Visnumaya waxes lyrical

Gaura Planet

Nurturing Eco- Desire

Srila Prabhupada gave a clear mission statement for ISKCON which is outlined in seven basic points. Point number 6 states that one purpose of ISKCON is:

To bring the members closer together for the purpose of teaching a simpler, more natural way of life.

This is the foundation for Gaura Planet – envisioned to be Gaura Yoga’s hip eco-club.

In his books, Srila Prabhupada repeatedly stressed that a simple, stress-free life, working in harmony with Krishna’s Nature is most conducive to developing our dormant love for Krishna. He adamantly voiced the disastrous consequences of urban-industrial life on the social, environmental, psychological and spiritual health of humanity.

Consider this poignant purport to Srimad Bhagavatam 10.5.8,

“When we consider the past condition of the agriculturalist in the village, we can see how opulent he was, simply because of agricultural produce and protection of cows. At the present, however, agriculture having been neglected and cow protection given up, the agriculturalist is suffering pitiably and is dressed in a niggardly torn cloth. This is the distinction between the India of history and the India of the present day. By the atrocious activities of ugra-karma, how we are killing the opportunity of human civilization!”

In Bhagavad Gita, 16.9, Srila Prabhupada translates ugra-karma as “unbeneficial, horrible works meant to destroy the world.”

As lost and misdirected humanity continues to become more implicated in ugra-karma, Srila Prabhupada’s warnings to us are becoming increasingly self-evident. What can we do to alleviate the situation?

Of course, the spontaneous answer would be to simply concentrate on spreading the core message of Krishna Consciousness – “Chant and be Happy!” And obviously, we want to keep on doing that, but as I am sure most of you have experienced, we often encounter problems.

This common scenario and its possible rectification is highlighted in a wonderful article entitled, Spiritual Solutions to Material Problems, authored by H.H. Mukunda Goswami and Krsna Dharma das, which appeared in ISKCON Communications Journal, in December, 1994.[1]

Krsna Dharma prabhu writes,

“I have personally experienced frustration, as I know many of you will have done, when trying to preach the message of Krsna consciousness. I’ve been speaking to an individual and clearly they’ve got problems and I know I’ve got the answer in the shape of Krsna consciousness, but I’m not able to convince him. I’m telling him ‘Look, just chant Hare Krsna,’ and he is looking at me and thinking, ‘Not practical, it could never work. Maybe it’s working for you but my problems are so complex, there are so many things in my life to sort out. How could chanting be of any use to me?’ So there is a communications problem here - I’m not getting through.”

In the same article, the authors suggest the solution. They state that it is our responsibility as compassionate Vaishnavas to relate Krsna consciousness to specific needs.

In the world at large and in New Zealand in particular, most people have now recognised a fundamental need – the necessity of living sustainably – in such a way that does not further harm Mother Earth’s fragile ecosystem.

So here we have an invaluable opportunity to show people how Krishna Consciousness comprehensively addresses this need. After all we are the original greenies!

In other words, we need to skilfully demonstrate to people the pratyaksa element - the practical evidence of Krsna consciousness working.

This point was further elaborated upon by H.H. Devamrta Swami, in a recent lecture in Mayapur, on Feb 27^th 2008. Let me offer his sublimely insightful words:

“You remember in the last year of Prabhupada’s presence among us, a devotee asked Prabhupada, “Why this talk about varnasrama dharma? Lord Caitanya’s policy is to simply chant Hare Krsna. We thought that’s what it’s all about.” Just to make a powerful point, Srila Prabhupada said, “Lord Caitanya, he was from the spiritual world. We’re different. We want to help people.” That doesn’t mean, of course, that we shouldn’t chant Hare Krsna. It means that Prabhupada was revealing his extraordinary compassion how in so many ways to help people gradually become purified……..

How we are going to not forget about our parampara inheritance, that Srila Prabhupada wanted favourable circumstances be constructed so people could become Krsna conscious….. Perhaps we need to take another look at Srila Prabhupada’s strategies. Maybe they weren’t antiquated or outmoded or maybe they weren’t dreamy at all. How indeed to create situations so that people can become good and how to take people out of situations in which they will do terrible things because the situation is terrible? That is a different way of looking at varnasrama dharma and our parampara inheritance.”[2]

Therefore, spiritual solutions to material problems do not conflict with the core mission of ISKCON, but rather facilitates it by creating an environment where people can recognise that Krsna consciousness is the ultimate solution to their problems.

This is, in essence, the core mission of Gaura Planet – to show Wellingtonians that the solution to the environmental crisis lies in the timeless teachings of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu- and then build upon that realisation to facilitate their journey to take up the process of Krishna Consciousness in all earnestness.

One of the initial goals of Gaura Planet is to get amongst the grassroots eco scene to share our Krishna Conscious perspective for eco awareness. We aim to tread gently, in line with our urban outreach motto ‘we make it easy’.

Currently, Gaura Planet is holding the Tuesday 6pm slot in the Gaura Yoga chat room. We have slowly started to network with people amidst Victoria University’s environmental activist groups ‘Gecko’ and ‘Just Action’, encouraging members of these groups, along with the general public to attend.

Soon to come is www.gauraplanet.org this is being expertly designed by our friend Bivas in India, and will give the overall structure of our environmental philosophy. Once launched, www.gauraplanet.org will be promoted widely.

Gaura Planet is also strongly implementing an eco-conscious awareness policy in the products purchased amongst our Wellington Vaisnava community. This will curb any hypocritical shortcomings in our attempts to present Gaura Yoga in an eco-conscious manner. We will write about this shortly.

Begging for the blessings and assistance of all the dear Vaishnavas.

Your aspiring servants,

@The Gaura Planet Team (Visnu-maya dd and Saci Dulal das)