As part of ISKCON Daiva Varnasrama Ministry-India mandate, a group of devotees started visiting City temples to give seminars on various topics related to Varnasrama. On July 21st, 2018 Jananivas das, Rasamandal das, Vasudama das and Rama Lakshman das reached ISKCON NVCC- Pune to give a seminar on “Millets – Its health and nutritional benefits”.
Jananivas das started with prayers and thanked ISKCON NVCC for organizing the seminar. He presented on ill-effects of present-day farming with the heavy dose of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, hybrid seeds, and mechanization. He went on to explain that an ideal farming system should not disturb the Ecological balance, should be economically viable to the farmer, should be healthy and nutritious and finally, it should help us assist in advancing spiritually. Then he shared the scientific basis on how millets support this kind of farming requirements with emphasis on its health benefits and nutritious values.
More than one hundred congregation devotees attended the seminar and appreciated for sharing the knowledge about Millets. They shared that they would plan to replace their wheat and rice based diet to Millets because of various advantages.
We also met H.G Radhe Shyam Prabhu, President of the temple, who appreciated the efforts of IDVM-India and specifically the Sri Surabhi campaign. He said he is getting regular updates about the on-going campaign. He received a complimentary copy of the book entitled “Modernity is Killing Civilization” published recently. He said earlier he had read the reviews of the book earlier on and was happy to receive a copy of it.
In the evening HG Srinath prabhu took us to the farm project under ISKCON Pune located 45 kilometers from Pune. The farm project is in its early stages of creation. It has a total area of about 20 acres, 3 grihasthas and 10 brahmacharis are living off the land and there are 12 cows. They are presently growing paddy, fruits like banana, Guava, etc., in addition to grass for cows. HG Kinkini prabhu served us some fruits prasadam offered to Lord Radha Damodara. He also treated us with rasagullas and kheer prepared from the milk from the farm cows. The approach to the farm is very beautiful with winding roads and is surrounded by hills. The sound of the cascading water as a result of the heavy rains in the region was really enchanting.
The stay and travel in Puna were made very comfortable with the enthusiastic hospitability of HG Shyamsundar prabhu and Nitya Tripta mataji.
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