New Developments at New Vrajamandala.

[Guest guest]

The New Vrajamandala farm In central Spain, one hours drive from Madrid is

heading into a new era.

 

The property covers over 300 Hectares, including many buildings. There is a

river, a small stream, and many natural springs on the property.

 

The project till now has been run in the old classic ISKCON paradigm.

Unfortunately this paradigm often does not work at all well in projects of

this size, and as in the case of many other similar large projects, it had

become rundown, and many devotees considered that it should be sold.

 

However, His Holiness Kadamaba Kanana Swami, seeing that there was still

great potential in the project, requested the GBC to give him a chance to

assemble a group of devotees to try to save the project.

 

An interim management committee has been established, which is working on

developing projects for the revival of the place. We are starting on the

process of developing a long term vision for the project, a masterplan that

we would expect to unfold over a period of thirty years or more.

 

There are many possibilites for development here, and we wanted to share

some of them with you.

 

On one level we are looking at the project as an ideal seedbed for the first

steps in creating a working varnasrama model. Not that we are going to be

lining up devotees and labelling them, but that we will start to look at

ways in which Srila Prabhupadas instructions for varnasrama can be gradually

introduced. The technical aspects of varnasrama village development can be

seen in many ways as being on par with Eco-village development, and cashing

in on this now growing interest in Eco-village development will add prestige

to the project.

 

We envision however that a genuine varnasrama eco-village will take many

years to unfold, and we have to be patient in that regard. So in order for

the farm to pay for itself in the meantime, we want to offer devotees

exciting possibilities for commercial projects. Such projects would have to

be based on sound ecological practices, but fortunately nowadays the market

demand for such products is growing faster than the supply can meet. The

idea here is not to exploit the resources that we have, but rather develop

them in sustainable ways. The difference is that these projects can be used

as money making ventures for devotees who would prefer this option, as

opposed to the not for profit but rather subsistence varnasrama system.

 

New Vrajamandala is an ideal place for community development. It is situated

in a very beautifull valley, next to a very old and historic tourist

destination, the village of Brihuega. The local people are very favourable,

and the local Municipality has even offered us funds to develop the place as

an ecovillage.

 

Over the next few weeks, I will be posting texts regarding the vision for

New Vrajamandala, in the hopes of attracting all kinds of devotees to the

project.

 

These topics will touch on:

Management policies for the farm.

Commercial aspects.

The Community development

The Varnasrama Eco village

Cultural activities

Education

Etc.

 

Thank you.

Your servant

Samba das