Faith-based organizations, eco-friendly living & ISKCON, The Monk’s Podcast 118 with Gauranga Prabhu

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Hare Krishna, Gaurang Prabhu. Welcome to the Monks Podcast once again. Hare Krishna, Chaitanya Chaitanya Prabhu.

Thank you very much for inviting me. It's an honour and privilege, pleasure to be with you again and connecting. Oh, it's a, you know, I always look forward to your association and especially your, I could say, versatile and multidimensional efforts for sharing Krishna Vatpi.

So, I thought today we'll talk about one of the points that you had mentioned in our recent meetings about faith-based organisations. So, I read a little bit about this on YouTube, on Google also. But, can you introduce this whole concept and how it has originated and spread? So, basically, faith-based organisations are you know, legally registered, international faith-based development and humanitarian NGOs.

Religious institutions such as mosques, churches, temples and their affiliated NGOs and you know, they also have like an independent local community inspired by faith principles. Because nowadays it's a trend that many people across the world, there is something known as Global Ecovillage Network. So, many eco communities or communities come together on faith principles.

So, faith-based organisations are organisations that derive inspiration and guidance for their activities from the principles and the teachings of a particular faith or from a particular interpretation of a school of thought within that faith. So, for your information, like if you see across the world, the statistics are that out of a 7.6 billion population, approximately 31% are Christians, 23% are Muslims, 15% are Hindus, 8.5% are Buddhists and around 16% are like those who consider themselves atheist, agnostic and stuff like that. So, you know, you have a significant number of people who actually belong to some faith or at least profess to belong to some faith.

And so when various organisations are formed, so a range of religious charitable organisations which is affiliated with one or more faith with spiritual tradition and this may include say religious congregations, as I said, temples, churches, mosques, synagogues or charities sponsored or hosted by one or more religious organisations. Sometimes multiple faith organisations come together and create some kind of initiative or you have a not-for-profit organisation which is founded by religious organisations and is based on faith and spiritual tradition. They have their policies and their manpower and everything all based on that and various coalitions.

So it's not like a formal designation that is given by someone. Any organisation which is based on faith can be technically called a faith-based organisation. Yes.

So basically rather than calling temples, synagogues, churches, NGOs run because it's not just those also, it's also institutions run by the affiliates of them. Yes. So in our case, we could say Midday Annamrit and even our GV Foundation, all of them can be considered as faith-based.

Yes. So we have more than 5,000 affiliates of ISKCON in various capacities and various trusts. So they're all coming in that category.

You're right. 5,000 affiliates. That's almost, I think, how much? 100? 10 times the number of centres we have, isn't it? Probably we don't have that many centres in the world.

Individual enterprise and spirit is there. So many people inspired by the teachings of ISKCON and Shila Prabhupada, they have various kinds of initiatives and activities. Yes.

So faith-based organisations seem to be now something which the mainstream organisations like United Nations and others also seem to want to work with. So are they not averse because of secular considerations? How has this development come about? So basically the UN resolution which was passed in 2015 for the Global Agenda 2030 where they adopted the Sustainable Development Goals the 17 Sustainable Development Goals SDGs for actually making sure that the climate change is arrested. They are able to contain the temperature rise and every country across the world is given targets to achieve within this climate change scenario.

And then the UN has very systematically mapped based on scientific analysis and data. So UN Environment Programme, United Nations Environment Programme is a highly data-driven and science-based organisation. So they realised based on their analysis and by seeing the scorecard which they are keeping that in spite of showing all kinds of analysis, graphics, data and they do pretty well with their analysis and how they present it.

So just by seeing that as they say theoretical knowledge, gyan, it is not resulting in vigyan or transformation in behaviour. If there is a fire and the whole world leadership is trying to avert that fire and you can call the United Nations to be like the firemen. So they are alerting us and then they realise that apart from governments who have been given responsibilities and tasks, unless the common people on the ground, they are mobilised, it's not possible for this aversion to happen.

They can't avert this danger. The role of civil society and non-government organisation is very important and the full spectrum of such organisations had not been addressed till you consider huge organisations which are based on faith, values, culture and indigenous knowledge. So building on the cultural diversity is very significant and very important and then it fulfils the fourth dimension of sustainable development as called for in the Rio summits.

So faith-based organisations being recognised by a very science and data-driven organisation as United Nations Environment Programme is very, very crucial acceptance of the fact that we are in a crisis situation and UN accepts and admits this fact that the faith-based organisations are key and important players in eradicating poverty, protecting the environment and so practically many of the 17 sustainable development goals can be accomplished by these people who are inspired by the faith-based organisations to transform behaviour. So what the people see, the citizens see when a corporate makes a statement and we are going green and this and that. So many times the citizens feel oh he must have some vested interest in this.

