New Vrindaban Brijabasi Spirit

All ladies are invited to Atma’s baby shower this Friday night, May 23, 2008 at 5:00 pm in the Temple Guest Kitchen/Prasadam room.

Tridandi Goswami
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
Founder-Acharya:
International Society for Krishna Consciousness

December 25, 1969

My Dear Hayagriva,

Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your two letters dated November 25th and 30th, 1969. That things are improving in New Vrindaban is very encouraging to me. The collection in Washington was $4,200, and out of that $1,200 was for expenditures. So the balance $3,000 I have received for my Book Fund. I think for us to publish all of the books which are ready now it will cost not less than $100,000, even without any charges for labor or for the establishment; simply for the cost of materials. So I shall expect contributions from all centers as far as possible for my Book Fund.

Regarding the rumor about New Vrindaban closing, do not try to divert your attention to all these rumors. Rumor is rumor. When New Vrindaban by the wish of Krishna is started, let us go on with the business.

I can understand why the rumor was broadcast. There was some discussion when I was in San Fransisco with Tamal about the protection of cows. Our main function in New Vrindaban is to give protection to the cows, but there was discussion about the difficulties of keeping cows in New Vrindaban because for the winter season they have to be locked up and fed extraneously. Actually, cow protection is easier when they have simply pasturing ground and we have no botheration for their upkeep. But because in the winter season we have to lock them up and feed them by spending, is that not a problem? Of course, for the small number that are there now that is not a problem, but when we have 50 or 100 cows, as we expect to have that number, then what is the solution? These points were discussed.

I think it has taken a different form by rumor. Anyway, this is also a practical point we have to consider. But in spite of all difficulties, when we have started we have to go on improving it as far as possible. New Vrindaban is already established; it cannot be closed. Rest assured. I am so glad to learn that you have planned to build a special accommodation for me, and next summer, if Krishna desires, I must go there.

I always remember the fresh milk, fresh vegetables and daily ground wheat flour. They are all very, very nice. Now Kirtanananda Maharaj is also doing very nicely. The whole problem will be solved when we get more men to live there. With sufficient manpower there will be no problem, even for the cows. So make some living houses so people may live there comfortably.

Now you should give stress on developing the school. That is important. If Shama Dasi can better take up schooling, it is very good that she be relieved from composing work.

So far as correcting the manuscripts is concerned, you will edit first, then it will be composed, and if there are any spelling mistakes, that can be corrected by anyone there.

Regarding purchasing more land, I shall advise you that we shall not keep more than what we can manage very nicely. But if the adjoining land is available at a cheaper price, that should be acquired. That is a principle. As it is fixed up that we shall develop New Vrindaban, if land is available at a cheap price, we must have it.

Regarding Vrindaban Chandra going to Columbus, you may open correspondence with Brahmananda in this connection.

The remaining portion of Nectar of Devotion has been sent to you, so please acknowledge receipt as soon as it arrives. In your letter of November 2 5, 1969 you write that you have Nectar of Devotion up to page 346, but Purushottam informs me that he has given you the manuscript up to page 367. Also in your letter of October 13, 1969 you write “everything up to page 367 is here in Columbus with me, safe and sound.” So please check what is the situation in this connection and inform me in your next letter.

Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health.

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

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(From Brijabasi Spirit (1976) Vol III #9)

Sometimes the thought occurs that actually it is the cows who are protecting us instead of vice versa. From a material standpoint, I don’t think any of us would want to go through the trouble of rais­ing cows. It’s not a big money-mak­ing enterprise and it involves so much work. But from the standpoint of the sastras, or Vedic scripture, we can understand that cow protect­ion is beyond material business-ma­king. Factually, it is one of the main items of devotional service. When Krsna appeared on this planet, it was in Vrndavana, where everyone is engaged in tending the cows. He is known as Govinda, as Gopala, and as ‘go brahmana hitaya ca,’ names which indicate that He is always eager to give pleasure and protect­ion to the cows. So by engaging in cow protection we can draw the at­tention of the Supreme Lord. Just like a person may please a rich man

indirectly by giving some little present to his son, so we can please the supremely independent Personality of Godhead by serving His beloved cows. Thus we can see that the cows are so merciful in allowing us so much opportunity to serve them and thus please Krsna. Kirtanananda Maharaja has often­times mentioned while visiting the barn that, “These cows will make you Krsna Conscious.”

