Obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. I haven’t heard anyone suggest that one farm is going to supply the world. On the other hand, are you suggesting that we should have no farms to supply the world? Srila Prabhupada left ample instructions for us to develop our rural communities and my thought is that we start on that level before trying to take on the world. To date, we haven’t even been capable of developing one farm let alone taking on any greater responsibility. The suggestion seems impractical, to be polite; an hallucination to be more precise.
But if that is your destiny then go for it. Don’t let me discourage you.
I was a farm inspector for fifteen years in the organic food industry and did a short bout at university studying int’l development. The modern trend has to change to developing small farms rather than large collectives as they are not sustainable. That means that they aren’t in the mode of goodness but rather passion and ignorance. Cultivating large tracts of land requires unsustainable energy utilization, large investment and equipment. It isn’t Vedic nor portends simple living, high thinking by any means.
Frankly, my guess is that I’d be much closer to fulfilling Srila Prabhupada’s wishes pulling weeds in Varaha, Damagosa or Dravinaksa Prabhus’ gardens and offering the produce to the Deities than flying an airplane spraying toxic biocides on treeless fields that stretch from here to the horizon.
My guess is that if we act for Krsna via implementing the ideas of one of the greatest social visionaries of all time, i.e. HDG Srila Prabhupada, we will do more for humanity than any alternative.
Hare Krsna,
Vyapaka dasa
a friend explained to me that the 4 year agriculture course at the U of Florida Gainesville FL,
only teaches along with the use of toxic pesticides. They teach absolutely no organic farming methods at that huge university. Living in Gainesville Florida last 4 years i see the attitude
of the city & state is more asphalt & less trees. This is in general of course but very true. For example, they recently built an asphalt,(i prefer packed dirt with some small gravel), bike path which is the size of a small road right next to 6th street where i live. To build this bike “road”, they cut down more trees. My neighbor had to warn them about disturbing his fence by uprooting some close to the fence. But, the fact is that 6th street next to this bike road, is already at least “double” the width that it needs be for local traffic. They could easily have left the foliage area instead of paving it, & made a bike path using a fraction of 6th street. And then still added some nice trees. North Florida is excessively hot & humid in summer & still right now sept 10th, whereas large trees off set the heat. The city government allows and builds new large structures right next to the sidewalk with practically zero space for trees or anything green between the building & the sidewalk. The environmental mentality of city planners is horrendous. Srila Prabhupada mentions how they never plant fruit or nut trees. satyahit das
update I have heard that presently some organioc farming techniques have been introduced to the U of F program
Thanks for the update Vyapaka . .
I don’t really understand how getting a acre of land and one cow could/would make some one self sufficient and solve ones economic problems. How will you take care of the cow and grow all of the crops needed to be self sufficient on that little of land? What will you do with all of the offspring? How will you build your home, pay the land taxes, insurance, etc, etc, etc. To me it seems like a more workable plan if there was a institutional project for backing/support.
Please help as i’m really confused here and I would very much like to do this service for Srila Prabhupada.
your servant, o.f.s.
o.f.s.
Words will not solve your confusion. That will only happen by realization. Where I grew up, a field with 20 cows was big, so you can imagine my confusion when reading Krishna Book;
90,000,000 horses! was simply unbelievable, until I had the blessing of being in the Pana-nrsimha temple in Mangalagiri. (A picture of this temple is in the authorized C.C. Madhya lila 3). Looking out from this temple, over the surrounding plains, I realized that 90,000,000 horses and all the rest, was not so fantastic after all.
Thank you Krishna das for taking the time to comment. I have read that passage in the Krsna book before, it is pretty amazing how the VAD system work in the past. Srila Prabhupada said that 1/2 of his work wasn’t done in 1977, well here we are in 2013, many, many years later and not much progress has been made on fulfilling that order/desire of HDG. I HAVE realized that much. Being we are in such a fallen state and in the dark age of Kali, my quandary is, I want to know how do we get started doing this? Prabhupadas instructions seem simple enough, I just want to figure out how to put them into practice. In other words it doesn’t seem as simple as getting a acre of land and a cow. That is only the beginning, anyone can do that. If you listen to the different things that Prabhupada said about living simply it becomes very difficult AND VERY EXPENSIVE. Where is the simple living and high thinking in that??? That’s why I said it sure seems like there would be better odds of success if there was institutional backing/help the to get the program off the ground. Just trying it by yourself it seems would take a few lifetimes!
o.f.s.
One fallen soul says ; ” ……….. If you listen to the different things that Prabhupada said about living simply it becomes very difficult AND VERY EXPENSIVE. Where is the simple living and high thinking in that??? ”
I am simply sharing this real life happening with the readers. Not too long ago ( about 50 years or so ), I was a school boy. I remembered that my Grand father had a big parcel of land in India. He divided the land in to two sizes, one small size and second one large size. Large size he sold to some one and the small one he gave away to a Kishan (a farmer) who used to cultivate the land for my Grand father. That farmer grew so much food stuff from that small parcel of land, unbelievable. Whereas the new owner of the large land could not even develop any thing because he was thinking commercialization of the large land he bought out from my Grand Father.
The point I am making is that the farmer has had dedication and full faith in what he was doing and made it to a success and thus, he lived off the land very happily with his family.
Hope it helps understanding the simple living concept as Sriman Vyapaka dasa Prabhu points out in his article under reference.
Hari BOL.
All Glories to Srila Prabhupada.