Vedic Agenda, Samba in Spain, Vrindavan Goshalla

[Guest guest]

Dear Prabhupadaacarya Prabhu,

 

PAMHO. AGTSP.

 

We have read the Vedic Agenda and found it valuable and thank you for

submitting it. However, the real work is in the implementation on a

practical level. This is the greatest challenge. How is this to be done?

 

Your servant,

Chayadevi

 

************************************************************

 

Dear Mataji,

PAMHO AGTSP

 

Thanks for the encouragement. Somehow I never received this. I just sent a

command to download all texts from Cow Conference and it appeared. I think I

must have had an error in downloading it when it originally came.

 

Anyway, these are eternal topics, so I will answer you now 7 months late.

 

The Vedic Agenda is divided into 2 phases: 1) preparation and 2)

implementation. The first three agenda items constitute preparation, namely:

 

Vedic Agenda Item #1) To establish self-realization/spiritual development as

the goal of human society.

 

This is THE MOST IMPORTANT 1st step. Without the members of the society

agreeing on this point, varnasrama and cow protection won't make

socio-economic sense. When this point is firmly understood and accepted then

varnasrama and cow protection become the optimal socio-economic solution.

 

I congratulate Samba Prabhu for sticking to his varnasrama-guns for his

decision to depend on the natural resources for meeting his basic economic

necessities, but I suggest that he will not be able to do so indefinitely

until he has at least 100 families who possess the requisite minimal skills

(approx 25 trades) needed for self-suffiency.

 

I would not want to contemplate starting a varnasrama village project with

anything less. "First bring money then talk business" certainly applies

here. Until you begin with the requisite capital, like in any business, you

are asking for trouble and endangering the reputation of the concept. For

example, Srila Prabhupada refused to open a Govinda's restaurant until it

was adequately capitalized with "decorations" and so on.

 

Undercapitalization is one of the major causes of business failures and if

we analyze our history of varnasrama failures, I suspect we will find this

to be the major culprit. I recall Samba telling me this was the cause of the

termination of his previous efforts in Mauritius, etc. History repeats.

 

Until a project has the requisite resources to make a successful go at

developing a truly self-sufficient village, I suggest we not qualify it as

anything other than a modern rural housing settlement and leave out names

like "varnasrama village" etc. until the project is in a position to actualy

attempt one. Otherwise, devotees and leaders develop negative attitudes

towards the VA village concept thinking "It never works" or it "will never

work".

 

As I see it Samba has two choices, 1) bring money from outside by fund

raising or doing business. 2) engage the ample resources he already has to

attract the needed capital to him. I suggest the later since I don't imagine

there are too many people who are going to appreciate the value of

contributing to a farm project these days, whereas people would want the

benefit of having a cottage/home in a quiet natural setting in a spiritual

community.

 

I question whether ISKCON has ever made a REAL effort to develop a village

from the perspective of capitalization. I question whether we have ever been

in a position to do so. Face it, we lack the skilled devotees, at least in

any given project. My awareness of New Vrindavan is almost nil, so perhaps

we had/have something there. I hear the same story being repeated globally

"Not enough men and not enough money".

 

The GBC resolutions state, if I recall, that "no new farms will be approved

unless and until they are "fully self-sufficient" from the beginning". I

initially resisted this as a serious obstacle to development, but have come

to realize that it addresses our actual major obstacle to development, i.e.

undercapitalization. Capital here is understood as "the means of

production", or people with skills, land, animals, water, etc. I now have to

agree with the wisdom of that GBC resolution.

 

Practical implementation of varnasrama cannot be entertained unless and

until we acquire the knowledge resources. The Vedic Agenda addresses this

need in the next two items of the preparation phase:

 

2) Establish Vedic literatures as the philosophical basis for society.

3) Establish Vedic educational institutions (i.e. gurukulas and varnasrama

colleges).

 

There really is no question about it. This was Srila Prabhupada's strategy

and it makes perfect sense when we do the practical analysis. He created a

society for like-minded people on the basis of spiritual development,

published books, and opened gurukulas and then tried to establish colleges.

 

Establish varnasrama colleges wherever we have a center, IMMEDIATELY.

Somehow this isn't sinking in. I would rather see Samba developing

curriculum for the first true varnasrama college, than what he is doing in

what appears as another frustrating economic struggle with two families. He

has to bring knowledge and capital to the project from the outside to be

able to recruit, train and engage the 100+ families he will require to

achieve self-sufficiency. I say this to protect Samba (one of ISKCON's most

valuable assets in relation with VAD) from VA Burn-out, not to put him or

his great efforts down. If Samba burns out and gives up on VA development

because ISKCON is not fully capitalizing his efforts, then ISKCON has lost a

significant asset. I suggest ISKCON serious take up an assessment of his

needs and work cooperatively to meet them.

