The OM Sri Surabhi Campaign under IDVM-India organized the 1st OM Sri Surabhi Campaign Coordinators’ Conference on February 15, 2017. The conference was held at the ISKCON Mayapur Goshala.
Devotees from different countries comprising of H.H. Bhakti Dhira Damodara Maharaja (Nigeria), Rama Lakshman das (India), Prabhu Nityananda das (India), Yadhava Hari das (Indonesia), Bhakta Etienne (Canada), Vishnurata das (Cambodia), Dayal Mukunda das (India), Kailash das (India), Veda Vyasa das (Canada), and Yamuna Prana das (Ukraine), participated in the conference.
The conference commenced by offering Go-Puja to the cows at the ISKCON Mayapur Goshala. Presently there are 325 cows in the Goshala. It was an auspicious opportunity to conduct the conference at the Goshala with the kind permission of Dayal Mukunda Prabhu, Director of ISKCON Mayapur Goshala.
The participants of the conference proceeded to the classroom at Vaisnava Academy that is located opposite to the Goshala. Rama Lakshman das read the message from H.H. R.P. Bhakti Raghava Maharaja, Minister for IDVM-India, who could not attend the conference. “The main purpose of this conference is to give an opportunity for like minded devotees who share a common concern about the urgent need to promote the daiva varnasrama mission as envisioned and desired by the Founder Acarya of our ISKCON society, His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada, in particular for those who understand the paramount and absolute importance of Mother Cow, Mother Surabhi, to remain the epicenter and the backbone of our Vedic culture, in short of civilization itself, It is my earnest desire and humble prayer that this coming together of Campaign Coordinators can help spark an increased interest and enthusiasm to help move forward more vigorously Srila Prabhupada’s mission. We are very much in need of both manpower and funds in order for this to happen.
Again I reiterate my appreciation to those who are present and to all those who understand the great need to highlight this aspect of Srila Prabhupada’s unfulfilled mission. Thank you for being involved in different ways, in different countries and in different projects”.
Rama Lakshman das, Secretariat Director for ISKCON Daiva Varnasrama Ministry (IDVM-India), did a presentation on Sri Govinda Gau Gram Prachar Yatra. The 108 villages Yatra was organized by IDVM-India as part of an offering to the ISKCON Golden Jubilee celebrations. All the participants appreciated the endeavor. He also did another presentation on “OM Sri Surabhi Campaign”, its inception and present activities. Afterwards a short film on the benefits of the OM Sri Surabhi Campaign was shown to all the participants.
Dayal Mukunda das arranged delicious prasadam at the Mayapur Goshala for all the participants in the midst of cows in the open field. This refreshed all the participants and without having a long break, as planned earlier, the second session resumed.
The noon session witnessed the release of a new book “My Spiritual Lamentation!” containing 53 interviews from various devotees on the science of cow protection, natural farming, housing, etc. A copy of the book was presented to all the participants.
Veda Vyasa prabhu himself a gardener in the Province of Quebec in Canada gave a short talk on the concept of Seed Bank and it importance of protecting seeds for future generations.
Prabhu Nityananda prabhu who is connected with IDVM-India and coordinates preaching activities in West Bengal made a presentation on the Gajankole village in West Bengal where efforts are on to establish a small community in West Bengal. He mentioned that recently Gopikanta Prabhu, a brahmacari from Mayapur, joined IDVM-India as a full time preacher. He is travelling in the villages of W. Bengal teaching about cow protection, cow care, organic farming, simple living, etc. He has already covered more than 20 villages,
Yadhava Hari Prabhu, a young University student from Indonesia serving as Vice-chairman for Gau Raksha Indonesia (GAURI), talked about their activities in Indonesia. He said they have a team of twenty youth assisting in translating and publishing books related to cows into Indonesian language. The team also distributes pamphlets, key chains and other products during various Ratha Yatra festivals across Indonesia.
Bhakta Kailash, a resident of Sri Mayapur, expressed his interest towards the campaign and desired to serve in the campaign. Dayal Mukunda Prabhu spoke on the Mayapur Goshala practices on care of cows, their health, etc. Yamuna Prana prabhu from Ukraine, overseeing two projects in Russia and Ukraine, shared that in one of the projects they hired a person who is not a devotee and after working with the devotees for a couple of months he started chanting the Holy name on beads. They are working on strategies to take care of non-milking and aged cows in the future.
Bhakta Etienne from Canada who does full time gardening work shared how in Canada the preaching is mostly focused in the cities and expressed a desire to preach in villages as desired by Caitanya Mahaprabhu.
All the participants felt that these kinds of conferences should be organized regularly and also expressed that they missed the association of H.H. R.P. Bhakti Raghava Swami.
Srila Prabhupäda: Therefore we are offering this place. Come here. Why do you not come here and live with us? Then this is… The Krishna consciousness movement is… This is the movement, that you come here, live with us, and produce your food, produce your milk, be happy, healthy, and chant Hare Krishna. This is our movement. Therefore we are creating New Vrindavan and farm, and we are trying to purchase… This is our movement, that we give you sufficient food, shelter, health, philosophy, religion, character, everything, purity. [Morning Walk, April 3, 1975, Mayapur.]
Reported by:
Rama Lakshman Das
