Jaya Prabhupada was born in Colombia, South America, but at the age of 17 he left home and moved to Puerto Rico and later to France, where he graduated with two master’s degrees, one in rural space and one in rural development.  Moving back to Colombia, he then worked for a few years for the government, drawing up plans for hydrographical basins. He explained, “Many people live in a certain geographical radius from a river basin, and you need enough good water- both quality and quantity- to maintain those inhabitants.  I would draw up the plans so they would have this facility.” Although the work was interesting, he quickly became disillusioned with the cheating ways of some people and organizations in the material world.

 He reached a turning point in his life when he was traveling back to Colombia from French Guyana along the Amazon River.  He was robbed of all his I.D. and money.  He had lost everything and was homeless on the Amazon.  “So I became a hippie!” exclaims J.P. “I began to make and sell all different kinds of crafts just to stay alive.  Then I met Santendriya, who was another kind of hippie/artist, selling her wares. We were married later on.”  The next major turning point was when they joined the Hare Krsna temple in Peru, eventually moving to the temple in Brazil in 1984. 

 At the Hare Krsna community in Brazil, Jaya Prabhupada began a wonderful adventure in his life.  “They gave me land and a cow and helped me build a house and asked me to live simply, setting an example by following Srila Prabhupada’s instructions and inviting other families to join us and do the same.  I was in bliss! Eventually, five other families came and received the same wonderful facilities of land, cow and house. We lived an ideal Krsna conscious life for quite a while.”  They had two children while living on their farm community there, and there was even a gurukula in Brazil.  But it became too difficult to pay the tuitions and to maintain their idyllic lifestyle so they had to move to Ecuador after some time.

 Eventually, Jaya Prabhupada answered an ad posted by New Vrindavan, for a cowherd man, and he is still here today, one of New Vrindavan’s steadiest and most educated cowherd men!

 Jaya Prabhupada is still holding onto the ideal of living a simple, rural life in Krsna’s service. He maintains that: “If you give priority to living from the richness of the land and the cows, just like Srila Prabhupada recommended, then you will have success.”

“My six-year old daughter is absolutely blossoming ever since she started attending Gopal’s Garden Homeschool Co-op,” said Jaya Krsna das, Manager of the Palace Lodge.  “Gopal’s Garden is one of the main reasons my wife and I moved to New Vrindaban last year, and it is a major factor in our decision to stay here.”

Jaya Krsna, his wife Taraka and their two children moved to New Vrindaban in the summer of 2011 from a rural devotee community in Kansas.  “Before we moved here, my wife tried to homeschool my daughter, but it didn’t go well,” explained Jaya Krsna.  “But now, she reads to me at night instead of the other way around, and I fall asleep before she does!”

At Gopal’s Garden, students focus heavily on the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic.  But they also receive instruction in subjects not available in most public and private schools these days.  On staff at Gopal’s Garden are two music teachers, an art teacher, and a drama teacher.  Moreover, at the end-of-the year party in December, the students who range from age 6 to 13, recited verses from the Bhagavad Gita in Sanskrit and English and recited dramatic stories from the Mahabharata.  All the guests at the end-of-the year celebration were impressed by the children’s presentations. Following the presentations, everyone sat together and relished the wonderful prasadam prepared by the parents and teachers.  As one parent commented, the Gopal’s Garden is like a family.

“When I saw my daughter standing up there with the other children, I practically started crying,” said Jaya Krsna.  “Gopal’s Garden is one of the best things that has ever happened to my family.”

For more information about Gopal’s Garden Homeschool Co-op, please contact Ruci devi dasi at Story108@juno.com.

For more information go to www.bhagavadgitaonline.org,

If you like to hear the previous verses  please sign in.  You will have to ‘register now’ and I will activate your account. For tel- conference students no charges apply.

With best wishes to you all. Hare Krishna!

Yours in the service,

Premabhakti das

Memorials and funeral services are as follows:

Nitai Prabhu, 11:00 am, Sunday, Feb 5, at Milan Funeral Home, Gainesville. A full service with guests able to speak about him. After services, memories can continue back at the temple.

Bhakta Tim (Gopinatha) Prabhu, 4:30pm, Monday, Feb 6, at Milan Funeral Home, followed by a gathering for kirtan and appreciations at Westside Park. A potluck dish is encouraged.

Yadupati Prabhu, 7:00 p.m., Tuesday Feb 7, at the Alachua temple. Please come and share your memories

We started a “Remembering Nitai Das” Facebook page, the url is: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Remembering-Nitai-Das-Elisha-Drury/235531963197470?v=wall

Respected Devotees:

His Grace Nitai dasa, beloved husband and dearest friend of Mandali devi dasi and nephew of Nityo Dita Prabhu, departed this world in a vehicular accident on the night of Jan. 31 outside of Jacksonville, FL along with two other young men, Yadu and B. Tim.

Please pray for Nitai and his young friends on this grievous occasion.

Please pray for Mandali devi and the parents of Nitai that they will consoled by Krishna’s mercy.

Nitai dasa was one of the movements bright loving souls whose presence will be deeply missed. Further information and a memorial will be announced shortly.

yr, malati dd

http://www.facebook.com/people/Nitai-Das/724282453

FYI, the auto link to his Employer on his Info page is incorrect. Here is the correct link to Krishna Kitchen.

