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Why Devotees Should Care for a
Green Transition
Radhamadhav Das, PhD
To inform devotees about the great urgency for a wide and fast
green transition.
2.
3.
Prelude
The cottage in the grove on the bank of Rdh Kuna, the great
Govardhana hill, the banks of the Yamun river, the Kusuma
Sarovara lake, the Manasa Gag stream, the daughter of Mount
Kalinda (the Yamun river) with her many waves, the Va Va
Banyan tree, the town of Gokula, the holy place Dhra Samra, the
trees and creepers and reeds of Vndvana, the different varieties
of birds and deer, the cooling breeze from the Malaya mountains,
the peacocks, the bumblebees ()
akti
laukika vaidika yata kichu ka-akti
sabra sammne haya ke dha-bhakti
bhakti
By respecting both earthly and transcendental energies of Ka,
ones devotion to Ka becomes fixed. (Caitanya
Caitanya-bhgavatam
2.18.184)
1. The Problem:
System Collapse Ahead
Civilization will collapse very soon, all over the world. This may
sound like just another doomsday slogan, but these were in fact the
words of rla A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swam Prabhupda in 1975. Today,
this statement rings truer than ever. We have just peaked in global oil
production in 2005 and we have no plan how to replace oil. Unless we
achieve a wide and timely green transition to a sustainable way of life,
millions of people could lose their lives in collapses of oil-based
infrastructure like agriculture, transportation, law-enforcement,
canalization and hospitals. In addition, the speculative global finance
system is bound to collapse from within.
It is critical to be well informed about the threat of infrastructure
collapses so we can understand what the need of the hour is, namely to
make a fast and widespread transition to a fully sustainable way of life.
I therefore humbly request you to read the booklet Need of the Hour.
You can read and download it for free on www.sublimeunion.org.
Forty years have passed since rla Prabhupda made the above
statement, and we have not achieved much in following his instruction
that we must become self-sufficient. Now time is running out.
Experts say that oil production can drop significantly within the next
five years and this can lead to massive infrastructure collapses all over
the world. The most critical aspect will be the famines following the
collapse of the modern agriculture that completely depends on oil
products like fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides and petrol. When the
global food reserves (estimated to last only 70 days) will be depleted,
people will start starving and looting everywhere. We wont be able to
save our cows and food stocks from them. Once people have looted
and eaten all animals and plants (including all seeds), there will be
nothing left to plant and breed. Even secluded farms will not be saved
from this destructive looting, what to speak of houses and temples in
the city. If we dont transition to sustainability we may soon face the
greatest holocaust in history. We shouldnt think that this isnt
possible. During the Bengal famines, people didnt only eat all cows
2. The Chance:
Boost Preaching and Sdhana
In order to identify with the green transition, it is crucial to understand
how it improves our preaching and our personal sdhana. Let us first
discuss tattva. Some devotees claim that the green transition is a
material activity and that we should focus on spiritual activities like
chanting. Often, such devotees have not understood what spiritual and
material means in tattva. In the Abrahamic religions there is a strong
bifurcation of the material and spiritual worlds with regard to cosmic
position and substance (substance dualism). But the Caitanyaite
criteria for a thing to be material or spiritual is less its substance or
position, but its internal affinity, which is changeable (affinity or
potency transformation, akti-parima). This means that with the
wrong affinity or intention, our chanting is material, and with the right
affinity, our involvement in the green transition is spiritual. We must
also be careful not to fall into the trap of the myvds who preach
that the Absolute Truth is real and the cosmic manifestation is false
(brahma satya jagan mithy). We follow r Madhvcrya who said
brahma satyam jagat satyam, Both the spiritual and material realms
are real. Our journey from the unreal to the real (asato m sad gama)
is less a switching of worlds than a change of consciousness. With
spiritual vision, everything in creation is seen as Kas energies.
Rather than considering the earthly energies of Ka as mundane,
one should consider them transcendental and pray to them for
devotional service to Ka. rla Bhaktisiddhnta Sarasvat
Prabhupda (see Prelude).
Sustainability is a core principle of the santana-dharma. The
words sat and santana both express eternal existence and thus
sustainability. Mother Earth is called dhara, she who holds and
sustains life, and she appears in the form of a cow. Dharma
personified appears as a bull. Unless we realize the close relations
between dharma and protecting mother Earth, mother cow and father
bull by leading a fully sustainable life, there is little hope for any
substantial progress. The words dharma and dhara both come from
the verbal root dh, to hold, to sustain. Dharma is the original
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lesson we can learn from the collapse crisis is that in order for our
society to be resilient, holistic and sustainable, we need to be better
integrated into society at large. hkura Bhaktivinode set the example
of social integrity. Nowadays many people shy away from cooperating
with the Hare Krishna devotees due to our reputation of being elitist
and sectarian. Spearheading the green transition up-front is a great
chance to regain our social, economic and educational integrity.
