UN Conference Welcomes Vedic Alternative

This June, in Vancouver, Canada, 4,500 delegates from 135 countries met in an atmosphere of emergency. Their goal: to improve human living conditions worldwide. This gathering, called the United Nations Conference on Human Settlements-"Habitat," for short-included both governmental meetings and (for the first time in UN history) a meeting of authorized nongovernmental organizations ("NGO's").

ISKCON representatives, including Gurudasa Svami, Revatinandana Svami, and Dharmadhyaksa dasa, addressed many assemblies and seminars during the two weeks of NGO meetings. ISKCON's outdoor tent-exhibit, entitled "Simple Living, High Thinking," drew rousing applause from thousands of visitors. According to the New York Times, most countries wanted to "free themselves from Western ideas on planning and from dependence on Western technology." As a result, considerable praise went to ISKCON's plans for a model city in Mayapura, India (based on both classical Vedic town planning and the latest natural technology, such as windmill power units and methane gas converters).

Besides Indian delegates who pledged their support, Ronald Siegel, head of the International Assistance Division of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, invited the devotees to Washington for further discussions on the Mayapura project.