httpv://youtu.be/2tt-nYkt-YI
BY: ANANDA SVARUPA DAS
Feb 18, 2012 — AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS (SUN) — I was impressed by Dusyanta dasa’s two recent articles that appeared in the Sun: “Lack of Integrity of Purpose” and “Cow Protection“.
In my 18 years in ISKCON and 18 out, this is one of the very few times I heard anyone make sense of cow protection as an integral part of the philosophy of simple living practiced by Lord Krishna Himself and much desired by Srila Prabhupada.
The world needs an ongoing example of this essential foundation of Krishna Consciousness. There is no use in building huge temples, distributing a billion books and so on if we can’t show a practical example of our philosophy as an ongoing lifestyle. For too long, Rupa Gosvami’s yukta vairagya teachings have been perverted to mask sense gratification on a gross and subtle level in Prabhupada’s house.
Regrettably and most unfortunately this will go on, as there is little us disenfranchised godbrothers (and the awake few of the new generation) can do to reclaim our father’s legacy. but the truth will continue to be told, and here is part of it.
Of all Srila Prabhupada’s instructions, I think the most important one, the one closest to his heart, is the one to set up rural communities and live on the land, keep some cows for milk and fertilizer, bulls for hard work, grow our own organic crops, produce our own karma-free necessities and offer it all to Krishna in a spirit of devotion.
The rewards are a no-brainer: health, both material and spiritual, self-esteem from achieving independence from the corporate greedbags, and an opportunity to create an inclusive spiritual community wherein no one’s talents, big or small, will go unrewarded.
All of this in perfect consonance with the way Krishna designed the planet to be lived on—a way meant to teach us dependence on His mercy and not on the wheels of industry. And crucially, as it is a prerequisite to success, to teach us humility as in, “Humility means that you’re convinced beyond any doubt that there is nothing in this world that will save you.
No money, fame, friends, gun, education, or anything else will save you except the mercy of Krishna. When you’re convinced like this, then you’re humble.”
This proposal is not utopian. As I child I grew up in rural northern Italy on a small household farm. We lived in a big joint family: grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, all in all about 30 souls. We didn’t have a lot of land, just enough to meet our necessities. There were no machines.
Everything went on bull power. One uncle was a carpenter and he made the carts and the wheels, another uncle was a blacksmith and he made the rims, the plows and the simple tools. The other men knew how to farm, plant the seeds by the phases of the moon, bake bread, make the best olive oil in Italy and, Italy being Italy, wine. The women knew the basic principles of herbs to use as medicines.
We kept all kinds of animals like chickens, turkeys and rabbits around the farm to augment our basic diet of polenta (maize meal) and vegetables. We fished in the nearby rivers and lakes. Once a year we slaughtered a fat pig. No, we weren’t vegetarians, but at the same time there was no question of keeping cows for slaughter. They were too valuable. We needed the milk and the bulls.
The entire enterprise wasn’t based on making a profit. It was based on self-sufficiency. It never crossed our minds to raise animals for slaughter as a business. My mother sewed my clothes and when they got too small they were passed on to my younger brother.
Us kids made our own toys: bows from tree branches, arrow tips from old umbrella ribs, catapults from discarded bicycle inner tubes, penny whistle flutes from soaking the green branches of poplar trees, knockers from chestnuts-on-a-string and our carpenter uncle could make a beautiful rocking horse, hand cart, wooden train, or spinning top.
Once a year in the summer there’d be fairs at nearby villages where everyone was fed free polenta and we got a chance to buy stuff from traveling vendors.
Me and my group of small friends roamed the countryside in perfect freedom and safety, swam in the nearby river and limpid lake when it got too hot and had hand-made wooden sleds for when the snow came. We knew every fruit tree for miles around.
The fruit stealing would begin with cherries in late spring, continuing with plums, apricots, peaches, loquats, figs, pomegranates, pears, apples and, just before the winter frost, kakis (persimmons). Wild strawberries, black and red berries and chestnuts were free.
Among the adults it was a given that those who had a strong spiritual bend could always become monks or nuns and practice a life of renunciation and prayer in nearby monasteries. The rest went to church regularly and chanted on their rosaries.
One of my early memories is of my grandmother waking me daily at 6:30 AM to go to church with her. Sunday was a day set aside for church, social events and other things beside work and production. On Fridays we strictly ate no meat.
It was a simple life but not a hard one. In the spring there was intensive work to prepare the fields, late summers were for harvest and late autumn to get ready for the winter. In between there was a lot of free time when the men would sit around philosophizing and generally contemplating their life situations.
