Vedic Agenda, Samba in Spain, Vrindavan Goshalla

[Guest guest]

> 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'm just trying to do what I beleive Srila Prabhupada would want. But I am

not an inspirational leader with vast resources. We may well fail here, I

dont know, just somehow I still have some enthusiasm, and some devotees send

nice letters with a little laksmi, and almost all the leaders that pass

through have encouraging words to say.

 

> 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.

 

We are certainly under capitalised. We are just struggling to get two

families established here. We are building yurts, establishing a garden and

milking two cows. What else can we do? I agree with everything you say, but

rather than do nothing because we dont have all we need in place, we are

just going to try. I get inspiration from HH Gour Govinda Maharaja whom

Srila Prabhupada sent to Bhubanesvara with no men and no money, and told him

to get those things himself in the same way as Srila Prabhupada did when he

came alone to America. The difference is that they were both pure devotees,

and I'm not! Depressing huh.

 

> 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".

 

Good point.

>

> 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.

 

We could try that, but we only have 40 hectares at our disposal, and I would

be wary to let it all go to people who dont want to 'live' the vision. I

guess we could maybe let a bit of it go.

 

> 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.

 

I am not really blessed with the kind of intelligence required to develop a

curriculum. I welcome any ideas in this regard. I think I could probably

recognise a good curriculum, but I have no experience in this regard. If

anyone wants to help us, please let me know.

 

> 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.

 

You have a very high opinion of me! I just have a lot of faith in Srila

Prabhupadas vision. But it does not seem to be shared by very many of our

people at all. Maybe some of the leaders are looking to see if we really can

match up to our words.

 

> 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.

 

Absolutely, but as I said, I need help to do these things, and so far, such

kind of help has not materialised. I hope Krsna sends someone soon.

 

> 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?

 

We are building two strawbale yurts to get ourselves on the land right now,

and once we are there, we are going to look more seriously at fund raising.

This really is a grass roots effort, it could well fail, I hope it doesnt.

 

> 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.

 

Yes this is very much needed. Tejiyas prabhu wanted me to help him to

develop this, but at the time there was no way for me to maintain my family,

and besides this fantastic land resource at New Vrajamandala was within our

grasp, so I decided to go for it while I could.

 

 

> 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

 

Please someone send me a list of these wealthy devotees!

 

> 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.

 

This is also known to some modern planners. See 'A Pattern Language' by

Christopher Alexander. I came discovered these concepts while researching

for the Sri Mayapur Masterplan.

 

Thanks for your concern.

 

Your servant

Samba das