This year, I was fortunate to be at our Sydney Temple for Gaura Purnima.

Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu was born in Mayapur in the town of Nadia just after sunset on the evening of the 18th of February 1486.

The moon was eclipsed at the time of His birth, and the people of Nadia were then engaged, as was usual on such occasions, in bathing in the Bhagirathi with loud cheers of Haribol.

His father, Jagannatha Misra, a poor brahmana of the Vedic order, and His mother, Saci-devi, a model good woman, both descended from ‘brahmana’ stock originally residing in Sylhet.

Mahaprabhu was a beautiful child, and the ladies of the town came to see Him with presents. His mother’s father, Pandit Nilambara Cakravarti, a renowned astrologer, foretold that the child would be a great personage in time; and he, therefore, gave him the name Visvambhara.

The ladies of the neighbourhood styled him Gaurahari on account of His golden complexion, and His mother called Him Nimai on account of the ‘nimba’ tree near which He was born.

One of the reasons for the Lord’s descent was to personally inaugurate the religion of the age; nama-sankirtana, the congregational chanting of the holy name of the Lord.

By accepting the role of a devotee, He made the whole world dance in ecstasy and thus realise the four mellows of loving devotional service. In this way, He taught devotional service to others by personally practicing it, for whatever a great personality does, common people will follow.

Iskcon devotee visits Indian Prime Minister Modi.
On Friday February16th Mahaprabhu Das, Director of Belgium’s Museum of Sacred Art (MOSA), met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Residence in New Delhi.
Mahaprabhu spoke with Prime Minister Modi about the possibility of presenting the Exhibit in a European City to coincide with one of his future visits to the continent. The meeting lasted about eight minutes.
To read the entire article click here: https://goo.gl/XSoV1F

The biggest festival in the Gaudiya Vaishnav Sampradaya- Gaur Purnima, the appearance day of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was celebrated with fervour and gaiety at the global spiritual headquarters of International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) in Mayapur, birth place of Mahaprabhu. The month long celebrations that began on 8th February included Sravan Utsav, Kirtan Mela, a weeklong Nabadwip Mandal Parikrama and many cultural programmes by western devotees touched its zenith on Friday evening at the ISKCON Chandradaya Temple , which witnessed a confluence of more than a lakh and half devotees and pilgrims across the world dressed in traditional colourful dhoti- kurta and ghagra - choli singing , dancing, chanting ecstatically to celebrate the 532st birth Anniversary of Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Continue reading "Times of India: Gour Purnima celebrations – The world comes together at ISKCON Mayapur
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Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu wanted His followers to move all over the world to preach in every town and village. In the Caitanya-sampradaya those who strictly follow the principles of Lord Caitanya must travel all over the world to preach the message of Lord Caitanya, which is the same as preaching the words of Krsna--Bhagavad-gita--and Srimad-Bhagavatam. The more the devotees preach the principles of krsna-katha, the more people throughout the world will benefit. Devotees like the great sage Narada, who travel all over to preach, are called gosthanandi. Narada Muni is always wandering throughout the universe just to create different types of devotees. Continue reading "Every Town and Village, Gaura Purnima Harinam in Snowy London March 1st 2018
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Free Hare Krishna Picnic draws 40,000 In Bengal! (20 min video)
There is a very good reason why ISKCON is known as the Kitchen Religion. Every week our temples invite the public to come take Krishna prasadam, sanctified vegetarian food, with us for free! At thousands of centers around the world, we give sumptuous food out on a regular basis because the sharing of prasadam between devotees is glorified by Rupa Goswami as one of the six type of loving affections one can express to another human being.

Srimad Bhagavatam Class by HH Bhakti Chaitanya Swami at Iskcon Mayapur, 28 February 2018 (video)
Why don’t we feel ecstasy like Chaitanya Mahaprabhu when we chant Hare Krishna?

A visit to Kolkata the place where our beloved Srila Prabhupada appeared (2018) (Album with photos)
Kolkata, known as the City of Joy, is the capital city of West Bengal. Standing on the eastern bank of mother Ganga (Hoogly river), the city also prides in being the second largest city of India. This also happens to be the place where our beloved Srila Prabhupada appeared. Long known as the Cultural Capital of India, the city continues to spawn generations of poets, writers and Nobel Prize winners. Kolkata (former Calcutta) served as the capital of British-held territories in India until 1911. It was also one of the major centers of the Indian independence movement. The City is filled with colonial gems: Victorian buildings, sprawling gardens and historical institutions. Mostly known for it’s sweets, especially Roshogolla, the city is also famous for it’s own Bengali cuisine.

Our beloved Srila Prabhupada met his spiritual master, Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur in Ultadanga (northern part of the city) and received the instruction to spread Gaudiya Vaishnavism throughout the world on his first meeting. At the age of 69 he left India from here at Khidirpore dock and set out for the West to spread the Holy name of Krishna.

Following the establishment of temples and centers in the United States and Europe, Srila Prabhupada returned to India in 1971 and the following year he opened the first ISKCON temple of India in Kolkata and established the worship of Sri Sri Radha Govinda dev, Sriman Mahaprabhu and Sri Jagannath Baladev Subhadra Maharani. We spent a wonderful time having Bhagavat katha in the temple. Then we set out to explore the city, see the places related to Srila Prabhupada which included his divine birthplace and nearly 200-year-old Deity of Sri Radha Govindjiu in Mullick Bari, where Srila Prabhupada did Rathyatra as a child. We also crossed Hoogly River and went to Howrah to see the 250-year-old Great Banyan Tree in the AJC Bose Indian Botanical Garden, which homes extremely rare plants and trees. Love it or hate it, you definitely won’t forget the City of Joy.
Find them here: https://goo.gl/mjM6av

Here in caitanya-lila we find that Sacidevi gave birth to eight daughters and that all of them died. Then finally she gave birth to a son, Visvarupa. At an early age Visvarupa left home and took sannyasa, and so for all material purposes he was dead. Srila Prabhupada said that sannyasa means civil death. The day on which Visvarupa took sannyasa is called Visvarupa-mahotsavathe same day on which Srila Prabhupada took sannyasa some four hundred years later. In any case, it was a great occasion that Sacidevi and Jagannatha Misra had given birth to a boy, and all the devotees from the area, such as Advaita Acarya and his wife Sita and Srivasa Thakura and his wife Malini, came and brought gifts and offered blessings to the new child. Continue reading "Gaura-purnima and Jagannatha Misra’s Festival
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Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu said, "The Vedic literatures composed by the omniscient Mahamuni Vyasadeva are evidence of all spiritual existence. Only through these revealed scriptures can all conditioned souls attain knowledge." We should always think that we are in the mode of ignorance. We are just trying to make progress from ignorance to goodness and then transcend. This is the process of spiritual realization. We should not think that we are perfect. We cannot be. God is. Only God is perfect, and we are all imperfect. Even in our so-called liberated stage we are still imperfect. Therefore one has to take shelter of authority, because constitutionally we are imperfect. Continue reading "How to Identify an Avatar
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Please see our video presentation of the ToVP construction and development for 2018. In this video you will see the work achieved in 2017, our plans for the 2018 year and preparation for the opening in 2022. We are also including a 3D visualization of the ToVP Master Plan. We used a special game engine to make these remarkable effects. We hope that all of you will enjoy this video on this very auspicious day of Gaura Purnima. Continue reading "ToVP 2018 Progress Report
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Transcriber – Nidhi Agrawal and Amit Agrawal (Noida)

प्रश्न– बुरी आदतों को छोड़ने में असफल होने पर हम हताशा से कैसे बच सकते हैं?

उत्तर– कई बार हम बुरी आदतें छोड़ नहीं पाते तो हताश हो जाते हैं। इससे हमारे अंदर नकारात्मक भाव आ जाता है।
इस नकारात्मक भाव से बचा जा सकता है।

हमारी कमजोरी काम, क्रोध और लोभ नहीं है। हमारी सबसे बड़ी कमजोरी यह है कि हम विश्वास नहीं कर पाते कि हम चाहें जैसे भी हैं, भगवान श्री कृष्ण हमसे अभी भी बहुत प्रेम करते हैं। भगवान के प्रेम का हमें आभास नहीं हो रहा, क्योंकि हम भौतिकता से बहुत अधिक आसक्त हैं।

जैसे- माता-पिता अपने बच्चों से बहुत प्रेम करते हैं परंतु यदि माता-पिता ने बच्चे को पसंद का खिलौना नहीं दिलवाया तो बच्चे को लगता है कि माता-पिता उस से प्रेम नहीं करते‌। और पसंद का खिलौना दिलवा दिया तो बच्चे को लगता है माता-पिता कितने अच्छे हैं। बच्चा माता-पिता के प्रेम को खिलौने की दृष्टि से देखता है। वैसे ही हम जब भौतिकता में आसक्त होते हैं तो हम भगवान के प्रेम को भी इसी आसक्ति की दृष्टि से ही देखते हैं।आसक्ति की वस्तु मिल गई तो भगवान कितने अच्छे हैं और आसक्ति की वस्तु नहीं मिली तो भगवान कुछ कर ही नहीं रहे!

