Chapter 15: New Vṛndāvana The Community of Souls: Unity in Authority

The integral or utopian community is not new in American history. Indeed, it has been a most basic part of our history from the Puritan experiment at Massachusetts Bay in the 1630's to this New Vṛndāvana experiment in the 1970's.

Despite differences of dress and circumstance, the aim of most of these communal experiences has been basically the same: to find a setting in which God consciousness, expanded consciousness, or "Kṛṣṇa consciousness" can be pursued so that man's journey through this temporary sphere of material existence can be successfully completed to transfer his consciousness to the Absolute or to the realms of eternality. The conception of a "community of souls" is founded on the premise that such a transferral is easier collectively than individually. Different experimenters have expressed the ideal community in different ways. Some have been more successful than others, largely depending on the authority on which the community is based. Some have been based upon a strong personal authority (Brigham Young or John Smith and the Mormons, or Humphrey Knolls and the Socialist Community at Oneida). New Vṛndāvana is different in that it is based on perfect authority. If we analyze the various communities of the past we can see that they have fallen apart because they could not agree as to what was the center of the community, what was its aims, what was its unifying point. The most successful communities tended to be those that were strongly religious. They could unify on the basis of the worship of God. And obviously where the concept of God is most agreed upon, that community will be most united and most harmonious. So, at New Vṛndāvana we are basing our community on God, or "Kṛṣṇa," as revealed by guru and śāstra, that is, the spiritual master and the information given by God Himself in the Vedic scripture Bhagavad-gītā. The essense of that teaching is the sublime chanting of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra: Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare, and it is through this transcendental vibration that there is unity of purpose at New Vṛndāvana.

Transcendental Activity:
Devotion Through Work

The New Vṛndāvana experiment helps the young people in the Society direct their service toward Kṛṣṇa. Most Americans are acquainted with Kṛṣṇa through the Bhagavad-gītā. In that Scripture, Kṛṣṇa, speaking as the Supreme Godhead, gives instructions to Arjuna, a man caught in the complexities of daily life, how to attain Him, the ultimate goal of all. In brief, Kṛṣṇa tells him to execute this work, but to do it for the sake of the Supreme. This is the primary message of the Gītā. The New Vṛndāvana Project puts this message into practice. This is also the actualization of St. Paul's, "Whatever you do in word or in work, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Jesus Christ, our Lord." It is not that Kṛṣṇa consciousness is inactive in any sense. The practitioners engage in work which may appear to be ordinary work but is in fact devotional service due to the change in consciousness. Everyone in New Vṛndāvana is aware that his work is devotional in character and is directed to the Supreme Godhead because the factual proprietor of the land, of the buildings, of the temples, of the food, of the vehicles, tools and all the varied paraphernalia is Kṛṣṇa. The awareness of Kṛṣṇa's proprietorship enables the devotee to advance in Kṛṣṇa consciousness while executing his daily chores.

New Vṛndavana:
The Land

In August, 1968, the Society purchased 133 acres of beautiful farm and woodland near Wheeling, West Virginia. The land contains meadows, pastures and good garden land, and there are springs, creeks and waterfalls. The original buildings consist of a farmhouse, barn, and several other small buildings. More than thirty Society members have taken up permanent residence on the farm and have begun working the land to change it into a transcendental community. Already some of the old buildings have been renovated to allow for temporary residence, and several new A-frame houses have been constructed, but largely the project is in the formative stage. At present there are approximately a thousand acres of adjacent land up for sale, and as our needs require we will expand geographically. Land can be purchased in West Virginia at a nominal sum.

Indian Model

What does "New Vṛndāvana" mean? Vṛndā is the Sanskrit name for the holy tulasī trees, and vana means forest. Today Vṛndāvana is a holy town in India, some ninety miles southeast of Delhi. Five thousand years ago when Lord Kṛṣṇa, the Absolute Godhead, descended on earth, He sported in Vṛndāvana as a cowherd boy. Now Vṛndāvana has thousands of temples dedicated to Lord Kṛṣṇa, and thousands of pilgrims come there each year to pay homage to the speaker of the Bhagavad-gītā. New Vṛndāvana will be modeled on this village, and, like its model, will have seven major temples.

