New Vrindaban Brijabasi Spirit

On this most Auspicious Occasion,

Everyone is encouraged to prepare some special loving preparations that you’d like tomake as an offering to Lord Balarama on His Appearance Day.

Our goal is to offer at least a total of 56 wonderful preparations at His special evening offering. This rare opportunity is especially meaningful to all those who are partial to HIS Special Mercy.

Please have all preparations in the Temple Pujari Room no later than 5:30 PM.

Thank you for your consideration. Hare Krishna.

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SCHEDULE:

Fasting until noon.

5:30 pm                    Abhisheka
6:00 pm                    Lecture and offering of 56 preparations
7:00 pm                    Artika and Kirtan
7:45 pm                    Prasadam Feast served

Lilasuka dasi

Memories of Srila Prabhupada at the Barn in New Vrindaban.

There will be a barn closure ceremony on Sat. Oct. 5 at New Vrindaban.

Join us!

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ECOV: A Dynamic Solution to a Modern Dilemma

By Madhava Smullen

The world—and the USA in particular—seems determined to murder as many cows as possible. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, 35 million of the mild-mannered creatures were slaughtered in 2010 in the USA alone—that’s over 95,000 cows killed a day and nearly 4,000 per hour.

During their short lives, these cows live on factory farms in cramped, concrete-floored milking pens. When they give birth, their female calves join the ranks of milk producers, while males are taken from their mothers within 24 hours of birth and sold at auctions to beef producers.

Cows in a typical commercial dairy lot.

Within sixty days, the cow is impregnated again, and milked for seven months of her next nine-month pregnancy. According to the animal rights organization PETA, this cycle is repeated until her milk production wanes, and she is sent to slaughter between five and eight years old. She could have lived more than twenty.

But the world wasn’t always so keen on exploiting cows. Before the industrial revolution in the 1700s, most people were dependent on them. In ancient India in particular, the cow was deeply respected as the mother of mankind, and the bull as its father, as taught by the smriti scriptures. For just as a child is fed with its mother’s milk, the cow feeds human society her milk; and just as the father earns for his children, the bull tills the ground to produce food grains.

Cows and bulls were thus cared for as part of the family, and were the very backbone of society. Oxen pulled the plow so that people could grow vegetables and grains, and transported the food wherever it needed to go. The dung of both the cow and the bull was used as an excellent fertilizer, and even their urine was known to have medicinal and insecticidal purposes.

And of course, the cow needed to eat only grass to produce milk, an opulent and nutritious drink that could be used to make countless types of food. Cow’s milk was even cited by scriptures such as the Srimad-Bhagavatam as essential for developing the finer tissues of the human brain, enabling one to understand the intricacies of spiritual knowledge.

As Gandhi wrote in his periodical Harijan: “The central fact of Hinduism is cow protection… Man through the cow is enjoined to realize his identity with all that lives… The cow was in India the best companion. She was the giver of plenty. Not only did she give milk, but she also made agriculture possible.”

Thus people in India lived localized, independent lives, and had a symbiotic relationship with the cows and the land, in which all their basic needs were fulfilled.

Until the British arrived. To take away the people’s independence, they realized, they had to break the backbone of Indian agriculture. And to break the backbone of Indian agriculture—and Indian culture in general—they had to start slaughtering cows.

Today, generations have been cut from their relationship to the earth and driven to the cities. The number of slaughterhouses in India has grown from one—established by Governor Robert Clive in 1760—to 36,000. In 2001 CNN called India “The second largest producer of leather goods in the world,” a position it still holds now.

But there’s still hope for India, and for the world. Some have retained India’s ancient culture of cow protection and living in harmony with the land, and have attempted to transplant it to the West. One major such proponent was A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, a Vaishnava holy man who traveled from the sacred village of Vrindaban, India to New York City in 1965.