You know he wants to call himself green because of brand and you know to increase his sale or whatever. But whereas when faith-based organisations make such statements so people see such organisations as being trustworthy and they are highly networked with dynamism and this enables them to operate and achieve on the ground results where and when needed. So therefore UN is bringing like-minded networks to support the implementation of the global agenda at all levels.

So the idea is the UN is in one sense sharing very candidly that people who go to such churches, mosques, synagogues, temples, they take the messages from the faith leaders quite seriously to make in their private lives. These temples, mosques, synagogues, churches can become also places where how one can actually live with a lifestyle which is more consistent with preserving the earth can be shared and therefore these faith organisations have been brought in by the United Nations as stakeholders in this exercise. Oh, it's wonderful.

You know, in a few decades ago till 1990s, 2000 there was an increasing scepticism of religion and spirituality. There were new atheists who were becoming very aggressive but there is one area where spirituality is being recognised more and more. There is a difference they call between say philosophical spirituality and pragmatic spirituality.

So with respect to mental health also that if you want people to become calm, no amount of science alone can help. The way meditation and spiritual practises can help, there is undocumented scientific evidence for that. So it seems the same thing that when it comes to behavioural transformation, science can provide us the data but science cannot inspire transformation.

So I am writing a book on science and spirituality. So one of the things I say is science can make things better, spirituality can make people better. So it's wonderful.

So how exactly did you start interacting in this field and what is your current role now? So well, you know as part of the Govardhan Eco Village it was supposed to be an eco village so I had to start researching on what is an eco village and in that process I got more and more introduced to this entire ecosystem and entire community of those who are extremely concerned about how the earth can be protected. And in one sense if you look at Srimad Bhagavatam's second canto, Krishna also begins the description with describing the Virat Rupa or how the basic level of spirituality is by trying to understand the presence of God within nature. therefore, you know when you have Deities in the temple, so that is Shamsundar Rupa, that is the 10th canto of the Srimad Bhagavatam.

So Raupath also in the initial years along with every Iskcon temple in America, many of the Iskcon temples were also encouraged and inspired to have a farm community. So Shri Raupath in the 6th Purpose of Iskcon mentions how one of the purposes of Iskcon is to establish a simple living and high thinking model where we are able to actually showcase what Vrindavan would have been like centred around cow protection and agriculture represented by Krishna with his food calling the cows and Balaram with his flower representing agriculture and when people study the 10th canto and they say how does Vrindavan look like or how do you live in Vrindavan, so we should have at least a few members in our community who would be engaged in authentic agriculture and who would be taking care of the cows genuinely and that's very important to preserve our core mission and it's all centred around earth friendly practises and it's very much integral to our faith. Ok.

So if I understand right what you are saying is in one sense the Govardhan eco village naturally based on our own tradition is actually addressing many of the concerns which the United Nations currently has. So in one sense collaboration was almost natural and inevitable that it happened. So from what I understand the United Nations is not really interested in promoting faith but they are interested in promoting eco friendly living and then we can say that say Krishna consciousness is like one circle we have many concerns, United Nations may have many concerns but if it's a Venn diagram this is where there is an intersection between their concerns and our concerns.

When you talk about environmental concerns that is one area where it seems we could say science and spirituality or statistics and religion they have come together. So can you elaborate that a little bit more? Right. So actually environmental concerns have prompted various leaders and thinkers including the United Nations to understand the power of faith and then there is an entire stream which is very very popular substantial and influential called eco theology and the climate crisis continues to grow and the deadline for the attainment of the SDG sustainable development goals by 2030 draws closer.

So we have to recognise that more and more actors are rallied into climate action because if we have to transition into a sustainable future it must be a global effort it can't be just a few activists here and there shouting slogans. So therefore the holistic vision of sustainable development which is embedded within the sustainable development goals it implores that all stakeholders from individuals to nations and from grassroots NGOs to multinational corporations everybody contributes to their achievement. Just imagine if the house is on fire then every member of the house whether they get a glass of water or a bucket of water or a hose pipe, everyone has to be engaged and there is no time for someone to just sit and see.

So therefore there were many untapped, undervalued contributors to these processes and one of them are the faith-based organisations. They have long existed on the periphery of large secular multilateral organisations and their strategic plans. Faith-based organisations have always shared intrinsic notions that we have a moral responsibility and we do valuable work in the field of development but they would never get a stage in these kind of climate conferences and things like that.