New Vṛndāvana and Cow Protection

When Kṛṣṇa descended from the spiritual sky 5,000 years ago, He gave a practical example of the ideal life when He sported as a cowherd boy. He showed that man can live very simply and reserve his main energies for what Emerson called "high thinking" ("plain living and high thinking") by protecting and cultivating the cow. So one of the aims of New Vṛndāvana is to protect the cow and to demonstrate the value of the cow in providing for the sustenance of man.

At New Vṛndāvana, the cow is more than just an ordinary animal. Aside from the fact that Kṛṣṇa was very fond of cows and that the cow is considered man's second mother in the Vedas ("dhenu mātā"), the cow represents man's religion or man's yearning and love for God. When such yearning and love are slaughtered, then man is left with the empty shell of materialism, or life without principle and meaning. So one of the main functions of New Vṛndāvana is to demonstrate the humane practicality of cow protection.

Agricultural and Horticultural Programs

An important part of our program is the development of agricultural land. Presently four acres of garden are under cultivation. An extensive fruit orchard has just been planted. This will all increase as we reach toward our goal of self-sufficiency. With our hothouses and our canning process, we anticipate supplying our own food year round. As for animal husbandry, we now have five milk cows (Jerseys), and this will soon be tripled, giving us a more than adequate supply of milk, butter, cheeses, etc. Also, in our attempt to avoid machinery as far as possible, we have two workhorses that transport materials up from the main road and plow and cultivate our gardens. When our cows give bulls, we will use oxen to do much of the heavy work.

Primary and Secondary Education

Immediately plans call for the building of a schoolhouse and dormitories for a primary and secondary school. There are at least twenty children of Society members who wish to attend school at New Vṛndāvana. Classes have already begun, and a schoolhouse is now under construction. The faculty of the New Vṛndāvana School includes one PhD, several MA's and several former teachers of elementary and secondary schools.

The curriculum includes courses in Kṛṣṇa, study of the Vedic literature, Bhagavad-gītā, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Brahma-saṁhitā, the Upaniṣads and the basic śāstras, as well as the basic courses in American history, American and British literature, mathematics, etc. That is, a firm basis of the traditional academic subjects, as well as practical training in horticulture, agriculture and Vedic scriptures, is being offered.

Construction of Temples and Living Quarters

The most extraordinary feature of New Vṛndāvana will be the temples. Temples will be constructed in such a way as to create a replica of Vṛndāvana, India. In Vṛndāvana, India, there are seven principal temples as well as thousands of small, private temples. The "thousands" may not be realized immediately, but our program does call for the building of seven major temples, if not all on the present 133-acre site, at least on some of the adjacent land we will be acquiring in the future.

In addition to temples and a school, we are building quarters for single male students and married couples. Quarters for the unmarried men (brahmacārīs) will be individual cabins designed for not more than two. Married couples (gṛhasthas) will of course have their own dwellings.

A Typical Day

Specifically, how are the residents of New Vṛndāvana engaged? The day begins at 5 a.m. as a gong announces a lively ārātrika, which involves dancing and the singing of Sanskrit songs and hymns. Then there is a group chanting of the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra and a reading and discussion of Bhagavad-gītā. This lasts until 7 a.m. Breakfast prasādam is served after the chanting, and by 8 a.m. the men are out in the fields working on the pasture or in the gardens—cultivating flowers, grains, fruits and vegetables—or building roads, clearing land, building walkways and buildings, milking cows, tending the animals, or any one of the many farm chores; and the women are engaged in preparing the main noon meal, tending children, churning butter, and cleaning. Most of the daily chores are carried on between 8 a.m. and 1 p.m., at which time the main meal of the day is served. The remainder of the afternoon is devoted to personal activities—which may include chanting, reading or bathing at the waterfall and stream that run through the property. Then at 7 p.m. another ārātrika and chanting is begun. There is usually a lecture on Bhagavad-gītā or Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam following the chanting. These activities usually last until 9 p.m., when more food is taken. Everyone is usually in bed around 10 or 10:30.

