New Vrindaban

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"For example, we feel that land and cows are essential for selfsufficiency, but we have to acquire the land first and then the cows and maintain and fence in pastures and feed the animals in the winter. If you recall, in WALDEN Thoreau often chastised the farmer for working so hard keeping up his farm.

We could be similarly criticized if we weren't working for Krishna. In other words, Thoreau said that man didn't have time to cultivate his transcendental consciousness because he worked too much. Bur working for Krishna is the same as cultivating transcendental consciousness."

"I can see that you and the other members of New Vrindaban are sincere in those beliefs. I can also understand that your dedication might be a little hard for some state officials to comprehend. What about school officials in particular . . . have you been harassed for keeping the community's children out of the public schools?"

"No, we've received no harassment there. We tutor the children in the basics ourselves. Eventually, as we get more kids, we'll have to establish a state-approved school . . . but that's done very easily in West Virginia."

Suddenly a conch shell was blown at the bottom of the hill and Hayagriva informed me that it was time for afternoon prasadam. He also mentioned that he had planned to go horseback riding so we went outside the A-frame to put on our boots.

"Just one more question," I said. "What are your long-term goals, your dreams?"

"Despite so many variables, we still plan and dream. But in the Society's brief five years, many dreams have come true. Eventually we hope that New Vrindaban will fulfill the Spiritual Master's request for seven major temples situated on seven hilltops, a sort of spiritual Xanadu of `twice five miles of fertile ground'. We've also dreamt of an Institute for Vedic Culture, a sort of transcendentalized New School for Social Research which could work on a reciprocal East-West culture-flow with the proposed school in Mayapur, India.

"Personally I have a lot of faith in the possibilities of expanding our cow protection program also. As for other projects . . . we'd like to have an amphitheater here that can feature pageant plays. We also hope to establish an art and music center and set up a press for printing books. But basically, our aim is to exhibit to the world that an ideal Krishna-conscious village is a possibility, even in this difficult age."

As we left the A-frame and walked down the hill through a forest of small maples I asked Hayagriva what advice he would give anyone starting a commune.

"Don't try to establish one without Krishna," he said quickly. He then pointed out that New Vrindaban wouldn't have lasted the first winter without faith in the instructions of the Guru and a lot of Hare Krishna chanting. "Communal life isn't all honey and wildflowers, though there're plenty of both," Hayagriva said.

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