So a couple more devotees have joined us in the cow department. Ramai dasa is helping feed and brush the cows and clean the barn. Mother Rupa Ramesvari, probably the best barn cleaner in history, is also back helping to brush the cows and keep their pens clean. And last but not least, another old hand, Parambrahma dasa, has returned aft­er a two and a half year tour of duty elsewhere, to take over man­agement of the barn. He is filling the gap left by Amburish dasa, who is now out in the fields all day helping put up the feed for the cows. We are still quite a way from independently meeting all the needs of our mothers, the cows, but our service is increasing gradually. What this means is that we still have to rely on help from outside–buying grain for instance—instead of growing it all ourselves. Hope­fully someday in the future we will be able to accomplish all such nec­essities by devotee labor alone. In the meantime we trudge on trying the patience of Kirtanananda Swami as we rather ineptly attempt to im­personate farmers.

As for the cows themselves, the last eight calves which were born were all heiffers, which is a New Vrindaban record. Two years ago Kaliya, the original cow of Vrinda­ban, gave birth to a pair of heif­fers, Kadamba and Krsungi. Last week Kadamba gave birth to a little heifer calf and Krsungi is due to freshen in another couple of weeks. Sarasvati is due to calf at about the same time. We are all looking forward to this event with the hope that Sarasvati will become the first New Vrindaban cow to milk out

by Mudakari dasi

Deborah & Daphne:

I gave your elephants to the wrong person. I’m sorry. Please email your
postal address to me and I will embroider and send 2 replacements.

Gourangi from NYC:

Please email your postal address and I’ll send you your elephant.

Everyone:

I found the initials. Send me your postal address and I’ll mail it to you.
Please describe your initial (letter,colors). If more than one from the same
family, please note so they can be mailed together.

My email is: mydevoteename at yahoo.com (Written thus to foil spam–you can
figure it out.)

Tridandi Goswami
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
Founder-Acharya:
International Society for Krishna Consciousness
December 7, 1969

My Dear Ranadhir,

Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you for your letter dated November 23, 1969. I am so pleased to learn of the increased development of New Vrindaban. Please now try to organize a children’s school. This is one of our programs in New Vrindaban, and there is Hayagriva, Kirtanananda, Satyabhama, Shama Dasi, Paramananda and yourself. You can form a school committee and get it recognized by the Education Board. Then more children will be sent. There is one small child in Berkeley, and if you so desire, you can ask Hansadutta to send the child in your care.

Your mother has very kindly spoken about me, and she is herself a good lady. Otherwise, how could she have a nice child like you? So please keep in touch with your good mother and try to bring in Krishna Consciousness gradually. That is also one of your duties. As your mother’s duty was to raise you till you got strength, similarly when a child is grown up, it is his duty to see to the spiritual welfare of his mother.

In the Srimad Bhaqavatam the example is Devahuti and Lord Kapiladev. Lord Kapiladev appeared as the Son of Devahuti, and in the absence of Karda-muni, the father of Lord Kapiladev, the Divine Son instructed His mother, Devahuti, and she got elevated to the transcendental position.

Any boys who come there, please take special care of them. As it is generally said, the child is the father of the man. So if we can train little boys to Krishna Consciousness, it will be a great help in our future activities. I was fortunate to get birth in such family, and my father trained me in this line. I am reaping the fruit in this old age for that training. So let New Vrindaban be an ideal spot for Krishna Consciousness population; self-dependent on the local production and cow’s milk. That is my ideal.