ऐसे ही हम वैराग्य को भी कभी-कभी इंद्रियों का विषय बना लेते हैं। जब हम वैराग्य का प्रयास करते हैं और वैराग्य हो जाता है तो भक्ति कितनी अच्छी है और वैराग्य नहीं हो रहा है तो भक्ति का क्या महत्व?
हम सब अलग-अलग पूर्व जन्म के संस्कार लेकर आते हैं। किसी के लिए वैराग्य और अनासक्ति प्राप्त करना सरल है और किसी के लिए कठिन। यदि वैराग्य हमारे लिए कठिन है तो इसका अर्थ यह नहीं कि भक्ति काम नहीं कर रही।
हम भौतिकता से आसक्त हों या अनासक्त फिर भी भगवान हमारे हृदय में रहते हैं। सबसे महत्वपूर्ण यह है कि भगवान से हमारा सम्बंध जुड़ा रहे। इंद्रिय विषयों से संघर्ष में विजय या पराजय जो भी हो, महत्वपूर्ण यह है कि भगवान से संबंध जोड़ने का युद्ध जारी रखें। भगवान से निरंतर प्रार्थना करें कि प्रभु आप करुणामय हो मुझे इन कर्म बंधनों से मुक्त करो।

इस प्रकार भगवान की भक्तिमय सेवा में लगे रहें। इससे हमें शक्ति प्राप्त होगी और हमारा शुद्धिकरण होगा। साथ ही साथ हमारे मस्तिष्क में नकारात्मक विचारों का कोई स्थान नहीं रहेगा।

End of transcription.

Today is Gaura-purnima, the appearance day of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Lord Chaitanya is Krishna Himself in the guise of a devotee. When Krishna came, He demanded, sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam saranam vraja: “Give up all varieties of religiousness and just surrender unto Me.” But people could not appreciate His instruction: “Why should we surrender?” they questioned. They did not understand the process of surrendering. So, some four thousand five hundred years later, five hundred years ago, the same Lord Krishna appeared again, as Chaitanya, to show us how to surrender to Him.

Lord Chaitanya taught the specific method of devotional service appropriate for the present age of Kali. With evidence from the Brhan-naradiya Purana (38.126), He instructed:

harer nama harer nama
harer namaiva kevalam
kalau nasty eva nasty eva
nasty eva gatir anyatha

“One should chant the holy names, chant the holy names, chant the holy names of Lord Hari. There is no other way, no other way, no other way for success in the modern age.”

Now and in recent history, there are and have been many false incarnations of Lord Krishna. So, one may question, what evidence can we produce that Sri Chaitanya is Krishna’s incarnation? For one thing, Lord Chaitanya is mentioned in many revealed scriptures—the Upanishads, the Puranas, the Mahabharata, and especially Srimad-Bhagavatam. In the Eleventh Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam, the different incarnations for the different ages are described, and Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is described in the following words (SB 11.5.32):

krsna-varnam tvisakrsnam
  sagopangastra-parsadam
yajnaih sankirtana-prayair
  yajanti hi su-medhasah

Krsna-varnam: varnam means “category,” like catur-varnam. So, krsna-varnam: He is in the same category as Krishna. In other words, He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Krsna-varnam tvisakrsnam—but His color is not the same blackish color as Krishna’s. When Lord Krishna appeared as the son of Nanda Maharaja, Garga Muni came and astrologically calculated the future life of baby Krishna. He told Nanda Maharaja, “Your son appears in different ages in different colors. Sometimes He appears in a whitish color, sometimes He appears in a reddish color, sometimes He appears in a yellowish color, and now He has appeared in a blackish color.” We know from scripture that the incarnations for the ages of Satya and Treta appeared in a whitish color and in a reddish color and that Krishna appeared in a blackish color. So, krsna-varnam tvisakrsnam means that the incarnation of Krishna in the Age of Kali appears not in a blackish color but in a golden color. Another meaning of the word varnam is related to varnayati, which means “to describe or glorify.” So krsna-varnam means that He is always glorifying Krishna, always chanting, “Krishna.” And sangopangastra-parsadam: He is accompanied by His associates (sri krsna-caitanya prabhu nityananda sri advaita gadadhara srivasadi gaura bhakta vrnda). And yajnaih sankirtana-prayair yajanti hi su-medhasah: In the Age of Kali, intelligent persons perform congregational chanting (sankirtana-yajna) to worship this incarnation of Krishna, namely Sri Chaitanya.

Lord Chaitanya appeared toward the end of the 15^th century in Navadvipa, in West Bengal. There, as a young man, He began the sankirtana movement, going through the streets of the town chanting Hare Krishna. He also sent His associates, such as Nityananda Prabhu and Haridasa Thakura, into the streets to request people to chant the holy name of Krishna and learn the science of Krishna. The same mission—the same movement—was continued by His followers. And now the same sankirtana movement is embodied in the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. It is the exact same movement that Lord Chaitanya began personally five hundred years ago.

We shall read some verses from Sri Caitanya-caritamrta about the mission of Lord Chaitanya and try to understand how Srila Prabhupada is fulfilling the same mission. We shall read from the Adi-lila, Chapter Seven, which describes the Panca-tattva.

TEXTS 20–21

sei panca-tattva mili’ prthivi asiya
purva-premabhandarera mudra ughadiya

pance mili’  lute prema, kare asvadana
yata yata piye, trsna badhe anuksana

TRANSLATION

The characteristics of Krsna are understood to be a storehouse of transcendental love. Although that storehouse of love certainly came with Krsna when He was present, it was sealed. But when Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu came with His other associates of the Panca-tattva, they broke the seal and plundered the storehouse to taste transcendental love of Krsna. The more they tasted it, the more their thirst for it grew.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is called maha-vadanyavatara because although He is Sri Krsna Himself, He is even more favorably disposed to the poor fallen souls than Lord Sri Krsna. When Lord Sri Krsna Himself was personally present He demanded that everyone surrender unto Him and promised that He would then give one and all protection; but when Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu came to this earth with His associates He simply distributed transcendental love of God without any discrimination. Sri Rupa Gosvami, therefore, could understand that Lord Caitanya was none other than Sri Krsna Himself, for no one but the Supreme Personality of Godhead can distribute transcendental love of the Supreme Person.

COMMENT by Giriraj Swami

Srila Rupa Gosvami appreciated Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu with the following verse:

namo maha-vadanyaya
  krsna-prema-pradaya te
krsnaya krsna-caitanya-
  namne gaura-tvise namah

“I offer my respectful obeisances unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Sri Krishna Chaitanya, who is the most munificent incarnation of Godhead, even more munificent than Krishna Himself, because He is freely giving what no other incarnation has ever given: pure love for Krishna.” No one but Krishna Himself can give such love.

Srila Prabhupada said something about himself that resembles this description of the Panca-tattva. He said that for many centuries Krishna was kept locked up in a black box. Although He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He was kept locked up. And nobody knew Him. But Srila Prabhupada, as he himself stated, took the key, opened up the box, and took out Krishna. He held Him up and showed the world: This is Krishna; this is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!

TEXT 22

punah punah piyaiya haya mahamatta
nace, kande, hase, gaya, yaiche mada-matta

 TRANSLATION

Sri Panca-tattva themselves danced again and again and thus made it easier to drink nectarean love of Godhead. They danced, cried, laughed, and chanted like madmen, and in this way they distributed love of Godhead.

PURPORT

People generally cannot understand the actual meaning of chanting and dancing. Describing the Gosvamis, Sri Srinivasa Acarya stated, krsnotkirtana-gana-nartana-parau: not only did Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu and His associates demonstrate this chanting and dancing, but the Six Gosvamis also followed in the next generation. The present Krsna consciousness movement follows the same principle, and therefore simply by chanting and dancing we have received good responses all over the world. It is to be understood, however, that this chanting and dancing do not belong to this material world. They are actually transcendental activities, for the more one engages in chanting and dancing, the more he can taste the transcendental love of Godhead.

COMMENT

The method of chanting and dancing is simple and sublime, and just by hearing and seeing the devotees chanting and dancing, people all over the world have begun to follow. They have joined in the chanting and dancing and become devotees of Lord Chaitanya and Lord Krishna.

We have personal experience of this. Once, we went to some remote villages in Sri Lanka, where the Sinhalese people had never really heard about Krishna. We simply chanted and danced through the villages. The villagers came out, and they too wanted to chant and dance. As we would continue to some pavilion or hall, they would follow us in sankirtana. In the hall we would have more chanting and dancing, and even after we left, the people would continue chanting and dancing; they didn’t want to stop. In Africa we have had the same experience. When the devotees go into the African townships or villages, African people, who have no idea of Krishna consciousness, come and chant and dance. They enjoy it, and they want to do it more and more. This process has such great potency that we can go anywhere in the world and attract people to Krishna consciousness simply by chanting and dancing. The same method Lord Chaitanya introduced five hundred years ago is being followed by Srila Prabhupada’s followers, and they are getting positive results.

