New Vrindaban Brijabasi Spirit

The following is a letter from Tranakarta dasa to the devotees who are taking on the renovation of Bahulaban as a project.

Dear Devotees

Hare Krsna!!!
Please accept my humble obeisances.
All glories to Srila Prabhupada!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

First I would like to thank you all, from the bottom of my heart, for what is happining in Bahulavan,New Vrindavan.

As you know it is a most Holy place due to the fact His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada walked all over these grounds, gave many lectures in the temple there and of course Bhagavat discourses were also given there.

Srila Prabhupada’s instructions to us were that better than expanding we take care of the devotees we have already made and establish the farm communities. Indeed he wanted to come back to America for this very purpose but Lord Krsna took him as his mission of establishing Lord Caitanya’s movement all over the world had come to a close. Now it is up to us to continue this great preaching effort. Srila Prabhupada has left us an ocean of devotional service. Whatever one can do to help this project will be most pleasing to Srila Prabhupada.

You should all realize what you are doing there is of utmost importance. It will be an example for the world how the Hare Krsna’s have made such a nice place of simple living and high thinking as their material world of sinful activities crumbles around them. They kill millions and millions of cows and they kill millions and millions of their own children so how can it not be tossed into destruction. Srila Prabhupada foresaw this and it will come to pass. That is why we must set an example of love and cooperation and make this project a success.

Adi Guru Prabhu has asked me to write some remembrances of Bahulavan when I was a young boy in New Vrindavan.

I am from Chicago and grew up in an catholic Italian family. My father owned a very famous Italian restaurant on the north side. When I was 16 he bought a farm north of Chicago. At that time I was seeking the truth asking Jesus to help me.

In october of 1972 I found a Krsna book in the woods of Lake Zurich. There are many details but to make a long story short I started chanting Hare Krsna.

Actually my dog led me to that Krsna book and he was the reason I wound up in New Vrindavan.

I was chanting the Holy Names for 6 months or so never knowing there was a worldwide movement going on and that Lord Krsna’s pure devotee was blessing the world with His Divine presence. One day I found out there was a temple in Chicago and headed right there.

I had long hair and the first day there the devotees took me on book distribution. They were doing BTG’S and my first day out I did 40 of them. I had been in real bliss chanting those months but when I distributed Srila Prabhupada’s books that day I was really feeling blissful. I knew it’s what I wanted to do but I felt I had to save some of my so called friends so I did not join right away.

One day I came to the temple and Kirtanananda Swami was there. He asked me what I wanted to do and I told him I wanted to join but I had a dog and I wanted to keep him. He told me to come to New Vrindavan and bring my dog. I liked the idea.

When I came to New Vrindavan my old car pulled up right in front of the temple in Bahulavan and died out never to start again. The devotees had to tow it out.

I moved up to the Vrindavan farm as I was a bramacari. My service was in Bahulavan working on construction there. I was working with Soma Prabhu who I remember as a sweet devotee. He may not realize to this day how he had an effect on me in my Krsna consciousness. He was and still is a wonderful devotee and my dear friend.

We used to walk from the Vrindavan farm to Bahulavan every day to do our service. I know the trail was called Agasura Trail but I always call it Prabhupada trail as Srila Prabhupada walked it. I hope one day the name will be Prabhupada trail for good.

Anyway I remember being on top of the barn in Bahulavan pounding nails and being in complete bliss as we took turns reading Krsna book. The whole atmosphere was Vaikunta. It was and will always be a most sacred place. I can remember the temple there and how powerful Radha Vrindavan Chandra stood beaming out their mercy upon all the devotees.

The devotees would cook outside in big pots and all would assemble for lunch prasad. Then a little kirtan and back to work pounding nails etc…

One night at the bramacari farm while asleep Srila Prabhupada came to me in a dream. It was a very powerful dream and I remember it like it was last night.

I was writing in a room when the door flew open. There was His Divine Grace effulgent as the sun coming toward me the whole room lit up. Srila Prabhupada grabbed me by the shoulders and stood me up and was hugging me. Then He started saying over and over again “thank you for helping New Vrindavan, thank you for helping New Vrindavan”. I started to exclaim “Prabhupada, Prabhupada, Prabhupada!!!”. Chanting Srila Prabhupada’s name in my dream woke up the other devotees who started shaking me “bhakta Tom, bhakti Tom” I remember a devotee name Gatravan Prabhu who was the one shaking me and he was joyful at the situation. I had never seen Srila Prabhupada in person yet but that wonderful night He came to me in that sweet dream.

So I have always felt a duty to New Vrindavan with that dream always fresh in my mind over the years.