The women had their own sphere of influence centered around the home and the children. Once in a while the priest or a travelling monk would drop by with “all the news fit to print”. So it wasn’t all work, especially not debilitating, soul destroying 12 hour days for some impersonal, soulless corporation bent on cynically exploiting you and everything in sight.
The concept of God was central to the people around me and because of that example and training I was later able to go to India and deepen my search for meaning that culminated in my practice of Krishna consciousness, which, please note, did not in any way convert me from nor minimize my Christian experience; rather it enhanced and perfected it so that nowadays I can reap the benefits of some spiritual maturity to go along with my 68 years.
So, don’t give me the spin that we need 50 million-plus dollars to built a Temple in Mayapur or that we need annual half a million dollar travel budgets for some of our swamis, hundred thousand dollar cars for some of our GBCs, or fat salaries, perks and golden retirement benefits for some of our managers.
No! What we do need is some serious money and manpower for Srila Prabhupada’s plans of simple living high thinking, because without that we are simply following the ardha murkha logic. And most of us can perfectly understand how a half-baked half-chicken idea will keep us rotating in this material world for far longer than we or anyone else needs to.
Ananda Svarupa dasa
carloananda at gmail.com
The problem is, we are 7.000 billion people living on planet Earth and it is hardly 40.000 million square Km of land to cultivate so if we divide into each one of us we have 7 square mtrs for each one of us to cultivate. So I wonder how can we do to aply this philosophy, universally for the whole world. That´s why at least for me, the yuga dharma HARI NAMA SANKIRTANA should be our first priority, and of course to distribute as far as posible the unchanged books of our beloved Srila Prabhupada. HARIBOL.
It might be difficult to get the right info from present agricultural experts. Fact is they spent billions on useless space stations/travels. With all this money and modern science one easily could turn northern Africa into agricultural land. This is about the size twice of USA. Same with Australia. Three times the size of Europe is presently kept as desert in Australia. If modern science is so advanced why they cannot irrigate all those deserts? As of the year 2000, about 37 percent of Earth’s land area was agricultural land. About one-third of this area, or 11 percent of Earth’s total land, is used for crops.
So it is rather a question of motivation. Modern people have become lazy, especially they hate to work in agriculture. Therefore all those big agricultural machines.
Agreed, farmlife is austere. Many children of farmers dont want to do it and move to the cities. From material point of view it is quite ascetic living. Unless people see it as part of their spirituality/religion and also derive happiness out of farming, present materialistic civilization is not enthusiastic about village life.
pamho agtACBSP, SIVA RATRI KI JAI!
Nice article, in India they used to say, sada jivana uccha vicar, which means, simple living, high thinking.
Especially for the non-devoyees those useless and destructive ugra-karma activities in kali-yuga through industrial entanglement make life very complicated in this age.
SRILA PRABHUPADA mentions many times that at the end of the day one eats some bread and then goes to sleep, why you have created all these complicated ugra-karma activities?
Prabhupada: “There is no scarcity of anything in this world. Only scarcity is Krishna consciousness.”
Therefore it is very important to spread the Sankirtan movement of SRI CAITANYA MAHAPRABHU all together without any duplicity by competing for supremacy.
Things got worse until now because of this fighting in fiskcon without realizing that SRI GAURANGA can make things perfect in one lava matra. And if HE doesn’t that is because we are not fit to use natural resource properly without lording it over.
When we are educated, simple living and high thinking automatically will be manifest.
Devotees’ main business is to find out the eternal form of life free from all this ugra-karma contamination what makes life very complicated for all the ghostly fighters of this iron age.
Prabhupada: In the material world we are situated in designative positions only, but pure devotional service begins when one is freed from all designations. When love for Krishna is awakened, the designative positions are overcome. (Adi-lila 4.31)
ys seva das
haribol
Hare Krsna.
The problem in Iskcon is not just a leadership fault, its also a followers fault.
The followers in Iskcon only need to read Srila Prabhupada’s instructions on Cow protection, Land with Bullocks and Chanting Hare Krsna. All the problems are then easily solved.
The leaders and followers are accepting the capitalistic monetary principles of material life which only implicate the living entities into material life whereas the simple based lifestyle of community dynamics with Cow protection and Land based economics takes the living entities into the mode of goodness which makes executing Krsna Consciousness that more easier.
