Gitagrad Sponsorship

GITAGRAD

DAIVA-VARNASHRAMA

COMMUNITIES

SPONSORSHIP

PRODUCE ONLY WHAT YOU NEED • USE ONLY WHAT YOU PRODUCE

ISKCON DAIVA VARNASHRAMA

PROMOTING RURAL DEVELOPMENT

for the

GITAGRAD COMMUNITIES OF EASTERN EUROPE

International Society of Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON)

Founder-Acharya: His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

Gitagrad: A Temple the Size of a Village

    The plan of Gitagrad is to create an ISKCON temple the size of a village. Why?

• So that devotees of all ages can engage cent-per-cent in the loving devotional service of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Sri Krishna.
• In order to fulfill Srila Prabhupada’s desire to create a transcendental culture that “paves the way home, Back to Godhead” for future generations
• So that devotees can live a simple, natural way of life according to Sri Krishna’s instructions in the Bhagavad-gita
• In order to demonstrate to the world how to solve the material problems of life by depending on the land and cow, and solve the spiritual problem by transcendental devotional service
• In order to demonstrate to the world that the environmental problems, the social problems, the political problems, and the hunger problems can be solved quickly and easily by living a natural way of life as given by Sri Krishna
• To demonstrate how simple living can save time and provide the necessary peace to cultivate Krishna Consciousness
• To create a suitable environment for establishing the daiva-varnashrama culture so necessary and desired by our acharyas.

Gitagrad for Establishing the Entire Krishna Culture

At Gitagrad all activity will be done on the account of, or rather for, the pleasure of Sri Krishna. There is no necessity of money in the Lord’s service and thus within the village the members will do their activity on the basis of devotional service not measured in terms of money.  And on the basis of devotional service the Krishna culture must be established:

This civilization will not endure. If there is no culture, simply by money you cannot maintain a standard of civilization. That is not possible. Now the American leaders they are thinking, “Let us have money, then every-thing...“ Of course, by money you are covering all the defects of the social culture. But this will not endure. Day will come and everything will be exposed. Therefore culture required. 14June 76 Detroit

The culture on which Srila Prabhupada organized his temples is that of devotional service, and the village of Gitagrad will be similarly organized. Gitagrad should not be thought of as simply a farm. The proper concept is a village with all aspects of culture: music, drama, the fine arts and performing arts. Everything will be there. And of course, there will be devotional schools so essential to training future generations.

A very important part of the Krishna Culture is protection of the cows and the brahmanas. Our scheme is to create small personal goshalas where individual families will keep and care for cows and oxen. This personal bond is important to the cow and the culture. At Gitagrad we will also forgo the use of motorized machines and instead use the bull as the primary source of power.

The Village Provides the Natural Economic Foundation

    Srila Prabhupada so many times explained that the economic problem should be solved with the land and cow, allowing people to live simply and independently saving time for spiritual life. Agriculture is the actual basis of economic development: one seed planted returns hundreds or even thousands, as well as fruits and flowers necessary for healthy living. Especially our needs for food, clothing and shelter can be directly supplied from the earth. This is in harmony with the instructions of Isopanisad, and this completely sustainable lifestyle immediately solves many environmental problems that were the focus of all the countries of the world at the Copenhagen Summit in December 2009.

    The plan of Gitagrad is to follow the prescription of Srila Prabhupada exactly as he has laid out for Gita-nagari.

Gitagrad – Located Outside of Kharkov, Ukraine

Ukraine is an ideal country for establishing the Krishna Culture. There is still an intact village culture in the country although it is dying. The village that we have selected for the setting of Gitagrad is typical. Where there were once 500 houses there now stand less than 100. This means that there is plenty of room for expansion. Livable houses can purchased for $2,000, although they lack adequate heating and have no plumbing or gas for cooking. Empty land plots of one acre can be had for as little as $600. Ukrainian residents registered in the village are also given an additional 2 hectares (5 acres) of agricultural land by the village council. Fruit trees are abundant, especially apples, cherries, and pears. There is common pasture land for the village cows, extremely rich soil, sufficient rain, and sweet ground water. The setting is as good as one could expect. Indeed, we searched through more than 40 villages to find this one, finding it approximately 40 miles outside the large city of Kharkov, one of the educational centers of the country.

