May 26, 2013. Prabhupadanuga Farm in Fiji
SOUNDS
OF NEW JAYAPUR
One fine, sunny morning this last week, I was marking small
junk trees along the edge of the forest to be cut in the making of the new
hillside pasture, when I stopped to listen to the sounds of the project that
were resounding clearly across our tropical rainforest valley next to the
seacoast:
1. There
was the small chain saw, not far away, as Isaac cut the bush stumps at ground
level for the new pasture,
2. And
the tractor, as Bill was moving some timber over to the equipment shed,
reminding me of when Srila Prabhupada came to New Talavan, the Mississippi
farm, in 1975. We were on a walk around the second ISKCON farm project, and I
had lined up all our farm machinery to show off to Srila Prabhupada. The two 70
foot Harvestore silos loomed overhead, and Prabhupada stopped in front of the
machinery, maybe 15 different implements such as hay crimper, manure slinger,
silage blower and sickle mower. Looking at the equipment shed nearby, the roof
of which had been blown off months ago by a hurricane, Srila Prabhupada coldly
asked me, “Why these machines are out in the rain?” With a stammering mind, I
could only say, “Oh, we are still finishing repairs to the roof of the shed
there,” as I pointed to the half finished structure. Srila Prabhupada turned
away from me, and wryly smiled at Brahmananda Swami, telling a short story about the
lady who was preparing for the fair with her clothes, makeup, but when she was
finally ready, the fair was over. Similarly, Prabhupada explained, by the time
the shed is finished, all our machinery would be rusted and ruined. We should
take good care of what Krishna had kindly provided us…
3. Euston
and Choni were nailing away on the shed roof, the sound of their hammers
denoting progress in the construction of our Vedic village project. Just then,
4. Dinesh
came growling with the track dumper out from the rock cut under the edge of the
hill to deliver fill material to the riverbank. We were building up a low area
behind the shed, where we were adding a section for the timber milling
operation. Our 18 K watt Perkins diesel generator would be located here to
power our table saw, dressing planer, and the welder, as the solar power at the
ashram could not handle these heavy loads. It felt good to see our
mini-industrial area manifesting separately and away from the village
residential area up on the ridge.
5. Behind
all
this I picked up the dull, soft roar of the distant surf on the reef,
perhaps 8 km out. Glancing over to the horizon, I could see a white line
where the
open ocean crashed upon the barrier reef, allowing for the ultra calm
protected waters of
Yanawai Bay in front. It was a soothing sound, but at the same time a
reminder of the great
forces of the ocean and Krishna’s material nature. Recently a yacht had
been smashed up and over the reef's edge at night, leaving today only
abouthalf the hull protruding at low tide.
6. George’s
grasscutter was also whirring and zipping away below, as he trimmed the grass
around the small rice field.
7. Fascinated
at the various sounds of action, and standing motionless, I could hear as well
the faint crackling of the burning vines and brush, piled in heaps, producing
trails of white thin smoke, angling inland due to the mild sea breeze that was
present.
8. Any
other sounds? Yes, the machetes (locally called saylays) were chopping the
brush, with the occasional metallic twang, as Jordan, Samu, Marika, and Matai
cut and fed materials to the smoldering fires. It was not slash and burn- this hillside
had been cleared of forest long ago, and in 60 some years of neglect had become
completely covered with “the bush”…
9. And
there was a hidden but nearby bird in the forest singing a pretty, simple tune.
I looked around and above the forest canopy across the river, but did not see
any swooping parrots with their characteristic blunt head profile and more of a
soaring through the air than much quick flapping of their wings. However, the
singing bird seemed absorbed in his own sound and probably did not notice all
the other sounds- sort of like the karmis oblivious to all but their own fruitive goals...
Today we took the children to the garden. We picked the
first French snap beans, mulched, weeded, transplanted some pak choy, replanted
some more beans, and picked an eggplant. Later, near the ashram, we picked more
eggplant, passion fruit, kumquats, and bele leaves. The kids wanted to swim in
the river, so while they hooted and splashed, I did some citrus pruning with my
hand cutters. The lower branches, dead branches, and branches that just were
not proper in direction, causing internal congestion- had to go. Often, fruit
trees need some help developing a good shape and structure- it is at least half
art, the rest common sense. Also sometimes shoots will come up from below the
graft line, and they usually have big thorns and need to be removed. A few
citrus had been pushed over by a strong wind last year, and the roots had
adjusted to this new position. These trees naturally began growing vertically
again, and I reshaped them somewhat with pruning on one side.
NEW
JAYAPUR’S PRABHUPADA MEMORABILIA
Last week we discussed in Bhagwatam class the the philosophy
of “tadiya,” of Srila Prabhupada’s memorabilia- andwhy items connected to,
touched by, or used by Srila Prabhupada have such great spiritual potency. The
history of my Prabhupada memorabilia collection was reviewed, how I built up my
collection, lost most of it, and then recovered it plus more. This collection
is believed to be the largest on earth. Most was purchased from various
devotees, such as Purudas who somehow privatized the New York temple Prabhupada
Museum contents, and Sadhusangananda of Austria who served as Boston temple president.
