By: HG Vishnurata das
More than two decades ago HH Bhakti Raghava Swami Maharaj opened a hostel called “Prahlada – Kunti Devi Ashram” in Lampung city, Sumatera island, Indonesia, where youth could stay during their study in UNILA (Universitas Lampung) one of the highly esteemed Universities in Sumatera island. Those who stay in the ashram, they may or may not be devotees, from any religion; but once they choose to stay, they have to follow the Hare Krishna lifestyle during their stay like following the four regulative principles, waking up early in the morning, chanting Hare Krishna Mahamantra on beads, performing Guru Puja, attending the Bhagavatam class every morning and in the evening attending the Sandhya Aratika and Bhagavad-gita class. These are the standards that everybody is obliged to follow.
This hostel has created many Krishna Bhaktas. One of them is HG Sadbhuja Gauranga prabhu. After he graduated from the university, he and couple of his friends thought that they don’t want to be separated after entering Grihastha ashram (marriage life) and after getting a job somewhere far. Because of their close relationship and serious desire to perform sadhana bhakti, they decided to find a place where they could stay together even after getting married. This desire was expressed and consulted with HH Bhakti Raghava Swami Maharaj, and Maharaj advised him to make his own village.
After good searching and some survey for location, HG Sadbhuja Gauranga prabhu and friends found a secluded area of about 200 acres. It was not inhabited and a big forest very remotely located from the city. There was no electricity also available. They decided to purchase that land and started to move and settle there. And this village was named “Gita Nagari Baru” by HH Bhakti Raghava Swami Maharaj. Right from the beginning, the devotees have tried their best to develop this village under Maharaj’s guidance. Now there are about 50 devotee families and the total number of residents is of about 150 devotees.
They have a very beautiful temple with the presiding deities of Sri Sri Radha Madana Gopal, Lalita – Visakha devi, Sri Sri Gaura Nitay and Prahlada Lakshmi Narasimha. They have their own school where the teachers are our local devotees; they have a library, and cultural hall which they use for some organizing different cultural programs and conducting seminars.
The village is surrounded by a forest called “Sri Vishnu Sahasranama Vana,” where they have planted different kinds of fruit trees. They also have a few other forests and they are trying to manifest the 12 primary forests of Vrindavana. And every once a week the devotees take Their Lordship on a palanquin amidst Nagar-sankirtan performing parikrama around the village.
All the original land related certificates are kept in the temple so that the land owners cannot sell their land without the permission of the village authorities. “… we do like this because we want to keep this village only for Krishna Bhaktas. If we give the original certificates to the owner, due to some reason they may sell it to the non-devotees, we don’t want this. Gita Nagari, means we live our lives based on the teachings of Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad-gita. We want to please our Founder-acharya, Srila Prabhupada, by creating this Vaishnava community, develop our Krishna consciousness practice in the association of the devotees. I feel easier for me to practice my Krishna consciousness life in this community compared to when I stayed in the city where I was surrounded by the non-devotees…” said Krishna Prema prabhu (One of the teachers in Gita Nagari School).
The devotees are from different back grounds, Some devotees still work outside to maintain their livelihood and families, but eventually they want to be localized as farmers as many other devotees in Gita Nagari Baru village. This will be possible only when the Varnasrama Dharma is properly followed. Where the brahmanas will be teaching and worshiping the deities, the kshatriyas will rule the place by giving proper protection, levying taxes from the vaisyas and give charity to the brahmanas, the vaisyas will protect the cows and cultivate the land, and the sudras will assist the other three varnas and get maintenance from them. When all the varnas in the society run as per the shastric injunction, then the society will be in harmony and peace. And then one will be able to perform devotional service nicely when the mind is peaceful.
Of course, there are so many aspects which need to be worked out to manifest the ideal Vaishnava village, seeing the size of the land and number of the devotees, Gita Nagari Baru village is one hope.
May this inspire all of us to fulfill Srila Prabhupada’s desire of making of Vrindavana villages all over the world.