One day in Bahulavan while doing service Kirtanananda Swami came up to me and said he had bad news for me. I said what is it Maharaja and he told me my dog (a doberman pincher) had been shot by a neighbor down the road. He took me in his old pick up truck and drove me to the spot where my dog’s body lay in the driveway of some man’s house.

I picked it up, put in in the back of the truck and we drove off. Maharaja explained to me that when we come to Krsna He takes all our attachments away and that my dog would soon go back home back to godhead. In my heart I already knew this and accepted my dogs fate as Lord Krsna’s mercy.

As time went on many letters came from Srila Prabhupada stating His desire to distribute His books. Like ” if you want to please me in the best way, distribute my books, distribute my books, distribute my books”. Having already a taste for this great service I asked Kirtanananda Swami if I could go back to Chicago and distribute Srila Prabhupada’s books. He could see I was sincere and he paid my way back on a Greyhound bus.

There in chicago I did books in the airport for many years. Srila Prabhupada called it “O’Hare Krsna airport”.

I pray one day we can also make Bahulavan a base for book distribution along with everything else.

Thank you for allowing me to write some things. All glories to your service.

Your Servant,
Tranakarta dasa

Dear Devotees,

Please accept our respectful obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

It is our pleasure to invite all of you to join us for small satsang program for the birth of our second child Krsnanand. His Holiness Varsana Swami will speak on this occasion and the program will be followed with Dinner Prasadam. Following are details of the program.

Date and time : 6:30pm – 9:00pm on October 8th, 2008.
Venue : Apartment # 2-3.

Please join us for satsang and bless the child Krsnanand.

Thank you very much.

Your servants,

Govinda Priya Devi Dasi,
Shankaranand Das &
Premanand.

Thank you very much.

Your servant,

—
Shankaranand Das.
Congregation Developement.
ISKCON New Vrindavan
304 221 1000 (Mon-Fri)
Phone : 304 843 1600 ext.102 (Sat-Sun)
Email : shankarananddas@gmail.com
Website : www.Vediclifestylepro.com

Hey Folks! Tired of the same old faces and voices putting you asleep from the Vyasasine?

Try a NEW experience this week beginning on Thursday:

Thursday, Nidra devi dasi (ACBSP) from Denver will discuss a verse from the first canto.

Friday, Nila Madhava devi dasi (second generation youth from Alachua) will discuss famous ladies from the Bhagavatam.

Saturday, Vishaka devi dasi (ACBSP) renown author and scholar, will address the assembly.

Sunday, for anyone fortunate enough to be born in a female body, you are invited to Sunday Morning at the Palace with Srila Prabhupada and His Daughters where the topic will center on 10:87:16., a beautiful verse submitted by Rukmini devi dasi for discussion.

The program begins at 6 am with Mangala Arati. The participatory class begins at 7:45 to 9:15.

We sincerely hope all of the wonderful New Vrindaban Mothers will join us. Hare Krishna!

With best wishes, yr servant,
malati devi dasi

6th Annual Vaishnavi Retreat

by Malati devi dasi

Oct. 10, 11, 12, 2008

For Women, By Women
New Vrindaban, WV
304-845-9591
servingkrishna@aol.com

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ISKCON – 89 Warden Road; Akash-Ganga; Bombay-26; India

March 20, 1971

My Dear Kirtanananda Maharaja,

Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your two letters dated 17th February and 10th March, 1971, respectively and noted the contents with satisfaction. I have been travelling on our usual touring program of India and the mails have been piled up here in Bombay for some time. Now I am replying so many letters and some of them are a little late.

It is very good news from Hayagriva that the land which you mention as being across the ridge and on both sides of the road. I remember it well. Now our New Vrndavana Scheme will be furthered by Krsna’s grace. I was very glad to learn that you have installed the new Jagannatha Murties in our Pittsburgh Temple and at the same time you have invited many guests for preaching and offering memberships. It appears that you have got a full program there and the people are appreciating your efforts to spread Krsna consciousness. That is a very good sign.

Certainly when I return from India it is my intention to visit New Vrndavana. I am very eager to see New Vndavana developed more. So you construct the Temple there nicely and when I come there I shall install the big Deities, perhaps on the Janmastami Day. It seems that the prospects for New Vrndavana are expanding more and more, you can invite citizens from Pittsburgh to spend the weekend in New Vrndavana. In your country the gentlemen who live in the city like to go to the country, so why not to New Vrndavana? Now you can construct a very nice broad staircase descending from the road to the creek and rising again to the Western hill of Vrndavana. That will be very nice. Many people can come for the weekend and holidays and that will make improvement there. The fees from membership are divided 50% to my Book Fund and 50% to the Building Fund, so if this program is vigorously pushed, we get enough money for the New Vrndavana scheme. I want seven temples there. That scheme was submitted long ago. That will be beautiful and pleasing, Many people will go and it will become an important place for holiday excursion.

