OM SRI SURABHYAI NAMAH! OM SRI GURAVE NAMAH!
This is the sixteenth Quarterly Report summarizing the on-going developments of the OM Sri Surabhi Campaign – 2015 to 2027 – in our attempt to promote the varnasrama mission both in India and in various countries. All the previous reports published can be read on our two main websites at www.iskconvarnasrama.com and www.srisurabhi.org.
OCTOBER 2018
ISKCON Habibpur, India
On October 8, 2018, Kautilya along with Rama Laksman das from the Ministry Secretariat in Mayapur visited the ISKCON Habibpur project in the District of Nadia, West Bengal. The devotees have some agriculture land and were eager to learn the more natural farming methods in keeping with the ancient Vedic heritage. Two varieties of natural seeds were introduced and devotees appreciated the information received. While in Mayapur, devotees from the Ministry visited the Gurukula where some of the students expressed an interest in holding a similar seminar later during the year.
Cow Culture Conference in Malaysia
With the kind assistance of Jonson in Penang and Simhesvara das in Kuala Lumpur, devotees organized a Cow Culture Conference on October 10 and 11 to speak about the importance and the glories of not only Cow Care but the whole Cow Culture upon which Vedic life is meant to be moulded. Cow Culture covers both the economic, educational, social and political aspect of any society serious about making tangible progress towards the primary advancement in society, spiritual emancipation. When long standing principles are respected and followed, one automatically reaps the benefits of economic development by living a life more in harmony with the self and nature. The full report of both conferences is available at Archives on the Home Page of the srisurabhi.org website.
Dharma Gau Gram Yatra in India
Village outreach programs under IDVM-India and connected with a doctoral research at Osmania University under the Department of Sociology continued after the visits to Ukraine and Indonesia with concerted efforts in the State of Telangana in the first part of the month and then shifting to Karnataka area, beginning with villages surrounding Mangalore. After covering four villages in Dakshina Kannada, the team travelled to villages in the Udupi District.
Udupi District villages that the devotees visited seem much more conscious of the need to avoid plastics and have thus introduced at the Panchayat levels cotton bags that now replace plastic bags. A very good initiative to help address ecological concerns. Devotees came to know that the District of Udupi had won First Prize among all the Districts in India for its consistent efforts to keep the District clean by introducing cotton bags. In all the Panchayat offices, one can see thousands of such bags bearing testimony to their ecological stewardship.
New Interim Chairman for IDVM-India EC
Our elected EC Chairman for the Ministry, HG Jananivas das, requested to be relieved temporarily of his duties due to personal reasons. In his place, the Ministry chose HG Rama Laksman das who will act as Chairman till the next Annual Meeting of IDVM-India scheduled for January, 2019.
Laguda Pratipat – Festival of Cattle
On October 25th, the Festival of Cattle, the first of its kind in Telangana, was organized by Kautilya, a young enthusiast graduate eager to help promote natural farming and cow protection. A number of individuals and organizations participated in the walk that attracted public media.
Sat-Sandarbha Seminar in Mayapur
IDVM-India was happy to sponsor a one week intensive series of courses from October 22nd to October 27th on Srila Jiva Goswami’s Sat-Sandarbhas in Sri Dham Mayapur. HG Venu Gopal das who is in the process of completing his Ph.D. in Sanskrit from the University of Benares facilitated the course. A good number of students attended the courses that went from morning till evening.
Some students from China who happened to be in Mayapur at that time took keep interest and invited the speaker to present a seminar in China some time in the new year 2019.
NOVEMBER 2018
Youth Rural Outreach
On November 3rd, IDVM-India set up a new national Department entitled ‘Youth Rural Outreach” appointing HG Rama Laksman das as the new Director and arranging for him to set up his office at the Sahyadri Sri Krishna Balarama Ksetra (SSKBK) in the /District of Udupi. Udupi area is known for its many colleges and universities where students from all over India and abroad come to study. SSKBK has been spearheading a youth preaching program initially called Bhaktivedanta Youth Services (BYS) that goes back some 20 years.
In addition to this program, the Ministry also selected a permanent building for its Varnasrama College where at different times of the month, short-term and mid-term courses will be provided. Rama Laksman das takes up the new service with enthusiasm and we are hopeful many new developments in the matter of bringing more youth involved in rural outreach programs will take place.
