KANDAVAPRASTHA: Varnasrama Currilculum Development sessions - report

[Guest guest]

"COM: Nistula (das) ACBSP (Sri Pundarik Dham - Bangladesh)" wrote:

 

> [Text 2476528 from COM]

>

> Dear Hare Krsna dasi,

>

> I take it that this conference never actually materialized, or am I

> (hopefully) mistaken and perhaps you're busy writing up a report on it for

> posting on this conference? Please dispel my doubts...

>

> nistula dasa

> ==========

> >Sun 27 June (registation)

> >Mon 28 June (overview and sudra skills curriculum)

> >Tues 29 June (vaisya)

> >Wed 30 June (ksatriya)

> >Thurs 1 July (brahmana)

> >Fri 2 July (women)

> >Sat 3 July (Small-scale Ratha Yatra)

> >(Leaving Sunday)

 

Dear Nistula prabhu,

 

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

 

Thanks for your note. In fact our Kandavaprastha varnasrama curriculum

development sessions did manifest -- though on a very small scale. We

actually had a fantastic time. My problem is, I keep thinking I should write

up a nice report for the devotees -- but as soon as I got back, I had to wrap

up the fiscal year end at work, and then I had to catch up on about 6 months

of housekeeping that had been set aside to finish Vol. 1 of the Prabhupada

Varnasrama book. Soooo....

 

Anyway, there were just us four Maine devotees who participated -- myself,

Jaya Lalita prabhu, Bhakta Bob and my son Asto. Two devotees came from out of

state, Phalguna prabhu, the Colombian devotee who is teaching at the Alachua

day-school and our dear Rohita prabhu from New Talavana who is well known to

all of us on the cow conference for taking care of cows for about 15 years or

more in ISKCON. Due to various work schedules, etc., many times there were

only 3 of us at a class.

 

As you know, several other devotees had planned to come, but by Krsna's

arrangement, they were not able to make it this time. Naturally, we were

disappointed, but as this was a very ad-hoc affair, possibly it was just as

well. Phalguna and Rohita will be able to testify that this was definitely a

primitive affair. (I'm not sure whether Rohita has yet returned from his

Canadian relatives or Phalguna has yet returned from his Ratha Yatra tour.)

 

I had basically 2 days to get everything ready for the conference: tents,

sleeping bags, bhoga, Deity pictures & paraphernalia, pots & pans, readings, 4

boxes of varnasrama-related books, folding chairs, white board and markers,

notebooks, etc.

 

Day 1 Sunday -- We set up tents, prepared a simple offering in Phalguna's

camper kitchen and set up our "temple room" screen tent and altar and had

kirtana. I had forgotten a flower for the offering plate, so I picked several

flowers from the "carpet" of the tent. Bhakta Bob and Asto took the men

swimming after their long trip.

 

Day 2 Monday -- Mangala arotik, etc. in the screen tent. Class based on Bg

4.13 and March 12, 1974 varnasrama walk. I was going to do a presentation on

sawdust toilets for a sample sudra-oriented class --but the pressing need was

to put together a workable outdoor "kitchen" and campfire. So we did that.

Hard to convey this in writing, but you should know that the whole time was

saturated with varnasrama discussion -- the crying need for it in society, and

different ways to introduce it. It was ecstatic. After lunch prasadam, we

began to look at the different books, discussing how they could be

incorporated in different types of classes.

 

-- Our emphasis was on two aspects of varnasrama: self-sufficiency and social

*organization*. We emphasized two principles: Visnur aradhyate (the purpose

of varnasrama is to satisfy the Supreme Lord) and Sarve sukhino bhavantu

(varnasrama means to make everyone happy). Phalguna cooked the lunch offering

in his camper. By late afternoon, it began to rain, but we were determined to

prepare our evening offering on the campfire. Different devotees took turns

holding a plastic sled above the campfire while others built and fanned the

fire. Finally it caught and we were able to cook the offering.

 

Day 3 Tuesday -- Mangala arotik, etc. in the screen tent. Our altar is dry,

but there was an inch of water on the ground. We decided that it had to be a

boots-on mangala arotik. It had stopped raining however, so we could walk on

the drive going up the mountainside for our japa -- but not through the

grass. Class was on SB 9.10.50.

 

The sun came out and it began to dry out. Phalguna prabhu was still just

completing the preparation of his famous milk and fruit oatmeal offering, Mrs.