So now they are becoming increasingly active on environmental issues as all religions without fail contain messages on environmental care, on stewardship of the planet that can provide for human flourishing and with the notions that sustainability is embedded in their religious texts. So therefore faith-based organisations are especially very valuable contributors to the SDGs given the tremendous influence which they have. So over 80% as I said of the global population is affiliated to various communities as I mentioned.

For many faith is the analytical lens which shapes their world views and therefore faith-based organisations are sustainable institutions in themselves. They have frequently existed for centuries and they have deeply connected networks. If you see Udupi Math is around 800-2000 years old.

Ramanujacharya is like that also. These are institutions which have been existing for a long time. If you see the church, it has been existing for thousands of years.

So therefore they have a method of having an organisational resilience which beats the ups and downs of all kinds of changes. So therefore they are situated across the world and many times faith-based organisations branch out in smaller centres and go to communities which are highly marginalised. So their reach is such that which corporates even many times cannot match.

And therefore to achieve the sustainable development goals, what the UN is looking at is change in mindset, change in behaviour and change in the consumption patterns and faith leaders are well positioned to relay such messages in a more relatable manner and that is more easy for people to connect and absorb than abstract data through various kinds of graphics implementations. Therefore the United Nations Environment Programme, Faith for Earth Initiative was launched in 2017 and so Faith for Earth, it foremost aims to strategically engage with faith-based organisations to collectively contribute towards the sustainable development goals and fulfil the agenda of the 2030 SDG agenda. So the initiatives mobilise new interfaith partnerships, utilise innovative approaches to unite around the common goal of sustainable development.

So, you know, as you rightly said and as you are such a powerful author on science and spirituality, the fact is that many people in spiritual circles are not aware of some of the extent to which we are faced with the problem of environmental pollution because ultimately whatever faith you may be from, but you have to live in your house if you consider the earth to be a house. We have a common house with many rooms and any damage which is happening to our house has to be dealt with from the perspective of the Vedic literatures. You know, Bhumi was considered to be Bhumidevi in the fourth canto of Bhagavatam.

Prithu Maharaj, you know, he rallied forward and very much intervened to make sure that Bhumidevi responds appropriately. When Bhumidevi is in distress in the tenth canto, the demigods approach Krishna to have Krishna appear. So, therefore, when you go for worship and darshan of Tirupati Balaji, you first take darshan of Udevi and then you go and take darshan of Balaji.

So, it's there in our tradition a lot but the fact is that global fossil carbon dioxide emissions have risen, you know, almost 62% from 1990 to 2019 and today they are pegged at almost 36.5 billion metric tonnes per annum which is humongous and the average global temperature in the 2016 to 2020 period is warmest on record, almost 1.1 degree higher than 1850 to 1990 period. So, 2015 to 19, if you recollect, they were some of the five warmest years on record and 2010 to 2020 has been the warmest decade on record. Yeah, so if you're sitting in an AC you don't sometimes realise it but, you know, air pollution, almost 7 million deaths worldwide are caused every year and cause almost US 5.1 trillion dollars in 5.1 trillion dollars in welfare losses globally.