With his spiritual movement, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, Prabhupada launched farm communities with cow protection programs all over the world. Encouraging a ‘simple living and high-thinking’ lifestyle, he taught that all animals were also souls, and children of God, or Krishna—and that just like humans, they deserved love, care and protection. In his purports to the ancient texts of India, Prabhupada explained how Lord Krishna came as a cowherd when he appeared on Earth 5,000 years ago in the village of Vrindaban. And he wanted his disciples to follow Krishna’s example.

The first cow protection program that Prabhupada established in the Western World was in the rural community of ISKCON New Vrindaban—named after Krishna’s village and nestled in the hills of West Virginia. “Krishna by His practical example taught us to give all protection to the cows and that should be the main business of New Vrindaban,” Prabhupada wrote to his disciple Hayagriva in June 1968. He suggested a life close to the land, similar to that which Indian villagers had enjoyed before the invasion of the British: “So these duties are there in New Vrindaban, and we shall live there independently, simply by raising cows, grains, fruits, and flowers.”

In May 1969, Srila Prabhupada visited New Vrindaban, and met its very first cow—and only cow at the time—a black Jersey named Kaliya. Prabhupada would drink a little of her milk morning, noon, and night. “I haven’t tasted milk like this in sixty-five years,” he said. Looking around at his disciples, he told them that he wanted New Vrindaban to demonstrate to the world the social, moral, and economic advantages of protecting the cow and utilizing her milk, rather than killing her and eating her flesh.

When Prabhupada visited New Vrindaban for the fourth time in 1976, the cow protection program had grown to include many cows, including Kaliya.

“The cows would graze up on the hill,” recalls Kuladri Dasa, who has served at New Vrindaban since 1970. “One day, as Prabhupada was walking up the road with a group of devotees, Kaliya came ambling down the hill towards them, all by herself. Prabhupada immediately recognized her from his first visit, and addressed her, ‘Ah, my dear old friend Kaliya.’”

Kaliya walks with Srila Prabhupada in New Vrindaban, 1976.

In those early days, devotees would milk the little herd twice a day, and the milk would be more than enough for the small, dozen-strong community. “We would have two devotees milking the cow by hand at once—one on each side,” says Kuladri. “Radhanath Swami, now a major spiritual leader in Mumbai, was one of the cowherd boys then, and I would milk with him. I remember he was a strong milker—our cow would always give the most! Altogether, four or five of us would team up and milk all the cows.”

Devotees milking cows by hand at the Bahulaban Barn, 1976.

The cow protection efforts continued, and the herd began to grow. In the 1980s, when the New Vrindaban community expanded dramatically, it reached an incredible 400 cows with 160 of them being milked, twelve at a time and twice a day. The surplus beyond what was needed to feed the community was sold.

But the large-scale effort was unsustainable, as New Vrindaban discovered when it encountered community and financial struggles throughout the 1990s and 2000s. Times became more difficult. Funds and manpower were scarce.

Yet although they could not keep breeding and maintaining the size of their herd, those New Vrindaban devotees who remained, kept their firm commitment to the cow protection mission Srila Prabhupada had held so close. They continued to provide for the food, shelter, and medical needs of the herd no matter what. Each cow was lovingly cared for, living out their natural lives in peace and quiet, and receiving a spiritual funeral fit for a saint when they passed away.

In the late 1990s, New Vrindaban’s leadership decided to create separate entities for different areas of focus—including cow protection. And so, in March 1999, the non-profit organization Gorakshya- Seva Environmental Education Trust of America (GEETA) was born, and all New Vrindaban’s cows and grazing land were entrusted to it. Gradually, the cow protection program’s infrastructure was repaired; and today — while there is much work to be done—the future looks bright.

In February 2011, GEETA changed its name to ECOV, an-all inclusive moniker that stood for the entire agrarian lifestyle surrounding cow protection. The acronym, which stands for Earth, Cows, Opportunity and either “Village” or “Vrindaban” depending on the audience, also appeals to a broader cross-section of people, including eco-friendly Westerners, the Hindu community, and ISKCON devotees.

The organization immediately got down to practical work. It recently replaced much of the New Vrindaban farm’s twenty-five-year old equipment with brand new equipment, including two new tractors to harvest hay for feeding the cows every winter.