 

Without skilled devotees we have no hope. With skilled devotees you can

achieve all the resources you need. I suggest that going after land,

developing land, breeding cows, etc. before preparing the devotees is

putting the cart before the horse.

 

Ok, land is already there is many places, so in those areas, before building

any significant development projects, the first project should be developing

the gurukula/varnasrama college. I have not read all his texts, so surely

that is one of his aims.

 

If Samba can make those straw bale houses and invite some brahmanas to teach

essential subjects, then we are moving in Srila Prabhupada's direction. This

will require outside capitalization in the beginning until your vaisya

engine is running and outputing grains and milk. You need an engine and

ISKCON's efforts have always depended on book distribution and then

paintings.

 

 

For Spain, who already has a great headstart with paid land, I can't really

comment without knowing all the constraints, but perhaps I will suggest

(condsider this nothing more than brainstorming) involving wealthy donors

and investors who are not looking for a significant return. The money is

already there in the hands of many favorable devotees and friends of ISKCON,

so we just need to engage it with a reasonable plan and approach. Devotees

are buying land, so why not at your place?

 

But until the skilled devotees are there, all the finances in the world are

not going to help you become self-sufficient.

 

I propose ISKCON brahmanas cooperate on developing first a complete outline

for an online varnasrama college. A website that trains devotees in all four

varnas and necessary trades to conduct a self-sufficient community. In this

way, overnight, every temple with an internet connection has a varnasrama

college, to some degree. ISKCON should invest in this.

 

Unfortunately there is no ISKCON in a collective sense, and Srila Prabhupada

wanted it that way. There is a federation of otherwise independent temples.

Which temple will bear the brunt? That every temple is expected to develop

its own curriculum is unreasonable and why it has never happened. So Srila

Prabhupada's idea was some brahmanas learn a subject and travel around and

train others.

 

Ok. Clearly we are talking about brahmacaris here and sannyasis who will

require the temple to pay for their transportation and given them facilities

when they arrive. But they need people to teach, who will in turn train

others. If these people move or leave, there goes your efforts. We need a

way to maintain the knowledge and the internet appears viable. But first

temples have to learn the value of sponsoring this. Unless there is a farm

nearby for these trained devotees to implement this, where is the hope/scope

and value in learning how to make cow dung cakes if I live in the inner-city

and sell stickers all day at the stop lights?

 

I question how many travelling brahmanas we have that have relevant

knowledge in requisite skills for VA training since ISKCON has developed

over the years as brahminically-top-heavy. Meaning that devotees have not

been valuing other branches of knowledge enough to invest in their study. I

don't see any VIHE course on basket making, kartala making, cloth weaving,

etc. YET Srila Prabhupada invested $1000s to send devotees to India to learn

these skills and then go and train others in various centers.

 

I suggest that if temples are ready to collect and contribute millions to

fund court cases, they should be willing to collect and contribute at least

as much to educational development along these lines. That ISKCON hasn't

done this, I suggest, has given rise to such court cases. Had the gurukulis

been trained and engaged within ISKCON in a varna and asrama, how likely

would they be to sign on to a court case against ISKCON? You either pay

upfront and implement the guru's order, or you pay later in the form of

court cases, seems to be the painful lesson.

 

India is where the knowledge is, to a greater extent, and is relatively a

cheap place to live. We need to collect, compile and translate the required

knowledge into course material and upload it on a website with video clips,

and other how-to tips. That will take many researchers and a significant

amount of time and capital. We have wasted so many decades and now millions

of dollars. Why can't Vrindavan temple take those 60 village brahmacaris and

teach them English and prepare them for teaching self-sufficiency skills?

During Srila Prabhupada's time we didn't have such brahmacaris in India. Why

not utilize them?

 

What do we have available to us now? VIHE has only brahminical courses. Same

for RVC I believe. What has ISCOWP developed in the form of curriculum for

vaisyas? I am developing a training course for ksatriyas. We have many

brahmacaris from Indian villages who I suggest may prove to be a wealth of

untapped knowledge for vaisya and sudra trades that I imagine far surpasses

the VAD value of the IIT and JNU class India-ISKCON is hankering after.

 

These are the guys perhaps with the knowledge who actually WANT to travel to

foreign countries, and all they require is to learn how to speak English, in

most cases. Many already do speak English. They don't value their, what

India calls "Backward" knowledge and skills, and neither is ISKCON, other

than persons like Samba and others who have implemented the first item of

the Vedic Agenda and thus value the Vedic socio-economic model.

 

Brahmacaris/inis can take courses online (to some degree) and then go to

some farm to complete the theoretical teaching with some hands on

apprenticeship/workshops, etc. Vrindavana dn Mayapur should have such global

VAD learning centers for hands-on practical training.

