On the third and last day of the GOMATA BLISS FESTIVAL, November 19, 2015, a number of devotees made their presentations in the morning session as well as the afternoon session each addressing different aspects of self-sufficient and sustainable living concepts.
Audience on 3rd day
Sriman Bana Batta das, a senior disciple of Srila Prabhupada who is based in Los Angeles but who spends many months of the year overseeing the 24 hour kirtan at the ISKCON Krishna Balarama Temple, shared his experiences and realizations about the unfulfilled desire of Srila Prabhupada in the matter of establishing self-sufficient communities based on the scientific principles of Daiva Varnasrama Dharma. He stressed the importance of training and educating our devotees through both Gurukula and Varnasrama Colleges.
Two other devotees spoke, one being Sriman Jagannatha Charan prabhu, also disciple of Srila Prabhupada who is involved with the Nandagram rural project in Gujarat and the other being Sriman Gajanand Agarwal who is very active in networking with devotees and non-devotees all over the world who are involved in promoting the ideals of self-sufficiency based on organic farming and cow protection.
Sriman Nartaka Gauranga das who heads the Nanda Gokulam rural project outside of Hyderabad made a presentation about their farm community along with Damodar das who oversees yet another project in Gujarat called Nandagram. These have been developing since the last 8 years under the guidance of HH Bhakti Vikas Swami. The resident devotees at Nanda Gokulam are developing a self-sufficient community with the help of Gurukula students numbering 15 boys at present. The community mostly has brahmacaris and students who together help develop the project by growing their own food and maintaining cows. The Nandagram project in Gujarat has approximately 10 families and a larger Gurukula made up of over 22 students.
Nartaka Gauranga Das with Damodar Avanti Gurukula
Sriman Sanat Sanatana das was yet another speaker. He heads up the ISKCON Vrindavan Goshala and has taken responsibility of the newly acquired 40 acres of land some 30 Km from Vrindavan. He spoke especially of the don’ts we should know when choosing a piece of land for making a self-sufficient community. The land he is working with presents special challenges in that it is very acidic and not having readily available water. The devotees must pump in water from another land over one kilometer away. Selection of proper land is most crucial, as it will determine the success or failure of a project. The two most important factors therefore in selecting land are water availability and fertility of the soil. There are many other factors as well but these remain most essential.
Banabatta Das
HH Bhakti Vikas Swami
Bharat Chandra Das
In the afternoon session, HH Bhakti Vikas Swami made a presentation covering various aspects of varnasrama dharma and the need to provide proper training and education to our devotees. Maharaja has authored many books and travels extensively in different continents preaching Krishna consciousness with a special emphasis on developing rural projects many of which he oversees in India and other countries.
Jagannath Charan Das
Sarvabhauma Das
Gajand Agarwal
This was followed by the last speaker of the day, Sriman Sarvabhauma das, who encouraged devotees to become more involved in helping Srila Prabhupada dream of self-sufficient communities and traditional education in the form of Gurukulas and Varnasrama Colleges to help make this happen. Sriman Sarvabhauma das also travels extensively enthusing devotees with his wit and humorous presentations.
Sanat Sanatan Das
At the end of the third day, Sriman Bharat Chandra das who was the appointed Master of Ceremony thanked all those in attendance and informed everyone that the full recording of presentations will be made available in about a weeks time both in DVD format and also on YouTube.
Sriman Indranilmani das, the main organizer of the event who heads up the GOMATA BLISS Department also thanked all who attended the festival. Sriman Panchagauda das, ISKCON Vrindavan Temple President who remains most supportive of the GOMATA BLISS Department gave the concluding words by thanking all who participated in the successful series of seminars and also invited all participants to attend next year’s function
Reported by: HH RP Bhakti Raghava Swami from Vrindavan, India.
