November 17, 2014. Adventures in New Jaipur, Prabhupadanuga Farm in Fiji
A few months ago I planted a few handfuls of peanuts in their shells, and chose a corner of the garden where we had removed two coconut stumps, and as a result the topsoil had been mixed up with lower strata material. Throughout the drought, the peanut bushes stayed dark green and had pretty yellow flowers, although I watered them once in a while. Then the leaves started yellowing, and I thought they were giving up their bodies due to thirst stress. “Oh well, that didn’t work out,” I was thinking. Time to make way for something else, and I pulled out a bush, surprised to see peanut shells hanging from the roots. Digging around, I found more in the soil. By this point in the story, everyone knows I am a novice gardener, but I was a happy novice as I went about my first peanut harvest. Maybe we grew some peanuts in New Talavan, but that was so long ago, it might as well have been a previous life…
So, this farm IS worth peanuts after all… 
I set about plucking them from the roots in the farm kitchen, then shelling them in the living room, and gave some immature ones to Hari, our pet Taveuni musk parrot. Whenever I bring him something, he gets excited and paces back and forth as I near his cage. Cautiously I hold it out to him as he looks at me, then at the peanut, as though to say, “What’s this?” Then he snatches it with his beak as he climbs up to his perch. He nibbles, and then let’s out a loud cry of approval WHEEOOOUUU !!, as he does for all prasadam treats from strawberries to Tulasi leaves to marigolds.
I ended up with about a kilo of little red-skinned peanuts, and they went into the Lord’s salads and fruit plates every day for a month. They were tasty, oily, and full of energy. It was nice to succeed in growing something new. I proceeded to expand the peanut plot by four or five times the size, and replanted, as they can be grown year-round. Peanuts do not require much attention and prosper in poor soil (think Georgia, the Deep South, and ex-President Carter) and are high in protein. Peanuts and raisins are great on ekadasi too. WHEEOOOUUU !!
BATTERY REJUVENATION
New Jaipur, of course, is an off grid project, by circumstance and by choice. Our last five residences, from North Carolina to Hawaii to the island in Panama, were powered by solar panels, inverters and batteries. Due to some installation Errors here in Fiji, our batteries became sulfated and could not hold much charge. We routed 4 panels to separately “trickle-charge” a set of 8 batteries at a time, and the sulfation was reduced; the batteries have become rejuvenated back to 80-90% from 25% before. Hopefully they will serve us and Radha Govinda well for many more years. We have 24 Kyocera panels 205 W each, two 2500 Watt inverters, 24 Rolls Surette batteries (6V), and two charge controllers- to power the large dharmashalla. The building has 2 refrigerators, 10,000 sq ft under roof, about 30 rooms (including internet room, guest rooms, 6 bathrooms, laundry rooms, and of course a solar equipment & battery room.
MOUNTAIN APPLES
November in Fiji is about the same as May in the northern hemisphere- springtime. Temperatures are not hot yet and the nights are cool and breezy, in the mid 70’s F. The mangos have been ripening, in stages, some trees first, then others. The pineapples are coming ripe too- we planted several thousand but moved most of them last year, and many will not make fruits this year. We get at least one a day for now, but by Christmas, we will have to sell the extras.
Due to the drought that ended last month, our fruits are producing more and bigger, and the indigenous kavika trees (mountain apples) that were already on the property when we arrived are now FULL of red fruits. There is one kavika in the beach pasture (with its two baby trees close by) that didn’t do much last year, and I went down to see it a few days ago. The scene was quite amazing with thousands of 3 inch fruits dangling from the sides of all sizes of branches, in all shades of red. Kavika harvest lasts about a week or two as the fruits ripen from light green to pink to cherry red and finally a deep maroon. This tree must be 60 feet high- huge! Fruits were scattered all over the ground and I watched as occasional red bombs came hurtling down to be softly swallowed into the deep blue batiki grasses.
With an extendable fiberglass fruit picker that I’ve had since Hawaii, I collected a few bags to offer the deities. Every time I touched a clump of fruits, several would fall on my head or shoulders. It was like the Little Krishna video where Madhu gets rained upon by falling wood apples. Kavikas are soft, thin-skinned, juicy, white fleshed, not too sweet, and produce a sense of mental refreshment and clarity (maybe that’s because they were offered to Krishna…?) What an opulence to live in the tropics and have so many kinds of fruits growing on the village lands. Today we offered Radha Govinda our first Valencia orange- it was hardly ripe, but we couldn’t wait. Many of the dozen or so Valencia trees are setting fruit for the first time this coming season. Meanwhile there are tons of bananas and papayas too. Jaya !
