Styrofoamasura


by Tapahpunjah

Hi fans!. In case you’re wondering why I haven’t posted anything lately it’s because I’ve been busy with jump-starting this year’s agriculture. The 15′ x 30′ greenhouse within the Garden of Sevenb Gates fence has been planted in tomatos. peppers, parsley. eggplant, brussel sprouts…everything but rhutabagas, which are directly seeded.

Take a look at my proposed workshop presentation for the Festival of Inspiration. It’s entitled, “How the Styrofoam Plate Monster Ate the Hare Krishna Movement: A Soulful Look into KC Environmental Activism and Educational Outreach.” I’d like to make it a panel discussion instead of one person blabbing away for an hour of so. Any suggestions or ideas are appreciated

Name of presentation/workshop.seminar:

How The Styrofoam Plate Monster Ate the Hare Krishna Monster:: A Soulful Look into KC Environmental Activism and Educational Outreach…

Brief description of workshop:

The plundering of nature is inextricably linked to the plundering of knowledge. Srila Prabhupada has given us all the tools needed to transform hot topics like global warming into the language of interfaith kinship based on shared spiritual values. But wait!…something is missing! ‘

Krishna devotees were forerunners of the modern vegetarian and animal rights movements, yet we’re conspicuously absent from the worldwide debate over the environment and ecological justice Our rural communities—once envisioned to be models of simple living—have morphed into suburban vegetarian enclaves, as economically dependent on Wal-Mart and fossil fuel consumption as a Manhattan housewife. We talk cow protection but walk into Sam’s Club to purchase our milk.

After 30 years of abusing the yukta-vairagya principle (everything can be used in Krishna’s service!) we’ve discredited ourselves in the eyes of the world’s largest and fastest growing grass roots movement, the push for sustainable development. Do we have an environmental consciousness? Have we lost our cutting edge voice?

This workshop explores preaching strategies that integrate the first and second half of Srila Prabhupada’s vision. It’s about reaching out to Western audiences again by connecting the dots between our farms, city temple congregations, college cooking classes and Food for Life projects. People worldwide should recognize us as the “guardians of the mode of goodness”—the Krishna people, whose words and lives exemplify the link between sustainability and spirituality.

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Reader Comments

sounds like a great workshop!

Sounds like an excellent workshop! The Brijabasis talk constantly about the “good old days”, Old Vrindavan and Bahulabhan, yet things have shifted so far from that model. They speak of how hard life sometimes was then, but all I see from that time is people with an unmatched zeal and vigor for life and service. It comes across all too clearly in the writings of Srila Jiva Goswami dasa posted here recently. Or just talk to any devotee who lived that life. I got a brief taste of that life in a couple of weeks spent at Old Vrindavan in 1993. Make the simple agricultural life available once again and the young people who come will stay, otherwise there is little hope, they will move on to places where they find more integrity in the lifestyle.