Needless to say, this would provide a great boost to our preaching.
Our cra (conduct) should match our pracra (preaching). We
talk of simple living and high thinking, but most of us are far from
simple living. How attractive can that be for people who are looking
for long term solutions? Let aside preaching how beneficial is that
for our sdhana? Lets take a look at how the green transition is
beneficial for our sdhana. By having our own land and organic
produce, we can become independent of the modern industry and can
spend more time with devotional activities. We can offer the Lord food
and other produce that has been cultivated with love and devotion and
thats free from chemicals and GMO, which lead to diseases like
cancer, memory loss and depression even of children.
Without a green transition, we continue to contribute in many
ways to the destruction of nature, whose energies we should consider
transcendental and pray to them for devotional service to Ka
(rla Bhaktisiddhnta Sarasvat Prabhupda, see Prelude). Krishna is
the Farm crya. Baladeva is holding a plough, and Krishna is holding
the calf. Krishna advised Nanda Mahrja not to perform Indra-pja,
but to worship the land, Govardhana, because it was supplying all
foodstuffs for the residents of Vndvana and the cows as well. (rla
Prabhupda, letter to Hari Sauri, Aug 10th, 1977.) The entire planet
Earth was made sacred when r Ka blessed her with the
impressions of His lotus feet. Despite respecting her as one of our
main seven mothers and addressing her as Bhm Dev, the Earth
goddess, we are contributing to her destruction by participating in the
exploitative modern system of economy. We would expect that at least
in the holiest places of this world the places of Lord Kas pastimes
the devotees are living in harmony with nature. But alas, these places
have now become some of the most polluted spots on Earth.
According to the Mother Nature Network, the Yamun river is the 7th
most toxic place to live on Earth.
3. The Solution:
A Wide & Fast Green Transition
The best way to care for our fellow beings right now is to prevent
collapse by making a green transition, its most critical aspect being
localized organic farming. First of all, we must at once start large
organic seed banks of locally adapted seeds in all places in order to
cover the huge demand during the transition to the post-petrol era.
People will realize that organic seeds are more valuable than all the
money and gold in the world. The same consideration applies to land
and cows. These things cannot be acquired all of a sudden. Land
suitable for cultivation and dwelling must be carefully chosen and
cultivated and cows need to be bread for many generations. Bulls need
to be trained for plowing and pulling. In theory, we know the value of
land and cows, but we are yet to implement that knowledge on a large
scale. Especially in times of transition, we should invest most surplus
funds in seed banks, land and cows, not in big buildings. We should not
only cover our own demands but we should be able to provide organic
seeds and trained bulls to other people as well during transition. If we
can do this all over the world, this could very possibly be the critical
service that will make us go down in history as having saved mankind
in its darkest hour.
rla Prabhupda wrote: Our farm projects are an extremely
important part of our movement. We must become self-sufficient by
growing our own grains and producing our own milk, then there will
be no question of poverty. (Letter to Rupanuga, 1974.) In 1977, he
said in Vrindavan: How they were happy, the inhabitants of
Vrindavan with Ka and living with cows. That I want to introduce.
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At any cost do it. And dont bother about big, big buildings. It is not
required useless waste of time. Produce; make the whole field green.
See to that. Then whole economic question solved. () Farm, farm,
farm, farm! That is not my program its Kas program. Annd
bhavanti bhtni (Bg. 3.14). Produce greenness everywhere,
everywhere Vrindavan. Are there any other words that rla
Prabhupda repeated four times in a row other than Ka and
farm? Self-sufficient farming means organic farming. Of course, we
are not just going to give people organic food we will give them
ka-prasdam prepared from real sattvic, organic food, and help
them to develop Ka-consciousness.
Before we go into details, lets remember a very critical aspect of
the collapse crisis: its not just about saving a little energy or only
about eco-communities the deciding quest is to ensure a green
transition on the macro level, that means entire states, countries and if
possible the whole planet Earth. Because as mentioned before, any
solution limited to the micro level like eco-villages is prone to vanish
during the collapse-caused looting. The challenge is to attain a timely
and widespread green transition this alone can provide the required
resilience (ability to adjust to and recover from sudden change). At
least it should happen on the state level. This is not unrealistic. Bhutan
is an entire country dedicated to a transition to 100% organic farming.
