Sometimes he cuts me!
Accepting Tamal Krishna Maharaja's invitation, Prabhupada decided to spend a day at the Pennsylvania farm, a five-hour drive away. We will stay overnight and return tomorrow morning.
Fulfilling what he said was "a long cherished dream," Prabhupada traveled there on one of the Radha-Damodara buses. Devotees set up the seat from his sitting room in the center of the open floor against the wall to the right of the altar. As he sat back the bright rays of the early morning sun streamed in past the partly curtained windows, highlighting his golden form in the same way that a spotlight picks out the most important actor on a stage. Tamal Krishna Goswami, Pushta Krishna Swami, Bali-mardana, Adi-kesava Swami, Tripurari Swami and Chayavana Swami gathered at his feet. Bus manager Mahamuni dasa and driver Vakresvara Pandita dasa sat in the front cab. We sped down the highway at seventy miles per hour, while Prabhupada held his usual morning program. Everyone took out their song books and turned to page eighty-six, and as we sat before the Deities of Sri Sri Gaura-Nitai, Srila Prabhupada sang one of his favoritebhajanas, Locana dasa Thakura's "Sri Sri Gaura Nityanandera Daya: The Mercy of Sri Gaura and Nityananda."
While Prabhupada gave class I prepared his breakfast in the compact, but well-equipped kitchen in the back. It was not such an easy task, with the bus bouncing and swaying on the undulating highway. After taking his breakfast, we had more kirtana.
By 11:00 a.m. we were pulling into the farm entrance. A handful of devotees, led by Paramananda dasa, greeted him. We were taken to a small, wooden, two story residence where Srila Prabhupada could take his massage. During the massage I pointed out a thumb-sized lesion over the joints of his toes, resulting from the two-hour foot massage I gave him in New York. Prabhupada just shrugged it off, saying that when the body ages the healing processes do not work as well?that was what old age meant. I was relieved he took it so lightly.
Once before, when discussing his massage with a visitor, he looked over in my direction and said half-jokingly, "Sometimes he cuts me!" Prabhupada's good humor lessened my mortification. But it's for this reason I keep my fingernails very short.
* * *
Paramananda prabhu and his wife Satyabhama dasi were two of the first devotees in New Vrindavana, later coming to run this farm. Satyabhama made Prabhupada's lunch today using our own farm produce.
The capatis were very thick, and Prabhupada said that when he first saw them he was thinking, "How will I be able to eat these?" But when he bit into one he was surprised to find it very soft, sweet and digestible. They were so delicious that he ate three or four. He was very pleased to hear they were made from the farm's own wheat, and that the devotees had ground it into flour themselves.
Located near Port Royal, the farm has some of the richest soil in the state, with about two hundred acres under cultivation or pasture and one hundred acres of forest. It supplies milk, grains and vegetables to the New York temple.
* * *
After Srila Prabhupada's afternoon nap Tamal Krishna Maharaja came to take him on a tour of the farm. Prabhupada sat for a few minutes waiting for Paramananda to bring his four-wheel drive truck, talking about the state of the world and how people are being misdirected by "mis-leaders." As an example Prabhupada cited Idi Amin, the despotic ruler of Uganda. The international community knew that he was killing and pillaging his own country men, even eating their flesh, but were not saying anything.
He advised us what should be done to correct things. It was another feature of Krishna consciousness that is not yet manifest.
Tamal Krishna Maharaja asked if this solution was one of the "plans" which he had declined to reveal on our first night on the rooftop in New York.
Prabhupada just smiled as he went through the door and said, "Yes."
* * *
Paramananda is an expert farm manager; every inch of the land is utilized and production is very high, yet they do all the work with modern machines. He first drove Prabhupada through the fields to show him the various crops. Stopping the truck, he hopped out, climbed back in and dropped an ear of wheat in Srila Prabhupada's hand. Prabhupada inspected it carefully, and then questioned Paramananda closely, impressing us all with his knowledge of food growing and production. Pleased with their evident labor and the results, Prabhupada told Paramananda that there is no need to abandon the farm machines, provided they utilize everything in Krishna's service.
After we drove around the land the next stop was the huge cow barn and dairy, where Prabhupada saw a calf born just that morning. He petted some of the younger calves and then inspected the huge cows. The herd is Brown Swiss and they have gigantic milk bags. One cow gives one hundred and four pounds of milk per day?that's the equivalent of its own body weight every eleven days! Paramananda informed us that two of the cows have the finest pedigrees in America. Their ancestry traces back two hundred and fifty years, to the time when their breed first came to America.