TEXT 23

patrapatra-vicara nahi, nahi sthanasthana
yei yanha paya, tanha kare prema-dana

 TRANSLATION

In distributing love of Godhead, Caitanya Mahaprabhu and His associates did not consider who was a fit candidate and who was not, nor where such distribution should or should not take place. They made no conditions. Wherever they got the opportunity, the members of the Panca-tattva distributed love of Godhead.

PURPORT

There are some rascals who dare to speak against the mission of Lord Caitanya by criticizing the Krsna consciousness movement for accepting Europeans and Americans as brahmanas and offering them sannyasa. But here is an authoritative statement that in distributing love of Godhead one should not consider whether the recipients are Europeans, Americans, Hindus, Muslims, etc. The Krsna consciousness movement should be spread wherever possible, and one should accept those who thus become Vaisnavas as being greater than brahmanas, Hindus, or Indians. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu desired that His name be spread in each and every town and village on the surface of the globe. Therefore, when the cult of Caitanya Mahaprabhu is spread all over the world, should those who embrace it not be accepted as Vaisnavas, brahmanas, and sannyasis? These foolish arguments are sometimes raised by envious rascals, but Krsna conscious devotees do not care about such envious rascals. We simply follow the principles set down by the Panca-tattva.

COMMENT

Krishna consciousness is spread on the platform of the soul, and the soul is not black or white, American or Russian, Indian or Chinese. The soul is part and parcel of Krishna, and every soul is the same; every soul has the same potency for accepting Krishna consciousness. Thus Lord Chaitanya and the members of the Panca-tattva wanted to distribute Krishna consciousness to everyone, everywhere, without discrimination.

Srila Prabhupada has commented: When Lord Chaitanya wanted the holy name of Krishna to be spread to every town and village of the world, who did He think would do it?  It is understood that people all over the world would join the mission of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, become brahmans and sannyasis, and preach. When Chaitanya Mahaprabhu said, prthivite ache yata nagaradi-grama, sarvatra pracara haibe mora nama, He didn’t mean it as a farce. He is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. When He said His message would be broadcast all over the world, did He mean by a cinema show? No. He wanted people to become perfect Vaishnavas. Therefore, people who do become devotees and serve Lord Chaitanya’s desire must be accepted as part of Lord Chaitanya’s movement, as much as people born in India or in brahman families. In fact, such Vaishnavas are more than just brahmans. Although Lord Chaitanya made His prediction five hundred years ago, Srila Prabhupada was the one to actually fulfill it.

Recently in Mayapur, His Holiness Bhakti Charu Swami described his first impressions of Srila Prabhupada and the devotees. He said that one thing struck him especially: how Srila Prabhupada loved the foreigners, and how he reciprocated with them so affectionately—because Prabhupada, just like Lord Chaitanya and the other members of the Panca-tattva, made no discrimination. He really loved everyone on the spiritual platform, and he wanted to help everyone on the spiritual platform. He had no false prestige: “I am an Indian, so I cannot mix with a foreigner.”

After Srila Prabhupada’s disappearance in 1977, a condolence meeting was held at the Krishna-Balarama temple in Vrindavan, and one of Srila Prabhupada’s godbrothers gave his own version of history. He described how Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura had sent him too to the West, and how he could not relate to these lower types of people. He could only relate to cultured and intellectual people, as if he were too good to touch the lower ones—and so they were left for “Swamiji.”

A true Vaishnava has no false prestige and no envy. He is equal to everyone. Srila Prabhupada, such a Vaishnava, actually fulfilled the mission of Lord Chaitanya and the Panca-tattva by distributing Krishna consciousness to one and all. And not only did he offer it, but he induced people to accept it. Some years ago, during Prabhupada’s presence, in September 1974, a publishing house named Orient Longman asked me to contribute to their forthcoming book about various religious leaders in India. The book was subsequently published under the title Gurus, Godmen, and Good People. The publishers approached followers of each of these personalities to write the chapter about his or her leader, and they approached me to write the chapter about Srila Prabhupada. I wrote a draft of the chapter and sent it to Prabhupada in Mayapur. Prabhupada responded with a brief description of how he wanted to be presented: He introduced the Vedic culture completely to the whole world, and people throughout the are following it completely, as it is, just as he presented it. That was his unique contribution.

He gave the example of a tulasi sapling: If you want to transplant a tulasi sapling, you have to do it very carefully, because it is delicate. If any part of the sapling is damaged, the plant can die. Prabhupada said that in the same way, he had to very carefully transplant Vedic culture from India to America and the rest of the world. He took great pains to make sure that no part of it was damaged or injured, so that it could take root and grow and flourish.

TEXT 24

 lutiya, khaiya, diya, bhandara ujade
ascarya bhandara, prema sata-guna bade

TRANSLATION

Although the members of the Panca-tattva plundered the storehouse of love of Godhead and ate and distributed its contents, there was no scarcity, for this wonderful storehouse is so complete that as the love is distributed, the supply increases hundreds of times.

PURPORT

A pseudo-incarnation of Krsna once told his disciple that he had emptied himself by giving him all knowledge and was thus spiritually bankrupt. Such bluffers speak in this way to cheat the public, but actual spiritual consciousness is so perfect that the more it is distributed, the more it increases. Bankruptcy is a term that applies in the material world, but the storehouse of love of Godhead in the spiritual world can never be depleted.

COMMENT

Srila Prabhupada told the story of how this so-called incarnation touched his disciple and by some electric current transferred to him all of his knowledge. When the disciple opened his eyes, he saw that his master was crying. So he asked, “Guruji, why are you crying?” And his master replied, “I have given all of my knowledge to you, and now I don’t have any left; therefore I am crying.” This is a material conception. Prabhupada explained that transcendental knowledge is so perfect and complete that the more you distribute it, the more you get. And, to the contrary, if you have transcendental knowledge and don’t distribute it, you will become envious and the knowledge will gradually evaporate. So the basic principle of Krishna consciousness is to become as perfect as possible oneself and do good for others by distributing love of Godhead.

PURPORT (continued)

Krsna is providing for millions and trillions of living entities by supplying all their necessities, and even if all the innumerable living entities wanted to become Krsna conscious, there would be no scarcity of love of Godhead, nor would there be insufficiency in providing for their maintenance.

COMMENT

People in the material world have the scarcity mentality: “Oh! If there is too much population, there won’t be enough food.” But actually, Krishna can provide any amount of food for any number of living entities. Once, at a time when scarcity was a big issue in India, Srila Prabhupada asked us to put an advertisement in the newspapers: We welcome everyone to come to Hare Krishna Land and live as we do, and we will provide food, shelter, and clothing. It was an open invitation to the entire city of Bombay. Prabhupada was confident that no matter how many people came to become Krishna conscious, all of them would be maintained spiritually and materially by ISKCON, by Krishna, because there is no scarcity in spiritual life.

Our movement was started single-handedly by Srila Prabhupada. He doesn’t say it explicitly, but he says, “Our Krishna consciousness movement was started single-handedly, and no one provided for our livelihood, but at present we are spending hundreds and thousands of dollars all over the world, and the movement is increasing more and more.” People are always worried about their maintenance: “Who will maintain me? Who will take care of me?” But Krishna will maintain you. And Srila Prabhupada is the example. Some people think, “Well, when you are young you can be carefree and chant and dance, but when you get old there are so many problems and you have to think about your future. Who will take care of you in your future?” But Prabhupada began the Krishna consciousness movement at the age of seventy; he was seventy years old when he arrived in New York City. And who maintained him? Who took care of him? Krishna! Thus there is no question of scarcity.

PURPORT (concluded)

Although jealous persons may be envious, if we stick to our principles and follow in the footsteps of the Panca-tattva, this movement will go on unchecked by imitation svamis, sannyasis, religionists, philosophers, or scientists, for it is transcendental to all material considerations. Therefore those who propagate the Krsna consciousness movement should not be afraid of such rascals and fools.

COMMENT

Srila Prabhupada is advising us not to be afraid of those who are not Krishna conscious.

TEXT 25

uchalila prema-vanya caudike vedaya
stri, vrddha, balaka, yuva, sabare dubaya

TRANSLATION

The flood of love of Godhead swelled in all directions, and thus young men, old men, women, and children were all immersed in that inundation.

PURPORT

When the contents of the storehouse of love of Godhead are thus distributed, there is a powerful inundation that covers the entire land. In Sridhama Mayapur there is sometimes a great flood after the rainy season. This is an indication that from the birthplace of Lord Caitanya the inundation of love of Godhead should be spread all over the world, for this will help everyone, including old men, young men, women, and children.