Through the years and the moves around the US mainland, to Hawaii, Panama, and
finally Fiji, I never had the confidence of permanence of location to set up a
museum room or preservation facility. Everything was packed up in plastic-wrapped
boxes. But the Fiji ashram building design included what the workers called “the
strong room,” a concrete space with a small window and one door, long bench
type tables running down opposite walls.
After the swim, I brought the children into the museum for
the practical field trip tour of Prabhupada’s memorabilia. They became absorbed
for over an hour as we examined several hundred items, from old documents to
clothing to mechanical and early version electronic book production machinery.
There was the green rocking chair from Henry Street, Brooklyn temple used in
1972-4, and the aghan (knitted blankette) which draped the 1968 Montreal vyasasana
(Prabhupada would sit on it). There was one of the early New York temple
Panasonic reel-to-reel tape recorders with 20 or so of the 1966-7 tapes of
lectures and kirtans. Hayagriva had sold these to Jitendriya, who transferred
them to myself. There were two palm leaf scrolls (parts of Ramayana and
Bhagwatam) in Telugu from South India, many centuries in age. Vinyl 45’s and 33’s
of Prabhupada’s recordings were examined carefully, including several Happening
albums (which I would listen to all day long as a new brahmachary devotee,
Buffalo, NY, winter 1969-70), and which we decided to bring a copy upstairs to
play later on our vinyl record player.
There was the framed 1951 letter from the Ford Foundation
that declined Prabhupada’s solicitation to form an association of intelligent
men who would guide the world in spiritual matters (…and 20 years later Alfred
Ford became Prabhupada’s disciple). A framed ISKCON envelope bore two monetary
figures and a doodled sketch of a toy top- in Prabhupada’s fountain pen
handwriting. Mylar encased original Back to Godhead magazines, from the first
through to No. 12 or so, were bound into protective books. An inexpensive small
school notebook filled with Prabhupada’s 1950’s era handwritten notes and
thoughts, expenses accounting and train tickets was very interesting (20 paisa
for burfi!). The 1940’s sharesbook for Vimaltone Laboratories showed defaulted
shares reverting back to Prabhupada due to non-payment of those shares…
The children studied Prabhupada’s tooth and its huge cavity.
I told the story- Prabhupada was flying from LA to NYC in 1975, and mid-flight
he simply took this tooth from his mouth and handed it to his guard Lalitanath
das, who gave it to his brother Raksana das, and I acquired thereafter from
Purudas. An actual part of the mahabhagawat, jagat guru’s spiritualized body-
this would seem to be extra special, more so than the dhotis, sweaters, pillow
cases, gloves, pillows, kurtas, and beadbags used by Srila Prabhupada (which
were examined next). There was a pair of quite worn slippers from Prabhupada’s
quarters in Los Angeles and a rather uncomfortable pair of beige canvas shoes acquired
from Taruni dasi, Sruti Kirti Prabhu’s wife. But the 1950 Corona edition
typewriter that Prabhupada used while living in Vrindaban was the highlight…
testing the keys and trying to understand how it worked was extremely
fascinating to the tour members!
Prabhupada’s last hairclippers are still in working
condition. They were in Vrindaban since their last use in 1977 and until Hari
Sauri sent them to Balavanta in 1998 for the investigative research into
Prabhupada’s suspected poisoning. Hair was removed from between the clipper
blades and tested for arsenic, which was unusually elevated and very suspicious.
Balavanta never reclaimed the clippers from the laboratory. Years later I used
the same laboratory for further testing on other hair samples by method of
neutron activation analysis. At my request, the lab dismantled the hairclippers
and found 2 or 3 pieces of Prabhupada’s hair, which was tested as well.
Altogether, 4 or 5 differently sourced hair samples revealed substantial new evidence,
but that’s another story for later too…. The lab sent me back my tested hair
samples and they included the hairclippers too, as my good fortune would have
it.
After we saw the small hair sample containers, we perused
various paper documents, original edition Easy Journey to Other Planets, a
Prabhupada autographed Gita, a handwritten essay titled “The Black Marketeers
from Bhagavad Gita Point of View,” and other items of extreme transcendental
significance. I detected that my audience was finally tiring and being
children, after all, they were about done with their first tour of Srila
Prabhupada’s Fiji Museum of Transcendental Memorabilia. We unpacked the little
dehumidifier that I will soon set up- it removes excess humidity from the air
in the room, protecting the items from the advancing effects of time, that
unavoidable supreme force of the material world.
Next time I will relate the story of Prabhupada’s personal Los
Angeles-based 1968 Mercedes SL250 which took him to morning walks at Venice
Beach and in Cheviot Hills Park as well as to San Francisco Rathayatras and
other preaching engagements, and how it recently came to Fiji.
Attached
photos are of how the children decorated our Lord Nrsinghadeva deity,
the new pasture clearing with burning brush, and our rice patch
startuing to seed out (or up?)
Yours in Prabhupada’s service,
Nityananda
das
New Jayapur, Vanua Levu, Fiji
Islands