After a collapse of food and fuel supplies in 1989, the Cubans replaced
up to 80% of industrial farming with community-based and bullpowered organic farming. Today, 90% of Havanas fresh produce
comes from local urban organic farms and gardens. In 2014, the Thai
government decided to greatly scale up organic agriculture. In 2011,
the Danish government mandated to achieve independence from coal,
oil and gas by 2050. The whole world is watching Germanys
Energiewende (energy transition) to independence from nonrenewable energy sources like coal, oil and nuclear power.
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1. Vegetables and fruit plantation in the middle of the Cuban city Havana.
2. A community-owned PV array on a noise barrier in Freiburg, Germany.
leaders prioritize it. This will only happen if the devotee community
encourages and supports their leaders in this most crucial effort.
Therefore, education about the urgency of a green transition is needed
on all levels from youth to leadership. All devotees should be taught
how they can contribute to the transition on the micro and macro
level. Devotees may not agree with everything I am proposing, but we
must under all circumstances start networking and developing
transition plans. At present there are already some wonderful
transition projects running. I just returned to Vrindavan from a SouthIndia tour to four eco-villages. The devotees have attained a significant
level of self-sufficiency and are moving into the right direction. But, as
mentioned, these projects are limited to the micro level and thus prone
to destruction by collapse-caused looting. Because not enough
emphasis is given on this point, Im stressing the very critical aspect of
widespread transition. Of course, if these micro solutions spread like
wildfire, they will move up to the macro level, but this is very unlikely
to happen without the involvement of bureaucrats and the
government. And lets be realistic about this if we demand that all
people become devotees, follow the four regulative principles and
serve within varrama-dharma so that they can participate in our
model for a sustainable society, then we will also not be able to create
the required momentum in time. This is not to say that we should
loosen these principles in our societies. It is to say that we have to
simultaneously provide quick transition solutions that are attractive for
the commoners, most of whom are not going to give up their bad
habits within the next 5-10 years.
The conclusion is that until the green transition is completed, we
must simultaneously move on two transition tracks; a traditional and a
universal or super-traditional one. In this deciding time, many of us
must also focus on the universal track in order to create the required
momentum. Once the critical tipping point is reached, society at large
will pull in fully, and when the transition is accomplished, we can reinvest all our energy into our traditional lifestyle. We must not shy
away from dealing with governing officials, bureaucrats and academics.
Our principle is yukta-vairagya. To save their beloved hakurjs from
the Moghuls, the Goswamis also collaborated with governors. If the
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necessity arises, we should be ready for any service for the Lord and
His devotees. Although the Vaiavas are ultimately beyond
varrama, we should not think Im beyond all these duties, let
others do them. Rather, we should say, if none else does the job of
the katriyas, let me do it! While doing our specific services, we
should be sarvopdhi-vinirmukta, detached from any temporary
designation and post and attached to hkea hkea-sevanam,
engaging all our senses in any required service for the master of the
senses.
Especially now during the transition period we realize the great
lack of true katriyas. Some devotees hope that the governments will
try to prevent collapse, but those who are well-informed know that
they have no plan for a timely green transition. Also within our society
we lack trained katriyas. For example, you may have heard that some
time ago in India, thieves broke the wall of an ISKCON gol at night
and stole two cows. The paid security guards were sleeping so soundly
that they didnt even notice the breaking of the wall. What a shame for
those cows. After similar incidents, devotees with brhmaa initiation
decided to accept the role of night guards. Some even started
patrolling around on bikes to check for thieves loading cows on trucks
and taking them away for slaughter. While others were hiding, H. H.
Bhaktirghava Swami and other devotees bravely defended the r-r
Rdh-Mdhava Deities when dacoits attacked the Mypur temple.
rla Prabhupda boldly defended the temple land in Mumbai, and
after his victory he said with satisfaction: it was a good fight. When
no katriyas came forth to take up the case for the devotees after the
Chand Kazi forbade nagara-sakrtana in Navadvip Dhm,
Mahprabhu Himself became the leader of a non-violent civil
disobedience party and led the devotees in a protest procession to the
Kazis residence. Similarly, many of us will have to accept unusual
roles to bring about the green transition. Every seva we do can become
an excuse not to serve the need of the hour, and then it may even
become a disservice. Suppose the pjr would have refused to
relocate r-r Rdh-Govinda when the Moghuls were about to
attack because he had prepared some important pj. That so called
pj would have been a great disservice. It is not our tradition to
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follow tradition just for the sake of following tradition. Our tradition is
to serve the Lord and His devotees according to Their most prominent
needs. This time, the need of the hour is to make a timely and
widespread green transition. The people of Bengal may not have seen
the famine coming. But we are informed about the impending
collapses and thus we have to step into action. The government is not
doing enough, so well have to fill the gap. In both big Bengal famines
(1770 and 1946) the cause was mismanagement, inaction and policy
failures of the (British) government. In Kali-yuga, we cannot rely on
any so called government. If there is a need, we have to lead.