“Right now we are taking care of sixty-five cows—mainly Holsteins, Brown Swiss, and Jerseys,” says Ranaka Dasa, who is ECOV’s general manager, and a member of the board. “Every year, we harvest about one thousand 1,500 pound round bales of hay for them to eat during the winter. They are protected from the cold in a clean and spacious barn, which we’ve also recently renovated.”

During the summer, the herd is taken down to the lush, green pastures in Bahulaban, were the New Vrindaban community was centered in the 1970s. Today, ECOV has 640 acres of land—some of it forest, but much of it grazing land for the cows, who always get to eat their fill.

“The difference between a regular farm and New Vrindaban is like night and day,” says Ranaka. “Rather than being exploited and treated like machines, here they’re part of the family.”

Six of the cows are milked twice a day, by devotees that have become their friends over the years. And they give an average of 15 gallons per day, which is used to make curd, sweets, and other dishes for New Vrindaban’s residents and temple Deities, Sri Sri Radha Vrindaban Chandra.

“Optimally, we would like to have a herd of eight to ten milking cows in their prime, each of whom could yield about six to ten gallons of milk a day,” Ranaka says. “And we plan to gradually increase our overall herd to a sustainable size of just over one hundred, which our barn and other current facilities are already large enough to accommodate. Finally, we aim to re-establish New Vrindaban’s ox teamster program.”

Properly caring for and utilizing oxen is a vital part of ECOV’s cow-protection plan—after all, a balanced approach requires placing equal importance on both the mother and the father of humanity.  “The cow is so wonderful and valuable in society,” Srila Prabhupada wrote to his disciple Kirtanananda in January 1974. “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…”

On a broader level, ECOV is putting infrastructure into place to create a cow protection model that’s sustainable long-term. Part of this is attracting a new generation of cow lovers.

“The devotees that have protected the cows at New Vrindaban for the past forty years, and are still maintaining the program, are now in their late 50’s to 60’s,” says ECOV board-member Chaitanya Mangala. “So we need to attract skilled young families to move here and dedicate themselves to agriculture and cow protection.”

ECOV hopes to do this by helping to provide environmentally-friendly housing, educational facilities for children and adults, and ecological career opportunities for residents to make their livelihood.

ECOV main barn and office

“We also want to create financial viability, by setting up a cow protection endowment fund,” says Madhava Ghosh, another ECOV board member and long-time cow protection activist. “Since we don’t slaughter cows but support and care for them throughout their entire lives, we can’t hope to compete economically with mainstream farms—so our cow protection must be based on broad community support.”

Ghosh acknowledges that some may wonder how much their small effort would really help, when an ocean of slaughter surrounds us, and millions of cows are being killed around the world every year.

In response, he tells the famous Srimad-Bhagavatam story of the sparrow whose eggs were swept away by the mighty ocean. Rather than despairing, she bravely attempted to dry it up by picking out the water with her tiny beak. When Garuda, the gigantic carrier bird of Lord Vishnu, heard of her determination, he came to help his little sister, and the sparrow’s eggs were returned.

“In the same way, if we put all our heart, soul, and actions into trying to make a difference for Lord Krishna’s beloved cows,” says Madhava Ghosh, “He will surely come to our aid, and wonderful things will happen.”

Video of Shyamala Kishori Dasi leading during New Vrindaban’s 24 Hour Kirtan – June 15th, 2013. Thanks to Bhakta Vatsala Dasa for posting on Youtube.

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Summertime in New Vrindaban

Summer in New Vrindaban is going very well. The newly renovated lodge is full on many weekends.  The new welcome center is buzzing with pilgrims and visitors. So, all is well in the holy dhama.

At the same time, in this material world, we all know that Krishna often tests His devotees in different ways. Then He also gives us the intelligence how to deal with such tests. The apartment suite in the lodge, the most comfortable and demanded accommodation, was unfortunately flooded, for the fourth time, by waste water due to the current pumping system. The experts advise that another renovation would not give us a guarantee that the same problem would not happen again. Therefore, we have had to dig up some of the lawn near the children’s playground, and put in a proper waste water line without a pump.