COMMENT

Who is not included? Everyone is an old man, a young man, a woman, or a child. This spread of love of God will help everyone, including old men, young men, women, and children.

PURPORT (concluded)

The Krsna consciousness movement of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is so powerful that it can inundate the entire world and interest all classes of men in the subject of love of Godhead.

COMMENT

There are often floods in Mayapur. And indeed, there were floods there when we first came to India, in 1971. Acyutananda Swami, a disciple of Srila Prabhupada, wrote to him that the flooding from the Ganges came all the way up to the embankment created by the Bhaktisiddhanta Road, so called because it was constructed by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura. Srila Prabhupada wrote back, “Yes, we were saved by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Road. We shall always expect to be saved by His Divine Grace Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami Maharaja Prabhupada. Always pray to his lotus feet. Whatever success we have had in preaching Lord Chaitanya’s mission all over the world is due only to his mercy.”

This is parampara: from Lord Chaitanya to His disciples, including the Six Gosvamis; from the Six Gosvamis to their disciples; and from them down through parampara to Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura and Srila Prabhupada. Now we should follow in the same line. The International Society for Krishna Consciousness is following in the same line, so without fear or hesitation we should also follow the Panca-tattva and their line: We should taste the contents of the storehouse of love of God, become mad in love of God, and distribute the contents to others. This is the actual mission of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the purpose for which He appeared in Sri Mayapur-dhama and preached throughout India. There is no difference between the sankirtana movement inaugurated by Lord Chaitanya five hundred years ago and the sankirtana movement now being propagated by His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada and his followers.

Hare Krishna.

Are there any questions or comments?

DEVOTEE: In the book The Glories of Navadvipa-dhama it is stated that one who discriminates between Lord Chaitanya and Lord Krishna goes to hell and suffers. But in other sampradayas, the followers do seem to discriminate. They don’t accept Lord Chaitanya as the same Supreme Personality of Godhead Krishna. So do they go back to Godhead or do they go to hell? Where do they go?

GIRIRAJ SWAMI: The Caitanya-caritamrta explains that Jarasandha followed the Vedic rituals and thus worshiped Lord Vishnu but that because he did not accept Krishna he is considered a demon. One who does not accept Krishna as the Supreme Personality of Godhead is a demon. Similarly, anyone who does not accept Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu as Krishna, the same Supreme Lord, is also to be considered a demon. Although he may make a show of devotion to Lord Krishna, if he neglects Lord Chaitanya, he will never get Krishna’s mercy or advance to the ultimate goal.

Such statements are striking—even shocking. How can we live with them? Yet if we consider further, we will find that Srimad-Bhagavatam makes three distinctions: between devotees, innocent people, and envious people. If someone is innocent— simply ignorant like a child (balisesu)—he will be open to the knowledge that Sri Chaitanya is Krishna Himself. But someone who is envious (dvisatsu), like a demon, will never accept that Lord Chaitanya is the same Supreme Personality of Godhead Krishna, and he is bound to suffer.

DEVOTEE: In the same scripture it is mentioned that Ramanujacharya visited Navadvipa-dhama and that in Navadvipa-dhama Lord Jagannatha appeared to him in a dream and told him to glorify Lord Chaitanya. Then Lord Chaitanya appeared to him and told him to keep the secret that He was Krishna confidential. Personally, Ramanujacharya knew about the identity of Lord Chaitanya and Lord Krishna, and he must have informed his confidential associates.

NARMADA SWAMI: There are advanced devotees in other sampradayas who have surrendered to Krishna and who are not envious of Lord Chaitanya but don’t accept Him as the Supreme Personality of Godhead. If someone is actually spiritually advanced, he cannot be envious.

GIRIRAJ SWAMI: True.

MAHAPRABHU DASA: There are some popular speakers in India who talk of love of God and who chant, but they are actually Mayavadis. They are not in any parampara. But they speak very nicely, so how are we to know they are Mayavadis? And when we do find that they are Mayavadis, what do we do?

GIRIRAJ SWAMI: We can understand whether they are Mayavadis or not from their speech. Of course, we have to be able to recognize what is proper Vaishnava philosophy and what is not. Also, almost everyone outside of a proper Vaishnava parampara is a Mayavadi. You rightly found the clue that if the person is not in parampara, he is bound to be impersonal to some extent. Still, some of the people who go to him may be innocent, so we can preach to them. And the man himself may also be innocent. If people are innocent, we can preach to them. But if they are envious, we should avoid them. If they are not coming in proper disciplic succession, they are almost certain to have some influence of Mayavada in them.

VAMANADEVA DASA: I have heard that Lord Chaitanya’s teachings will continue for ten thousand years. Why only ten thousand years?

GIRIRAJ SWAMI: Actually, Lord Chaitanya’s teachings will continue forever. Within the Kali-yuga there will be a golden age of ten thousand years when more and more people will become part of the sankirtana movement. Yet even after the golden age, there will be devotees of Lord Chaitanya, and they will chant the holy names. But their numbers will not be so great. So you are right, as usual: The teachings of Lord Chaitanya will never die. They will continue forever.

Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!
Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu ki jaya!
Sri Sri Panca-tattva ki jaya!
Sri Gaura-purnima ki jaya!
Gaura-premanande hari-haribol!

[A talk by Giriraj Swami, Gaura-purnima, March 24, 1996, Juhu, Bombay]

Back to Godhead Magazine, January/February 2018 issue

New Vrindaban: An Overview in Honor of Its 50th Anniversary

By Satyaraja Dasa
Archival Research by Chaitanya Mangala Dasa

A view from Govardhan Hill of Sri Sri Radha Vrindaban Chandra’s temple and guest lodge, with Kusum Sarovara Lake and the peackock and swan aviary in the foreground.

With the successful worldwide celebration of ISKCON’s fiftieth anniversary in 2016, another semicentennial event naturally follows in its wake: commemoration of the founding of New Vrindaban in 1968, two years after ISKCON’s founding. By establishing this farm community, Srila Prabhupada hoped his followers and eventually the rest of the world would embrace the Krishna conscious ideal of “simple living and high thinking.” This could be accomplished, he taught, by underscoring five important components of a back-to-the-land Vedic ideal, beginning with (1) cow protection, (2) simple living, (3) spiritual education, and (4) holy pilgrimage. Under the right direction, he added, these four can lead to the most important component of all: (5) loving Krishna.

Vasudeva Dasa invites guests to the community’s Welcome Center.

This article has two parts. The first is an overview of New Vrindaban – what it is, how it started, and what it has accomplished. The second focuses on four devotees who bring to life the five components that Prabhupada mandated for New Vrindaban. While the community has produced a multitude of devotees who could be singled out for their consummate service, these four, each with a penchant for one of the initial components mentioned above, will serve as a sample. Their stories show how the fifth component, loving Krishna, is the natural result of properly engaging in New Vrindaban’s central activities.

Part I: Origins and Development

Srila Prabhupada delivers his Bhagavat Dharma discourses during the 1972 Vyasapuja & Janmastami celebrations on Govindaji Hill at the Bahulaban farm.

Srila Prabhupada tours his under construction Palace during his final visit to New Vrindaban in 1976

Vrindavana is Krishna’s paradise in the spiritual world, the kingdom of God described in the ancient wisdom texts of India. A replica of this realm exists even today as a village in the Mathura district of Uttar Pradesh, India, where Krishna walked the earth some five thousand years ago. Soon after Prabhupada arrived in the West, in 1965, he envisioned yet another replication of Vrindavana – New Vrindaban.¹

Srila Prabhupada’s first visit to New Vrindaban in 1969.

In May 1956, Prabhupada wrote a two-part Back to Godhead article about the potential for such a project in the Western world. The article promoted the notion of a community of devotees living close to nature according to the principles of the Bhagavad-gita. He called the project Geeta Nagari (the name of his subsequent farm in Port Royal, Pennsylvania).

Hauling wood with oxen, 1975.

Vrindavan’s initial Western counterpart came to be through the agency of two early disciples, Kirtanananda Swami and Hayagriva Dasa. In the winter of 1968 they saw a brief newspaper article in which an enterprising landowner-turned-yogi, Richard Rose, mentioned that he was looking for people to create an ashram in Marshall County, West Virginia. “The conception is one of a non-profit, non-interfering, non-denominational retreat or refuge,” read the almost prescient article, “where philosophers might come to work communally together, or independently, where a library and other facilities might be developed.”²

The front entrance to Sri Sri Radha Vrindaban Chandra’s temple, guarded by Jaya and Vijaya, the Vaikuntha Gatekeepers.

Several months later, Kirtanananda and Hayagriva, who had temporarily developed a strained relationship with their spiritual master, set out on their own to visit the land. They negotiated with the owner and reached a provisional financial agreement. Kirtanananda settled there for a few months in a farmhouse in the woods.

Guests enjoy sumptuous Prasadam at Govinda’s Restaurant.

