Prabhupāda Guides His Disciples to Establish Ideal Farming Communities
To counteract the intense anxieties of the modern industrial age, Śrīla Prabhupāda envisioned a global network of self-sufficient rural communities. By guiding his disciples to live simply, protect cows, and depend entirely on the land, he provided a practical model for human society to become peaceful and completely absorbed in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
Achieving Complete Self-Sufficiency
The foundation of a peaceful society lies in its ability to sustain itself without relying on complex, artificial industries. Śrīla Prabhupāda instructed his followers to secure land and immediately begin cultivating essential necessities. By growing their own food grains, producing milk, and weaving their own cloth, the devotees become completely independent from the volatile economic systems of the material world, ensuring that poverty and scarcity are permanently eradicated from their communities.
- We are developing a plan to be self-sufficient. Namely, to produce our food grains, maintain cows, for drinking milk, and weave cloth for garments. We have plans for erecting a magnificent international city based on this Vedic culture.
- Produce your own food and produce your own cloth. Don't waste time for luxury, and chant Hare Krsna. This is success of life.
- Our farm projects are an extremely important part of our movement. We must become self-sufficient by growing our own grains and producing our own milk, then there will be no question of poverty.
- You get from all the farms all your necessities, then it will be successful. Fodder, milk, grains, vegetables, and animals and man will be satisfied, and you can chant Hare Krishna. No unnecessary cow killing, and no unnecessary needs of the body.
Protecting Cows and Engaging the Bulls
In the Vedic tradition, agriculture is inseparable from cow protection. While modern agribusiness treats animals as mere commodities, Śrīla Prabhupāda emphasized that cows and bulls must be loved and protected as integral members of society. He taught that cows naturally provide miraculous quantities of milk when they feel safe, and that bulls must be actively engaged in plowing and transport. By replacing tractors with the natural labor of the bull, the community avoids the horrific modern problem that leads to the slaughterhouse.
- Milk is miracle food. And we are practically experiencing in our farms that if the cows are protected nicely, they can supply immense milk. We are getting in our farms, extra milk.
- The Europeans have invented tractors, and the bull is a problem. Therefore they must be sent to the slaughterhouse. So we can not create that problem. How the bull should be utilized? They should be used for transport and plowing.
- Take more land and engage them in agriculture, plowing by the bulls instead of tractor. Bulls can be engaged in plowing and transporting. Nice bullock carts village to village for preaching.
- I am glad also that you have a new gosala. Let other farms see what is our behavior for the cows and how we derive benefit from them and that will be the living example to persons who are using cow flesh rather than cow milk.
Rejecting Artificial City Life
The fast-paced, machine-driven life of the modern city forces humanity to labor tirelessly for unnatural luxuries, ultimately forgetting the Supreme Lord. To cure this disease, Śrīla Prabhupāda urged his disciples to abandon the "motorcar civilization." He clarified that the farm projects were not meant to be competitive agricultural businesses aimed at making profit, but rather peaceful sanctuaries designed to free devotees from the grueling factory life.
- We are not going to develop a competitive farming enterprise for making money. The basic principle is to become independent of artificial city life, working in factories producing nut and bolts.
- I am asking so much here "Farm, farm, farm, farm." That is not my program - Krsna's program. Annad bhavanti bhutani (BG 3.14). Produce greenness everywhere, Vrndavana. It is not this motorcar civilization.
- As far as possible try to adjust to a natural way of life free from dependence on machines.
- Read our books, chant Hare Krsna, live very simple life, produce your own necessities. Don't go to the town.
Saving Time for Spiritual Life
The ultimate purpose of adopting a simple, agrarian lifestyle is not merely to enjoy nature, but to facilitate high thinking. When the basic economic problems of food and shelter are solved naturally, the immense time and energy previously wasted in material anxiety is reclaimed. Śrīla Prabhupāda guided his disciples to invest this saved time exclusively in reading scriptures, worshiping the Deity, and chanting the holy names, thereby transforming their farms into replicas of the spiritual world.
- There is no economic problem. We can produce our own food and clothes, gradually, and save time for spiritual life.
- The Krsna consciousness movement is establishing various farms, especially in America, to show how to be happy and content with minimum necessities of life and to save time for self-realization, which one can very easily achieve by chanting the maha-mantra.
- Our program is to live there, depending on agriculture and cow, cow protection and agriculture. That should be the economic solution. And peacefully be in Krsna consciousness, chant Hare Krsna. That is the Vrndavana scheme.
- Very crude, unsophisticated, but intense love for Krsna - that is Vrndavana. We want to introduce this farm project means intense love for Krsna.
Setting an Example for the World
The Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is a practical mission to re-spiritualize human society. Śrīla Prabhupāda established these farms to serve as living, undeniable proof that the Vedic system of varṇāśrama works perfectly even in the modern age. By organizing ideal villages where gṛhasthas live peacefully and the pure produce and prasādam are freely distributed, the devotees offer a tangible, attractive alternative to the suffering world.
- I want the world to see by our example that life can be lived naturally, peacefully if one is self sufficient with land, some cows and chanting Hare Krishna. That is the idea of purchasing land.
- Our next program will be to organize farming land to set an example to the whole world how people can be peaceful, happy, and free from all anxieties simply by chanting Hare Krishna Maha-mantra and living an honorable life in Krishna consciousness.
- In India you can't get such nice land, but there is enough good land in America. Just introduce this new type of Krishna Conscious civilization and the whole world will thank you.
- Try to concentrate on these farm projects. Let the villagers come and hear, and distribute prasadam. In this way draw their sympathy and gradually they'll become our associates. Then they can come to live with us and work with us.
Conclusion
Śrīla Prabhupāda’s farm projects are brilliant manifestations of his deep compassion for modern society. By rescuing his disciples from the grinding machinery of city life and establishing them on the land, he provided the perfect environment for spiritual cultivation. Through the practical application of cow protection, agricultural self-sufficiency, and unalloyed devotion, these ideal communities stand as beacons of peace, proving that the highest perfection of life is found in loving and serving Kṛṣṇa.
Dive Deeper into Śrīla Prabhupāda's Vani
Śrīla Prabhupāda lives within his instructions. This article is a summary of the profound truths found in the Vaniquotes category Our Farm Projects (Disciples of SP). We invite you to visit this link to study the complete compilation and experience Śrīla Prabhupāda's teachings in their direct, verbatim form.