Our key projects this year focus on facilities and fenced grazing land for a new goshala.  Help manifest our buildings in harmony with nature, accepting and preparing for future fires and other weather extremes. 

• Rebuild fire-proof library in it's intended colony location
• Collect Vedic Books
• Print evacuation plan and maps with survival guide
• Trailer full of supplies and food that can be pulled by ox
• Fire safe structures and nourish forest with water lenses

Self Regulating Shelters and Cow Goshala

• earth insulated,…

A wildfire which measured over 200 square kilometres burned more than 20 structures in the Venables Valley, including at least six homes.  Vedic Eco Village homes were untouched, but the library and books were destroyed.  The Saranagati temple, goshala, and school are ok.

The fire remains out of control, but has subsided in our valley.  Hot and dry conditions coupled with gusty winds have fuelled erratic and aggressive behaviour on the fire.  200 firefighters have been fighting this blaze.

Everyone including cows were evacuated. The fire then threatened the ranch where the cows were evacuated to, so cows were relocated to a very nice pasture in the mountains near Kamloops. The next morning, the cows escaped their pasture and started running down the road, hoping to arrive back at their goshala in…

Our building techniques improve and evolve with every ecovillage project.  Our traditional vedic mud-stoves (chulha) used for cooking and heating are available in 3 locations. Outdoor kitchen & solar shower facilities are under construction.  Crowded trees from our forest are milled for ecovillage building materials.

Our weekly Dharma Discovery gives children deeper insights into the fundamental values upheld in the Vedic culture, namely the importance of cows, farming and natural building/crafts.  We are starting plants in our greenhouse while harvesting lettuce & spinach greens.

Sunday GoFest @ Ahmisa Goshala creates a sattvic atmosphere to develop relationships with people who care about cows.   Saranagati Village continues to attract pilgrims to their temple, goshala and pristine mountain landscape.  Community & temple leaders are overwhelmed by the crowds, as they do not provide guest accommodations, food or facilities.  Vedic Eco Village is working hard to increase our capacity to host pilgrims.

Building Vedic Cookstoves

We have successfully implemented three sparkless chulha stoves, combining rocket mass heater technology and traditional Vedic cooking methods.  These stoves are essential for safely cooking with fire in the summertime,…

We are seeking people to join our efforts to build a Vedic Eco Village and manifest a self-reliant spiritual community with food sovereignty.  Farming, stewarding the forest, milling lumber, building infrastructure, farm planning and fire wood-based activities are ongoing daily. Dharma Discovery class features with building, cobbing, gardening and cooking harvested roots like carrots and potatoes.  Chulha stoves are fueled by cow dung & wood chopped by kids.

Farming and cow-protection provides the foundation for self-sustaining living and also generated prosperity for the rest of the society. A village should be an ecologically closed unit. Dung from cows fertilizers the grains and vegetables, and waste from vegetables and grains is food for cows and sheep. The surplus from this ecological cycle should be sold to markets outside the village. This makes for a stable economy.

We are currently growing Carrots, Beets, Potatoes, Peas, Cucumber, Broccoli, Kale, Chard, Lettuce, Spinach, Strawberry, Cabbage, Green Beans, Zucchini, Radish, Fennel, Squash, Asparugus and Corn. 

Apple, Pear, Cherry, Apricot, Hazelnut and Walnut trees trees are 10 years old.  Raspberries, strawberries, currants, gooseberries, honeyberries (hascaps) and saskatoon berries are growing. Millet, buckwheat, grains and pulse seeds are being saved for future plantings. 

We grow assorted flowers, herbs, and spices.  Our value added items are Jams, Pickled Good, Juice, Teas and Baked Goods.  We will grow hay for our future Eco Village cows.

Society in Vedic history was a flourishing self-sustaining cow-centric and cow-revered culture. Cows and bulls are an essential contributors to peace and economic prosperity. Sastra tells human society how to live a simple life free from anxiety depending on the cow and bull, the land and the ample supply of natural gifts from the Creator.

To cultivate this culture in our village, Govardhan Goshala hosted Gopuja in a grazing areas on the full moon purnima.  The puja featured Surabhi cow and friends who were fed our locally grown foods.

Our desert like summer weather normally begins in June.  Everyday we are eating salad and green leafy vegetables from the garden and still carrots from last harvest.  A favorite is carrot, beet and parsley juice.  New vegetables are harvested every week.

The ox team has been plowing our garden fields in preparation for planting.  They are doing the work of 10 ten people preparing the soil for planting.  See the "Ox Plowing Garden Fields report" for more details, pictures and videos.

We are studying the three fundamental values upheld in the Vedic culture, namely the importance of cows, land, knowledge and their effect on the social, cultural, economical, health, educational and ecological status in each village

Problem Identification

1 Modernism (industrialization and urbanization) has disconnected and uprooted individuals and society from land, cows, culture, tradition and spirituality.

2 As a result, Modernism is destroying three cardinal values of prime importance in the Vedic culture, namely 1) the Gift of Cows, 2) the Gift of Land and 3) the Gift of Knowledge.

Problem Formulation

1 Modernity, with its over-fixation on materialism, has uprooted individuals and communities from land, cows, culture, and spirituality thus thwarting people’s physical, mental, social and spiritual needs.

2 Unless we reestablish cows, land and knowledge as natural GIFTS OF NATURE not to be exploited, abused or destroyed, we will continue to face severe global social, political, economic and ecological calamities.

Abstract

Our modern urbanized and industrialized society is overburdened with sufferings, calamities, and increased irregularities that have taken global dimensions such as desertification, deforestation,…

We need farm communities that can grow food.

Srila Prabhupada predicted that, "One day millions of people would be coming to our Hare Krishna farms because they are unemployed. And we must accept them. We must feed them. We must let them live there and they will gradually become spiritualized. We will put them to work, they will get their food and there will be prasadam. They will hear something about Krishna and they will gradually by the millions become devotees."

“Unless in the human society the Varnasrama system is introduced, no scheme or social order, health order or any order, political order, will be successful.” [October 18, 1977, Vrindavana]

"It may be an ideal village where the residents will have plain living and high thinking. For plain living we must have sufficient land for raising crops and pasturing grounds for the cows. If there is sufficient grains and production of milk, then the whole economic problem is solved." [Montreal 14 June 1968]

"Simple Living and High Thinking is the solution to economic problems. Therefore the Krishna Conscious movement is engaging devotees in producing their own food and living self-sufficiently so that rascals may see how one can live very peacefully, eat the food grains one has grown one-self, drink milk, and chant Hare Krishna…