Krsna saved us again!  Very soon the lush, green grass will be growing back in.  All is well in New Vrindaban Dhama.

Work completed on broken water line.

“Modest Elegance” – An Interview with Varsana Maharaj

Misty Radha Kunda

INTERVIEWER: Please describe your project to us, Maharaj.

VARSANA M: Our Govardhana Hill project, featuring Radha Kunda and Syama Kunda as central landscape features, Radha Gopinath as the resident deity, and Their temple as the prime focus, derives inspiration and direction from a consistent thread interwoven through the fabric of Srila Prabhupada’s instructions, vision, and desire for New Vrindaban.

Srila Prabhupada’s vision for New Vrindaban includes five main topics, one of which is holy pilgrimage.  New Vrindaban is, of course, an ongoing and very important place of holy pilgrimage for many devotees and pilgrims all over the world.  In addition, Srila Prabhupada had a specific vision, which we will discuss shortly, for exactly what he wanted to see in New Vrindaban as a place of pilgrimage, and that is what I am basing my project on. I was surprised to learn that many devotees were NOT aware that the “Seven temple on seven hills” concept was exclusively Srila Prabhupada’s idea! This explained to me why we weren’t attracting much support or participation for this first of the seven temples.

As a point of reference, and framework for understanding, consider Srila Prabhupada’s response to news of the potential for land in Appalachia.  His response revealed an endearing aspect of his personality which is not readily apparent. He said something wonderful – “I have a fancy for your country,” he told Hayagriva, in his letter written from his residence at the Radha Damodara Mandir.

This was in 1968, the very first letter that Hayagriva received from Srila Prabhupada in India.

Srila Prabhupada went on: “I have a fancy for your country. And being inspired by that fancy, I went there first.  Now, Krsna is blessing a nice piece of land which resembles Vrindaban, to be a new place of pilgrimage for you western devotees. If turned into New Vrindaban, I shall forget to return to India!”

And later, “Now I’m trying to return to the United States as soon as possible.”

These words of Srila Prabhupada are both very clear and revealing.

Later that same year, Srila Prabhupada wrote again to Hayagriva.

“Because I’m getting older, and if any time you take me to your new hermitage, I will be glad to go there, and finish my life translating Srimad Bhagavatam and the Goswamis’ literatures.”

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INTERVIEWER: Wow. There are probably a lot of devotees who were not aware of these letters.

VARSANA M: There is more!  That same year, 1968, Kirtanananda and Hayagriva went to Montreal to see Srila Prabhupada. They explained to him that New Vrindaban has long roads and is quite hilly. Srila Prabhupada replied that it is better to use horse and wagon than jeep.  Then he became very specific.

“All the hills and temples should be named after the goswamis’ temples in Vrindaban.” Then Srila Prabhupada’s eyes became wide with the anticipation of seeing these temples manifest. He went on, ““Rename the hills Govardhan. If there are lakes, name them Syama Kunda and Radha Kunda.” “Vrindaban is a transcendental village completely dependent on nature’s beauty and protection. Therefore dedicate yourselves to plain living and high thinking.”

These ideas are what I base my project on. Of course, I, personally, have no money or manpower, but this project is definitely taking on a life of its own and receiving support from our family of devotees.”

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INTERVIEWER:  Why Radha Kunda and Syama Kunda?  Why does Srila Prabhupada say it’s important to name the lakes Radha Kunda and Syama Kunda, after the original lakes in Braja?

VARSANA M:  The answer is both profound and practical.  When Lord Gauranga went to Vrindaban, He asked “Where is Radha Kunda? Where is Syama Kunda?”  He saw these sacred ponds as crucial to His mission.

The waters of Radha Kunda infuse the soul with a love for Krsna similar to Radha’s, and, similarly, the waters of Syama Kunda infuse the soul with love of Radha similar to what Krsna feels for Her.

