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By: HG RamaLakshman Dasa
After celebrating Gour Purnima festival 2019 at Sahyadri Sri Krishna Balaram Kshetra, I wanted to visit the farm in Chikkamangalore district, where Priya Govinda Prabhu, a Brahmachari, along with two other grihastha devotees lives on the land located near Nanthur village.
Chikkamangalore is the capital of coffee plantation, situated in Karnataka, India. I reached on Sunday afternoon and in the evening Priya Govinda Prabhu, along with two other Brahmachari devotees took us to a 1200-year old Sita Rama Lakshman Hanuman temple. After darshan, we met one Sanskrit pandit under whom Priya Govinda Prabhu is learning Sanskrit. Later, he took us to Kamala Lochana Prabhu’s home where we were served dinner on banana leaves. The menu was as follows: Ragi Mudda (Hot ball made from Ragi, a millet), sambhar and sweets.
Next morning we headed towards the farm. For a new person to cross few hillocks up and down may look bit difficult. As I am used to travelling in the interior places of India, I enjoyed the drive. After reaching our destination, we walked through the small lane that led to the farm. We crossed the fence and passed through the pond to finally reach the beautifully constructed mud houses. After refreshing and having lunch the devotees asked me to take rest in one of the houses. I went and lay down to take a nap, but the quietness of the place and fresh air from the forest didn’t let me, rather it filled me with a lot of energy.
In the evening we went around and saw Priya Govinda Prabhu watering the vegetable garden that he has grown for his Guru Maharaj (H.H. Bhakti Vikas Swami, who is expected to arrive for Sriram Navami festival and stay there for a couple of months. This will be His Holiness’ first visit to the farm and all the devotees were very excited about that). We took water from the pond. After sunset, we attended Gaura Arathi and a few devotees requested me to speak. I started explaining ISKCON’s Four movements that Srila Prabhupada had introduced. Then I shared some of the thoughts from “Modernity is Killing Civilization,” a recent book written by H.H. R.P. Bhakti Raghava Swami, wherein Bhishma Dev explains to Yudhisthir Maharaj that any society which does not care or respect the three important mothers namely Mother Earth (Bhumata), Mother Surabhi (Gomata) and Mother Knowledge (Saraswati), gets destroyed. I highlighted how the present, so-called modern civilization, has been badly exploiting these very three mothers and as a result of that, we are suffering and facing so many problems at social, political, economic, health planes, simultaneously at the individual level, at the community level and at the global level. Devotees heard very attentively and acknowledged that as devotees of Krishna we have a very important and great role to play in society building. Thereafter, we headed for rest.
Next day morning we attended Mangala Arathi and the rest of the morning program. After breakfast, I was taken on a guided tour of the farm. The property on the east side touches the Himavathi river, a tributary of the Kaveri river. On the way, I noticed a tent in the bushes. That’s where Priya Govinda Prabhu resides! I walked through the fields and reached a place where Bharath Prabhu, a native of Madhya Pradesh was constructing a house for his family to relocate. Then we returned to where I was offered accommodation. In the noon, I had lunch of farm grown rice, with pumpkin subji and dal.
Even though the project is still in its early stages, but the dedication and determination of the devotees were very encouraging and inspiring. They informed me that in the near future a few more devotees would be joining them. The salient feature of the project was their non-usage of electricity.
After spending some time, I left. When I was leaving one of the devotees appreciated the tour that I had taken a few years ago to their farm and the related report. I left with lots of sweet memories and plans to revisit soon.
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