The idea in iskcon should be to promote the community based governing system rather than the Gbc/Guru induced capitalistic system based on a monetary exchange.here is the corruption at work, and so equality does not exist because there are the “haves” and the “have nots” whereas in community equality and opportunity are there for all. Money buys power in Iskcon life today but in community that is absent so therefore corruption cannot exist.
If we all existed in community, based on Cow protection in a village type lifestyle then the mode of goodness is the biggest influence on the community and the rest is history , so to speak.
But Iskcon does not follow that style of management and organisation so there is absolutely no chance of simple living ever taking root what to speak of growing.
The way to resolve this is to individually follow Srila Prabhupada’s instructions with other devotees and buy your own land protect the Cows and grow your own food.Then all you need is some simple accomadation and liberal all-inclusive chanting of Hare Krsna. Problem solved.Because this method of simple living is intoxicatingly attractive and satisfying for the soul the devotees will become attracted and give up the capitalistic way of life that is so prevalent in all devotees in iskcon.
The key is to chant Hare Krsna with your Cows and include all types of Vaisnavas, then the unification will begin and hey presto iskcon comes to life again.So what are you waiting for, because it wont happen in Iskcon for generations to come.Just get on with it yourselves, chant Hare Krsna, buy some land, get some cows and protect them and milk them, grow your food with the Bullocks working, honour prasada, read only Srila Prabhupada’s Books, dont worry about getting Initiated it will happen automatically but do read Srila Prabhupada’s Books and become His disciple through following His instructions,dont worry about Gbc/Gurus, dont worry about ritvik this or that, dont worry about institutional church life, just be spiritual as introduced by Srila Prabhupada and depend on Krsna because He will look after His devotee of that there is no doubt.Find your position in the Hare Krsna movement and love it, love Srila Prabhupada and love the Vaisnavas,transcend all these designations that we have created in Iskcon and chant Hare Krsna and the sweet Vrndavana mood will overtake you and all your problems will evaporate into thin air.
your servant of the servant, dusyanta dasa.
Thanks Dusyanta pr, good point, Prabhupada wants it, Krishna wants it, although things might look difficult there is surely help from above to get it done!
Prabhupada’s procedural method was to give us a general set-up – like, develop vedic agriculture.
He surely expected that there were quite some difficulties to overcome and that his disciples would work out practicable solutions according place and circumstance. And to exchange experiences e.g. at our yearly Mayapur festival.
There are places more favorable and places with colder climate, longer wintertime. Since it happens in the neighborhood of Western society things have to be chalked out in such a way to also live in harmony with non-Vaishnava neighbors.
So it is a complex challenge to accomplish all requirements to ultimately have vedic farming as ideal exemplary Vaishnava lifestyle established – with enough income to pay all bills and not end up poverty stricken.
Surely not an easy task unless you are born in a family of farmers and have already a family-owned farm.
When Prabhupada visited Sweden he mentions that modern governments do not want this simple living lifestyle. They would try to tax your farm in such a way so you have to go to work in order to pay all bills.
Prabhupada: “I understand that in this country the farmers are taxed so heavily that they are forced to work in the factory. This is a policy of the government leaders to engage people. If anyone wants to live peacefully, save time for developing Krishna consciousness, then the leaders of the society or the government will not allow him to do so. This is the position.”
So it was to be expected that in order to successfully develop this farm project all over the country quite some persistence and hard work would be required.
When studying all of Prabhupada’s books, letters, conversations it is clear that for Prabhupada vedic farming was of prime importance.
Therefore to capitulate because there are too many difficulties wasnt right. There is of course dwindling farms in western industrial countries.
But there is the option of an intermediate stage of having it started with elderly celebate Vaishnava vanaprasthas who can strongly focus on developing vedic villages and go through a severe start-up period more easily than young couples with children.
Dusyanta dasa Prabhu:
Please accept my respects. Jai Sri Guru.
Very, very nicely said. Forget all the nonsense and get on with carrying out Prabhupada’s mission. Some people are so stuck in their resentment of what occurred in Prabhupada’s institution that they have lost sight of the goal, which is love of Krishna.
I wish more devotees thought this way. Then we would have many nice places to live where we could discharge very nice devotional service in the association of advanced Vaishnavas.
Hare Krishna!
Your servant,
Prayag das
Dear Prabhus!
“One should know, that I do not know”. As soon as you assume that you know you do not progress.
Easy to say, very difficult to act on this level. But that what it takes to come to simplicity , appreciation, sacrifice. Our karma is still the dictator, admit it and then there could be a real education happening, without that the whole thing is another concept..
Kd