Lord Gauranga and Srila Prabhupda know that these kundas are instrumental in perfecting our chanting. The acaryas tell us that having access to these ponds is very significant in developing a taste for the holy name. It’s not just abstract.  It’s very concrete in developing our love for Krsna through hearing and chanting.

These are very humble beginnings. Eventually, it will be a demonstration of modest elegance.

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INTERVIEWER:  Maharaja, please tell us a bit about the Temple building itself.

VARSANA M:  The temple itself will be 50 feet high with a dome on top. The temple is being fashioned, in a simpler way, after Madhu Pandit’s first and original Radha Gopinath Mandir in Vrindaban, before it was desecrated by marauding Moghul iconoclasts.

The community celebrated Radhastami in 2012 inside the walls of the new Radha Gopinath temple, as we revealed completion of the first phase of construction, and this was the turning point, when it became acceptable in people’s eyes.

To honor Srila Prabhupada’s words, desire, and vision, it is crucial that my generation complete at least the first of the seven temples that Srila Prabhupda wanted for New Vrindaban, in our lifetime.

Everything here is arranged according to the terrestrial features of the original Vrindaban.

Model of the Radha Gopinath Mandir

This model that you see is for design purposes only. We do not have 3-D CAD (Computer Aided Design) ability on our computers, so this is not exactly what the finished temple will look like. This is a model of the basic shape and design of the temple. Many more embellishments will adorn the outside of the temple.

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INTERVIEWER: We know that Josef has been doing a great job guiding parikrama parties from the temple to the Radha Gopinath Hill here. Can you elaborate on that aspect?

VARSANA M:  Yes, he certainly has.  But he needs some place markers and written stories.  And he needs signs which mark the way, in order to execute the parikrama following the proper protocol, which is as follows, just as it is in Vrindaban.

You begin at Kusum Sarovara (swan lake) at the foot of Govardhan Hill, then you pass the big Gaura Nitai statues, Who are inviting and blessing pilgrims to follow Their footsteps.

Then you come to Manasa Ganga, a small version of which we excavated this year. The parikrama path curves up the hill, where you go to Lalita Kunda, then to the rock temple of Kundesvara Mahadeva Siva,  and finally to the Gopinathji temple.

The central features are Radha Kunda, with its guardian swan floating upon Her waters; next is Syama Kunda, which is surrounded by the kundas of the sakhas, of which Sridama Kunda is already manifest.

There are smaller parikrama paths within the larger one. They all end at the Gopinath Mandir.

You can also turn onto the path to Prabhupada’s Palace if you’d like, which, spiritually, brings everything full circle. These are some of the many options depending on the time you have, the weather, if you’re in a wheelchair, etc.

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INTERVIEWER:  I know there are people who would love to help with this project.  How can they do that?

VARSANA M:   We need signs that describe each place on the paths, as well as direction signs to clearly point out the different parikrama paths.

I’ve already written up many meditations for each of the holy places for which we need volunteers with literary and computer skills to accomplish the task of publishing, laminating and posting all of these stories.

All the material is there; it just needs to be coordinated.  There are people already working on this who could use help.

As far as physical help, there are plenty of landscape opportunities.

So the modest elegance of the Radha Gopinath project has reached the stage of being appreciated. The larger aspiration is encouraging people to appreciate New Vrindaban in general.

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INTERVIEWER:  Why did you choose this particular design for the temple? Can you please give us some kind of historical perspective on that?

VARSANA M:  The design closely resembles the original Radha Gopinath Mandir inspired by Madhu Pandit, who is entrusted with the care of the original Radha Gopinath deities, who were installed by Vajranabha, Krsna’s great grandson!

His sponsor was Rayasila Shekhavata who was granted land by Akbar in appreciation of his defeating the Afghans.

It is commonly accepted that Radha Gopinath Mandir was built before Madan Mohan and Radha Govinda temples.

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INTERVIEWER: Some people have asked if you know whatever happened to the same Ananta Sesa who was installed in the cornerstone of the Govindaji Temple.