So, you know, if every year so many people are losing lives and so much of money is being spent, it means that we have to do something about there and want to speak of water pollution. Water, as they say, is life and in future they expect wars surrounding water but, you know, at least we find that even after all the increase and enhancement in organising water facilities for majority of the people, still around 800 million people across the world lack the proper facilities for basic drinking water and at least 2 billion people across the world still have no choice but to drink contaminated water which is mixed with some degree of faeces and bacteria and, you know, the whole idea is that we think that if we bring about technology and have bottled water, bring in the plastic menace every single day 8 million pieces of plastic pollution find its way into the ocean and almost 12 million tonnes of plastic are poured into the ocean every year and it's going to be a very you know, not a long time from now where there will be like a huge island of just plastic collected in some of these oceans, so, I mean we have to take these things very seriously because ultimately it is having impact on people's lives, on people's consciousness, on the anxiety levels, so you have to have a systems thinking approach towards this thing and therefore all the faith based organisations with multifarious diversities and differences of opinion which they may have, they may not be able to see eye to eye, you know, within the house but when the house is on fire you know, at least everybody at that time will not pick up a religious book and start fighting but when the house is on fire you take water and try to put out the fire in the best possible manner so in that spirit the faith based organisations have been rallied by the United Nations and engaged in this particular agenda. Oh, this is quite sobering you know, what you said about sheer quantity I knew the problem also but you seem to be very well prepared with the whole array of statistics No, I regularly share in, you know, so many conferences for last five years, so Oh, okay so it seems, what you mentioned about so much plastic and other things going to the ocean already, there is something called a great pacific garbage patch, so there will be pacific and there is already, they are saying now they did a north atlantic pacific garbage patch also, so it's already there so at one level the environmental problem is grave so how does our movement collaborate so at one level within Govardhani college we are demonstrating eco-friendly living and some devotees may naturally try to adopt some eco-friendly practises, so is it that we go to interfaith forums and share how our tradition which is eco-friendly living or is it that they expect us to have say more classes on eco-friendly living during our Bhagavatam classes and Sunday feasts and other dissemination, so what is the how does the collaboration actually going to work yeah so first of all ISKCON has been accredited as an NGO in economic and social council of UN Anuttama Prabhu many years ago led this and got this done and then Govardhani co-village of ISKCON is also accredited separately to the economic and social council it's known as Eco-SOC in New York we are also accredited to United Nations environment programme and we are also accredited to United Nations committee for combating desertification UNCCD so UN Eco-SOC UNEP and UNCCD these are very influential organisations and you get opportunities to actually participate in dialogue and to also influence policy making and then you connect with various experts from the environmental field and from the spiritual field and from other NGOs who are doing good work and it's an excellent opportunity to create a positive influence we also won the United Nations World Tourism Organisation Govardhani co-village for excellence in eco-tourism as a catalyst for rural development and featured in the UNDP solutions database for making possible this achievement of the United Nations sustainable development goals through nature based actions so this database it hopes to connect practitioners that have already developed nature based solutions to sustainable development at any local level and they try to showcase the solutions that work best practises are always of use so since its launch in late 2017 the solutions database has been accessed by almost 10,000 users from 141 countries so it's a database where all interesting solutions which are vetted by the UN are put there so in one sense if you see our Vedic tradition and temples you know a green place of worship has always been a part of our tradition because green place of worship will adopt a holistic approach to sustainability set an example of worship in the country and the world to adopt green principles so you can also convert your existing place of worship to a green place of worship and this will have tremendous benefits to the environment and to the community in terms of improving your energy efficiency water efficiency, enhanced indoor environmental quality and improvement in health also so when you have a green place of worship that would also help spread awareness because millions of people who come there to learn they would also learn apart from the scriptural teachings practical green principles in their daily lives after visiting such temples so what are some of the benefits for such temples when they want to do it or for communities who are interested in doing it so not only you will be recognised for better environmental stewardship and responsibility but overall you reduce the operating cost in the long run because ultimately temples you know they solicit donations so this also demonstrates a very responsible use of the financial support which we receive just if you take a typical ISKCON temple as an example and if it is consuming almost 5000 units per month the power bill would be approximately 10 rupees per unit almost 50,000 rupees but if such ISKCON temples and I am speaking from having implemented this at BODISCON Chowpatty and the Eco Village when we implement the green initiatives such as energy efficient lighting, fans and appliances so it results in almost 30-40% saving in energy which translates to almost 15-20,000 rupees per month saving and comes to almost 2-2.5 lakhs rupees per annum saving so simple things can be done and sorry to interrupt you this is a common conception that going green is actually much more expensive so what you are saying is actually opposite maybe there is an initial investment cost but afterwards it gets compensated for when you go green that's an excellent question you have asked and even I used to have that kind of a concept before but actually you see the effects overall in terms of better health and hygiene reduction of heat island effect green education signages for awareness better