I was able to achieve the level of understanding I initially hoped for…. To an extent I wish I knew more about why certain things were being done and what they meant…Sankirtana gave us a tour of the Palace also gave us additional background knowledge that I had been looking for throughout the trip….I found it easy to take any of their religious stories or practices, no matter how ‘bizarre’ and draw a comparison to my own beliefs.”

“What I enjoyed most about being there was the feeling of being transported to another world that was so different from the everyday reality of life in Athens … I saw a fascinating religious community that was sincere in its pursuit of Hare Krishna consciousness….Hari Bhakta, the devote we interviewed, was one of the coolest and most interesting people I have ever met….My time at New Vrindavan was a very positive experience.”

“I always thought that the life of a Christian seemed intense…The devotees are so strict in their eating and drinking intake. I could not believe that so many people were happy at 5AM without caffeine!…. One of the most surprising aspects of New Vrindavan was the kindness of the children. I am used to children being frightened of strangers and uncomfortable with anyone who is not in their family. This is not the case at New Vrindavan….While I do question some aspects of New Vrindavan, my overall experience was quite impacting.”

“I tried to have an open mind when I went to New Vrindavan…The ceremonies were fascinating. It was like watching a documentary film…I thought there would be more people around at the ceremonies…My favorite part was learning about the garden and cows…I found all the food really good. The people were friendly, even if some were a little pushy…I am not sure I would visit again.”

“The chanting started slowly, but by the time the ceremony was over all the devotees and students were dancing like crazy…. This was very memorable. I was thinking the culture we were studying was going to be very basic and austere. I was happy to discover that they were such a vibrant and animated religious society which sees dancing and having fun as a way to worship God… To finish off the day we were served a fantastic dinner.”

“In the temple the chanting began and soon transitioned into a harmonious melody. Soon I was taping my feet to the rhythm and slightly muttering the chant…Before I realized, one devote took my hand and dragged me into the middle of the dancing….I was dancing with every move I had in my arsenal, and the devotees were accepting me for who I was… At dinner I dug in and thought ‘Wow. This is amazing’… We interviewed Madhava Ghosh, his wife and son. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I didn’t expect our interview to be three hours long… He is an extremely intelligent man, and I’m glad I had the privilege of meeting him…. The trip opened my eyes to a different belief system and a different outlook on life. Meeting the devotees is an experience I will never forget.”

“Prior to my research, my concept of the Hare Krishnas was that it is a cult of oblivious people with shaved heads who dance and sing Hare Krishna for most of the time…. I was surprised to see just a few people around the temple partaking in the daily events… The worship ceremony was not as uncomfortable as I thought it might be. Most ceremonies involve sitting quietly for long periods of time. The Krishna ceremony incorporated music and dance. The worship was actually a more spiritual experience and probably my favorite aspect of the Krishna practice.”

“I wonder how they can be so certain that their religion is the correct one. So much so that they dedicated their lives to it. To me it almost seems a little naïve. But maybe they are right, and I should read Bhagavat Gita and join the enlightenment.”

Wednesday Evening at 6 p.m. we are having an Open Community Meeting (used to be called Istagosthi), which will be held in the temple guest prasadam room.

This meeting is to Introduce Sikhi Mahiti Prabhu, the new Temple President.

All devotees living in the temple are required to come so he can also meet all of you.

Everyone, everywhere else around the community is very much encouraged to come and give your support to welcoming in Sikhi Mahiti Prabhu.

Thank you very much,

yours Sukhavaha d.d.

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