VARSANA M:  There’s a story behind that one! Ananta Sesa, who rests in the N.E. cornerstone of this temple, was first installed in 1973 for the foundation of the Govinda temple, which was never built. The cornerstone was relocated to the Temple of Understanding, which was also never built. At last the cornerstone ended up here, where, one day, in the middle of a Kartik lecture, I saw Ananta Sesa looking out from a hole which had developed in the cornerstone over time.  I took this as a sign that He needed and wanted to take up the rightful position in the footer of a temple that would be built upon His hoods, which uphold the entire creation, after 39 years of living within a cornerstone that was repeated being moved!

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INTERVIEWER: So THAT’S where Ananta Sesa ended up!  Ecstatic! There are a lot of exciting things going on up at your place, I see.  Maharaja, is there anything else you’d like to say about the Radha Gopinath Mandir project?

VARSANA M:  For Srila Prabhupada, the jagat guru, spiritual master of the universe, home means Vrindaban – nowhere else. And that is what constitutes the Holy Dhama – the presence of the acarya who carries Krsna in his heart and can thus install Him anywhere.

It is not our own endeavors to build temples, excavate kundas, and rename tracts of land according to their facsimiles in Vraja.  It is the presence of Srila Prabhupada that makes this place, in his own words, “non-different from Vrindaban.”

Srila Prabhupada affirmed that he had indeed taken up residence in the Palace, which is his Samadhi, where sincere sadhakas can take up and develop their ongoing relationship of service with him.

Our Govardhana Hill project and the Radha Gopinath temple are for the purpose of complimenting the Palace grounds according to Srila Prabhupada’s vision, a replica of Vrindaban, to assure his pleasure of feeling at home.

The Tower so far.

New Vrindaban: The Spiritual Frontier 

Back To Godhead Article – June 1974

By Vishaka devi dasi

By His inconceivable potency, the Supreme Lord Sri Krishna appeared 5,000 years ago as a cowherd boy in the village of Vrindavan, India. The devotees of the Hare Krishna movement, therefore, who have established a 1,000 acre Krishna conscious community in West Virginia, have called it New Vrindaban. In New Vrindaban, the devotees find that by following the Lord’s example of living with what the land and cows provide, they can easily be free of all economic problems. By pursuing Krishna consciousness in such an untroubled atmosphere, one can reestablish one’s eternal relationship with the Supreme Person and thus begin the joyful journey back home, back to Godhead.

Srila Prabhupada speaks to devotees at ISKCON New Vrindaban. 1974.

Their Lordships Sri Sri Radha Vrindaban Candra are the worshipable Deities who preside over New Vrindaban.

Top: A new barn raises in a New Vrindaban field.

Above: A devotee quietly chants the Lord’s holy names while observing the opulence of His creation.

One can start this journey back to Godhead here on earth, by developing an attraction to serving the Supreme Personality of Godhead. In the material world, we are not able to see Krishna everywhere. Therefore He appears in the form of the worshipable Deity in the temple to accept service from His devotees.

The devotees in New Vrindaban work hard at their different duties, but they all work on behalf of the Deity. Both the Lord and His devotees derive transcendental pleasure from such devotional service. Throughout the world, the disciples of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada are following this authorized process of self-realization—bhakti-yoga, or devotional service to Krishna, the Supreme Lord.

Top: Devotees gather hay, pick tomatoes and till the soil. Farming in New Vrindaban is transcendental because it is performed not for any material motive, but as service to Krishna. Middle: In the morning, afternoon and evening the devotees come together in small groups to sing devotional songs and have classes in Bhagavad-gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam. Above: Picking flowers for Their Lordships Sri Sri Radha Vrindaban-candra.

