"Yes our next program is to organize farming"--SP
May 15 1975 Perth
Prabhupāda: This man is unemployed, and if we engaged him for plowing, will he do that?
Paramahaṁsa: I don't think so. (laughter)
Prabhupāda: Just see.
Amogha: That's too hard, that's work. "We don't want to work like that, we just want some easy job."
Prabhupāda: Then you suffer.
Śrutakīrti: That would mean they had to leave the city. They don't want to leave the city.
Prabhupāda: Then go to hell.
Śrutakīrti: Yes.
Devotee (1): Śrīla Prabhupāda, we received news yesterday that one man in northern New South Wales is willing to sell us a farm, a great big farm out there in the southern tropics. Would this be a good place for engaging boys like the Indian, the Indian boy that came yesterday?
Prabhupāda: Yes. Our next program is to organize farming. Let anyone come. We shall give him free food and employment: "Come on." Not that "I want to work as a clerk in the city." You produce your own food. I give you ingredients. I give you land. And work for five, six hours, and take your food and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa.
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Some conclusions--- So here we are some 43 years later and what devotees are leaving the cities to produce their own food? Not many, so Srila Prabhuapda tells them--then suffer. I was talking with one of my grown up children and he said to go 10 miles in Seattle to see a friend, takes him one hour to drive there. You could ride a bike and get there faster than that. This is just one reason why Prabhupada says-yes remain in your cities and suffer, what to speak of all the crime, filth, smog pollution, high costs of living there, taxes,thousands of homeless people everywhere, the list seems endless.
By our good fortune, which comes from Srila Prabhupada and Lord Krsna, we left the city of Seattle for good 18 years ago and have never regretted it having bought and paid off a small 2 acre property just 75 miles north of that city. In Seattle right now, most of the local people cannot afford to buy a house anymore as the price has risen ( average approximately $650,000 for a small home) which is way out of their financial reach. And things will get worse. So for so many reasons, both material and spiritual Srila Prabhupada advocates living in the country, growing your own food and in this way become very peaceful mentally, strong physically, and from this material platform of goodness, keep up your spiritual practices and become God or Krsna Conscious more easily. But who is doing it? From what I have seen, not many....
Hare Krsna
Damaghosa das
Below is the corn patch-10 rows and you can see how many more rows of weeds I have to clean up.
The rows on the right side have been weeded out, but more need to be done. This patch will give us fresh corn for about a month and a half every day, then what we cant eat fresh, we put in clumps and hang them up to dry in the pantry for later grinding into flour. Every different vegetable has a different process for storage for winter eating, but the bottom line is thiswhat we grow, we don't have to buy !!
We all have to eat, but why not just grow it yourself and avoid the middle man process of having a "job" so you can make some "money" which you will then use to buy your food. Makes sense to me and definitely Srila Prabhupada.....
Compiled by Damaghosa das