That summer, he and Hayagriva visited Prabhupada in Canada to make amends. His Divine Grace “forgave his renegade disciples in Montreal with a garland of roses and a shower of tears.”³ With Prabhupada’s approval they returned to West Virginia and leased the property. A month later Prabhupada wrote to them, “Now we can work with great enthusiasm for constructing a New Vrindaban in the United States of America.”⁴

Recently renovated Guest Lodge.

Excited about his new project, Prabhupada had his secretary, Brahmananda Dasa, write to the various ISKCON centers asking those devotees who were able and inclined to support New Vrindaban by visiting if not staying on and lending manpower.⁵ He had already given the land its special name in an earlier letter: “You have New York, New England, and so many ‘New’ duplicates of European countries in the USA, why not import New Vrindaban in your country?”⁶

Updated Guest Lodge rooms.

Soon after the arrival of Brahmananda’s letter – that same month, in fact – New Vrindaban’s first deities of Sri Sri Radha-Krishna made Their appearance as well: A small pair of bell-metal murtis, compliments of a devotee who had just returned from India. Prabhupada was delighted. “I am very glad to learn that Harivilas has given you a pair of Radha-Krishna Murtis, so it appears that Radha-Krishna is very kind on you, because you went to Vrindaban to live there but circumstantially, you could not live there, and you left. Krishna has given you New Vrindaban, as well as, out of His good will, He has come to you. It is very surprising. So please welcome the Deity and install Him in a nice throne.”⁷ These deities would eventually be called “Little Radha–Vrindaban-Chandra,” after the main deities of the temple, installed three years later. Also in 1968, Kirtanananda brought from Montreal Jagannatha deities to be worshiped on the community’s small altar.

Inside Sri Sri Radha Vrindaban Chandra’s temple.

With deity worship in place, a set of clear instructions from their spiritual master, and new devotees trickling in, New Vrindaban developed, steadily if also slowly. Despite frigid winters and austere conditions, sincere and determined devotees gradually made the journey and helped develop the small, humble ashram into a thriving Krishna conscious village. Cows, central to the New Vrindaban paradigm, were soon bought and bred. Calves were born, and a very real bovine presence gave the land the feel of its namesake. Hand-tended gardens were set in place, providing food for the community and flowers for the deities. Oxen and horses were trained to pull plows and wagons, resulting in small agricultural miracles. The fields gave birth to crops of corn and hay, harvested and stored in silos for the cows to eat during New Vrindaban’s cold winters. All the while, devotees were learning the philosophy of Krishna consciousness under senior disciples. Simple living, high thinking.

Devotees blissfully raise their arms and Chant Hare Krishna during one of New Vrindaban’s biannual 24 Hour Kirtan festivals.

Spring of 1969 saw Prabhupada’s first visit to the farm, and he loved it. He stayed a little over a month, but he made it clear that New Vrindaban was home. After he left, he continued to guide his disciples on transcendental life in a rural environment through many letters and even a few subsequent visits, in 1972, 1974, and 1976.

By August 1970 almost fifty residents were living at the community, and the number would keep growing. Beautiful hand-carved white marble deities were imported from India and installed on Janmashtami, August 13, 1971, and after that, New Vrindaban grew like wildfire.

Throughout the 1970s, cows, peacocks, and additional land were acquired, until New Vrindaban –initially some 138 acres – would eventually boast nearly 2,500, with devotees anxious to join from all quarters.

Hayagriva wrote in 1972: “In ’69 and ’70 we built cottages and gradually expanded to include a dozen people. Then in the winter of ’70, we began making Spiritual Sky incense and distributing it through the city temples. This proved to be a real gold mine. By the spring of ’71 sufficient money came in to enable us to buy the other two farms [nearby], and as soon as we did people started pouring in.”⁸ Kirtanananda Swami became a leading ISKCON sannyasi, and his project became one of ISKCON’s premier pilgrimage sites, with devotees worldwide attending its many annual festivals.

A tour de force development was Prabhupada’s Palace of Gold. (See my article in Back to Godhead, May/June 2016.) Conceived in 1972 as a comfortable residence for Prabhupada whenever he visited New Vrindaban, it was still unfinished when he departed this world in November 1977. The idea morphed into its being a memorial shrine, and with that vision the devotees continued to work on it as a lasting tribute to Srila Prabhupada. Upon its completion in 1979, it exceeded everyone’s wildest dreams – a dazzling, highly wrought, even otherworldly palace of marble, gold, carved teakwood, and the blood, sweat, and tears of numerous dedicated devotees – a fitting tribute to the modern world’s greatest spiritual master.

“It’s hard to believe that Prabhupada’s Palace is in West Virginia,” wrote the Courier-Journal of Louisville, Kentucky. “In fact, it’s hard to believe it’s on this planet.”⁹ Life magazine told readers that the Palace is “a place where tourists can come and be amazed.”¹⁰ The New York Times summed it up: “Welcome to Heaven.”¹¹ The Palace was unquestionably a highpoint in New Vrindaban’s achievements, and throughout the 1980s it reaped the benefits of the devotees’ monumental endeavor.

Unfortunately, Kirtanananda Swami, though a qualified and noble leader in many ways, temporarily brought New Vrindaban to its knees, leading it into questionable and deplorable realms, some illegal, for which he was reprimanded and given a jail sentence, as were others. Naturally, the Governing Body Commission of ISKCON deposed him, for his wayward activity was not representative of the movement’s ideals and teachings. Thus he was excommunicated from the movement in 1994.

Throughout the 1990s and into the early years of the twenty-first century, New Vrindaban suffered, even as the Palace, at first, continued to thrive and receive many visitors. But signs of decay soon appeared. New Vrindaban’s troubles became the stuff of books and news articles, causing even sincere followers to leave. Various deviations continued to occur. As a result, from the early 1990s until only recently the Palace suffered financially, causing maintenance to be neglected and an overall downward spiral, but one that was not to last.

As the first decade of the twenty-first century came to a close, a new day dawned, and New Vrindaban started to rebuild. By 2011 a new team of dedicated devotees picked up where the old crew had left off, with some of the older devotees staying on and gaining new momentum. New acolytes joined hands with New Vrindaban stalwarts and worked diligently to revamp the original spiritual vision of Prabhupada’s first farm community. It is now on solid ground, with the community learning from previous mistakes. Indeed, fifty thousand tourists and pilgrims still visit each year.¹²In recent years an ambitious multi-million dollar renewal effort has been set in place, with an enthusiasm that rivals the Palace’s initial construction.¹³

Part II: The Five Principles of New Vrindaban

Here we briefly survey the five components that Prabhupada mandated for New Vrindaban: (1) cow protection, (2) simple living, (3) spiritual education, (4) holy pilgrimage, (5) and loving Krishna.

1. Cow Protection

“Krishna by His practical example,” Prabhupada wrote, “taught us to give all protection to the cows, and that should be the main business of New Vrindaban.”¹⁴ Apropos of this, New Vrindaban is home to the first and longest-running cow-protection program in ISKCON and the Western world. It has been in operation since the spring of 1969, when the community’s first cow, Kaliya, made her way into the association of devotees. The heroes who have championed the cow program at New Vrindaban are many, but one devotee in particular has worked hard to make this a reality.

Doug Fintel was born in 1954 in Norfolk, Virginia. Raised on a farm in northwest Iowa, he migrated to the mountains outside Denver, Colorado, where he deepened his love for nature. His involvement in the counterculture of the 1960s reached a highpoint when he met the devotees of Krishna, particularly Padmanabha and Mahotsava, a husband-and-wife team looking for interested seekers in that part of the country. Doug had started a firewood business, but the devotees won his heart, and he began to think how he could engage as one of them more directly.

Frequenting the Denver ISKCON temple in the winter of 1976, he liked the idea of a farm community dedicated to Krishna, and New Vrindaban seemed a natural fit. His general psychophysical makeup and his background in rural America made him just the right man for a back-to-the-land Krishna conscious environment, especially for the plow department and farm work. He has been in New Vrindaban, serving faithfully, since before Prabhupada’s departure from this world. In fact, he had heard about Prabhupada’s love for New Vrindaban’s cow-protection program soon after he joined ISKCON in 1977. New Vrindaban was abuzz with Prabhupada’s recent visit. Madhava Smullen writes,

In 1976, when [Prabhupada] visited New Vrindaban for the last time, the community was caring for four working teams of oxen and over 150 cows. A new barn had been erected in Bahulaban [one of New Vrindaban’s first sectors], and Prabhupada visited it to see the cows and four newborn calves. He let one of them lick his hand as a devotee told him how the cows were yielding about 120 gallons of milk every day, which they were turning into ghee, cheese and buttermilk. Prabhupada was pleased.¹⁵

Doug, initiated as Ranaka Dasa, gradually became more and more involved with New Vrindaban’s cows and is now, with their help of course, producing “ahimsa milk” – consciously trying to avoid any pain for the dairy cows on the farm.