waste management so I really connected with two organisations one is which is green rating for integrated habitat assessment an initiative of ministry of new and renewable energy resources and then IGBC which is Indian Green Building Council and they provide all necessary support to equip the ISKCON temple teams orient them and carry out the necessary certifications so various webinars are conducted by them green products case study feasibly study and then as part of a certification process just like when you say that you know I know the Bhagavad Gita so then saying that is one thing and that's great but then we also have within ISKCON process of called Bhakti Shastri so it's a certification process which have certain benchmarks and you follow those benchmarks and then you are certified so like that in the certification process Indian Green Building Council first gives a feasibility questionnaire to help you understand the scope and potential to enhance the green features in our temple then you know they have a whole checklist of various pictures when they come and actually take pictures because that helps in documenting the implement the green features maybe say green signages facilities for differently abled or waste segregation or daylighting or whatever and then they have a checklist of documents to help record all the technical details of the implemented green features just like for example we implemented some low flow water fixtures energy efficient lighting fixtures you know the proper site plan and all and then they will come and do the audit so they will say ok at the beginning you were here and then we give you a list of benchmarks by which you can go here and then when we implement it, when they come and check it then there is certification which is done so actually ISKCON has tied up and collaborated with Indian Green Building Council to design, engineer and facilitate 25 ISKCON temples becoming green within the next couple of years and the first being ISKCON Chowpatty and ISKCON Govardhan Eco Village both having received this privilege so therefore in the long run this will help in enhancing the environmental responsibility and consciousness of all the devotees along with the spiritual home because come on at the end of the day the entire Vedic lifestyle was completely eco-friendly everything was as per the cyclical order that yes, things which we consume can again cycle and things like that so it was, it is nothing new but just that in the current context we are presenting it in a certain way, that's all so actually you came back to the point, so in one sense there are two ways since the collaboration is happening at one level we are already doing something and Govardhan Eco Village have done a lot and that has become like a resource as you said for the solutions database and many people across the world may access it and use it and already we have been awarded for it so in one sense they will develop appreciation for what we are doing and they will also develop some interest and appreciation for our philosophy our practises and on other side if we implement it in our temples, when you talk about the area of benefits from economic, environmental, health benefits that's wonderful so regarding the second point about you said 25 temples they are working on it, you said 2 temples Chowpatty and Jeeve already done so was this recently or it has been several years the certification has been there ISKCON Chowpatty got certified 2 years ago along with Govardhan Eco Village both together, ok and then we just began an entire rubric for implementation with the IGBC for other 25 temples but the pandemic hit so now we will begin our exercise in earnest after the pandemic lockdown and everything because IGBC is today boasting of almost 7.61 billion square feet of green buildings within India which they have helped go green so it's a pioneering institution in sensitising the masses by going green and we are now going to the next level ISKCON and Govardhan Eco Village is also tied up with them for a net zero which is the next level that by 2050 how we can go net zero which is like we are not taking anything from outside and everything is consumed inside and things like that so it's a process just like you need guides for everything even in this particular arena we need someone to handhold us, guide us to come closer to what Krishna wants his devotees to live a lifestyle and you know there are so many verses which I can Krishna's explaining it, I mean you know Krishna is directly saying it these are all Krishna's energies and to conserve those energies is very much part of the responsibility of a mature devotee you know when I first visited Govardhan Eco Village not first, after it had developed when I visited, I was stunned to see the extent of effort that has gone into eco-friendly practises and it's what you just now said it struck me at that time that actually in some ways to do what Krishna was doing to live eco-friendly we can be open to draw insights from contemporary sources also like some of the eco-friendly plans they have been developed by using contemporary technology or contemporary insights but ultimately the contemporary insights are used for spiritual purposes so in a sense it's like Yukta Vairagya so these 25 temples in India you are saying they have taken active interest in actually doing this so these are upcoming temples which are going to use this or existing temples are revamping or both it's a mixture of both, most of them are existing temples but some of those temples are also having projects which they are going to initiate so the best would be to get involved at the stage where right from site development onwards everything can be planned that's the whole idea because you know our current role is to provide expertise identify realities of policy decisions so we basically as Govardhan Eco-Village have been participating in United Nations Environment Assembly UNIA4 in 2019 in Nairobi and we were part of various side events such as you know high level ministerial luncheon on innovative policies and solutions for a circular economy faith for initiatives sustainable development innovation talk on eco-tourism etc so GEV supported UNEP by facilitating a guided tour of GEV for a team which came from Madagascar National Association of Environmental Action for them to learn lessons and be able to successfully execute a similar project which they have with United Nations Environment Programme and we also participated in World Environment Day 2019 celebrations at United Nations Headquarters New York and recently we are actually having an excellent initiative with UNEP in India called Tide Turner's Plastic Challenge and in which we are trying to educate the youth creating building or building awareness of plastic pollution and tackling it to assist India in the future of 100% plastic ban.