Getting There From Here

We have an excellent place to begin the development of Gitagrad. As the saying goes: “The good news is this is a ‘ground-floor’ opportunity. The bad news is we are standing in the dirt.” That is, we have room to build and build we must. Our plan is to construct low-cost housing from local materials, mostly straw and clay. Clay is available for making bricks and tiles, and the surrounding fields are producing mostly wheat. Used windows can be had very cheaply. The necessary raw materials are easily available. With the help of some modern construction methods however low-cost quality homes can be built. We estimate approximately $7,000 for land and house, a place that will free a family from fruitive work and unwanted materialistic association for their entire life times! We foresee that this village will again house 500 families, but families of Vaishnavas who will create and teach the wonderful culture of Krishna Consciousness.

Besides housing the infrastructure for self-sufficient living is required: oxen and cows, the necessary draft equipment for agriculture, deep wells for irrigation, greenhouses, wood and metalworking tools and shops, presses for making oil and fruit juices, and of course, the temple and school buildings.

How will we get there from here? It will take dedicated devotees who give years of sacrifice to build the community. There are many willing devotees—Ukraine has large numbers of devotees in every city. The congregation in Kharkov is more than 300, and in Kiev several thousand. What is lacking is funding. Ukraine is not a wealthy country. A typical wage is a mere $200 a month and many prices are escalating rapidly. It is not unusual for Ukrainians to leave to work elsewhere to send money home. This is not a practical solution for building a village community that functions on a subsistence economy, however. Therefore the idea of Partners-for-Life, Daiva-varnashrama Sponsors.

Why the Daiva-varnashrama Culture Requires Sponsors

On the cover page we quote one of Srila Prabhupada’s instructions for village communities: produce only what you need, use only what you produce. Immediately the question arises: How can you do that unless you can produce ALL of your necessities? The answer, of course, is that it is impossible. Or let us say impossible to do immediately. Given the circumstances of society in the early 21^st century, the land, housing, infrastructure, knowledge, tools, animals, and almost everything else needed for simple self-sufficient living, can only be acquired with money. But immediately upon embarking on the quest to obtain the funds by one’s own endeavor the many advantages of simple living are lost. In other words, the goal of the endeavor is immediately spoiled in the attempt to get there. A different approach is therefore required.

Srila Prabhupada gave the entire scheme in a lengthy article he wrote in 1956 for his Back to Godhead magazine. Entitled “Conceptions of Gita-nagari,” the essay describes the village where the Bhagavad-gita is lived on a daily basis. This essay is the foundation of our Gitagrad project. Our desire is to do exactly as Srila Prabhupada explains therein. There Srila Prabhupada explains how the necessary funds should be acquired:

“With the help of the Srimatas, arrangement must be made to provide a fund for the expenses of the Gita-nagari. By the Grace of God, those born in the family of the Srimatas are sufficiently favored by Laxmi Devi. As such, the Srimatas can make use of their wealth in the service of the  Internal Potency of Godhead.”

The answer is that if the many devotees of Sri Krishna cooperate together and use the resources He has given them—including physical energy, intelligence, talents and wealth—then the village can be built without violating its very purpose. Hence, we call all of those who would give their support to building the transcendental culture our Partners-for-Life. Partners who not only sustain life, but partners for all of the life—indeed, all of eternity—as they will all share equally in the result.

Those who live simple lives of devotional service on the land, those who come to participate in planting, harvesting, building, etc., as far as their time allows, those who speak and write about the transcendental life and recruit other participants, and those who provide financial support all share equally in the result of pleasing the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and share in the result of going Back to Godhead.