Beam me up!

We had some special guests at our recent Community Vision and Planning Team presentation on Wed. evening, Jan. 25.  There were three teachers and seven students from  (Morgantown) WV University.

Their Community Design Team , coordinated by Jenny Selin, will be working closely with our Vision and Planning Team to make the Master Plan dream come true. Her husband, Steve Selin, is a professor and an active participant. Jenny will  bring in interested professors and their students, with  individual levels of expertise in community development and conservation, including landscape architects, rural health practitioners, economists, engineers, parks and recreation experts, forestry majors, and public policy analysts.  

The meeting began with Jaya Krsna welcoming everyone, and  introducing the seven team leaders or their substitutes, followed by an overview by Gaura Sakti, who let us know that the plan is due to be completed and presented to the Board of Directors by Gaura Purnima on March 8, 2012.  Gaura read to us the overall Vision for New Vrindavan Community, which is:

“New Vrindavan is an intentional spiritual community centered around the practice of Bhakti Yoga, expressed as the Brijbasi Spirit, emphasizing simple living and high thinking, vegetarianism, agriculture, cow protection, places of pilgrimage and the propagation of the teachings of the founder-acharya of ISKCON, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.”

Gaura mentioned the Master Plan team is following the instructions that Srila Prabhupada gave for New Vrindavan, along with general guidelines.  This process focuses on two parts, namely HOW to prepare a master plan and WHAT to include.

In this regard, there is a good report from Gaura Shakti from Aug. 2011 when he was just beginning to put together the Master Planning concept.  I am quoting from this report below as it clearly covers the HOW and WHAT concept mentioned above, and anyone who is interested can easily refer to the related documents.

“Together we have decided to use Srila Prabhupada’s specific instructions for developing New Vrindavan as our “laws” for planning.  Additionally, we are using a document developed by the state of New Hampshire entitled “How to develop a master plan for your community” as the framework.  This guidebook can be downloaded by any of you at: http://www.nh.gov/oep/resourcelibrary/referencelibrary/m/masterplan/preparingamasterplan/

“This is a rather extensive document.  I encourage each and every one of you to carefully read and understand it, as this describes in simple language the methods we will employ to develop ours.  As this document was specifically developed for the state of New Hampshire, there are topics and laws that will not apply to us.  Skip these, but get a strong understanding of the process, as this will be our guide.

“Additionally, we will use Srila Prabhupada’s specific statements regarding his visions and desires for his New Vrindavan community.  The Vaishnava website vanipedia.org has many letters that Srila Prabhupada wrote about New Vrindavan.  They can be viewed here: http://vaniquotes.org/wiki/Category:New_Vrndavana

“This is a very nice compilation of 59 pages of quotes by His Divine Grace regarding his New Vrindavan community.  I urge you all to carefully read each of them, and try to gain an understanding of his vision.  This will be our guide for this master plan.” Open Letter from Gaura Sakti das Aug. 13, 2011.”

Then, one by one, each of the seven team leaders presented the one year, three year and ten year plans for their group.  The seven groups and the devotees who spoke, as well as each official team leader, are listed below. If anyone would like details of any of the committees’ goals and visions, please contact these people directly: 

1 AGRICULTURE, COWS AND SELF-RELIANCE presented and headed by Jaya Krsna.    

2 EDUCATION, ARTS AND CULTURE presented by Jayadevi and the team leader is Krpamaya.

3 COMMUNITY DESIGN AND FACILITIES presented and headed by Gopisa.

4 REVEALING THE DHAMA presented by Gaura Sakti and the team leader is Varsana Swami.

5 DEVOTEE CARE AND RELATIONS presented by Gaura Sakti and the team leader is Sukavaha.

6 OUTREACH, PREACHING & PILGRIM CARE presented and headed by Yugal Kisora.

7 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT presented and headed by Jaya Krsna.

After the seven presentations, the WVU students individually introduced themselves and expressed the aspects of our Master Plan in which they are interested.  Their responses were very positive and they all seem eager to participate.  

Finally, the meeting was opened up to questions and a lively yet friendly discussion ensued. Some of the questions that came up were:

Who will prioritize and decide which of our goals are to be met and which ones pushed until a later date? 

Is there an interest in reviving old New Vrindavan?

Will we be developing educational and historical walking trails throughout the community? And, if so, how will we deal with neighbors who may try to cut into our land? 

We’re looking forward to the ongoing improvements and developments according to the Master Plan, and hope everyone will be engaged more and more in meaningful devotional service, Bhakti Yoga, thus fulfilling Srila Prabhupada’s transcendental vision for New Vrindavan.

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

New Vrindaban has received notice of the new addresses which have to be applied within one year after which the old address will no longer be supported.

The new street address for the temple is as follows:

3759 McCrearys Ridge Road

The rest of the address remains the same:

Moundsville, WV, 26041

Please use this address for all future mailings, brochures and documents.

The address change is due to a Marshall County wide readdressing program for 911. Every address on the ridge has been changed.

Hare Krishna.
Your servant,
Jaya Krsna das