So now you may wonder what is this got to do with this or that but just read the statistics of how many cows and cattle they die prematurely because of all the plastic waste which goes into their stomach and you will be shown here of the amount and the kilogrammes of plastic which sometimes is then seen within their stomach. So we are affecting people in so many ways you know but as far as Hindus are concerned Manu Samhita clearly says that let us not discharge urine or faeces into the water. This is Manu Samhita and Manu Samhita also is very strong that we should not discharge saliva into the water nor the cloth which is defiled by impure substances you know and in the Rig Veda which is the ancient text it is very much explained there that we believe that water is a purifier.

We offer a daily prayer to the deity of water. The water in the sky, the water of rivers the water in the well the very source of such water is ocean. All these sacred waters which protect me.

So such prayers are very common. Water is essential to all forms of life pure uncontaminated water commands a high value in Vedic culture. You know for any puja, for any kind of sacred ritual first consecration of water happens.

No ceremony no Sanskrit from birth to death can be seen by Hindus without the presence of Ganga Jal or water of river Ganga so many various spiritual events are centred around festivals which are near water bodies. So therefore clean water is essential to maintain life whether it is for drinking or bathing or growing crops or whatever if you don't have clean water you are just spreading disease like anything and people need to be sensitised about this otherwise you know it is just going to go out of control and so Shanti Parva of the Mahabharata also says that it is a great sin if fire is not offered purifying material or if trees are cut down on auspicious days if human waste and spit and phlegm are dropped in water. So therefore these indications are there in our spiritual literatures and we need to be aware of this that we are not just doing something just because of the need for some collaboration or for some branding purpose or just to make a statement externally but we believe in preserving Mahabharata and we believe that Bhumi Devi is an expansion of the Supreme Lord and we believe that we can add value and follow Srila Prabhupada's instructions by having communities centred around simple living and high thinking.

Beautiful you know in some ways what you are saying that it is highlighting how Prabhupada was a pioneer because like you said Prabhupada I think even before the environmental movement started becoming prominent Prabhupada has stressed eco-friendly living and in that sense you could say Prabhupada was significantly farsighted because even today in many Hindu holy places often the pilgrims do defile the environment I don't want to sound offensive but it seems that even among pious people environmental consciousness is not there whereas Prabhupada was that futuristic and he already created at least provide the foundational vision and motivation for that. Right. Absolutely.

Prabhupada was really visionary and he taught so many simple things and if you see even Prabhupada's personal habits written by many of his secretaries and servants that even when he would get a letter envelope then he would make sure that he uses the other side of it for writing some note because he just wanted to make sure that everything which can be recycled should be recycled. So he was extremely frugal, extremely conscious because many people are not aware that a vegetable to decompose takes almost 5 days to a month. A piece of paper may take at least between 2 to 5 months just to decompose.

We wear various kinds of shirts if it is made out of cotton, when disposed of it takes at least 6 months to decompose. If you have an orange peel, you finish the orange in hardly 3 to 4 minutes but the orange peel takes 6 months to decompose. If you have these tree leaves which you collect and we do that all the time at the eco village and we have a composting pit, it takes almost an year to decompose.

If you have socks which is made out of wool that keeps you warm but when you dispose it, almost between 1 to 5 years it may take depending on what are the mixtures which are used to make that. If you have a plastic coated paper kind of milk carton and that's usually the trend. That milk carton takes 5 years to decompose.

Shoes made out of substances like leather which is commonly used by people in this world, 25 to 40 years it takes for the decomposition. The fabrics, nylon fabrics which we use, nylon is considered to be very easy to access and easy to wear and everything. Almost it takes 40 years.

You take tin cans, drink, throw that tin can but that takes almost 100 years to decompose. You take aluminium can, it will take also 100 years to decompose. Glass bottle, to take a glass bottle, God knows it goes up to almost a million years just to decompose on its own.

Styrofoam cup also 500 years plus. These are the facts and we are thinking that the earth is an unlimited capacity to absorb and it is like by default a natural sink where you can throw anything and it will be taken care of. We have to come out of that thinking process, thinking pattern and yes I know that we have a practical life to live but then unless we begin like for example in Salem, they have an excellent Iskcon temple coming up which is completely made out of stone.

Full stone and you know several sections of their project where people are staying have no electricity also because they want to make a statement that we are really living simple. Even in New Braj Dham in Hungary, I visited there. The main community, there is no electricity and devotees are living there with a well behind their homes and each house has a well and they still are trying to live a life in very traditional way.

So these are inspiring communities which have been created by leaderships which believe that what the world needs today is not economical thinking but inspiring ethical based thinking which can actually create influence. That's very apt what you said just now, last point. So if I understood you basically your thinking was in two different directions that at one level as a movement we are also creating eco-friendly communities as a whole.

I think Okul Dham was also an example in Belgaum and also we can inspire devotees to themselves wherever they are, even if they are in cities to try to have more eco-friendly habits. I think all the statistics you quoted, they are quite sobering. I remember one of my first yatras, Radhamal made a statement, you know, please don't throw litter.

Let the Brajivasis not have our memories in the form of a pile of garbage. So it was such a simple but profound statement. So I feel that at individual level it is adopting eco-friendly habits again, what you have said is that it may be a little expensive initially but in the long run it will be even for the individual themselves it will be better.

