New Indraprastha Dham, a Gitagrad Community in Russia

 

Outdoor kirtan at New Indraprastha

During the first two weeks of April I visited the New Indraprastha community in north Rostov Oblast, almost due east of Lugansk, Ukraine. The winter snows were finally gone and there was a slight hint of spring in the air. After the first spring rain the hint of green was visible in the gently rolling hills to the south. The New Indraprastha community was founded by Vaikunthanatha Dasa and his wife Kisori Murti Devi Dasi along with their daughter Nama Rasa some three years ago. 

I first met Vaikunthanatha and Kisori Murti in May of ’09 at the vyasapuja ceremony of their spiritual master His Holiness Indradyumna Maharaja. They had approached Maharaja for his blessings for their endeavors to establish a Krishna conscious village according to the vision of Srila Prabhupada. By Sri Krishna’s arrangement I was with Maharaja just at that time and he instructed them to work with me. We sat and talked about community development and I was impressed by their understanding and approach. And to my delight they not only understood the concepts of Spiritual Economics better than anyone else I’d discussed them with, but they had genuine realization on the subject. We immediately became very close.

I had wanted to get to New Indraprastha last October. It was my desire to settle in there for the winter and write volume two of Spiritual Economics. However, there were repeated delays in our efforts to get a proper invitation that would allow for a one-year stay in Russia. As it turned out I obtained the visa only in January this year, and made a brief first visit to New Indraprastha during the snowy and cold month of February before going to Rostov for another two weeks.

New Indraprastha in February

After studying Srila Prabhupada’s books for almost two decades Vaikunthanatha concluded that the most important thing needed push on Srila Prabhupada’s vision was to create a village community. At that point in time the immense country of Russia had but one village community at Kurgenova, further to the south, but it was something of a retirement community where devotee pensioners retired. Vaikunthanatha saw the need for a dynamic spiritual community dedicated to living the principles of the Bhagavad-gita for giving shelter to the Lord’s devotees. Daringly alone, they set out to establish New Indraprastha in a village that they had visited before, about 3 hours drive north of Rostov-on-the-Don.

The cows are coming home

At New Indraprastha there is a very well developed program for introducing potential members to the community. First of all they have a great deal of introductory material at the website. Upon reading over the website if someone expresses a desire in the community they are given access to further information at the website and they begin a dialogue with Vaikunthanatha and/or Kisori Murti. Progressing from that step, they are then asked to listen to a number of lectures on specific aspects of Krishna Consciousness, Srila Prabhupada’s desire for village communities, Varnashrama Dharma, etc. If after that step interest continues then the candidate is asked to view several videos giving yet further detail about village communities as the solution to problems at many societal levels. After all of this, if the candidate desires he is invited to spend some time at the community for some real life experience.

The Nature Sprites of New Indraprastha

New Indraprastha is a Daiva-varnashrama community, meaning that they follow the Isavasyam principle, that everything belongs to God, and the members are caretakers, not owners, of whatever is in their possession. They follow the principles of Spiritual Economics in that all work is done as devotional service without consideration of fruitive results. And as the community grows they intend to fully implement the Daiva-varnashrama culture, including the establishment of the social orders of life, the varnas.

As with almost every new community the membership waxes and wanes. Last summer there were as many as 25 people staying at New Indraprastha . This spring there were seven members present with an additional family coming from Israel after their infant child is a bit older. Additionally, a family from Germany that has been receiving training via the internet visited early in April and decided that, yes, this was the place for them. So they will be returning later this year to make New Indraprastha their home.

I am personally enthusiastic about New Indraprastha community because their leaders are serious about implementing the philosophy of Krishna Consciousness as a matter of daily living. I look forward to spending more time there to help these dedicated devotees become well-established in both theory and practice of Daiva-varnashrama dharma as an example for the rest of the world how to live a happy life in Krishna Consciousness.

 

From right: Dhanesvara, Vaikunthanatha, Anton, Kishori Murti, Andrei, 

and in front are Tanya and Nama Rasa 

Check out their website: www.pravednost.net. Although it is in Russian Google translator will give English-speaking people a bit of a glimpse into what the community is all about, and the wonderful devotees of Krishna who make it up.