In his purports to Srimad-Bhagavatam Srila Prabhupada writes: “The secret of success is to take refuge under the protection of the Supreme Lord. Without His sanction, nothing can be possible. The rivers, the hills, fruits, flowers, grains and so on are not creations of man. They are all creations of the Supreme Lord, and the living being is allowed to make use of the property of the Lord for the service of the Lord. By His will, there is enough of everything, and we can make proper use of things to live comfortably without any enmity between men, between men and animals, or between men and nature. The control of the Lord is everywhere, and if the Lord is pleased, every part of nature will be pleased.” It is this Krishna conscious understanding that has made New Vrindaban an exemplary community, worthy of being emulated throughout the world.

Visakha-devi dasi graduated from Rochester Institute of Technology in 1970 and then wrote a technical book on the art of close-up photography. She and Yaduvara dasa, her husband, also a professional photographer, joined ISKCON in 1971, while shooting assignments in India. They are now traveling around the world making documentary films about the Krishna consciousness movement.

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Srila Prabhupada meets Kaliya on the path to the New Vrindaban farmhouse.

Hari Sauri Recalls Srila Prabhupada Reuniting with Kaliya, New Vrindaban’s First Cow.

Hari Sauri’s diary: New Vrindaban, West Virginia 06-28-1976

This morning Kirtanananda Maharaja arrived in his pickup to drive Srila Prabhupada up to the original New Vrindaban farm where the community first started. Srila Prabhupada sat in the cab while devotees scrambled up into the back or ran up the trail after it. It was a long and bumpy drive up the dirt road, and afterward Srila Prabhupada complained about heart strain.

He had Kirtanananda stop some distance from the house and walked the rest of the way, accompanied by twenty or thirty devotees. The sun was just rising over the distant hills, its rays gently diffusing through the light morning mist. Prabhupada walked steadily up the track, preceeded by one of New Vrindaban’s four-legged residents, a large black cow.

At the house the rest of the devotees, including the gurukula children, lined up along the pathway to greet him. Prabhupada looked obviously content to return to the original house in which he had stayed in 1969 when he first came to New Vrindaban. Now it serves as the brahmacari asrama and the residence of the beautiful brass forms of Sri Sri Radha-Vrndavananatha. After his darsana of the Deities, Prabhupada gave class there at the house on Srimad-Bhagavatam 7.6.14.

Srila Prabhupada takes darshan of Sri Radha Vrindabannatha at the original New Vrindaban farmhouse, 1976.

His talk lasted only about fifteen minutes. The verse described how a man who is too attached to family life cannot understand that by such activities he is wasting his time. Indeed, he does not develop a distaste for material existence even though he undergoes three kinds of suffering.

Srila Prabhupada explained there are two classes of men, the bhogi, who is always trying to enjoy his mind and senses, and the yogi, who tries to give up his entanglement. Among the yogis, that person who engages in devotional service to Krsna is the best. He said that by yoga, one achieves siddhi, perfection.

As an example of yogic siddhi he cited something he had heard in his school days. “In my childhood there was my teacher. He said that he had his guru, a yogi. So he told me that his spiritual master, yogi, he inquired from his disciple, ‘What do you want to eat?’ So he said that ‘We want to eat some pomegranate from Kabul.’ So he said, ‘Yes, you can get it. Go into the room and you’ll find.’ So they found a bunch of pomegranate just fresh taken from the tree. This is called prapti-siddhi.” Of course, he told us, this kind of siddhi is material. It is not for the devotee, who alone can attain perfect satisfaction by surrender to Krsna.

At the conclusion of class Srila Prabhupada returned in the truck to the house for breakfast and a short rest.

May 26, 1975

My dear Vahna dasa,

Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated May 12, 1975 and have read the Cintamani poetry book. It is indirect, impersonal and useless. Who will read these things? Krishna’s name is only mentioned in two poems in the whole book. What is this? There are so many poems written by great acaryas. Why do you try to concoct something like this? It is not in our line. How is that our Kirtanananda Swami is there and he has approved printing this? It is a waste of time, paper, money, ink, and labor. There is so much work to do for spreading this Krishna Consciousness. Who will become attracted by such things as this. You should all spend more time reading my books very carefully and stop all this unnecessary manufacturing.