I am very happy to know that the Pittsburgh Temple is so large and beautifully decorated for Krsna. Your lectures at the universities are very important as well as your appearance on the radio and t.v.

Regarding the marriage of Halodhar and Joan, you may offer them full blessings upon their Krsna conscious combination. So far initiations are concerned, there will be better opportunity when I return to states.

Now we are in final preparation for a very big program in Bombay. I shall be lecturing daily on the Srimad Bhagavatam and it is expected that the audience will be about 20,000. They tell me the program is the largest ever to be held in Bombav, so I am hopeful of good response.

Hope this will meet you in good health.

Your ever well-wisher.

A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

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Gopals Garden Home School Co-op successfully completed its first year.  We would like to thank all the parents for their hard work and support.  The second school year started in the beginning of September and is off to a great start.   If anyone is interested in participating, please contact Shymasundar prabhu.

Gopal’s Garden Inc. does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, gender, national and ethnic origin in administration of its educational polices, admissions polices, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other school administered programs.

VAISHNAVI RETREAT just around the corner! Beginning Friday Oct. 10th at 11 am through Sunday.

Amazing Vaishnavi’s and amazing presentations are in store. Please plan on attending!

(Five of the presenters are coming right from our own midst!)

VAISHNAVIRETREAT.ORG FOR DETAILS AND SCHEDULE

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Dear community members from near and far:

This Sunday from 1:30 pm -2:30 pm I will be in the Madhava Classroom @ the RVC temple to practice Vital signs and serve you in informing you of these results. Vitals are: temperature, pulse, respirations, and blood pressure. I will not be doing temperature..

I passed my Vitals test but I want to practice as much as I can! Please assist me in this! I am looking for all adults of all age groups and gender. I cannot do children because I have only an adult size cuff.

Vitals are “vital” in the Nursing Assessment because they detect discrepancies in the body systems and are an important aspect of disease prevention or detection.

See you there!

Your servant,

Rama Lila dasi

Soma shared with us some old snaps from 1976 and from the 80’s, so we share them with you.

 

 

 

First, for those following this discussion, here is a good background site to peruse:

Kevin Lewis’s article on (non-hysterical) environmental hazards of gas drilling

Now, the notes (with a big thanks to Labangalatika dd, clearly the best of the notetakers):

Attendance for the September 19 meeting was notably lower.  The meeting was not broadly announced, and it was suspected that this was at least partly why attendance was low.  The meeting began informally, and discussion picked up as participants began to trickle in.  The following issues were discussed:

Making New Vrindaban a self-sufficient community

• Need for financing; use of natural gas as an incremental step (better than what we are doing now or are likely to do otherwise)
• Pursue paths to self-sufficiency that do not involve gas-drilling income or use of natural gas – increasing fertility of soil, use of animal power, wood for fuel (also adopting simpler lifestyle, as was done previously at NV)
• Solar panels (although this region is second worst in US for solar viability)
• Retrofit facilities to eco-green standards
• Teach others self-sufficient culture so they can take the mission into the future
• Need to be able to produce all our own bhoga

Impact of drilling

• Environmental – what would it be; how could we prevent or minimize dire effects – pursue this legally and politically
• Need for research – sound, unbiased information (perhaps even pay for someone outside of community to do this) – Marcellus shale process is still quite new
• Business aspect needs to be considered/researched also – no precedent set with gas company negotiations

Public reception and opinion

• Attractiveness of New Vrindaban if it can become self-sufficient
  • (For drilling) Steps in direction toward self-sufficiency – use of (domestic) natural gas instead of (foreign) oil
  • (Against drilling) Purity, integrity, natural/simple lifestyle – honoring what we preach can attract support
• Preaching as our prime mission – self-sufficiency and progressive movement attractive to American public in particular; NV’s best preaching point – environmental outreach
• Americans could go either way, depending on whether they view natural gas development as progressive or a sell-out
• Most of the younger people will be against drilling (many also see foam plates, gas-run vehicles, etc as part of the problem)
• Stimulating or alienating donor base
  • How will our position be received if we go ahead with drilling – poorly, if not seen as consonant with SP’s mission for NV; favorably, if seen as a step forward from the present situation and if progress is seen
  • If we say no to drilling, might be seen favorably by non-devotees as well as devotees
  • Perception of what NV is about; our proper understanding of what NV’s purpose is (beacon to attract others to KC, model of self-sufficient community, inspiration for devotees, tourism, source for donor income?)
  • Present donor base is into Deity worship, not self-sufficiency