Varnasrama Book Trust (VBT)
The first VBT book rack was set up at the ISKON Mangalore temple with an attractive banner announcing Varnasrama Book Trust. Srila Prabhupada wanted that every single temple become an educational centre where one establishes a Varnasrama College to educate our devotees and the congregation in general. The Ministry invites other temples to set up such a book stand. So far, VBT had published 14 titles and distributed over 20,000 literatures related to the Varnasrama Mission.
IDVM-India Calendar 2019
The ministry has published its fourth edition of the Ministry Calendar this year choosing as main its main theme traditional technologies. The devotee responsible to do the research and solicit adds for the calendar is Subhananda Hari das. He has a team of young talented artist such as Kevin and Manjunath assisting him.
Ukraine Varnasrama College Progress
On November 14, 2019, we were informed of the on-going progress on the Mother Farm Varnasrama College headed by HG Yamuna Prana das. Although winter in Ukraine, the devotees have continued to build and have completed the first floor.
Gopastami at SSKBK
Devotees at SSKBK this year celebrated Gopastami amidst the 40 plus cows that make up the Sahyadri Surabhi Goshala. Since a number of months now, devotees rotate the cows in various pastures within the SSKBK Campus. Each grazing area is provided with clean water and grass for the comfort of the cows. There are at present six such pasturing Plots and Krishna willing, this can gradually increase to at least eight grazing areas.
DECEMBER 2018
Cambodia and Ahimsa Milk
Devotees in Cambodia acquired two cows this year and now both have a calf. For some unknown reasons people of Cambodia, although having many cows and many natural cows originally from India, have forgotten how to milk the cows. In an effort to gradually introduce the natural practice of milking cows by hand, our young Brahmacari Jagadish Ananda das found himself learning how to take milk from the cows.
GAURI Calendar – 2019
As last year, devotees in Indonesia who are very active in cow protection by performing Go Puja at some 30 locations every month on Purnima Day, have published their own calendar depicting some of the on-going activities in Indonesia. The calendar was published and distributed widely at the beginning of December, 2019 in time for the new year.
Kamyavan Seminar
On December 14, some 40 local farmers from the local Kamyavan project in Telangana, under the guidance and leadership of HG Sri Rama das, attended a one day seminar on natural farming. There was also an evening program at a nearby village where some over 100 local villagers attended enthusiastically a lecture after participating in a bullock cart procession and Go puja.
The special Guest of honour was Mr. Reddy who has been trained by the well-known Subhash Palekar in doing natural farming. He spoke extensively of go mutra, jivamrita, bhijamrita and natural cow based farming techniques often forgotten or unknown by modern farmers. As part of the program, three recently arrived cows were given the names of SURABHI, KAMADHENU AND SARASVATI. The owner who donated the cows to Kamyavan was on hand to perform an elaborate go puja, followed by the seminar and prasadam for all attendees.
Ganga Sagara Baru Report
In mid-December, we were pleased to receive a more detailed Report of the Project Ganga Sagara Baru (New Ganga Sagara). Feeling inspired by the government support to put into cultivation 70 hectares of their land holdings (Total of 125 hectares), the devotees have gradually been developing the project which is becoming more and more self-sufficient. The devotee in charge since many years, Sundar Gopal das, plants sufficient paddy (rice) that will keep and his family going for the next four years. He has two children who are helping developing the project.
ISKCON Communications Seminar in Delhi
Although received in somewhat short notice, the news of the ISKCON Communications Seminar in Delhi with the Global Minister for Communication, HG Anuttama das, being present gave the ministry an opportunity to send one of its young and enthusiastic representative, Sriman Raghava who happened to be on Christmas holiday from Chennai. We were able to get one seat at the seminar and young Raghava attended the entire event. During his stay in Delhi, he also met with the Global Director of Communications and presented him with a recent publication of the Ministry, Modernity is Killing Civilization.
Dharma Gau Gram Yatra Year-end Review
By the end of the year, Dharma Gau Gram Yatra, a joint effort of IDVM-India and the research project connected with Osmania University completed 27 villages in India and 4 Vaisvnava Communities outside India for a total of 31 villages outreach programs. The period covered late April 2018 to December 31, 2018.
In this coming year 2019, the Dharma Gau Gram Yatra aims to visit six Vaisnava Communities in different countries and at least another 60 villages in India. Already covered are Canada, the USA, Ukraine and Indonesia.
If any Vaisnava Community outside of India not yet covered would like to participate in the Dharma Gau Gram Yatra, please feel free to contact the Secretariat in Sri Mayapur.
Reported by HH Bhakti Raghava Swami