Let the eternal Krishna wisdom reveal the timeless art of genuine sustainable living.

Aided by the ancient technology of sacred sound, changing hearts becomes a tangible possibility.

And with a sacred heart, comes sacred action - the clarion call of our times.

Along with this unique ecological wisdom let the sweet reggae beats rouse your soul into a celebration for positive, holistic change.

Add to the sacred vibes by bringing your instrument and jamming with the band - Gaura shakti

There will be the most delicious vegan feast - trust me the cook has been dreaming this one up for months!!

So come along and unite with like minded people in a quest to truly nurture Eco-desire.

There was a handful of us who did harinam along the way, providing rhythm for the vege slogans which were being chanted by other participants. Placards were provided by the organizers.

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)

I love these guys!

Here’s the letter we wrote to the man in charge at the Wellington City Council:

Dear Matthew,

Unfortunately I haven’t been able to speak to you personally yet, but I have been given your email from one of your colleagues.

We are a Hare Krishna community, since 10yrs on Vivian Street in the inner city. We have a very nice centre there in which some of us congregate daily for meditation, and as a larger group congregate on Saturday and Sunday later afternoon/early evening.

Recently we have received a complaint from a neighbour as to the noise level of our chanting (mantra chanting with instruments). We have not changed the way we do things in the last 10yrs at least, so a complaint is a surprise. Usually we would have the windows open, which I understand would project the chanting further than the distance of our own four walls, but since we haven’t received unfavourable opinions from any of our neighbours about this we have left them open in a mood of no concern. I think the chanting is very beautiful, yet to our neighbour it has been deemed too loud. We respect this, so from now on will have our windows shut, and curtains drawn as early as possible. I hope this solves the issue. We don’t like to cause a disturbance, but at the same time the music must continue as a means of devotional worship.

The hours we play music are as follows:

Saturday 5.00pm - 6.00pm

Sunday 6:15pm - 7.30pm

Very minimal as you can see.

On occasions we have a festival for the public in which we share food, music, philosophy…many people come, students, professionals, artists, and enjoy the good spirits. This Sunday in celebration of the Golden full moon, called ‘Gaura Purnima’ we have such a festival. It is a festival of deep spiritual awareness (never is there intoxication involved). The hours as above in which music will be played stays the same, but with more people may prove to be louder. I will abide by the rule of keeping the windows shut and hope this will suffice as pacification for our neighbour. Again, it is such a short time to endure a bit of melody.

We will take a visit to our neighbour (amidst an apartment block), and ask what we can do to minimise her discomfort. She also has to bear in mind that she does live in the inner-city, and must expect this occasionally. What we do is not that bad; and we have now taken measure to minimise our impact.

Am I approaching this issue from the right angle Matthew? Please let me know if there is something further I should consider.

I am easily available on email to discuss further or on cellphone.

Kind Regards,

Visnu-maya

Why? To strengthen our relationships with loving exchanges, get fresh air and deepen our knowledge of Krishna.

Where? Makara Beach

When? Thursday 15th February 2007

Makara is about 30mins from Gaura Yoga. It is a secluded beach of rocky coastline and hilly pastures. Suits us perfect.

When we got there it was a 10min walk to the pasturing grounds:

First up was Sadhu-soccer. We paint each others faces with different markings of tilak:

The demons and the demigods. The demons have the pot of nectar, only five steps can be taken while holding the nectar, but watch out cos the demigods are coming from the other side to snatch the pot back. Its a battle of strength and determination - the demons want to conquer the Vaikuntha planets but the demigods won’€™t let this happen… hopefully.

Then…Krishna book drama. Two groups each act out a pastime from Krishna book. One group performs the pastime of Krishna dancing on the hoods of Kaliya serpent, and the other group acts out Putana being killed.

Next it’s time to swim. Everyone goes for a dunk, paddle and splash.

Now Prasadam time!

Fresh organic salad, chickpea hummus, homemade almond paste, fresh wholemeal bread, potato wedges, Swedish cinnamon swirls… I can’t think of a better lunch.

After prasad we have kirtan for 1hr, then a Vrindavan questionnaire - two teams: Krishna and Rama. It€’s a battle of Krishna katha.

Now time for 2hrs reading….

We have a prize giving, fill out some feedback sheets and head home..back to our Guru datta desh.

Relaxed, rejuvenated and happy. Hare Krishna!

We’ve just left Gaura Yoga, about to head down Cuba Street. Men in the front, ladies in the middle, men at the back. 2 lines in pairs. Harmoniun on a trolley, stackable cushions on a trolley. It looks very organized; and it is! (Well, we try)

We walk in procession to our usual spot. Devotees are already down there all set up with the sound gear.

Our photographer friend, Mehron  is getting creative in photoshop. Check out the shop sign and the painting. If you can’t make it out, the shop sign says ‘harinam’ and the painting says ‘Hare Krishna’.

We stay seated till the beat gets doubled. We have harmonium (mic’d up- see the new speaker on a stand at the back), mrdanga, djembe, 2 karatels, mantra board, cushions, prasadam, flyers, books…

This guy, well, we couldn’t really understand what he was hollowing, but it was quite a spectacle.