Comment by my friend Suresvara Dasa, who wrote

Thank you for your latest piece on the Varnasrama conference about village life. As a survivor of several attempts to "live simply"--from New Vrindaban to Gita-nagari to the Bhaktivedanta EcoVillage near Udupi to Prabhupada Village in North Carolina--time and again I've born witness to the "guna test." We always flunk. As an Amish friend near Gita-nagari once remarked: "We started with horses and never left 'em. You started with cars, and you're trying to go to oxen? Whoa!"

My comment: Indeed Suresvaraji, the transition of the gunas is something that must be anticipated and dealt with. After all, we are souls conditioned to the modes of passion and ignorance, and from that perspective goodness is "well, nice, but not for me." Going from traveling at 60-80 mph down to 2 mph is not something that everyone can deal with, without becoming very impatient and bored. Perhaps a horse is a good interim step! Counseling would also be helpful for those moving to the simple life, to help them understand what to expect both at the beginning and the end, and to work through it. Additionally one should have a transition phase to phase in adjustment to the simple life over a series of months, or even years. This would help to us to focus on and appreciate what the simple life gives instead of what it lacks. Hmm...although I didn't plan it this way, it seems this is a good segue to the next piece I want to write for this blog - my own transition to simple life. Coming soon.