Ranaka is looking for a sustainable model for the future.

“In the past,” he says, “New Vrindaban was known for its huge dairy production, but we couldn’t take care of the cows properly. So we’re looking for balance, a sustainable model for the future, where the cows are happy and produce in abundance. I think we’re getting there.”

2. Simple Living

Prabhupada sometimes referred to self-sufficiency with the phrase “simple living,” reminiscent of his ISKCON Statement of Purpose #6: “To bring the members closer together for the purpose of teaching a simpler and more natural way of life.” Using the things of this world in God’s service is real renunciation, or saintly life. It is called yukta-vairagya. As Prabhupada wrote: “Yukta Vairagya means that we should simply accept the bare necessities of our material part of life, and try to save time for spiritual advancement. This should be the motto of New Vrindaban.”¹⁶

One New Vrindaban devotee who embodies that mood is Vidya Devi Dasi. Born in Wisconsin as Mary Smith in 1949, she and her husband, Madhava Ghosha, now deceased, came from rustic, agrarian backgrounds and had always put a premium on intelligent agriculture, even before they joined Prabhupada’s farm community. Her ancestors were among the first settlers in Wisconsin, developing sophisticated agronomical techniques early on.

“It’s in my DNA,” she says. “I was born on a farm, and I’ve been living close to the land from childhood.”

She arrived in New Vrindaban in 1972 and met Madhava a few years after settling there. They devoted their lives to gardening for Krishna, growing vegetables and flowers for the community while raising their five children. She’s especially fond of the gorgeous and variegated gardens at Prabhupada’s Palace, which she nurtured from the ground up, their beauty competing with the Palace itself.

But even prior to the Palace, she and the other New Vrindaban farmhands performed natural miracles. By 1974 the Bahulaban temple garden expanded to 1.5 acres, with similar large gardens in the sections of New Vrindaban known as Vrindaban and Madhuban. Plantings included more than thirty kinds of vegetables, fruits, and herbs, along with oats, which became a staple in New Vrindaban.

Teams of horses plowed the fields. Devotees involved included Varshana Swami (then Kashyapa Dasa), Tejomaya, Manonatha, Madhava Ghosha, Advaitacharya, and Tapah-punja, among others. A greenhouse, built in 1975, extended growing periods and allowed flower growing during winter.

Vidya also started a side business, called Nature Crafting. She would grow and sell tomatoes, herbs, flowers, and other crops, and she would teach the locals the value of organic gardening for both consumers and the environment. She laughs as she remembers how they would grow gourds of all shapes and sizes. These became among their most popular items. She would paint them and turn them into birdhouses and even Jagannatha deities, which sold well. Prabhupada’s strong endorsement for this kind of work came in 1976: “Yes. Anything grown in the garden, that is hundred times [more] valuable than [if] it is purchased from the market.”¹⁷

ECO-Vrindaban (ECO-V), a nonprofit organization, was started in 1998 to care for New Vrindaban’s cows, and in 2014 it also took responsibility for locally grown crops and flowers, continuing and expanding New Vrindaban’s self-sufficiency program. By caring for New Vrindaban’s bovine life, particularly by milking its happy and productive dairy cows, and by developing sustainable agriculture, ECO-V has been realizing Srila Prabhupada’s vision of simple living for the devotee community.

3. Spiritual Education

Prabhupada often said that people are suffering due to a lack of knowledge. His hope was that through spiritual education, people would become happy. This aligns with his ISKCON Statement of Purpose #1: “To systematically propagate spiritual knowledge to society at large and to educate all people in the techniques of spiritual life in order to check the imbalance of values in life and to achieve real unity and peace in the world.”

Prabhupada wrote, “It is necessary for the leaders of the Krishna consciousness movement to start educational institutions in different parts of the world to train children, starting at the age of five years. Thus such children will not become hippies or spoiled children of society; rather, they can all become devotees of the Lord. The face of the world will then change automatically.”¹⁸

Specifically for New Vrindaban, he wrote, “Please now try to organize a children’s school. This is one of our programs in New Vrindaban. . . . You can form a school committee and get it recognized by the Education Board. Then more children will be sent.”¹⁹ The realization of Srila Prabhupada’s educational dream for New Vrindaban has been spotty, with various successes and failures. But the community continues to keep the goal in mind, and various attempts are being made to implement both children’s schooling and higher education.

Sankirtana Dasa and Ruci Devi Dasi, Andy and Ruth Fraenkel, are two names that stand out in the realm of New Vrindaban education. The couple met in college in 1968, were initiated in 1973, and arrived in New Vrindaban by 1976. And for the next forty years, Ruci, especially, dedicated herself to teaching preschool and elementary school to prepare children for a life of devotional service to Krishna, but no less for the rigors of living in the outside world. While Sankirtana has underlined the importance of education through storytelling and dramatic performance, for which he has won significant accolades and awards, Ruci has concentrated her focus on schools and an academic environment.

Way back in the 1970s when the New Vrindaban school was called Nandagram, the small classrooms for boys and girls gradually grew into one of the largest ISKCON gurukulas in the world. But the ashram-based facility was shut down by the end of the 1980s. Then, from 1989 to the late 1990s, there was a day school, which grew into Gopal’s Garden, opened by Ruci in 2007. Gradually, the New Vrindaban educational system evolved into a homeschooling cooperative that keeps improving.

“Today,” writes Madhava Smullen, “[Ruci] continues to teach at the Gopal’s Garden Homeschool Co-op, established in 2007.” There she provides a balanced blend of standard academic subjects and Krishna conscious education. At the end of each school year, she produces an anthology of the students’ writings and illustrations, now used in ISKCON schools worldwide.

4. Holy Pilgrimage

Among the several farm projects and rural communities started by Srila Prabhupada, only New Vrindaban was given the mandate to build replicas of holy places of Vrindavan: “There will be seven principal temples, namely, Govinda, Gopinatha, Madana Mohana, Syamasundara, Radha Ramana, Radha Damodara, and Gokulananda.”²⁰

Thus, from its inception New Vrindaban was seen not only as a pilgrimage site in its own right, but also as a reproduction of the original pilgrimage site – Vrindavan itself, home to the original temples of the Goswamis, leading followers of Lord Chaitanya.

“Activities exhibited by Krishna Himself at Bhauma Vrindavana, the Vrindavana-dhama existing on this planet,” wrote Srila Prabhupada, “are not different from His activities on the planet Goloka Vrindavana. This is proper realization of Vrindavana anywhere. In our Krishna consciousness movement we inaugurated the New Vrindavana activities, wherein devotees are always engaged in the transcendental loving service of the Lord, and this is not different from Goloka Vrindavana.”²¹

One person who has taken the pilgrimage aspect of New Vrindaban to heart is Varshana Swami. Born John Mowen in 1950, he hails from Morristown, New Jersey, but spent many of his early years on his grandfather’s farm in Pulaski, in upstate New York. He also studied theology at St. Andrew’s College, but quickly decided that he could best pursue God in the forest, where he could pray and contemplate divinity without disturbance.

It was in the forest that he met the devotees. He returned with them to the Brooklyn temple and took up devotional practices. This was in 1972. Relocating to New Vrindaban, he was initiated by Prabhupada a year later. He has been there ever since.

Varshana Swami gradually became known for landscaping, carving the holy area out of the existing contours of the West Virginia foothills. He has “excavated” replicas of Radha-kunda and Syama-kunda at Govardhana Hill in New Vrindaban, and is gradually constructing Radha-Gopinatha Mandir, the first of Srila Prabhupada’s proposed replicas of the seven main temples of Vrindavan. This has become a prized pilgrimage spot for visitors. As time goes on, the other temples will manifest as well, and pilgrims will come from all over the world, as they do now to see the Palace of Gold. Varshana Swami clearly has a calling to liberate these holy places from the raw landscape that is New Vrindaban.

5. Loving Krishna

Ultimately all four of the above components work in concert to bring about love for Krishna, the fifth, if also the primary, principle of the New Vrindaban way of life. The third of the seven purposes of ISKCON is “To bring the members of the Society together with each other and nearer to Krishna, the prime entity, thus developing the idea within the members, and humanity at large, that each soul is part and parcel of the quality of Godhead (Krishna).” This is where New Vrindaban ultimately hopes to take the people who live there, and to carry all its visitors on that journey as well.

