Farm Community
WHY FARM COMMUNITIES?
SRILA PRABHUPADA ON FARM COMMUNITIES
“OUR MODE OF LIVING IS LIKE THIS. IF YOU LIKE YOU CAN ADOPT”
Devotee: The biggest problem now is that we have built up a type of society in which their needs are all coming from petrol energy. To produce what they need today is all coming from petrol energy… Recently Saudi Arabians raised the price of the oil double now… the price is still increasing. So this is causing inflation.
Prabhupada: So this problem will be solved as soon as we are localized. Petrol is required for transport, but if you are localized, there is no question of transport. You don’t require petrol.
Devotee: Petrol they also use for heating.And electricity.
Prabhupada: No, heating. Heating we can do by wood. By nature.
Devotee: I remember, Srila Prabhupada, you were saying that all we require is some oxen, and the oxen can carry.
Prabhupada: Yes. The oxen will solve the problem of transport…. bullock cart… when we are localized we don’t require to go beyond ten miles, five miles, no. Because they have created a rubbish civilization therefore one is required to travel fifty miles for earning bread, hundred miles, hanging … 3 hours, four hours, they spend for transport.
Devotee: Is this an ideal solution or a practical one?
Prabhupada: This is practical.
Devotee: Because sometimes we say that actually we cannot change the course of the …
Prabhupada: No, no. Our society will be ideal, by practical application.
Devotee: If we stop all the transportation industry there will be huge unemployment.
Prabhupada: No, no, we are not going to stop employment. We live like this. You see, if you like you live like us.
Devotee: Example.
Prabhupada: Example.
Devotee: Not that we dictate to the …, not that we’re going to force everyone.
Prabhupada: No. We are not going to force anyone. “Our mode of living is like this. If you like you can adopt”. Just like we chant Hare Krishna. So we are not forcing anyone that “You also, you must chant.” No. We live like this.
Devotee: We should start using bullock cart.
Prabhupada: Yes. No, first of all you start the community project, as we have already started in New Vrindavana. Make this perfect.
- SRILA PRABHUPADA : Morning Walk, Rome, May 27, 1974
WHEN THEY WILL SEE THAT YOUR IDEAL COMMUNITY IS BETTER THAN CITY LIFE, PEOPLE WILL TAKE TO IT
Yogeśvara: So then we should begin our rural communities like New Vrindaban, and then by training up people in the cities, we can send them gradually…
Prabhupāda: There will be no city. We don’t want cities.
Bhagavān: What about our city temples?
Prabhupāda: No, no. For the time it may go on. But as we make progress, there will be no necessity. City means… For the present we have got. Because the city is there, we are there. But suppose the city is closed. We shall be there? If the city is closed, you still will be there?
Yogeśvara: But we can predict that the cities will go on for quite some time.
Prabhupāda: Yes, it will go on, but when they will see that your ideal community is better than city life, people will take to it. Paraṁ dṛṣṭvā nivartate [Bg. 9.59]. When one gets a better standard of life, naturally he will give up the lower standard of life.
- Morning Walk, May 27, 1974, Rome
FARM COMMUNITY : TO CHECK FALL DOWN
Just like our program in this New Vrindaban, very nice program. From four-thirty in the morning till ten o’clock, there is nice program. So this program should be continued. Then there is no question of falling down. Simply executing this program.
- Lecture on Srimad Bhagavatam 1.5.17-18 — June 21, 1969, New Vrindaban
THIS SHOULD BE ORGANIZED
Gradually when they come, when you engage them in producing their own food, own shelter, own cloth… This should be organized. And they’ll be glad. As soon as they understand, they will be glad to do. And they will stop all this nonsense = illicit sex and meat-eating. Then their life will be purified, and they’ll make more and more advancement in this path. That is perfection. That you want. Is it clear or not?
- Conversation – December 10th 1976, Hyderabad
WHEN THEY WILL SEE THAT YOUR IDEAL COMMUNITY IS BETTER THAN CITY LIFE, PEOPLE WILL TAKE TO IT
Yogeśvara: So then we should begin our rural communities like New Vrindaban, and then by training up people in the cities, we can send them gradually…
Prabhupāda: There will be no city. We don’t want cities.
Bhagavān: What about our city temples?
Prabhupāda: No, no. For the time it may go on. But as we make progress, there will be no necessity. City means… For the present we have got. Because the city is there, we are there. But suppose the city is closed. We shall be there? If the city is closed, you still will be there?
Yogeśvara: But we can predict that the cities will go on for quite some time.
Prabhupāda: Yes, it will go on, but when they will see that your ideal community is better than city life, people will take to it. Paraṁ dṛṣṭvā nivartate [Bg. 9.59]. When one gets a better standard of life, naturally he will give up the lower standard of life.
- Morning Walk, May 27, 1974, Rome