The children are on a slightly different schedule. They attend school from 10 to 12 a.m. and from 3 to 5 p.m. During the other hours, their training is of a practical sort, and they are under the guidance of one of the older members in the various departments of activity.

Statements by Śrīla Prabhupāda on New Vṛndāvana

"The Vṛndāvana conception is that of a transcendental village, without any of the botheration of the modern industrial atmosphere. My idea of developing New Vṛndāvana is to create an atmosphere of spiritual life where people in the bona fide divisions of society—namely brahmacārīs, (celibate students), gṛhasthas (householders), vānaprasthas (the retired), and sannyāsīs (renounced holy men)—will live independently, completely depending on agricultural produce and milk from the cows."

"To retire from activities is not a very good idea for the conditioned soul. I have very good experience, not only in our country, but also in your country, that this tendency of retiring from activities pushes one down to the platform of laziness, and gradually to the ideas of the hippies.

"One should always remain active in Kṛṣṇa's service; otherwise strong māyā (illusion) will catch him and engage him in her service. Our constitutional position being to render service, we cannot stop activity. So New Vṛndāvana may not be turned into a place of retirement, but some sort of activities must go on there. If there is good prospective land, we should keep cows and produce some grains, flowers and fruits, so that those living there may have sufficient work and facility for advancing in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

"Vṛndavana does not require to be modernized, because Kṛṣṇa's Vṛndāvana is a transcendental village. They completely depend on nature's beauty and nature's protection. The community in which Kṛṣṇa preferred to belong was the vaiśya community, because Nanda Mahārāja (Kṛṣṇa's foster father, with whom He spent His childhood while on Earth) happened to be a vaiśya king, or landholder, and his main business was cow protection. It is understood that he had 900,000 cows, and Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma, along with Kṛṣṇa's many cowherd boy friends, used to take charge of them. Every day, in the morning, Kṛṣṇa used to go out with His friends and cows into the pasturing grounds.

"So, if you seriously want to convert this spot into New Vṛndāvana, I shall advise you not to make it very much modernized. But as you are American boys, you must make it just suitable to your minimum needs. Nor should you make it too luxurious, as Europeans and Americans are generally accustomed. Better to live there without modern amenities and to live a natural, healthy life for executing Kṛṣṇa consciousness. It may be an ideal village where the residents will have plain living and high thinking.

"For plain living we must have sufficient land for raising crops, and pasturing grounds for the cows. If there are sufficient grains and sufficient production of milk, then the whole economic problem is solved. You do not require any machines, cinemas, hotels, slaughterhouses, brothels, nightclubs-all these modern amenities. People in the spell of māyā are trying to squeeze out gross pleasure from the senses, which it is not possible to derive to our heart's content. Therefore we are confused and baffled in our attempt to get eternal pleasure from gross matter. Actually, joyful life is on the spiritual platform, and therefore we should try to save our valuable time from material activities and engage it in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

"The idea is that people residing in New Vṛndāvana may not have to search for work outside. Arrangements should be such that the residents will be self-satisfied. That will make an ideal āśrama. I do not know whether these ideals can be given practical shape, but I think like that, that people may be happy in any place with land or cow, without endeavoring for the so-called amenities of modern life, which simply increase anxieties for maintenance and proper equipment. The less we are anxious for maintaining our body, the more we become favorable for advancing in Kṛṣṇa consciousness."

"Now we can work with great enthusiasm for constructing a New Vṛndāvana in the United States of America. People who came here from Europe to this part of the world named so many new provinces, just like New England, New Amsterdam and New York. So I also came to this part of the world to preach Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and by His grace and by your endeavor, New Vṛndāvana is being constructed. That is my great happiness. Our sincere endeavor in the service of the Lord, and of the Lord's assistants, to make our progressive march successful-these are two important things to be followed in the spiritual advancement of life."