In a healthy devotee society, the brhmaas, by dint of their
spiritual absorption and study, would soon realize the graveness of the
converging crises and counsel the katriyas. The ever-alert katriyas
would at once mandate a green transition and would not hesitate to
sacrifice everything to protect society. The vaiys would direct the
economic and agricultural transition and the drs would support
transition through film, music, poetry, art and working force. That this
transition is not happening on a large scale indicates that our society is
not in a very healthy state, both spiritually and materially. Maybe the
increasingly pressing need for a timely transition will give a kick-start
to developing varrama-dharma, which already includes a blueprint
for a sustainable and resilient community. Many devotees feel that the
green transition and varrama-dharma are impractical. But what
alternatives do we have? If we dont want to face unprecedented
catastrophes, we have no other choice than to transition into
sustainable living. If we have understood this fact, than there will be no
more excuses. Of course living simply can be a challenge for most of us
who are used to the so called comforts of modern living. We may
have to do it forcefully, but for the next generation it will again be
natural, having been born in a simple environment. And since we are
anyway going to have to design a complete system overhaul, we might
as well take a deep breath and say, All right, varrama-dharma,
here we come. Often the magic happens when we step out of the
comfort zone and sacrifice for a greater good. To accommodate more
of the common people, there should also be communities with fewer
regulations. We must not play down such attempts and recognize their
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goes against our nature to pass stool and urine into a river, lake, ocean
or well, but by using the flush toilet we do so indirectly. It is a natural
instinct to empty ones bowels into earth and cover it with earth, where
the stool will quickly turn into fertile soil. The toilet within the house is
also a source of subtle contamination that goes against Vedic
principles of purity. Since we have the chance of redesign, we should
strive to leapfrog the disadvantages of Western toilets. Lets at least
make toilets separate from our houses and build sewage treatment
plants. The greenest home toilet is the composting toilet, which is
common in remote houses in the Swiss Alps. It looks like a common
toilet, but the excrements are covered with sawdust and once they are
fully composted they provide very fertile compost. This dry toilet also
helps saving tons of water.
Next is waste management. We must introduce waste
separation and recycling systems and proper waste treatment. To
minimize the use of plastic waste we must offer viable alternatives such
as affordable biodegradable bags, plates and packing. In regards to
greening, we should at once start organic food gardens in as many
places as possible, as this is the most critical aspect of local resilience.
Public spaces can be turned into edible gardens. Fruit trees should be
planted wherever possible such as next to roads. Wide-scale
reforestation with local trees is needed to bring back the original
Vrindavan. The over-loaded transportation system needs to be
redesigned. Central places should be car-free and only cycle rickshaws,
bullock carts, horse carriages and battery rickshaws should be allowed.
A proper bus system needs to be introduced and people should also be
encouraged to walk and use bicycles. By covering most power
demands with local solar power, people can live more eco-friendly,
resilient, independent and economically. Solar water heating systems
and solar cookers need to be introduced. Local economies have to be
supported over non-local ones by measurements such as local
currencies, obligation to label non-local products and taxes on nonlocal products that will be used to fund local green development. To
reverse urbanization, living in developed villages has to be promoted.
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Appendix
Green transition devotee projects
Bhaktivedanta Learning Institute for Self-Sufficiency Vrindavan (BLISS):
www.blissvrindavan.org
Bhumi Project: www.bhumiproject.org
Care for Cows Vrindavan: www.careforcows.org
Dhanesvara Dasa: www.spiritual-econ.com
Eco-Agri Research Foundation in Karnataka: http://www.ecoagri.in
Eco Truly Park Lima: www.ecotrulypark.org
Eco Yoga Villages: www.ecoyogavillages.org
Food for Life Vrindavan: www.fflvrindavan.org
Gajanand Agarwal: www.krisit.com
Gokuldham Ecovillage Belgaum:
www.iskconvarnasrama.com/home/gokul-dham
Govardhan Ecovillage Maharashtra: www.ecovillage.org.in
ISKCON Campus Ministry: www.iskconcampusministry.com
ISKCON Daiva Varnasrama Ministry: www.iskconvarnasrama.com
Krishna Valley Ecovillage Hungary: www.ecovalley.hu
Sahadeva Dasa: www.drdasa.com/books
Vrindavan Act Now: www.vrindavanactnow.com
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