Please offer my blessings to the others. I hope this will meet you in good health.

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

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Check out these bog posts to a few angles of vision of the FOI.

Rough notes from a Radhanath Swami Mother’s Day lecture:

From the big Saturday night packed house event:

Festival of Inspiration 2008 Nama-Yajna « Hare Krishna.

Impressions of a visitor:

A New Vrindavan Morning

Impressions of a resident:

VedaBase Hint: Copying Large Quotes

and

New Vrindaban Festival of Inspiration 2008

Okay these were from last year but …

Bhajans

If you know of any other links to posts about the 2008 Festival of Inspiration, please let us know.

New Vrindaban now has a live web cam. See it at http://www.krishna.com/nv

Last weekend May 2 Caru Das journeyed to the NA GBC/Temple President Meetings in New Vrndavan, West Virginia. He landed at the Pittsburgh airport Friday midnight, rented a car, dozed at a rest stop en route and arrived Saturday morning in time for a shower and the start of the meetings…

Click here for the complete report.

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(Ed. note: read Hari Bhakta’s (her husband) blog update here)

by Gokulataruni dd

Two days ago I woke up to a phone call telling me that Gopi Lila passed away. Though I knew that this was coming it still came as a surprise. She was someone that was dearly loved by the devotees in our community, and will be greatly missed.

Gopi Lila joined at the rainbow gathering in the early 90’s and spent well over a decade living in the New Vrindavan and Columbus temples. Her son, Gopala Bhatta, was born in the little green house next to Tapah Punja’s garden. For a while she lived with her husband and baby on the third floor of the temple building. I remember her walking around, gathering herbs with little Gopal toddling behind her. Her son had long hair at the time and she wrapped it into a top knot and put kajjal on him so that he would look like baby Krishna. Seeing them brightened everyone’s day.

The thing I remember about her the most is what an amazing mother and wife she was. When I was pregnant I spent a lot of time talking to her and getting tips on childbirth and caring for a baby. She was into a very natural way of life and had given birth to both of her children in houses, without the use of modern medicine. I enjoyed hearing her stories and I learned a lot from her about what it meant to be a mom.

She also helped me out quite a bit financially during that time. She passed on a ton of maternity clothes, nursing shirts and baby things that kept me going for quite awhile. My son is close in age to her daughter and whenever they would visit (since she lived in Columbus at that time) the two played together.

The last time I saw Gopi was right before she moved to China. Her husband, Hari Bhakta, had been hired to teach English as a second language over there. I remember thinking how brave she was to move with two little kids to a country where she had never visited and didn’t know the language. We sat around joking about some of the problems she would likely encounter. Though she had a few hesitancies, her adventurous spirit eventually took over and she moved overseas.

While she was in China we kept in touch and she wrote about the things she struggled with there, sometime amused by it, sometimes frustrated. After that she went to India to spend time with Hari Bhakta’s family. While she was there she started to write about different health problems and infections that she was getting.  She was soon diagnosed as having the advanced stages of cervical cancer.

After that her health rapidly declined. I was amazed though by how well her and her husband were handling it. I’m sure that they had their weak moments and breakdowns, but every time I spoke with them they were amazingly detached from the situation. Both of them seemed very clear and focused on the fact that she had spent all of her years as a devotee preparing for this. They both accepted that it was time for her to move on.

I spoke with her a few days before she passed away and I couldn’t believe how much things had changed since the last time we had spoken. She was on too much morphine to have a conversation and was moaning from the pain.

Though I will miss her I am glad that her passing was relatively quick and that she is no longer suffering. Her husband stayed home with her the last few months and did everything possible to take care of her and make her comfortable during her last days. The devotees from Boston also spent a lot of time with her and were there with her when she passed away. My sympathies go out to her family that has been left behind.

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Road work on the slip between Tejo’s and Sudhanu.

After the road work is a good view of the pasture at Mahaban.

Parking at the Prabhupada’s Palace and looking up these cherry blossoms block the sky.