New Vrindaban Brijabasi Spirit

New Vrindaban’s Transcendental “Throwback Thursday” – 03/06/14.

Each week we highlight an earlier era of ISKCON New Vrindaban.

This week’s challenge: In the photo, with Srila Prabhupada, are nine devotees whose faces can be seen. Can you correctly identify them all?

Extra credit: Who is the person directly behind Srila Prabhupada (whose face can’t be seen, but is wearing a yellow shirt and white vest)?

Post your guesses on the “who, what, when & where” in the comment section at the New Vrindaban Facebook Page.

Technical stuff: We share the photo Thursday and confirm known details Sunday. Let’s keep it light and have a bit of fun!

Special request: If you have a photo showing New Vrindaban devotees in action, share it with us and we’ll use it in a future posting.

• Leave a comment...

O brother, when you close your eyes in death, where will your loving wife, children, brothers, relatives and friend be? Where will your good qualities be? Where will your fame be? Where will your pride, wealth, education, control over others, and other powers and opulences be? O learned and intelligent friend, why do you not renounce these temporary things and run to Vrndavana?

[Source : Nectarean Glories of Sri Vrindavana-dhama by Srila Prabodhananda Sarasvati Thakura, 1-81 Translation.]

Please click here for more photos

Video of Varsana Swami leading New Vrindaban’s 24 Hour Kirtan – June 15th, 2013.

• Leave a comment...

O friend, by great good-fortune you have attained this body where you have heard Vrndavana’s wonderful glories and learned that everything in this world is like a dream. Don’t, don’t, don’t put any faith in the mind and body. Run to Vrndavana.

[Source : Nectarean Glories of Sri Vrindavana-dhama by Srila Prabodhananda Sarasvati Thakura, 1-80 Translation.]

Please click here for more photos

ECO-Vrindaban Board Meeting Minutes 2-23-2014.

 Mission Statement: ECO-Vrindaban promotes a simple, sustainable lifestyle centered on the care and protection of cows, local food production and the loving service of Lord Krishna, as envisioned by Srila Prabhupada, the Founder-Acharya of ISKCON New Vrindaban.

Participating Members of the ECOV Board of Directors:  Anuttama (partial attendance), Bhima, Chaitanya Mangala, Krpamaya, Navin Shyam, and Ranaka. Madhava Gosh did not participate in the Utica Shale gas lease discussion and vote (due to a conflict of interest).

Advisors present: Jaya Krsna

1.   Used equipment purchase

WHEREAS:  The ECOV Board wishes to acquire proper equipment for its gardening projects, and to facilitate a smooth winding down of the operations of the Small Farm Training Center on INV & ECOV managed properties.

RESOLVED: The Board authorizes up to $6,000 for acquiring implements from the SFTC, including a transplanter, plastic layer/bed former, and chisel plow.

2.   Utica Shale Gas Lease

WHEREAS: The ECOV Board wishes to proactively respond to the proliferation of natural gas drilling in and around New Vrindaban so as to minimize the risk of harm to the land and its residents and maximize any potential gains.

RESOLVED: Upon consideration of the inquiries from the New Vrindaban Advocacy Sanga (contained in e-mails dated February 13 and 19) and the respective legal opinions of Mr. William Leon (dated January 30 and February 19), which addressed the following issues:

• Terms of the lease;
• Conflicts of interest;
• Proxy voting by directors;
• Voting by non-resident directors;
• GBC involvement;
• Due diligence on the part of directors;
• Air and water quality protections; and
• Proposed well pad placements,

and after thorough examination of the terms of the proposed leases, in light of the instructions of Srila Prabhupada, the best interests of the community under the circumstances, and the principle of yukta vairagya (as described by Varsana Swami in his paper entitled “Yukta Vairagya and the Gas Drilling Contract”), the ECOV Board hereby authorizes its officers to execute lease agreements as to the Utica Shale formations underlying ECOV-owned lands, subject to the following two internal commitments by the Board:

1) If requested by the legal owner of an affected property, ECOV shall ensure testing of any water supply within a thousand feet of well pads located on either INV or ECOV-managed properties, in accordance with a regimen prescribed by an industry expert;

2) ECOV shall provide a grant of at least $350K toward renovation of Srila Prabhupada’s Palace of Gold, to be provided on a matching basis to any funds expended by INV.  This grant shall supersede the previous grant of $100K and loan of $100K, which are both hereby defunded.

 Please click here for more photos

Gaura Purnima is coming up in less than two weeks and everyone is invited!