I hope this meets you in good health.

Your ever well-wisher,

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

N.B. Why there is no picture of Krishna on the cover? If you have the desire to write poetry, better if you read one chapter of Krishna book very carefully. Then put it into poetry. But, do not concoct anything. There is no need for that type of poetry. If you do this, I think it will be appreciated nicely.

Memory  by Sacimata

Remember

I’ve lived at New Vrindaban for 32 years, and have known Vahna that long.  However, I became much closer with him over the last several years, since he moved back to Talavan.   Even though Vahna, as most of us know, didn’t follow the regulative principles strictly, there was one principle he did follow, “chanting his japa.”  You would always see Vahna walking on Talavan Road chanting.  A couple of years ago, he was spending a lot of time at his house, so he would call me and ask me to bring him some prasadam.  So I would go over and bring him plates of maha, sweets and garlands.  He was always so happy to receive the Lord’s mercy. He always told me I reminded him of Hladini in that way of bringing him the mercy of the Lord.  He always spoke fondly of her, and I’m sure that she has helped him over the pathway to the spiritual sky.

One day a couple of years ago, he phoned and said his neckbeads had broken, and asked if I could buy him a set at the temple.  I said that I always kept some neckbeads at my home and I would give him a set.  So I sent a set of the old-fashioned big black tulsi neckbeads strung with silver and had my daughter, Nitai bring them to him.

When I read that Vahna was sick this summer,  I was in Canada with my daughter, and planned to go see him as soon as possible in the hospital.  Well the day he passed, I had went to the temple, got him some maha rasagullas, and was planning to visit that afternoon.  Then I got a call from Gopisha saying that he had left.  I was so sad, to hear that I missed the opportunity to visit, I cried for about 2 hours.  One thing was consoling though, Gopisha was telling me that he and Kalindi had visited him on the weekend before, and was relating their visit together, and he said, one nice thing was that Vahna was chanting his japa on his neckbeads.  He said it was one of those black tulsi and silver sets.  Wow!  That may me feel a lot better as I knew that in some way I was with him, in the form of my gift of neckbeads being with him to the end of his material life.

So, although I felt sorry that I missed the physical visit, the transcendental was still in place.  But hopefully we will all remember how temporary this life is, and to always make time to visit devotees not only when they are sick, but as an exchange of love.  It is a wonderful service to give our association to each other; which is one of the reasons Srila Prabhupada wanted his “SKCON.”

Your servant, Sachimata dd

July 31, 2013

Everyone is invited to a Dharma Sastra Seminar Aug.12-14

On Varnasrama Dharma

 with His Holiness Bhakti Raghava Swami

~Under the Lodge~

Schedule:

Fri. Aug. 9- Maharaja arrives

Sat. Aug. 10 – gives Srimad Bhagavatam class

Sun. Aug. 11 – gives Srimad Bhagavatam class

Sun. Aug. 11 – gives Sunday feast lecture

Monday Aug.12         5 – 7 PM: Dharma Sastra under the Lodge

Tuesday Aug. 13        5 – 7 PM: Dharma Sastra under the Lodge

Wed. Aug. 14             5 – 7 PM: Dharma Sastra under the lodge

DHARMA_SASTRI_Pamphl#4300D1

What is the Dharma Sastra Course

The Dharma Shastri Course will present an overview of the ancient Vedic culture and traditional lifestyle as originally practiced in India, based on principles of Simple Living and High Thinking, the remnants of which can be found in various indigenous cultures around the world even today.

The course will help uncover forgotten concepts that have been the foundational pillars of the ancient Vedic culture for centuries.

Of particular interest will be the guidelines provided that will help establish a balanced social structure and the components needed to help establish a sound educational curriculum design.

The information given in the courses is taken exclusively from the ancient texts and covers a wide range of topics including politics and economics. All are welcome to attend the seminars.

For more information and registration please contact Gaura Nataraj das at: gaurnatraj@gmail.com

To know more about varnasrama dharma, please visit the following sites: www.iskconvarnasrama.com