Now I was in America in one country, America in one city and there it was very fascinating how this younger generation, so they were trying to get the community, they were trying to get the younger devotee children and other youth to come to the temple but they were not coming and then they had they created a project where they said all of you youth can come and ensure that you make our temple green and that's what made all of them come. They would not come for the classes but they would come to ensure that temple is green and they did the academic project and they were very proud of it and they got a sense of belonging for the temple also. So in a sense, I just make a third point that some people who may not be directly interested in Krishna consciousness, they can also be engaged in something connected with Krishna consciousness through our environmental awareness and activity programmes.

Yeah. So you know as Krishna has already spoken in the 12th chapter various levels at which you can, you know, plug and play his devotional service so we refer to Mother Earth Vedas have a very deep concept of the fact that, you know Shri Radha is the source of that grace and that grace manifests through Mother Earth in the form of sunshine, rain water, air we breathe etc. and Shri Mati Radharani manifests herself in this creation you know as Bhumi Devi and also as Durga the mother of material expansion, material nature.

So through Bhumi which is Shri Mati Radharani's expansion Lord's expansion Mother Earth is providing everything to us. So therefore actually Srila Prabhupada explained the concept of simple living and high thinking that we do not need too many things to be happy and you know the statistics of which are some of the statements Prabhupada made the most and one of them is about how to avoid sense gratification So what makes us happy are actually our values and our understanding that we are eternal souls, we have eternal relationship with Krishna that relationship that we have with Krishna, with all his resources that he is Sarva Lokam Heshwaram everything in creation is his property. So we can see that everything connected to it and we actually are able to honour it.

Therefore in Bhakti, the concept of being respectful and honouring the gifts of Mother Earth, they are extremely important and inseparable with our nature of devotion for Krishna So this idea of environmentalism, eco-friendly lifestyle is a very essential part of devotional service because we receive grace to the degree we express gratitude to the extent we are willing to reciprocate it otherwise we can't recognise it. So therefore Radhanath Maharaj also gave a talk on October 6th 2020 in one of the Faith for Nature programme events organised by United Nations and he quoted Bhagavad Gita verses and he promoted the Vedic values of respecting and honouring Mother Nature So therefore a multi-faith action programme organised by the government of Iceland and UNEP and Radhanath Maharaj was a panellist in that event and therefore in all forums and initiatives we are trying to share this message of the Bhagavad Gita and propagating Srila Prabhupada's concept of simple living and high thinking and I was just going through the Srimad Bhagavatam a few days ago and in the 11th canto in the conversation between Maharaj Nimi and the Navayogindras which is a pretty intense esoteric, completely loaded with pure devotional service, bhakti kind of a section and when Maharaj Nimi asks Navayogindra how I can be free from the influence of fear due to material energy and so different Navayogindras answer in different ways and then towards the end in 11th canto 2nd chapter text 40, the famous which is always quoted by our Acharyas on prayojan the ideal prayojan which is having attained the love of God, what is your experience evam pratah svapriyanam kirtiya jataanurvanga dhrutukta ukshayi rautiti, rauti gayati unmadhra rakyati, loka bhava person in ecstasy you know he just dances when he is influenced by Krishna's ladhini potency and experiences love of Krishna and he is not aware of any of lokalajya or any kind of he is not aware of any kind of social surroundings so the prayojan is described and then in the text 42nd verse the abhidheya is described, the process, which is the famous verse that bhakti is just like you know honouring some prasadam and then you feel tushti, tushti kshudapayo you feel nourished and your hunger is eradicated so just like that is how bhakti progresses so the abhidheya is in 42nd prayojan is in 40 but text 41 describes about the sambandh jnan about how even a neophyte at the base level you know can actually connect and how if someone who claims that I am going to have a relationship with Krishna what is his symptom so in text 41 he says you know earth fire air water and the ether around various kinds of planetary systems and everything all directions all living beings etc so so this is very beautiful where in that it is implored a devotee they must try to see everything in relationship with the supreme lord Krishna earth water fire air ether whatever you see the living beings or the four directions you know you see flora fauna everything you know even water bodies ocean this that whatever a devotee experiences he should consider this to be an expansion of Krishna so thus seeing everything that exists everything whatever is there in this creation we should see it as an expansion of the lord lord's form and the devotee should be offering that respect to this expansion so this is the whole idea that it is very much part of the Srimad Bhagavatam and in the purport it is very interesting you know that Jagat Dhanamayam Lugdham Kamukam Kamini is a famous verse which Acharya spoke that a person will see the world based on his lenses you wear a red lens you see green lens you see green greedy person sees only money everywhere lusty person sees only things to enjoy his senses everywhere so like that a pure devotee should see the transcendental form of Krishna within everything since everything is an expansion of the supreme lord so therefore this is a very very important point to be made that let all those who are practising Krishna consciousness study the Bhagavatam study our literatures deeply and understand that the whole concept centred around environmental thinking is not something which has been borrowed from some third party source for some purpose of collaboration or for the purpose of some kind of branding and you know some other kinds of material benefits no we genuinely believe in these words of the Srimad Bhagavatam quoted by our Acharyas an extensive commentary is given by Srila Prabhupada and we kind of translate those words into some kind of action through whatever projects which are possible and feasible for us in terms of making small and major changes in our own life so I think ISKCON is very much looked upon by environmental agencies like UN and others as a flag bearer of reaching out to humanity in giving them the message of the Bhagavad Gita helping them cope with their personal lives and they also have great faith that ISKCON and ISKCON devotees based on the ethics which they follow in their personal transformation and the mental strength and discipline which they have enabled in their own systems will be able to take the self-discipline one level ahead and also impact Mother Earth in very very solid positive ways thus inspiring millions across the world. Thank you very much for having me on today evening's session.