Not everyone will come to live in the village. It is not required, nor is it necessary. But what is necessary is that we recognize the fact that our acharyas wanted that the daiva-varnashrama Krishna Culture be established, that it is necessary for our devotees to have a place to live free from the unwanted influences of modern life, and that it is needed to show the entire world out of the darkness of oblivion. Understanding the necessity we are thus motivated to do our part to make it a reality.

    Srila Prabhupada’s instructions for Gita-nagari are that all activity must be done for the pleasure and on the account of Sri Sri Partha-Sarathi, Sri Krishna. All of the inhabitants live there without the concept of private property, without any idea of personal gain, only to render service to the Supreme Lord.

     In the first two years we aim to become food independent, and by the fifth year, to become clothing independent. Once the infrastructure is established we  can reduce the cash requirement dramatically by providing for ourselves.

Partners-for-Life Make the World Better by 1%

Our Partners-for-Life daiva-varnashrama support program is similar to Srila Prabhupada’s Life Membership program. The difference is that our Partners-for-Life may either give $1,111 initially or  a very small amount on a regular basis. On a regular basis we ask our Partners to contribute a mere 1% of their income, an amount so small it will not be missed. We will reciprocate the kindness of our Partners with regular reports of our progress, and gifts of natural products and maha prasadam.

Below are many of the items needed to build the Gitagrad daiva-varnashrama community. As one of our Partners-for-Life you may wish to choose to donate toward a particular item, or sponsor it entirely.

Housing	US $
Existing house (if available)	3,500-7,000
Improvements
Bathroom, kitchen & heating	2,500
Barn repairs	500
New Construction (Straw & Clay)	6-8,000
Furnishings	500
Deity Worship
Temple Building & kitchen	20,000
Deity Worship: Dheep, Dhoop, Naivedyam	500/month
Temple Deities (purchase)	20,000
Cow Protection
Barn (6 cows/oxen)	2,500
Hay barn	1,000
Veterinary care	600/yr.
Cow purchase & transport	3,000
Infrastructure
Bore well & pump	5,000
Clay workshop & kiln	6,000
Woodworking shop	4,000
Metalworking shop	9,000
Communications Center	10,000
Library	2,500
Sawmill	Future
Agriculture
Roto-tiller	600
Greenhouse	300
Fruit trees	150
Perennial flowers	100
Tools and storage	2,000
Grain storage	600
Transportation
Horse & Wagon	2,000
Maxivan (LP gas)	13,000
Small fuel-efficient car for errands	5,000
Fuel & insurance	5,000/yr
Maintenance fund	1,500/yr
Self-sufficiency technologies
Biogas generators for energy independence (serves 8 houses)	10,000
Ox driven oil crushing	2,500
Ox driven water pumping	2,500
Ox driven wagons, plows, rakes, etc.	2,500
Sweep-powered Generator (PTO)	2,000
Gurukula (future project)
School building	25,000
Room for 25 additional students	5,000
Kitchen & Cafeteria	10,000
Devotee Maintenance Fund
Personal items/shoes/clothing (used)	200/each/yr.
Health care fund	25/each/mo.
Needed Items not yet home produced	300/mo.

The BIG challenge of simple living:

How can one engage in self-sufficient living and simultaneously pay for the necessary
infrastructure of simple living?

It’s impossible without the cooperation of those who realize the value of Krishna consciousness and the
need to establish the transcendental culture

But very possible with our
Partners-for-Life 

By becoming one of our Partners You Can

Make the world better by

1%

Partners-for-Life Give Just 1%:

1% for 1 year, or

1% for 1 month, or

1% for 1 week

Such a little, can make a BIG difference.

Your donation will help establish the Transcendental
Krishna Culture, And

Free future generations:

–  For full-time Pure Devotional Service

–  From economic slavery,

–       By Sponsoring self-sufficient Infrastructure