S S K B K Narada Bulletin January 2010 *Hebri/Udupi* Karnataka* India* Hare Krishna! All glories to Srila Prabhupada and his Varnasrama Mission! H I G H L I G H T S v Agriculture continues as we grow Tur Dal, sugarcane and vegetables. v Laxminath Prabhu returned after four months of Master Potter training. v Training attended on traditional herbs and medicines used for curing cows. v Pottery section setup - neatly fenced and ready for production. v Temple Renovated with tiled roof. v Prasadam hall walls remade. v Traditional flat rice making technique and equipment found in a remote village.
******************************************************* AGRICULTURE N E W S I N D E T A I L ******************************************************* We sowed seeds of green leafy vegetables and made the nursery for Marigold. Ginger garden was cleaned and De-weeding was done in Turmeric field. Jeevamrta was administered to the Tur-dal field. These activities were carried out at the sign of end of rainy season. This year, like last year saw rains till Nov 20th with mild showers to heavy showers occasionally. In December however we did not have any incidence of rains. Sunlight is very much required this season and rains will mean destruction of crops specially in this season of Margashira which is usually the harvest season. Ploughing was done in two fields of total 1/2 acre area for vegetable cultivation. This will be irrigated using Mohte (water lifting device run by bullocks). Vegetable seeds like cucumber - 2 varities, pumpkin -2 varities, bhendi/okhra, dhania, methi, short beans, few tubers, jeera, mustard and til are being sowed. Sugarcane growing in the farm During rainy season, mohte was not used and some repairs had to be done to reinstall for routine usage during this season. The repairs were carried out and now
Mohte is up and running. Mohte helps us in irrigating the vegetable field, Sugarcane field and also helps in supplying water to the garden in the farm. TRAINING Laxminath Prabhu returned after four months of Master Potter training at Central Village Pottery Institute, Govt of India. He cleared the examination and has obtained the certificate as Master potter. Giriraj Prabhu and Bharat Chandra Dasa attended a very interesting training at Tamilnadu conducted by Auroville and SEVA. The training involved interaction with the traditional healers, identification of plants, preparation of three medicines and administering them to the local cows of the village. The little experience and confidence gained was very encouraging to start the practice of this age old method of treating cows with ayurvedic medicines. Connected to this, there is another conference at Tanjavur, Tamilnadu being organized by another organization, FRLHT (Bangalore) and Tamilnadu university for veterinary science. Devotees are planning to attend and gain further insights in this field. CONSTRUCTION Pottery area cleaned up with equipments With Laxminath Prabhu returning after the training on Pottery, we had to set up a section for pottery, neatly fenced and ready for production. A simple kutir has to be constructed and that will mark a good start for the pottery section. The first thing that was done on priority was to search out the availability of mud for
making pots. We met two potters from surrounding villages and obtained mud to start with. Kiln has to be constructed and we hope that this will happen during Varnasrama College. Main help of the pottery will be to make good quality tiles for the roofing. Renovation of the temple was undertaken. This would not have been possible unless Venkat Prabhu and Satish Prabhu from Varnasrama Research Team, Bangalore laboriously endured to shift the tiles from one place to another. This work which normally takes three days was finished in 1 and half days. We chanted Haribol loudly three times as the last tile was being layed! Construction of wall of the Prasadam hall Last year during Varnasrama college, the then constructed prasadam hall was not able to withstand the rains and leaked in many places. This was due to some mistakes in its design. As temple was being renovated, the devotees made up their mind to renovate prasadam hall too. Roofing style was changed and side walls were raised. Now the hall is ready to host the prasadam feasts, classes and even guests can rest there. VILLAGE TECHNOLOGY We were wondering of how flat rice was being made in olden days. Some concluded that it is a product of modern day and hence we should not use it, while
someone else reminded that Sudama gave Krishna flat/chipped rice; how was it possible? So we finally concluded that one day we will search out the method. Truly, we were fortunate to come across a family in a remote village who in their house stopped making flat rice the traditional way just few years back! We could sufficiently convince them about our aims and how important it is to be revived and we want to set it up in our Sahyadri Sri Krishna Balaram Ksetra. If any of the readers of Narada Bulletin can come forward to revive this technology, then as we do, we recognize, publish and put a board next to where the unit is installed mentioning about the person who sponsored it. It is not very expensive to acquire this unit. Please contact us if you can help. VISITORS We had Shyam Krishna Prabhu, Sankirtan Prabhu and Bhakta John from Salem, Tamilnadu as our guest. Jayan and his family came to visit from Kerala. Parasuram Prabhu, Venkat Prabhu and Satish Prabhu came from Bangalore Varnasrama Research Team. We are very happy to get association of wonderful devotees and hope and pray at the lotus feet of Sri Sri Krishna Balaram for progress in Krishna Consiousness. We hope that you had a wonderful experience in the farm. Hare Krishna! VARNASRAMA READING (BTG interview with Srila Prabhupada: Mäyäpura, March 1976, Conversation entitled - Declaring Our Dependence On God) BTG: The third natural right they mentioned was that every human being has the right to pursue happiness. Çréla Prabhupäda: Yes. But your standard of happiness may be different from my standard. You may like to eat meat; I hate it. How can your standard of happiness be equal to mine? BTG: So should everyone be free to try to achieve whatever standard of happiness he wants? Çréla Prabhupäda: No, the standard of happiness should be prescribed according to the qualities of the person. You must divide the whole society into four groups: those with brähmaëa qualities, those with kñatriya qualities, those with vaiçya qualities, and those with çüdra qualities. Everyone should have good facility to work according to his natural qualities. You cannot engage a bull in the business of a horse, nor can you engage a horse in the business of a bull. Today practically everyone is getting a college education. But
what is taught at these colleges? Mostly technical knowledge, which is çüdra education. Real higher education means learning Vedic wisdom. This is meant for the brähmaëas. Alone, çüdra education leads to a chaotic condition. Everyone should be tested to find out which education he is suited for. Some çüdras may be given technical education, but most çüdras should work on the farms. Because everyone is coming to the cities to get an education, thinking, "We can get more money," the agriculture is being neglected. Now there is scarcity because no one is engaged in producing nice foodstuffs. All these anomalies have been caused by bad government. It is the duty of the government to see that everyone is engaged according to his natural qualities. Then people will be happy. BTG: So if the government artificially puts all men into one class, then there can't be happiness. Çréla Prabhupäda: No, that is unnatural and will cause chaos. Temple gets tiled roof Assistant Editors: HG Parasurama Dasa and HG Gaura Naraj Dasa Prepared by: HG Bharat Chandra Dasa Please visit the following websites for more information on varnasrama developments: www.varnasrama.org & www.sahyadriksetra.org