Brahmacārīs

Everyone in New Dvaraka serves Krsna, but how each devotee does so depends upon his skills and leanings and also upon his social status. A Vedic community divides its members into four social groups: brahmacaris (students), grhastha (householders), vanaprastha (the retired) and sannyasis (the renounced). Each of these groups has different duties.

Since the duty of a vanaprastha-a married man who wishes to develop detachment and retire from family life-is to travel for purification, and the duty of a sannyasi-a renounced ascetic-is to travel and preach, there are no vanaprasthas and sannyasis in residence at New Dvaraka; all the devotees are brahmacaris and grhasthas.

The brahmacaris are unmarried Krsna conscious students. The Vedic culture does not allow an unmarried boy to dally in sexual affairs, for such intrigues simply create agitation, both for oneself and for others, and thus stand in the way of spiritual progress. According to the Vedic system, one who feels a need for the companionship of a woman should marry and live as a peaceful and responsible gentleman, and one who does not feel such a need should forget about sex altogether and concentrate his energy in Krsna consciousness.

Brahmacari life, therefore, is a life of freedom from sex-and the entanglements that come with it. A brahmacari need not worry about how to get food, money, a home and security to keep a wife and family happy. He keeps only the bare necessities of life (which Krsna provides very easily), and he can go anywhere at a moment's notice. Thus brahmacari life is simple and carefree.

Since a brahmacari can engage full time in cultivating Krsna consciousness for his own spiritual advancement and spreading it for the benefit of others, the brahmacaris constitute New Dvaraka's main preaching force. Most of the book distributors and members of the chanting party are brahmacaris, like Ramesvara and Tripurari. New Dvaraka also has two groups of three brahmacaris who travel all around the United States in vans, distributing Krsna conscious books and telling people about Krsna. They take great pleasure in traveling and preaching.

The brahmacaris who are not out on the road live in the main temple building at New Dvaraka. (The unmarried girls live in similar quarters across the street, and married couples live in apartments in the neighborhood.) Living and working together in Krsna consciousness, the brahmacaris form a closely knit family of Godbrothers. "This is an ideal life for spiritual advancement," says Gopavrndapala dasa, the brahmacari who serves as New Dvaraka's temple coordinator, organizing the temple's daily routine work. "Some people may think brahmacari life very austere and dry, but actually it is full of nectar." Gopavrndapala, twenty-three years old, was born in California. He lived in various yoga communes prior to joining the Krsna consciousness movement. "Because of the powerful cleansing effect and the joy of the chanting," he says, "I was curious to learn more about the philosophy." Since he was unmarried and wanted to join the temple, he became a brahmacari at New Dvaraka. "We do not give up anything through artificial repression," he notes. "But we get more enjoyment from serving Krsna than from material life. One can stay a brahmacari if he likes, or one can marry. The main thing is to become Krsna conscious."