The Perfect Society

Most of the full time members at New Vrndavana come from the big cities-New York, Los Angeles, etc. Although most come direct from the Krsna temples, the only requirement for entrance is sincerity. The community serves as a training camp in Krsna consciousness and, ideally, as an example of a perfect Krsna conscious community to show the practicality and applicability of the philosophy to communal living. The temples established in various cities are able to work very effectively to a certain degree, but they are not able under the present situation to exhibit what a perfect society is like. For that reason New Vrndavana is envisioned as a society where all the residents are Krsna conscious and where all of the activities are directed toward the ultimate goal. It is not that Krsna consciousness is inactive in any sense. The practitioners engage in work which may appear to be ordinary work but is in fact devotional service due to the change in consciousness. Everyone in New Vrndavana is aware that his work is devotional in character and is directed to the Supreme Godhead because the factual proprietor of the land, of the buildings, of the temples, of the food, of the vehicles, tools and all the varied paraphernalia is Krsna. The awareness of Krsna's proprietorship enables the devotee to advance in Krsna consciousness while executing his daily chores.

In New Vrndavana this remembrance of the Supreme's proprietorship is facilitated because the atmosphere has been Krsnaized: by the mere touch of sound-Hare Krsna-the hills, pastures, forests and streams are transported out of the State of West Virginia into the spiritual sky of Vaikuntha. As the Spiritual Master, Srila Prabhupada, writes: "We can remember Krsna in every moment. We can remember Krsna while taking a glass of water because the taste of water is Krsna. We can remember Krsna as soon as we see the sunlight in the morning, because the sunlight is a reflection of Krsna's bodily effulgence. And as soon as we see moonlight in the evening we remember Krsna because moonlight is the reflection of sunlight. Similarly, when we hear any sound we can remember Krsna because sound is Krsna, and the most perfect sound, transcendental, is Hare Krsna, which we have to chant 24 hours. So there is no scope of forgetting Krsna at any moment of our life provided we practice in that way." (Srila Prabhupada, Letter, 1/15/68)

The atmosphere of New Vrndavana is suitable for such remembrance process-it is cosmic, rural, woodsy. Under the Milky Way, kirtana expands. Orion, the Pleiades, Sagittarius, Virgo-all vibrate to the cymbal rhythm, the chants broadcast from the mountains of planet earth. The firmament revolves about the mahamantra, the chanting of Hare Krsna. There is kirtana, group chanting, every morning and evening. Offerings to the Deity are performed before dawn and five times throughout the day. The morning kirtana is usually over before sunrise. Then morning prasadam is taken, usually cereal, and the day's chores begin. There is much to do at New Vrndavana, and all participate.

The conception and purpose of New Vrndavana are best set forth specifically in the letters of the Spiritual Master.

From the beginning, as Srila Prabhupada suggested, the program at New Vrndavana is geared to enable the student to progress along the path of devotional service; so there is work going on all the time. And the program is sufficiently diversified to accommodate a variety of talents, dovetailing them in Krsna's service.

As in the many transcendentalist farms in 19th century America, the concept of life at New Vrndavana is that of plain living and high thinking.