Lord Caitanya and His Sankirtan Party

Here is the schedule, below, for the celebrations on Sunday March 16, 2014:

5:00 AM                 MANGAL  ARATI
5:30 AM                 NRSIMHA PRAYERS
5:45 AM                 TULASI PRAYERS
6:00 AM                 JAPA
7:30 AM                 GURU PUJA
8:00 AM                 GREETING THE DEITIES IN THEIR NEW  GAURA PURNIMA OUTFIT
8:20 AM                 SRIMAD BHAGAVATAM CLASS
11:00 AM               GOVARDHAN PARIKRAMA ( weather permitting)
1:00 PM                 ARATI
1:30 PM                 CLASS
2:15 PM                 Lunch  Prasadam (for those  who are not fasting)
5:00 PM                ABHISHEKA ON THE ALTAR
6:00 PM                 LECTURE
7:00 PM                ARATI
7:40 PM                 MAHA KIRTAN
8:00 PM                 PRASADAM FEAST

Your preparations for the Lord are welcome.  Please bring them by 5:45 PM to Sri Sri Radha Vrindaban Chandra’s pujari room.

If any second initiated devotees are interested in helping cook in the deity kitchen on Gaura Purnima day, please contact Abhinanda das either on facebook or email:

FB: Abhinanda Das               E-MAIL: abhinanda_bcs@yahoo.co.in

Much Gaura Purnima service is available, such as in the devotee kitchen (all morning), prasadam transfer (12:30 PM), cleaning the prasadam hall after the festival.

Friend, when you will die? Do you know? Do not even infants sometimes die unexpectedly? With clear intelligence, without attachment to the body and sense, and without stopping to think, run to Vrndavana.

[Source : Nectarean Glories of Sri Vrindavana-dhama by Srila Prabodhananda Sarasvati Thakura, 1-78 Translation.]

Please click here for more photos

Srila Prabhupada sitting outside the original New Vrindaban farm house – June 1969.

Srila Prabhupada Appreciates New Vrindaban’s Protected Cow Milk – June 1969.

From a series of letters written by Srila Prabhupada outlining his vision for New Vrindaban.

Thanks to Vanipedia for the source material.

——————————————————————

June 24th, 1969.

My Dear Kirtanananda,

Please accept my blessings. I beg to thank you very much for your kind attention for me continually for one month, and I was so happy to remain in New Vrindaban. Yesterday afternoon, we safely reached Los Angeles, and Tamala Krishna has rented a very, very nice entire house for me, with compound and garage, at $350 per month. So I am very comfortably situated here. Two brahmacaris, Purusottama and Sridama, are always taking care of me, but at the same time, I am always thinking of your New Vrindaban. The first thing I find in the taste of the milk. The milk which we are taking here is not at all comparable with New Vrindaban milk. Anyway, there must be a gulf of difference between city life and country life. As poet Cowper said, “Country is made by God, and city is made by man.” Therefore, my special request is that you should try to maintain as many cows as possible in your New Vrindaban.

The first thing is that whether the girls and women who live there are agreeable to work as I have suggested; namely 1) to take care of the children, both from health and educational point of view, 2) to keep the whole temple, kitchen, etc. very clean, (At the present moment, things are not kept very clean. You are right that if some outsiders come, they will view our situation as not very hygienic.), 3) cooking, 4) churning butter. If they agree to all these four principles, that is to say, if they cooperate with the boys, then surely very quickly New Vrindaban will develop as nicely as possible.

So far as milk is concerned, I can arrange for financing in the matter of purchasing cows. The arrangement will be like this, that I shall ask all the centers to finance at least for one cow, and you will have to pay them back the price by supplying ghee. Suppose somebody advances $200 for purchasing a cow; you will have to repay the debt by supplying $200 worth of ghee. After that, the cow becomes your property. But to produce this ghee means there must be regular churning.

The men should be engaged in producing vegetables, tilling the field, taking care of the animals, house construction, etc. and the women shall do the indoor activities. Of course, those who are engaged in typing, like Syama Dasi, they cannot do any other work. So you may arrange things in this way. Please request Satyabhama to send me back the Krishna Book immediately. Mail may be sent and forwarded to the LA temple, at the above address. Hope you are well.

Your ever well-wisher,

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

• Leave a comment...

To the supremely fortunate, pious and affectionate persons who live in Vrndavana, which is more blissful than Lord Visnu’s abode, and who, worshipping Them with prayers and gifts, make Radha and Krsna deeply indebted to them, we offer our respectful obeisances.

[Source : Nectarean Glories of Sri Vrindavana-dhama by Srila Prabodhananda Sarasvati Thakura, 1-77Translation.]

Please click here for more photos