Notes

1. The earthly replica of Vrindavana in the spiritual world is spelled “Vrindavan” on modern maps. Srila Prabhupada used the Bengali-style spelling when naming “New Vrindaban.”
2. Richard Rose, The San Francisco Oracle, December 1967.
3. Hayagriva Dasa, “Chant,” Brijabasi Spirit, November 1981, p. 20.
4. Letter from Prabhupada, 8/23/68. Quoted in Hayagriva Dasa, “New Vrindaban,” in Back to Godhead, Feb. 1, 1969 (Vol. 1, No. 23). Online version: http://www.backtogodhead.in/new-vrindaban-hayagriva-dasa/
5. Brahmananda’s letter, dated September 7, 1968, and approved by Prabhupada, summed up their master’s vision for New Vrindaban in those earliest days: “It has a farmhouse and several other structures, a well, streams, hills (Govardhan, as named by Swamiji [Prabhupada]), pasture grounds (a cow will be acquired soon), ghat, pond, woodland, all situated on 138 acres. Prabhupada has requested that 7 temples be established there. Its main activity will be cow protection and to show the world that simply by living with cows and land and chanting HARE KRISHNA a perfect society will prevail. . . . A great deal of work is required and Swamiji has requested at least four devotees to go there immediately. New Vrindaban lacks [such] so-called necessities as hot running water and toilets, so that only stout and sturdy devotees are needed, especially those with carpentry experience and can do manual labor.”
6. Srila Prabhupada letter to Hayagriva, 3/17/68.
7. Srila Prabhupada letter to Kirtanananda Swami, 9/22/68.
8. Howard Wheeler, “New Vrindaban: A Hare Krishna Community in West Virginia,” Mother Earth News,July/August 1972.
9. “Children of Krishna: Seeking heaven in West Virginia,” Courier-Journal Magazine (Sunday, February 10, 1980).
10. Hillary Johnson, “Children of a Harsh Bliss: In a West Virginia Commune, an Extraordinary Look at Life and Love Among the Krishnas,” Life(April 1980).
11. Edward Schumacher, “West Virginia Marvels at Indian Palace,” The New York Times(Monday, September 3, 1979).
12. Sarah Pulliam, “A lower-key kind of Krishna,” Columbus Dispatch(July 18, 2008).
13. http://www.palaceofgold.com/history.html
14. Srila Prabhupada letter to Hayagriva, 6/14/68.
15. http://www.brijabasispirit.com/2016/01/07/srila-prabhupada-kaliya-iskcon…
16. https://vanisource.org/wiki/680614_-_Letter_to_Hayagriva_written_from_Montreal
17. https://vanisource.org/wiki/760803_-_Conversation_C_-_New_Mayapur
18. Srimad-Bhagavatam4.12.23, Purport.
19. https://vanisource.org/wiki/691207_-_Letter_to_Ranadhir_written_from_London
20. https://vanisource.org/wiki/680823_-_Letter_to_Kirtanananda_and_Hayagriva_written_from_Montreal
21. http://vanisource.org/wiki/CC_Madhya_7.69
22. http://www.brijabasispirit.com/2016/10/16/new-vrindaban-devotees-serve-P…

About the Author: 

Satyaraja Dasa

Satyaraja Dasa (Steven Rosen) is an initiated disciple of His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. He is also founding editor of the Journal of Vaishnava Studies and associate editor of Back to Godhead magazine.

Extra

Going Forward

On the central altar of the New Vrindaban temple stand Sri Sri Radha–Vrindaban-Chandra – Radha with Krishna as “the moon of Vrindavana.” They are accompanied by deities of Gopala Nathji, Gaura-Nitai, Jagannatha, Baladeva, and Subhadra, and Narasimha and Prahlada. Opened in 1983, the temple is elegant beyond words and competes with the Palace for the devotees’ attention.

But the land and the cows will always hold a special place in the hearts of New Vrindaban residents. Although the landscaping and the development of various farm projects have been ongoing since the community’s inception, there is more to do.

Recently a Yogashala opened just down the road from the main temple, and it hosts courses on yoga, meditation, and kirtana. This is part of a new outreach program meant to augment the Palace as a draw for outsiders. But the Palace is still the main attraction. New Vrindaban remains a holy place for pilgrims and a destination for many Western tourists, mainly because of the Palace of Gold.

Madhava Smullen wrote in October 2016:

It’s a reasonable expectation: this year, overall tourism at Prabhupada’s Palace already increased from 20,000 annually to approximately 30,000. Vrajadhama [now Vrajakishora Dasa, the new manager for Prabhupada’s Palace] attributes this to stronger social media presence, as well as an increasing interest from TV, radio and print media.

“It’s really about getting ourselves out there,” says Vrajadhama. “Because we have so much to offer. People are becoming aware that we’re doing a lot of work here, and that we’re ready to reintroduce ourselves to the world. They’re excited about that, and they want to come and see what we’re up to.”²²

Apropos of New Vrindaban’s readiness for the future, the year 2018, its fiftieth anniversary, promises to be a major step forward. Several steps, in fact. To begin, five main events will commemorate the fiftieth in glorious New Vrindaban style. People will come from around the world for two weekend extravaganzas, particularly for congregation/donors, that start off the festival year in March and April. VIP events for West Virginia government officials and ISKCON dignitaries begin in May.

During the summer there will be an open-house weekend for the public, with advertising that is sure to bring busloads of tourists from around the country and devotees from around the world. Finally, the main event will be a huge semicentennial celebration in September, commemorating the founding of New Vrindaban. In addition, all of New Vrindaban’s usual annual events will continue in a bigger and better way, including Gaura Purnima, Nrisimha Caturdashi, Festival of Inspiration, 24 Hour Kirtan, Janmashtami, Radhashtami, Wheeling Rathayatra, Prabhupada’s Appearance Day, and the Festival of Colors.

Timeline

1968

January 22

First known mention of “New Vrindaban” in a letter from Srila Prabhupada.

August 8

Founding of New Vrindaban with Hayagriva’s signing of a 99-year lease.

August 23

Prabhupada’s letter to Kirtanananda and Hayagriva fully authorizing the establishment of New Vrindaban.

1969

Spring

Purchase of Kaliya (the community’s first cow) and the start of ISKCON’s cow-protection program.

May 21–June 22

Srila Prabhupada’s first visit.

1970

August

First New Vrindaban Janmashtami festival.

1971

Winter

Large Jagannatha, Baladeva, and Subhadra carved in Pittsburgh by Nara Narayana Dasa.

August

Janmashtami: Radha–Vrindaban-Chandra installation ceremony at the Vrindaban farmhouse.

1972

May

Bahulaban temple opens, and Radha–Vrindaban-Chandra move there from the Vrindaban farmhouse.

August 31–September 8

Srila Prabhupada’s second visit.

New Vrindaban sees the arrival of its twenty-first cow.

1973

Spring

Guruban property purchased (future site of Prabhupada’s Palace).

June 2–3

Groundbreaking ceremony for Prabhupada’s Palace and Govindaji Temple.

Installation of Radha-Madhava at Madhuban and Radha–Vrindaban-Natha at Vrindaban.

August 23

New Vrindaban Community, Inc. incorporated by Hayagriva, Paramananda Dasa, and others.

1974

April

First issue of Brijabasi Spiritnewsletter published.

July 18–23

Srila Prabhupada’s third visit, and the first to his future palace.

1975

August

113 total cows in the herd: 47 milk cows, 27 heifers, 35 oxen, and 4 bulls.

September

New Vrindaban: The Spiritual Frontier, ISKCON Cinema movie released.

Fall

Big Gaura-Nitai deities move from Buffalo to New Vrindaban.

1976

June 21–July 2

Srila Prabhupada’s fourth (and final) visit.

1977

January

Kaliya, the first New Vrindaban and ISKCON cow, passes away at Vrindaban Farm.

1978

150 total cows in the herd.

1979

September 2

Dedication ceremony of Srila Prabhupada’s Palace of Gold.

1981

Labor Day

Dharmasala guest lodge opens.

Spring

Varnashram College, a vocational school for teenage boys, starts (35 students by spring 1983).

1982

March/April

Palace Gift Store and Restaurant opens.

Guest cabins open.

The State of West Virginia recognizes New Vrindaban as an unincorporated town.

1983

January

Cow population approximately 300.

March

WV Dept. of Highways adds New Vrindaban to official state map.

July 4

Radha–Vrindaban-Chandra’s Temple of Understanding opens. Deities move from Bahulaban. Sri Gopala Nathji installation.

1984

January

Two temple lakes completed, Kaliya Ghat (now called Kusum Sarovara) and Chaitanya Ghat.

1985

Winter

Large Gaura-Nitai sculptures dedicated.

Spring

Govardhan Dairy is opened in Valley Barn, built to handle 200 milking cows.

1986

January 6

Nrisimhadeva and Prahlada deities installed.

March

Malini the elephant arrives.

1987

March

Kirtanananda expelled from ISKCON.

June

Prabhupada’s Palace rose garden wins prestigious award from All-American Rose Selections.

1988

February

New Vrindaban expelled from ISKCON.

Difficult period, experimentation with Vaishnava/Christian blend.

1991

June 26

Census: 300 residents (131 adults).

1994

March

New Vrindaban officially excludes Kirtanananda Swami.

May

Brijabasi Spirit returns focus to Srila Prabhupada and his vision for New Vrindaban.

