English
2nd September 2019
LOST VILLAGES - PART 1
Till now we did 'Let's chant together' now we will do ' let's talk '.Walk the talk . I want to repeat the talk I did with the devotees here in Paris about cow protection and agriculture. There were 30 delegates who had come to the Czech Republic as they had a conference. I addressed them one morning on the topic they gave - 'land and cows'. Taking care of cows, growing trees, ploughing fields, vegetables and organic farming. I was speaking to them about the experience of my childhood days as I grew up in a village. The kind of lifestyle, the values that we practiced. I will say a few of the highlights of the pattern which was prevailing in those days. Now in Indian villages and around the world it is spoilt. It is said, 'Man made the country' but now , 'Man has made the mess' .
Effectively we are messing it up. Villages are spoilt and lost. Bhaktivaibhava Swami Maharaja found out that I have written such a book about village life 50 or 60 years ago and what it is now. God made the Country, Man made the Mess. Krishna made and present modern man, wether in the village or city, in India or outside it is a big mess. So
Bhaktivaibhava Maharaja found out when I was in the middle of writing this book. He really got interested in it. He decided to make a documentary film on this book. He took the story from the manuscript of my book. He personally came with his whole crew to Aravade in Maharashtra, India and made a movie and he entitled it "Lost Village".
The main objective of telling this story is to explain what has been lost, or what mess has been made at present and things are spoilt.
Village life would begin with the crowing of cocks. Cuckoo ssss cuckoo ssss these were the sounds I would hear. We used to have such sounds of cocks happily crowing. It is the Lord’s alarm. Lord Krsna also got up to the sound of the crowing of cocks in Dwaraka. Gradually people of the village started to dislike this crowing of the cocks and then they
started killing those cocks and eating them. ‘You rascal cocks, you are disturbing our early morning sleep? We will gobble you up’. So getting up early in the morning is also finished. Our mothers would get up early in the morning, to do what? The first business used to be grinding. They used to sing some devotional songs while grinding. Panduranga Vitthal Vitthal Vitthal! Mazya Vitthala Panduranga. There used to be other Krsna songs while grinding. Now modern man has grinding machines. There is now packed atta(flour) which is six months or six years old of which roti or chapati is made and then we eat that. But our mothers used to grind atta every single morning.
By singing songs she was in the mode of goodness. There were good vibrations. Early in the morning my father and elder brother would go to the farm, to plough the land, prepare the land. Mother had to stay back home and churn the butter. We would hear the pleasing sounds of the churning. You can even meditate upon the sound of the churning of the butter. There is every reason to remind you of Yashoda churning butter in the early morning hours. She used to remember Bal Krsna while churning butter, chanting different songs. So we could very easily relate to Yashoda churning butter in the early morning hours as we had experienced such a scene in our village . Nowadays the folks in town and cities, what do they know of churning and preparing fresh butter. After churning, the butter pot used to be hung from the ceiling, as Yashoda used to do and then Krsna stole that butter in His own house. So my mother also saw that and it was kept away from various creatures, cats or rats. After the churning of the butter the cows were milked. Many time my bhabi ( wife of elder brother) went with my mother for milking. She would bring the freshly milked warm milk for us. Sometimes we sat there with mother while milking and drank a glass full of the freshly milked warm milk. So for those born and brought up in the village, we understand and can easily relate to activities in Gokul, the pastimes of Krsna with Yashoda, Nandababa and other villagers . There were cows, bulls and herding pastimes.
At one point I was also a cowherd boy, and went herding our cows, buffaloes and goats. At times I would go every day. Then I went to school and high school and was not able to go for herding. Such is the village lifestyle we have experienced.
Hare Krishna!