COCOA, CACAO, AND CHOCOLATE
Last week one of the workers told me that we had cocoa fruits in a rarely frequented corner of the upper orchard (we have two orchards). I went with the two boys and they were excited to see for the first time a dozen bright yellow-orange pods hiding under the leaves of a small 10 foot high tree. We lugged them home and Sridevi immediately called her mother Guruvastaka Mataji in Washington, DC, as she remembered her parents making cocoa powder for hot milk when she grew up in the Caribbean islands of Trinidad. Having obtained the procedure from mom, she set about getting the seeds out of the pods and putting them in a tray in the sun. After several steps, the beans can be ground into cocoa powder. Of course, there’s the ongoing controversy about what Prabhupada said about chocolate due to its caffeine content. On the internet I saw that a full 200 gram milk chocolate bar has about a sixth of the caffeine in a Starbucks coffee. I heard Prabhupada liked Swiss chocolate on his visit to Geneva in 1974, but Hari Sauri Prabhu says when Prabhupada heard there was caffeine in chocolate, he said in late 1976 we shouldn’t take it. Maybe the issue of chocolate was addressed by Prabhupada again after that; but obviously, as a flavoring, cocoa’s caffeine is negligible whereas several big bars of chocolate could be slightly inebriating. What to do with our cocoa? (also known as CACAO) We wish this was the only serious issue facing the Hare Krishna Movement- can you imagine how nice it would be if Prabhupada was still the initiating guru everywhere in the movement? I would certainly be willing to do without cocoa flavored milk under those circumstances (but nothing less :).
THE COWS
All is going well with the three cows here, and they have been shifted into the third paddock to manage the grazing in a better way. Each time they are moved, they run and skip like little kids in the playground after long school hours, then quickly settle into serious chomping of the fresh grasses. Sounds a little like Krishna Book, eh? They are getting friendlier, but only Lakshmi can be caught since she has a rope that drags behind her; the ropes on the other two were cut off by a worker when they got tangled in bushes or weeds. Somehow we have to get ropes back on them… They are getting fat now as they have little to do except move on to fresher pastures, every day, all day… Lakshmi (far left) is supposed to be pregnant as we were assured by her former owners. We hope that will prove true- her due date is about April.
QUOTES
“Therefore Rsabhadeva says here that tapo divyam putraka yena sattvam suddhyed. This human life is not meant for, I mean to say, spoiling by working hard like the animals, as we have said that, kastan kaman. Kastan kaman. We require something, some, because we have got this body. Very easy solution is given by Lord Krsna: annad bhavanti bhutani. You produce foodgrains. Why you are going to produce tools and implements and… Of course, we do not condemn. But at the sacrifice of producing foodgrains, we simply open big, big tire factory. When I go to Delhi I see, from Vrndavana, hundreds and thousands persons are coming from the village on cycle to go to the tire factory, Goodyear tire factory. So now eat tire instead of getting food grains. So this is misdirected civilization. Krsna does not say that you produce tire tube. Krsna says annad bhavanti bhutani: “You produce anna.” This is practical solution. We have therefore started in Europe and America farming. And they are very happy. In our latest Back to Godhead the description is published about our farm in France. We have got a very palatial building. We have named it New Mayapur, Chateau d’Oublaise. I cannot pronounce this French word. So anyway, our men, there are about three hundred men living there. Last time, four months, five months before I was there.
It is very nice place. We are getting our own fruits, own vegetables fresh, and we are getting fresh wheat and milk. It is so happy life.
So government is also advertising “Go to the village.” Actually that is life. Go to the village. Mahatma Gandhi also wanted to organize this life, but unfortunately you have changed. Now we have got place in Hyderabad about six hundred acres of land. We are also trying here. We have already done in Mayapur. We are producing our own food, our own cloth, own milk, and we are chanting Hare Krsna. This is the simplest life.” Srimad-Bhagavatam 5.5.1, Class by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Bombay, December 25, 1976
Conversation with Prabhupada:
So that is India’s Vedic civilization. Everyone is satisfied, self-sufficient. And now in your country, oh, you have to attend office fifty miles off. And because you have to take this trouble, Krsna has provided with car. You are thinking, “I am advanced.” You don’t think that “Although I have got car, I have to go fifty miles off from my home.” This is illusion. You are thinking, “I am advanced. I am happy. I have got this car.” This is illusion. Yes. Gaurasundara was going to maintain, and he drives fifty miles off, Honolulu. The poor fellow had to rise early in the morning. You see? And so much haste.(?) Therefore:
“Gaurasundara, you better give up this job. Just depend on Krsna.” So he has given up. What is this? Fifty miles going by motorcycle or motor car, how much tedious it is. But still, they are satisfied that
“We are advanced.” And because they have many cars, therefore in your country always there is that
(makes traffic noise), “sonh, sonh, sonh, sonh, sonh, sonh, sonh, sonh,” wherever I go.
