Winding through Sri Mayapur, the sacred Ganges shimmers in the cool light of dawn. As temple bells fill the air, barefoot bullock drivers plow the earth—the great connector of lives, the source and destination of all bodies.
Sri Krsna looks as if he’s been protecting cows all his life. Like many a red-blooded American, though, he grew up hunting animals and eating “beef.” Just before he became Krsna’s devotee, he even took part in killing a cow.
His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada arrived at New Vrindaban, West Virginia on the morning of May 21st, 1969. It was his first visit to the mountain ashram, which is the first community in the West dedicated to Krishna conscious living.
Temple needs wood! . . . Temple needs wood!” As the call echoes across our snowcapped farm, four men and two boys hop on an ox-drawn sled and head into the forest.
To effect successful result in the attempt of agricultural enthusiasm there are five causes namely the situation of the land, the man who works in the field, the instruments or implements applied in the enterprise and above all the hidden hand natural forces, known as Daiva.
During a bad drought in California a few years ago, one scientifically-minded politician proposed towing in icebergs from the Arctic. In the meantime rain mercifully came.
New Vrindaban, united in Krishna Consciousness, is now taking shape under the guidance of Srila Prabhupada. The hills of West Virginia are vibrating with the Hare Krishna Mantra, and it is certain that the forests, fields and mountains have entered the spiritual sky of Vaikuntha.
The Pennsylvania Dairymen’s Association honored the Hare Krsna farm in Port Royal for having the best herd of Brown Swiss cows in the state.
Russell Bliss sprayed oil mixed with dioxin on dusty horse arenas, dirt roads, and farms at twenty-two sites in Missouri. His purpose was twofold: to control the dust and to get rid of the dioxin, a waste product that a defunct hexachlorophene plant had paid him to dispose of.
He stands five feet high, eight feet long, and weighs three hundred pounds more than a ton. His name is Bharata, after a pure devotee of Lord Krsna, but because a simple ox responds best to commands of one syllable, the men rhyme his name with spot—”Brot!”
In a letter Srila Prabhupada wrote to me in 1974 or ’75, he told me to develop New Vrindaban like Tirupati in south India. But at that time I didn’t know anything about Tirupati; I’d never been there.
Land and cows provide the economic basis for a prosperous, happy, healthy life of Krsna consciousness at New Varshan, the Hare Krsna farm near Auckland, New Zealand.
What they do essentially is take a failing farm and make it work. The unique part is that they do it without spending any money.
Hare Krsna devotees from Denver started ISKCON’s fifteenth farm community, a 340-acre spread atop Sunshine Mesa and overlooking the Peonia-Hotchkiss fruit valley, on the western slope of the Colorado Rockies.
Prabhupada wanted to start farm projects. For many years the devotees had been trying to get people to accept Krishna consciousness as it appears in books like Bhagavad-gita. “But, if the people are in chaos, how will they be able to accept this great philosophy?”
We milk the cows at two o’clock, and as soon as we’re done milking, we go into the temple and attend the morning functions. We’re busy all the time this way, and we don’t fall down to a mundane level.
The African mission is the same as everywhere in the world: to go out and present Krishna consciousness and to convince people that Krishna conscious is the solution to their problems.
ISKCON devotees from Atlanta purchased a 250-acre farm in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains of southern with beautiful green hillsides for pasturing the cows.
ISKCON has established fourteen successful farming communities. ISKCON’s farms flourish and grow, proving that the Krishna consciousness movement is providing not only potent spiritual knowledge, but a viable alternative lifestyle as well.
Duties [dharma] executed by men, regardless of occupation, are only so much useless labor if they do not provoke attraction for the message of the Supreme Lord.