 

To get properly capitalized I suggest Samba gives land to those who are in a

position to meet his interests. In other words, allow wealthy devotees to

come build their house and tie up a little plot of land for their lifetime,

but also require them to donate to building your varnasrama college

facilities (asrama, classrooms residential quarters for teachers, etc), and

residential quarters for those 100 families you are going to train and

engage after graduation to achieve self-sufficiency. If you don't have

enough land to accomodate the investors and the 100 families, then you need

to make a plan for acquiring more land unless you can get outright

donations. Try for cash donations, and if tht doesnt work, offer land

packages.

 

This will prevent Samba from having to go outside to bring in the needed

capital. Just put your modern housing development off to the side and try to

engage them as best as you can to achieve your agenda. Make sure they are

fairly wealthy and cultivate them so they can help you in the ongoing

development of the project.

 

In short, you need knowledgable people and wealthy people at this point.

Bring the wealthy people in such a way that they will facilitate the

knowledgable people. You might have to make some temporary bio-compromises

to bring the wealthy people, but that beats selling stickers and paintings.

It also brings potential wealth to your community for future development.

Think estate planning.

 

You should also have a monthly membership fee for these people to meet your

monthly expenses until the first batch of graduates starts meeting the

economic needs of the village. Thereafter you can stop leasing plots and use

the monthly dues for acquiring more land, etc. Of course this all depends

upon the amount of land you have. I suggest any project with anything less

than 1000 acres, or 500 at the least, that wants to talk about

self-sufficiency, is asking for trouble over the mid to long term.

 

Remember, according to Canakya, a village is defined as 100-500 families.

Less than 100 is not sustainable, and more than 500 is not manageable. If

you can't see it, you can't manage it. You can't know and interact with more

than 500 families as a ksatriya responsible for a village. Beyond 500 you

start creating anonymity, where you have people living in your village who

you don't even know. This impersonalism and relationship disconnect between

praja and ruler gives scope for theft, unemployment, prostitution, gambling,

illegal slaughter, and drug dealing. In other words, you'll start having

"city-problems".

 

In time Samba's cottage-plots will be converted to the self-sufficient model

as the children of these cottage-plots attend your college and settle into a

self-sufficient occupation within the village. That of course depends on the

depth of your vision and your preaching ability.

 

Whatever you do, don't sell the land outright.

 

Here is a summary of some things we can practically do towards

implementation:

 

1) Achieving Capitalization for Self-Sufficient Villages: Lifeleases on

cottage-plots to wealthy families on condition that they contribute a

one-time lump sum for the VA college and a monthly community membership fee

to meet the college opeating expenses. This model could be tested n and then

applies to all our farm projects.

 

2) Developing VA College in Every Center: organize global consortium to

develop VA college curriculum on Net.

Along with 3) Hands-on VAD training villages in Vrindavan and Mayapur for

those taking online courses.

 

4) Leveraging our Knowledge Resources: Identify our knowledge resources and

make a global cooperative plan to tap those resources (i.e. travelling

village-brahmacaris, etc)

Along with 5) Educating ISKCON leaders (GBC. TP, gurus, Sannyasis, etc) on

the importance and value of VAD and the Vedic Agenda.

 

6) Broader course development by VIHE, RVC, and others for ksatriya, vaisya

and sudra skills, trades, etc.

 

 

 

 

Village means two villages, and two means four. As the thing grows, people

marry, children are produced, then you need another village in time. This is

government work, and governments need land. When they run out of land they

try to annex more. If you are getting into the village business, you need

land.

 

The culture of stagnant development ISKCON management culture suffers from

in many areas that "lowers its sites to one temple building that has a fixed

number of rooms, and after it is purchased, that is it-- "No more room for

more devotees", and the ensuing facilities-politics over the limited

resources like we recently saw in Vrindavan with the brahmacaris, and the

recent posting about the Vrindavan goshalla and its land requirements.

 

Face it, a society can't stop growing. We must always be acquiring resources

as we acquire devotees. You can't just say we are going to buy this 500

acres, make a village, and our job is done. I'd guess ISKCON outgrew its

facilities decades ago and we have never caught up. I suggest we need to

define models for temples, villages, etc. with people, cow and space

requirements and develop to that standard. Once a project reaches capacity,

we start another one and send the overflow there instead of just "packing

them in like sardines" to watch them "fight like dogs", and then "run away

like chickens".

 

ISKCON needs to invest in land and facilities. Of course, we should properly

utilize what we already have. For example, I daily see a sign on a parcel of

land on the way to the Vrindavan temple that says "Owned by ISKCON

Vrindavan", so why aren't the goshalla cows allowed to go there until some

other arrangement is made to reduce the number of cow deaths attributed to

over-crowding? Maybe there is a good reason for leavng this land lying

vacant and unutilized?

 

Useless Servant of the Vaishnavas,

PAD