Revatinandana: And more problems come after that.
Prabhupada: Simply, wherever you go, (makes traffic noise) “sonh, sonh, sonh, sonh,” and “gonh, gonh, gonh, gonh, gonh.” Up in the sky, “gonh, gonh, gonh, gonh,” and in the street, “sonh, sonh…” And then, when digging, “gut-gut-gut-gut-gut-gut-gut-gut-gut!” (laughter) Is it not? Don’t you feel botheration? But they are thinking, “Oh, America is very much advanced in machine.” And when there is that garbage tank? “Ghon-ghon-ghon-ghon-ghon-ghon-ghon-ghon-ghon!” (laughter) So many sounds are going on, always. Eh? Of course, you have got very nice city, nice roads everywhere. But this trouble… You have created so many troubles. And there are news that one lady was a patient. She became mad for the sounds. And I think they are thinking very seriously how to stop all these sounds. Is it not? Syamasundara: Especially they have these airplanes now.
Prabhupada: Oh.
Syamasundara: They make such a tremendous sound that they break windows and everything else.
Prabhupada: Now we are with Sambhu in Bombay. As soon as the aeroplane would come on top of the house it is just like thunderbolt. Yes. At least I was feeling like that. Vajrapa. You see? So this is called illusion. We are creating a civilization which is so much painful, but we are thinking that we are advanced. This is illusion. We are creating simply problems, and still, we are thinking that we are advanced. And Bhagavata says that there is no problem. Tasyaiva hetoh prayateta kovido na labhyate yad bhramatam upary adhah. You simply try for Krsna consciousness. And then how I shall live? That, the answer, is tal labhyate duhkhavad anyatah sukham. Just like you don’t aspire for miseries, but it comes upon you, it is forced upon you, similarly, happiness also will be forced upon you, whatever you are destined to receive. So don’t try for happiness or discarding distress. That will go on. You simply try for Krsna consciousness, which, without your trying, it will never be fulfilled. You have to voluntarily try for Krsna consciousness, revive it.
SUMMARY
New Jaipur is a positive alternative to the rapidly devolving situation in the modern civilization. Nuclear war approaches, and humanity is due for much turmoil which can only be alleviated by establishing Prabhupada’s varnashram Hare Krishna farms. Our Vedic Village farm project retains Srila Prabhupada as the sole diksa guru, via rtvik representatives. As an affiliate of the Hare Krishna Society, we are part of Prabhupada’s transcendental ISKCON which is situated beyond the now-corrupted original institution. There are 857 acres of titled, fully-paid land in a pristine South Seas rainforest environment on Vanua Levu, Fiji’s second largest island. We have openings for a few qualified devotees based on adherence to certain conditions as contained in our Village Constitution (available by email). Anyone who might like to participate, please inquire. Our standard is: chant 16 rounds daily, follow the four rules, contribute 8 hours community service a week, attend regularly the morning program, and become a productive participant, one fifth of produce and income going to the deities, Sri Sri Radha Govinda. Some western-standard cottages are still available for whatever donation you can easily afford, even if it is just token. Vedic villages are the future of the world.
Please consider a visit to New Jaipur, and be our guest in paradise. Several families are preparing for their journey to take up life in New Jaipur, as the invitation is open to Prabhupadanugas everywhere. Life here is simple but not particularly austere, with pure Fiji running water, full bathrooms, Hawaii climate, tiled floors, screened windows, although solar power is not included (however costs on solar equipment have dropped greatly recent years). We also welcome temporary residents who would like to serve Prabhupada with any skills they may have, to further their spiritual credits and help the Vedic village too.
Yours in Prabhupada’s service,
Nityananda das
If you would like to be added to our regular mailings of Vedic Village Reviews or make a donation, please send us an email at srigovinda@gmail.com. Hare Krishna! All Glories to Srila Prabhupada!
NEW JAIPUR FIJI WEBSITE (in progress): www.vedicvillage.org
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