Vision for a farm community for Krishna Life Monastery, Atlanta, GA

Krishna life is producing a lot of Brahmacaris who like to distribute books and dance in ecstacy for Hare Krishna and eat great prasadam in the Monastery.

“The cause of it [the world’s malady] is spiritual. We are suffering from having sold our souls to the pursuit of an objective which is both spiritually wrong and practically unobtainable. We have to reconsider our objective and change it. And until we do this, we shall not have peace, either amongst ourselves or within each of us. ”

Arnold Toynbee| London?Observer| 25 October 1972

Eventually some people cannot keep up with high standards of the Brahmacari(men) or Brahmacarini (women) Ashram. They would like to marry and start a family. But going back and working in Atlanta means again mingling with materialists who talk about money, wine, sex, etc. One Brahmacari married and had to work in the local Home Depot warehouse store and life was hellish for him.

So, His Holiness Bhakti Vikasa Swami Bhakti Vikasa Swami instructed that we start a Grihasta Ashrama in a farm setting in either south Georgia or East Alabama within 200 miles of the Krishna Life Monastery.

Guiding principles:

1. When produce is excess, give it to the local Hare Krishna temple
2. use machinary for the first till to uncompact the soil, after that all tilling is by hand
3. Do not grow commercial crops; goal is to be self sufficient not get into agri business
4. Live in simple homes 250 sft cottages which do not require building permits
5. Have sufficient cows so that we can have milk for Krishna deities and devotees
6. Not too close to a city as it will entice people go into hellish cities
7. Kurma grama farm community in Srikakulam, Andhra, Bharat could be a role model and a template

1. Not too far from the city temple as connection to devotion may be lost. Distance not exceeding 200 miles
2. If a Brahmacari wants to marry then they marry and move to the farm
3. Kids of devotees are sent to a gurukul (home schooling) on the farm community. They are taugh local language + english and basic mathematics.

Here is a rubric to select a farmland. We used this rubric to evaluate existing farm in Wolfe City TX. Based on the learning we need to have the rubric followed and enhanced for the new farm community in Georgia/Alabama.

Challenges of being a Grihasta:

1. You have to make money by working like a donkey
2. You have to bathe, clothe, feed, discipline kids
3. Pay electricity, water, telephone, cable, rent, health bills
4. Deal with disobedient kids
5. Deal with stresses of office or factory work
6. Deal with evil bosses, neighbors, HOA rules
7. Buying electronic gadgets and becoming bankrupt as you have to refresh them every few years
8. list goes on....

So simple living high thinking is the hallmark of theists...

Srila Prabhupada, founder of ISKCOn said many times: [1]

Whatever is absolutely necessary, a brāhma?a will accept, not more than that. That is simplicity, simple living, high thinking.

Lecture on SB 1.8.21 -- Mayapura, October 1, 1974:?The brāhma?a, their duty is how to practice to control the mind, to control the senses, ?amo damas titik?ā, to be tolerant, to be very simple, simple living, not very gorgeous living. Whatever is absolutely necessary, a brāhma?a will accept, not more than that. That is simplicity,?simple living, high thinking. So this is brāhma?a's... ?amo damas titik?ā ārjavam. And then j?ānam. J?ānam means to understand what is what. People are all in ignorance rascals. The brāhma?a should not be rascal. Therefore brāhma?a is given the title pa??ita.

Make life very simple. And simple living, high thinking, and always conscious to go back to home, back to K???a.

Lecture on SB 6.1.49 -- New Orleans Farm, August 1, 1975:?The devotee's life should be yāvad artha-prayojanam. We require material necessities as much as it is required, no artificial life. That is spiritual life. Simply increasing artificial life, even for shaving, a big machine is required. What is this? Simply wasting time. Devil's workshop. Make life very simple. And?simple living, high thinking, and always conscious to go back to home, back to K???a. That is life. Not this life, that simply machine, machine, machine, machine. So if you show practical example that how you are living simple life and how you are advanced in K???a consciousness, then people will learn from you.

So if you want to be peaceful, happy, you have to again bring in the Vedic culture, simple life and high thinking. That is wanted. If you introduce more and more anarthas only, unwanted things, how you can be happy?

Lecture on SB 7.12.4 -- Bombay, April 15, 1976:?So if you want to be peaceful, happy, you have to again bring in the Vedic culture,?simple life and high thinking. That is wanted. If you introduce more and more anarthas only, unwanted things, how you can be happy? We have to minimize even whatever we absolutely require. Absolutely we require āhāra-nidrā-bhaya-maithuna? ca. It has to be curtailed. That is civilization, not that increasing. This is a misguiding civilization. Andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānā? [SB 7.5.31]. This is a civilization where a blind man is guiding a few others or many other blind men.

Prabhupāda: So if you can educate people, they will be united. This is actually united nations movement. Actually see how these Europeans, Americans, and Africans, and others, without any artificial allurement, how we are keeping together. Nobody is dissatisfied with humble eating, humble living, humbly, plain living. So it is possible. There is possibility. We live?simple life, high thinking-United Nation. We can possibly... And there will be no scarcity. If we live?simple life with K???a conscious thinking, There will be no scarcity.

Hari-?auri: Just like India has so many villages. Because they are living simply, then there's enough for everyone.

Prabhupāda: No scarcity. Population increasing? You increase your food. So much land everywhere vacant, all over the world. But that they will not do. They will keep the cattles and eat. Cattle also, they want vegetables. Otherwise where you'll get cattle? But therefore in Bhagavad-gītā, annād bhavanti bhūtāni [Bg. 3.14]. Produce food grains. Just like this is. How nice it is, from paddy. So you take the paddies, rice, eat, and the grass you can utilize in so many ways. Anywhere you can till the ground, you get paddy and the grass. Make your cottage. So shelter is there. And the animals also like this grass. You can make home. Where is the scarcity? Plain living, high thinking, and prepare for next life. Go back home, back to Godhead. Finish this hellish life of repeated birth and death.

Our motto is simple living, high thinking; we should think of Krishna without being hampered by material disturbances, as far as possible.

Letter to Mukunda -- Los Angeles 18 February, 1968:?Please accept my blessings. I thank you very much for your letter dated Feb. 15, 1968, and noted the contents. I have already instructed Jayananda not to occupy the storefront in Berkeley if it is too much risky. We should not accept anything very risky because that will hamper us in our program of Krishna Consciousness. Our motto is?simple living, high thinking; we should think of Krishna without being hampered by material disturbances, as far as possible. So too much risky thing is not for us. If something comes very easily for our manipulation we welcome it.

Dr. John B. Orr, Director of the School of Religion at the University of Southern California, appraised ISKCON’s social implications in this way: “Perhaps your movement is the revolution we’ve all been waiting for.” [2]

Why did Dr. Orr call the Krishna consciousness society revolutionary? Perhaps because Krishna consciousness strikes at the heart of humanity’s problems, our forgotten relationship with the Supreme Being. Specifically, awareness of our relationship with God generates knowledge of the natural laws that govern the successful organization of society. Therefore, although Krishna consciousness is primarily a system for rectifying our spiritual predicament, it solves our material problems as well.

References:

1. https://vaniquotes.org/wiki/Simple_living_high_thinking
2. https://back2godhead.com/simple-living-high-thinking/