1995

Winter

Danavira Goswami and his Rupanuga Vedic College move to New Vrindaban, as does ISCOWP (International Society for Cow Protection).

1998

February

New Vrindaban provisionally accepted back into ISKCON. ECO-Vrindaban (GEETA) started.

2000

May

Inaugural Festival of Inspiration.

Fall

New Vrindaban fully accepted back into ISKCON.

2006

March

Prabhupada’s Palace formally recognized by GBC as Smriti Samadhi.

2007

June

Inaugural 24 Hour Kirtan Festival.

September

Gopal’s Garden Home School Co-op opens.

2008

September 11

New Vrindaban Community, Inc. name changed to ISKCON New Vrindaban, Inc.

2010

April

Palace Renovation Committee started.

2012

April

Start of construction for Radha- Gopinatha Temple by Dham Seva, Inc.

July 10

CNN calls Prabhupada’s Palace one of the “8 religious wonders to see in the U.S.”

September

Inaugural Festival of Colors.

2014

Summer

Renovations on Palace entrance and front steps begin.

2016

December

Prabhupada’s Palace front steps renovation completed.

July 16

First Rathayatra in Wheeling, WV.

2017

April 15

Yoga Shala inaugurated.

Autumn

Prabhupada’s Palace outer wall renovation completed.

2018

New Vrindaban’s Fiftieth Anniversary.

2019

Celebrations to come:

April

ISKCON Cow Protection Fiftieth Anniversary.

September

Prabhupada’s Palace Fortieth Anniversary.

His Grace Kanjalocana Prabhu passed away due to a heart attack.
Brahma Muhurta Das: Dear Srila Prabhupada,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to your lotus feet.
His Grace Kanjalocana Prabhu, one of your very loyal, reliable, and hard-working second-generation BBT servants has suddenly left his body behind in his flat in Sofia, Bulgaria. He picked up his book production emails on Sunday morning at 08:26 and then passed away due to a heart attack.
Kanjalocana Prabhu has served your Bhaktivedanta Book Trust for 32 years, half of his life, without any interruption. He was extremely knowledgeable and expert in so many fields of book publishing – editorial management, layout, project management, quality control, to name just a few.
Producing your books, in many languages, was his life and soul.
We miss him very much, as a friend and as a colleague. He has been rock-steady in his service, always ready to give advice and assistance.
Thank you so much for taking care of him, and us, and everyone else who serves your and Lord Caitanya’s mission so tirelessly. Your mercy is unlimited.

On behalf of the North European BBT,

Your servant

Brahma Muhurta Das

Hari Bol prabhu,
Please accept my humble obeisances,
All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

I took some photos two minutes ago.

There is Margaret, serving Prasad. Come all the way from Gloucester.
I made a hot tea also.

All my team braved the elements, a little Adi Devak is ok.

Your servant
Para

Mahavishnu Swami: I have lost a senior disciple on the African continent Bal Nitai Das from the Democratic Republic of Congo. He was a brave warrior of the Holy Name and truly dedicated to the Mission of Srila Prabhupada in such a war-torn Country like DR Congo. He ran our Mission in Goma Congo at the time when the M23 Rebels had fought and defeated Govt forces making Goma their Capital and later shifted to Kinshasha where our ISKCON DR Congo Headquarters are located but before that he had been managing our Center in Kampala, Uganda. He has been a translator and distributor of Srila Prabhupada’s books in both French and Lingala. We request devotees all over the World to do Kirtan/Harinam for his sake. Having served Krishna without reserve we know that there is no loss.

His Grace Shyam Vallabh Prabhu (Sanjay Pishrodi), Krishna’s devotee and respected Ayurvedic Doctor, left his body in a car accident.
His Grace Shyam Vallabh Prabhu was a doctor by profession, later on went to America and treated so many Srila Prabhupada’s disciples. Then came to Vrindavan.
So many Srila Prabhupada’s Disciples gave good report to HH Radhanath Swami, his Gurumaharaj. Being pleased, Maharaj called him personally to Govardhan Eco Village to take care of the health department. Radhanath Swami appointed him also as his personal doctor.
Recently I was visiting one of our old ashrama-mate in Kerala Sanjay Pishrodi (Shyamavallabha das). His story is interesting and worth sharing with you all.
He was born in a highly respected family in Kerala. His father supported his desire to become a doctor. He completed his MBBS from BJ medical college in Pune. While studying he came in touch with devotees, and eventually joined the ashrama at Chowpatty Mumbai. He stayed there for six years and then he moved out of the ashrama and got married to a devotee who was a doctor.
They pursued oncology in hospice care from London to work with Bhaktivedanta hospice in Vrindavana. Eventually being there for some time, he moved out to do something else. Meanwhile, he started developing some major interest in Ayurveda. He got an offer to work in one of the best hospitals in Mumbai, along with his wife in same department, with big package and all facility. It was a difficult offer to reject, and why should one? The Radha Gopinath temple was very close to the hospital. But there was a call, which was asking him to decline the offer to the dismay of the hospital and other relatives. He chose to study and practice Ayurveda much deeper and learn its science.
It was a struggle, but not of confusion or helplessness but rather a fulfilling one. Last few years, he has put his heart to learn deep Ayurvedic principle from some of the best teachers in Kerala, who have maintained the tradition of this science in disciple succession. He recently started his Ayurvedic center in Wayanad Kerala, with the assistance of his wonderful family, who eventually got convinced about his decision. The decision came after he healed his father: this is the story as our friend narrated:
“My father was diagnosed with an incurable disease with his legs swelling up and making it difficult for him to walk. When all the doctors gave up on him, he came to me and it was cured in 1 month. It has been 4 years since and there is no sign of recurrence. This was a turning point in his perspective and thus helping to open the center in Kerala.”
From being Oncologist to Ayurveda Vaidya, has been a journey with a lot of challenges, but it has been fulfilling one. He recently started writing books on Ayurveda science, based on Vaghabhatta’s “Ashtanga Hridaya,” The books series is of 30 volumes and is a lifetime project. It is being written especially with the intention of presenting authentic Ayurveda and protects it from the watered down versions being taught all over the world.
His good wife Subhadra-Priya devi dasi supported him in his endeavor, even though she cannot relate to Kerala so much since she is Gujarati lady, raised in Mumbai.
After some time he realized why did he go to Ayurveda? He remembered his grand father’s prophesy, who had told to his relatives, that his grandson (Sanjaya) will eventually take and protect the tradition of Ayurveda.
He used to spend all his summer vacations with his grandfather collecting herbs for him and observing him perform all the fire sacrifices etc. This was very inspiring for him.
Both his grandfathers were accomplished Ayurvedic vaidyas and his great-grandfather (mother’s grandfather) Pashupati Namboothiri was the closest friend of Valiya Narayanan Namboothiri of Vaidyamadhom (one of the most famous ashta vaidyas) - both greatest vaidyas of their time.
He is protecting his kula dharma, but now with the touch of special flavor- Sri Krishna and the teachings of the paramapara.

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We have a small center there named as Sri Sri Gaur Nitai Bhawan, but the influence of Srila Prabhupada's simple translations of such a heavy subject of Bhakti is more than enough to attract large crowds. I was fortunate to address large crowds at various places in Karachi, Hyderabad and Ghotki; all in Pakistan. It was indeed a wonderful experience for me to mingle with the so called minority in Pakistan. They had infinite queries and doubts. I was amazed to see among the crowds the old and the young irrespective of the gender just wanted to reach out to me. I was overwhelmed with joy to see a ninety year old mother of a devotee following me in various lectures. She understood the Granth Sahib very well and could recite many verses. She loves Krsna from the core of her heart. The four generations of their household were totally influenced. The crowds were mostly Sindhi by origin so could relate to the Vaishnava teachings in Sikhism. The discourses were put live via Facebook on various pages where they attracted thousands of viewers. In twenty days span I gave nearly 42 discourses; many were broadcasted live. Continue reading "Preaching in Pakistan by Guru’s grace
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In this age of Kali, the greatest yajna is sankirtana, the chanting of the holy names of the Lord. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu gave us a simple principle: trinad api sunicena, taror api sahisnuna amanina manadena, kirtaniyah sada harih We must be very attentive. We must be disciplined. We must be regulated in how we perform this yajna of chanting God’s names. But at the same time, Lord Caitanya gave us this verse. To the degree we are following these principles of humility and tolerance and respect to others, to that degree he is going to be pleased with our chanting. How we treat each other is going to very much determine if Krsna is going to be pleased to reveal himself in the chanting of the holy names. Continue reading "Srimad Bhagavatam Class at Mayapur
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‘Food for All’, a Hare Krishna charity based in London, serves 2,500 free vegetarian meals every day to the homeless! (Album of photos)
They even go out in the snow…
Parasuram Prabhu Ki Jai!
Srila Prabhupada Ki Jai!
Find them here: https://goo.gl/dBNcsB