Wanda Garland, my son's biology teacher, arrived to give her presentation, so

we invited her to join us for prasadam. She had brought many things with her

and began to discuss the different items as we finished our prasadam. She

thought it might be too rainy for the herb walk we had scheduled her to do, so

she brought 3 buckets with specimens of about 40 or 50 different plants from

around her property. She began to hand them around to us, describing the

special healing, food or dyeing properties of each one. Also, she had about

15 texts that she handed around at the same time. She explained how the

plants fit in with different cultures, either Native American or European, and

she was also interested to hear Phalguna's comments about various plants found

in the Colombian rain forest, where he had camped with his friends.

 

The weather continued to clear off, so we also took the herb walk up to the

top of the mountain, where she pointed out some of the same varieties to us,

in addition to many more species. By then it was time to prepare a simple

offering for lunch. After lunch Mrs. Garland brought out samples of many

soaps she had made, using lye and oil and different herbs. Then she showed us

many samples of wool and cotton swatches dyed using different dyes from

different plants she had gathered. It appeared that she totally enjoyed being

with the devotees and we also had a wonderful time. I had imagined that she

would only stay a couple hours, but she was there all day, and we had endless

questions to ask her. Phalguna also asked her in some detail how she would

design a series of courses on herbs if she were designing a curriculum to be

taught.

 

As soon as she left, it began to rain again -- raining on all the clothes the

devotees had washed in the stream and hung to dry. I retreated to my tent to

finish a few rounds of japa, and by the time I came out, the other devotees

had put up a tarp over the campfire so we could cook without holding a sled

over the fire. The weather gradually cleared a little so that we could take

prasadam around the camp fire.

 

Day 4 -- Wednesday. Another damp mangala arotik. Although damp, these

arotiks were very sweet. Since the idea was to study Srila Prabhupada's

words, we had a large picture of Srila Prabhupada with a very smiling face in

an outdoor photo. We also had a very beautiful wooden Deity of Lord

Nrsimhadeva tearing apart Hiranyakasipu which Phalguna had brought with him.

After setting aside time for our japa, we were running behind schedule so we

decided to take breakfast prasadam and then have our class in the van on the

way to the Brown Swiss farmers. Class was Prabhupada's January 11, 1977

conversation on the train to Allahabad (appropriate since we were also

traveling). After a 45 minute ride we arrived at the small farm of Leslie and

Judy Smith and their herd of about 35 Brown Swiss. We had come specifically

to see the young ox team, which in New England would be called a "working

steer team."

 

Both Leslie and his wife had grown up with working oxen. Until a few years

ago, Leslie had used oxen to get firewood out of the woods in the winter.

Judy, who looked about 50 years old had been training oxen since she was 12

years old, and recently placed 3rd over all with her team in a contest of 50

teams. They brought out their team and demonstrated how they commanded them.

("Come-up" or "Whahaish" instead of our "Get-up") We each had a chance to

take the team for a spin. Phalguna prabhu was especially interested in how

the 4-H club (which Judy and Leslie both counsel) trains young children to

work the oxen. Judy gave us several copies of the 4-H Working Steer Manual

and explained that the children train their own animals, but also they get

together about once a month for a workshop in which they bring their teams and

go through different commands, and their counselors correct different

mistakes. While their parents discussed different points with us, their

teenage children enjoyed driving the team around the barnyard and up and down

the road.

 

One thing about their technique which I did not like so well was that they

worked the team by walking a little bit ahead of them -- rather than driving

them from the shoulder as Paramananda instructs in "Ox Power -- Ki Jaya!"

This seems a little dangerous to me when you are working in the woods, better

to walk along side or behind the team so they don't accidentally run over

you. The big advantage of oxen over horses in the woods is that with horses

you can get all tangled up in the reins, but with oxen, you can be completely

out of the way, and the oxen can charge along as fast as they like once they

are hooked up to a log. I did notice that the girls had been carefully

trained to give the "Back" command by tapping the oxen on the forelegs -- not

tapping them in the face as I have sometimes seen children do.

 

Leslie and Judy seemed like they really enjoyed talking with us. We explained

that knowledge of how to train children to work the oxen is very important to

us since as Hare Krsna's we do not kill the bulls and Prabhupada wanted us to

learn to utilize them practically. To see their teenage girls driving the

young ox team around with no lead rope, just using a small stick, was

impressive. If their kids could do it, why not teach Hare Krsna children

also? Leslie and Judy were very enthusiastic about the Brown Swiss breed,

saying they were good in the cold and very good in the heat and that they

especially liked their friendly temperament. They lent us several videos on

Brown Swiss.