Consciousness, mood and capability in New Vrindaban community

• How would drilling income be managed
• Can skill sets and physical capabilities lie in our community translate into self-sufficiency (younger are techno-conditioned, elders losing physical vitality)
• Will influx of money translate into stronger KC mood and lifestyle?
• Only thing that works in NV is cooperation and adherence to core principles – this is not a place to make money

Need and use for money

• Devotees needing supplemental income now, regardless of consciousness (even those who are farming)
• Need money to build agricultural base
• Could preach and bring in donation on basis of ‘no’ answer
• Could say ‘yes’, get seed money for trust, have donors contribute to trust funds – ask for capital donations, not for operational expenses (but considering track record, will capital funds end up being used as operational funds?)
• Proper use of the money could offset karma – we must ensure that money is used properly and directed toward our ideal

NV perception

• How meetings are being conducted -facilitated but not controlled; information must be gathered and presented
• Guru, sadhu and sastra and time, place and circumstance
  • Seek advice of advanced devotees – sadhu gives siddhanta, but doesn’t tell you what to do (ex, Varsana Maharaja)
  • SP made adjustments – but do we neophytes have the purity to make the same type of decision? – we have to make the decision
• What if we decide in favor of the drilling and half the community leaves
• “Drug user” analogy: going from user to dealer (with gas drilling), or from heroin to methadone (natural gas instead of oil) (and would we ever get off the methadone)?
• Many private property owners need money, are going to go for opportunity
• Opportunity to foster community spirit, participation
• If things stay the same, no impetus to change

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ISKCON – Akash-Ganga building; 7th Floor; Warden Road; Bombay

February 22, 1971

My Dear Hayagriva,

Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 30th January, 1971 and have noted the contents carefully. At present I am staying at Gorakhpur, an important city in northern India and we are having very good preaching work in India. The membership program is helping us moving from here and there and we have spent about Rs. 12,000/- at Allahabad Kumba Mela. Very soon I shall be going to Bombay where we have got our center at the above given address and we are paying Rs. 3000/- per month. We occupied this floor by advance payment of six months rent, or Rs. 18,000/-, but the quarter is super-excellent and just now I’ve received a letter from Madhudvisa Maharaj saying that the work in Bombay is going on nicely. Arrangement is going there to hold a continuous meeting in a public park accommodating about 10,000 men in congregation.

I’m also trying to get a land plot within the Gorakhpur university campus. The idea is I wish to start some centers in the university campuses so that we can influence the students to take part in this movement and our next attempt will be to open centers in the Industrial areas. Similar attempt also may be made in your country and Europe.

In India we require more men from the U.S.A, our trained devotees, because India is taking a special interest in this movement on account of American participation. The estimate is that we require at least 100 American devotees in India. We have got invitation from various parts of India and one SanKirtan Party under the leadership of Hansadutta, is leaving for Allagar, Mathura, Madras, etc. Then all of them will meet in Bombay and we propose to hold a grand installation ceremony in Bombay by the end of March. After finishing this job, I’m contemplating going back to U.S.A.

There is a chance for opening a branch in Israel. I’ve already advised Dinesh and his wife Krishna Devi to go there. One Jewish boy Yacov Shames is willing to help us in this connection. So we have been getting various invitations from all over the world. One letter we have received from Mahatma Gandhi Organization in GUYANA, S, America. They also want us. I do not know the address of Vaikunthanath and Saradia who have gone to Trinidad. The reply sent to the Gandhi organization, a copy is enclosed herein. I could not write Vaikuntanath directly, so you can convey my blessings to the couple because they have taken courage to go there for preaching work. I am so glad for their adventure. So you can advise them to visit Guyana if possible and open a center there.

Your scheme for South America boat journey is very pleasing to me. Regarding Coffield’s farm missing from our hands, it is due to our negligence. We should have immediately purchased that land but unnecessarily we prolonged negotiation. Now the only chance is that you pay something more than the present proposal and you purchase the land as soon as possible. I think if you give some profit to the present proprietor, he will spare the land. Regarding the gita missing verses, you can immediately let me know the verse numbers, and chapter numbers and I will send you the purports, etc. and without delay. I do not remember who wrote about Sankara’s versified meditation on the Bhagavad Gita. If you send one copy of this, I shall see how much it is suitable.

The label of Spiritual Sky Incense sent by you is very nice. I have received one letter from Kirtanananda Maharaj and I have replied it. In every letter I see that you are very much anxious for my return and I thank you very much for such eagerness. Most probably we shall meet together in U.S.A. by the first week of April, 1971.

Please offer my blessings to your good wife Shama Dasi and staunch Vaishnava son Samba. Hoping this will meet you in good health.

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

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