Sarangati Farm

[Guest guest]

Dear Vipramukhya Swami,

 

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

 

I am very sorry for having incorrectly spelled your name. Hence forth the

spelling will be correct.

 

> Dear Balabhadra Prabhu,

>

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

>

> Of course, I live in England now, and I'm the TP of Bhaktivedanta Manor. I

> have very little to do with Saranagati, although I'm going to visit there

> soon. Hare Krishna dasi got the story mixed up. I don't remember the

> details, but I remember I looked into her allegations and found her story

> distorted from the truth and much more complex than what she presented.

The

> laws in Canada are different from the USA. The way it works there is that

> cows are allowed to roam freely. If you don't want someone else's cows to

> graze on your land, it is YOUR responsibility to fence them out, not the

> owner of the cows. Saranagati is a 1650 acre project, and it wasn't

possible

> to fence out the cows. There's more to the story than that, too, but I

don't

> remember all the details.

 

The point is this: For a landholding to be accepted as a farm and therefore

receive farm status and a reduction in taxes it must show facts of some

agriculture production. It is being reported that Saranagati was (and might

still be) reporting its production as beef due to the association with the

neighboring farmer. By beef production (which is considered an agriculture

product) they are getting a tax reduction. As Srila Prabhupada has stated in

the Bhagavatam it is not only the cow killer and meat eater who will suffer

untold repercussions but also anyone that is involved in supplying the meat.

 

The fencing problem is understandable. Even if the blood money taken each

year was used to build fencing (which we figured out could be done over a

few years) and thus end the situation, everyone would feel at least they are

trying to rectify the problem.

 

< I'll find out when I go there.>

Thank you very much.

>

> As far as GBC, there is no GBC for the Saranagati farm, because Saranagati

> is not owned by ISKCON. It is a private farm owned by shareholders.

> Therefore it is not part of ISKCON. So Sarangati should not be classified

as an ISKCON farm. Whatever they do is up to them. I can give a report if

you want, however.

 

Thank you for clarifying that Sarangati is not an ISKCON property.

Therefore they are not obliged to ISKCON Law. The confusion comes because

they are listed as an ISKCON Farm in the BTG. I agree, it should not be so

listed. To be gaining the benefits of belonging to ISKCON and to be able to

do whatever they want seems to be quite unfair to those ISKCON farms that

are trying to abide by ISKCON Law.

 

> Right now I'm at the Long Island temple. I will be going to Vancouver on

> Monday, and Saranagati in about 2 weeks.

 

> Your servant,

> Vipramukhya Swami

 

 

Thank you for your quick reply. Since Sarangati is not an ISKCON Farm and

they can do whatever they wish, we greatly appreciate whatever you can do to

give spiritual guidance to all concerned in this matter. Thank you again.

 

Your servant,

Balabhadra das

>

>