 

Before dinner Asto and Bhakta Bob finally got the pump to work. (Before that,

we simply had buckets of water from the stream for washing our dishes, etc.)

 

Day 5 -- Thursday. All our clothes had finally dried out. At mangala arotik

Rohita commented, "Just see, everyone is wearing devotional atire!" Even our

clover and grass "carpet" was dried out. Due to different schedule

requirements of the devotees, we decided that this would have to be our last

day, so we knocked down several tents before Jaya Lalita's presentation on

"Land Tenure and Varnasrama."

 

Both kinds of presentations were good. The so-called "non-devotees" have a

wealth of information we can use, and though we barely knew any of these

individuals, it was plain to see that they liked dealing with devotees and

being around them. If such a program were to be continued over a longer

period of time, it seemed very likely that they would be increasingly

attracted to a Krsna conscious way of life. It is especially positive that

they are being approached in such a flattering way, by people who are very

interested in what they have to offer.

 

On the other hand, obviously when the expertise is locally available, having a

devotee teacher is ideal. Jaya Lalita prabhu is working on her masters degree

in resource economics and was able to to introduce the topic of economic

productivity as related to land tenure in clear and standard economic terms.

But, because she is also a devotee and has also done a substantial amount of

work with Srila Prabhupada's instructions as related to economics, she was

also able to instantly relate these academic concepts to our spiritual goals.

This was refreshing and definitely made her presentation more dynamic and gave

it a certain punch beyond what the previous presentations, as good as they

were, were able to do.

 

I guess I should note that while both the herb presentation and the ox power

presentation were conceived as sample vaisya classes, the idea of the

economics presentation was that it would be a sample of a class that could be

included in both brahmana and ksatriya curriculum. Srila Prabhupada has

mentioned that ksatriyas were trained in economics. Unfortunately, our modern

so-called "ksatriyas" like Bill Clinton have been indoctrinated into economics

by vaisyas, who have extremely materialistic goals. It is essential that our

ksatriyas have brahmanas who are carefully trained in economics so they can

point out the materialistic pitfals and guide the ksatriyas into implementing

policies which will promote peaceful economic development based on simple

living and high thinking without getting side-tracked into corporate schemes

which create great wealth and sense gratification for the few and discontent

for the many.

 

It was very satisfying to hear Jaya Lalita, in the course of her presentation

about the importance of avoiding the "rent leakage" phenomenon, present

different economic concepts and evaluate them in terms of how they did or did

not agree with the principles that Srila Prabhupada advocated. Only a devotee

who has good training in both mundane economics and good training in

Prabhupada's vision of economics would be able to make this kind of

presentation. In the past I have occasionally talked with devotees who have

been trained in economics, but because they have not specifically educated

themselves on the subtleties of Srila Prabhupada's economics. For example,

one leading devotee commented, "Capitalism is a principle of varnasrama," but

Srila Prabhupada stated in Hawaii, "Materialism means capitalism." Obviously,

the devotee was not intimately familiar with Prabhupada's teachings on

economics. Good ksatriyas need to be carefully trained that although

varnasrama contains some elements found in capitalism and some found in

communism -- actually it is neither capitalist nor communist in the ultimate

analysis, since the ultimate goal of both systems is the same: increased

sense gratification made possible by centralized production.

 

After Jaya Lalita's class, we tried to complete our review of the different

possible texts for varnasrama courses and then we had to pack everything up

and break down the camp. Everyone headed back to Brunswick, where Rohita and

Phalguna prabhus were kind enough to take prasadam with my family before

continuing on their way to Boston.

 

I know this is a long letter. I could say much more. It was ecstatic being

immersed in the topic of how to carry out Srila Prabhupada's varnasrama

mission. Rtviks? Not discussed. GM? Not discussed. A very peaceful and

inspiring time of meditating on how to spread Krsna consciousness by using the

thrill and excitement of developing self-sufficient communities based on

spiritually informed practical education.

 

I strongly recommend that you all try it in your own location. I guarantee

that Krsna will help you out with the details.

 

Srila Prabhupada's varnasrama mission -- ki jaya!

 

your servant,

 

Hare Krsna dasi