The cows were not the only occupants of the barn, however. A dog peacefully sat between the stalls; and as Prabhupada looked on, a small kitten ran among the cows, catching milk dropping from their udders. He smiled and said that this was the result of living in a Krishna conscious community: even the animals are great friends.
He then visited Devakinandana dasa's house, a single story, rustic dwelling out on its own in the woods. Prabhupada liked the taste of the fresh spring water bubbling up from the ground just outside the door.
Finally, Prabhupada was taken to the main house. It is a two-story wooden building where the devotees meet and conduct their spiritual program in its one large room. Sri Sri Gaura-Nitai reside on a simple altar in a curtained off section of the temple room.
Prabhupada had darsana of the Deities and then gave a short lecture to the assembled devotees. "So this Krishna consciousness movement is trying to revive the original, constitutional position," he told us. "So one of them in the Krishna consciousness movement is village organization, as you are trying here. Krishna, in His natural life, is a village boy in Vrindavana. Vrindavana is a village. There is no factory, there is no motorcar, there are no big, big skyscraper buildings; it is village. That Krishna likes."
He said that Krishna is satisfied with such village life, and so should we. "That is part of Krishna consciousness. But it does not mean we shall avoid city life, or town life. No, every place is Krishna's place; everywhere there should be Krishna consciousness.
"We should keep ourselves within the village, and properly organize as Krishna showed us the example. He was personally taking care of the cows and calves. When He was a child He was taking care of the cows and calves. When He was grown up He was taking care of the cows, even though He was the son of a very rich man, Nanda Maharaja, the village king. ... So we should follow His footprints ... Whatever Krishna has taught by His personal life, by His teaching, to follow that is Krishna consciousness."
He told us that Krishna teaches the Bhagavad-gita so that those who are naturally God conscious can make their lives perfect in this life. This should be our last life, we should go directly to Krishna in our next life. "He is giving us instruction. If we follow His instruction, very simple, and remain in this village, satisfied with simple life, agricultural produce, milk. How many nice things you have produced? Where is the difficulty? There is no economic problem."
Prabhupada gave the devotees hints how to use all their milk so that not a drop would be wasted. "In India we are in scarcity of milk. So, krishi-gorakshya-vanijyam. So if you have got excess milk, you can make it into powdered milk and send it to India in any amount. It will be consumed. At least we can use it in our different centers, we can distribute."
He also gave a breakdown of how to use it all locally. "From milk, first of all drink as much as you like. Then convert it into yogurt, next day, next day, next day. And then when that is also enough, then churn it, take out butter-buttermilk and butter?and drink the buttermilk with capati. It is very palatable, very nutritious. Then butter, if you have got excess butter, then turn it into ghee. And ghee can be preserved for years, there's no question of preservation. You send it to the cities and towns. And now we are encouraging to open prasadam distribution restaurants. Where is the problem? There is no problem. Each drop of milk you can utilize to the perfect utility point."
If there were an excess of cows, he said they could chop out some of the trees in the woods and keep them there. "But give protection to the cows. That is the order of Krishna. We cannot be ungrateful that we kill mother. The milk is so important. We are drinking milk, and in exchange if we cut the throat of mother, that is not civilization. That is barbarism, less than animal. So try to give protection to the cow. That is pious activity, and you will not live in scarcity."
He glorified the principle of living simply with just the bare necessities, saving time to chant Hare Krishna. "This is the ideal life. So, I am very pleased that you are doing that, and do it nicely so that others may be attracted. This town life, industrial life, factory life, is asuric life. It is killing the human ambition. It is killing civilization."
He added a final note, balancing out his emphasis on village life with a wider scope of Krishna conscious life. "So there are many other businesses for a Krishna conscious person, because in Bhagavad-gita Krishna speaks all around: sociology, politics, philosophy, religion, culture, economics, everything is there. If you simply try to follow Krishna's instructions, then you get cultural life all around."
It was about 7:00 p.m. when he concluded his tour and retired to his quarters for the night.
* * *
In the middle of the night Prabhupada rang the bell. When I entered his room he was sitting behind his low desk, with his dictaphone before him, but he was not using it. He was ashen, and told me he was experiencing severe kidney pain and could not translate. It was the same problem he had a few days ago. This time he agreed when I asked if we could call a doctor on our return to New York. He wasn't confident that it would do any good, but he said that there was undoubtedly something wrong, so he had no objection.
This means it is serious; otherwise Prabhupada never usually agrees to medical help.
At 5:00 a.m. Prabhupada returned to New York, but by car. He decided not to return on the bus because it bounced too much, placing a great strain on his heart.
After the five-hour trip Prabhupada spent his usual day-massage on the roof, bath, lunch and rest.
Reference: Transcendental Diary Volume 3 by Tamal Krishna Goswami
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