New Vrindaban Brijabasi Spirit

Earth sheltered housing and an ox barn: These words call to mind simpler times, connected to the earth. At New Vrindavan, some exciting plans are underway that include just such buildings in a small eco-village. The first of many small, new villages, built around an agrarian, spiritual lifestyle based on the mission of plain living, high thinking, and close connections to Mother Earth in a sustainable way, is in the works. This is an ECOV (Earth Cows Opportunity Vrindaban/Village) project called Madhuban Village.

The road is already begun, and the next phase will be to build the ox barn. Madhava Ghosh, the coordinator of the Village, explains, “For the ox barn’s foundation, we are going  to use recycled sandstone from a 160 year old local girls’ school that was dismantled. We were very fortunate to get that sandstone. The barn will have a timber frame from wood milled right here from New Vrindaban’s own forest. The source of water will be from the catchment of rain off of the roofs as well as the development of naturally existing springs on the property.  There will be composting toilets.  Solar panels will be installed and it will be a zero net metering project.”

“The basis for the ox program in New Vrindavan is to provide hauling and agricultural services for the New Vrindavan community. This is, of course, all in the early stages of development.”

Construction on the  ox barn will begin first followed by building a prototype   earth shelter, the first of five.  This housing will have a low impact on the environment and that is one of the strong points of this eco-village. The plan is to make the shelters out of recycled materials such as rammed earth and old tires and locally available materials — materials with low energy consumption.

The earth shelters will be constructed on the south slope of the ridge that extends out from McCreary’s Ridge Road/Palace Road.  This is the ridge you see going out from the first point you can see the Palace.  On its  southern side, each shelter will have a greenhouse built in which will provide heat by passive solar energy plus growing potential.

There will be two two-bedroom dwellings built and one three-bedroom. There will also be a dormitory for men and one for women.  Eventually a community center will be built.

All buildings, and placement of buildings, on the land will be set up utilizing the principle of Vastu design, an ancient Vedic science of space or construction design to promote optimum harmony with surrounding natural forces.

The earth shelters will act mostly as transitional housing for new, largely young people to come  from the cities, so they can spend some time working the land to see if they would like to take up a simple, yet sublime agrarian lifestyle in Krsna’s service.

On the north side of the ridge, facing the Palace, there will be an orchard of fruit and nut trees which can produce high value crops to support the people who will live there. Some of these trees have already been planted and as labor and funds are available the whole hillside will be replanted with food bearing crops.

There will also be deer fenced areas for vegetable and berry production.

Donations of money and labor to move this project forward will gladly be accepted and would help accelerate the pace of manifestation.

Madhuban Village will help fulfill one of the missions of the New Vrindaban Community, namely “plain living and high thinking based on dependence on the land and the cow.” This is why New Vrindaban Community is excited to see Madhuban Village develop.

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