Thank you very much Aditya Rao. You are such a source of great inspiration for all the wonderful amazing writings which you share with people and I'm sure many by reading some of those Gita realisations will automatically have transformations in their lives. Continue with your good work.

Thank you Prabhu for sharing your time and your wisdom. It has been a fascinating experience. Although I have been in Govardhan Rekha village, I can say that sometimes we say, in our tradition we say we see through the ears then more through the eyes.

So in one sense talking with you, I knew several of the things but the way you put all of them together in a holistic framework that is wonderful. In general, at the end of a talk I just try to quickly summarise. If you are okay, it will take 2-3 minutes and then if you want to add some last words, you can do that.

So we started by discussing about how faith-based organisations are either direct religious organisations or their affiliated NGOs and other affiliates. So instead of using names, specific names like temples or mosques, we use this name and the United Nations has recognised that just data and graphics alone don't bring about change in mindset or behaviour. So if you actually want to avert the environmental crisis and you gave several statistics about how alarming it is, I say the last decade was the warmest decade in recorded human history and the amount of waste we are disposing into the environment and water wars which might come up.

So to avert this, we need to leverage all the resources that we have and since faith influences more than 80% of the human population, so if they can work with faith-based organisations, then we can protect the environment better. So although secularism is one concern, but here when it comes to our own, say our home is burning, our planet is burning, then we put aside all differences between either religions or religious believers and non-believers and we work together. And as far as we as a movement being involved, we talked about how we already had, we developed Govardhan Ecovillage and then when we started exploring what all is happening on the international level, we started networking with various United Nations organisations and others, we received awards.

So for us, the collaboration is in multiple ways. One is that we are already doing something, we demonstrate that and others may adopt it, learn from it and learn not just the environmental principles, but we also start appreciating our devotional principles that have inspired environmental living. Another is that by discussing these things, devotees themselves and at an individual level as well as at a temple level, we can have more of environmental friendly practises being implemented and you said that actually in the long run it is more, not just eco-friendly, but also you could say economically friendly.

It saves money and other resources and health and other things. So then also one thing is, I think you emphasised this point and brought it out very emphatically that this collaboration is not just opportunistic alignment for branding or getting good PR. It is actually drawing from sections of our own tradition and our scriptures that we may otherwise overlook.

So you quoted from the Rig Veda, Manu Samhita and the Bhagavatam verse was beautiful that it's in that worshipping the earth and respecting the earth. So worshipping the earth is not just offering respects to the deity of Bhoomi Devi in say the Balaji temple but actually taking care of the earth so by trying to live eco-friendly and if we do this then you said that also that ISKCON has already been recognised to some extent as a flag bearer by our own habits and by our own discipline that if we take this up, then we can actually bring about a substantial amount of change in not just the people who are connected with us but those who are already members but also potential members. And environmental consciousness is already something which inspires many people.

So if they see that ISKCON is also doing this, they can also become engaged with Krishna consciousness at the level that is comfortable for them like the 12th chapter Krishna talks about. And lastly also made this point that when we are at our level practising bhakti, whether it is as devotees may create eco-friendly communities or in their individual lives we all can adopt eco-friendly practises and that's how we can contribute to the change. So any concluding words you would like to share? Thank you so much for you know having such an amazing sustainable memory You know I also liked how you played with the word sustainable that religious organisations are already sustainable.

They have existed for hundreds and thousands of years So in a sense we are demonstrating what sustainability actually is. So that was nice Just one last point. If some devotees or some temples actually want to go ahead in this direction are there any email addresses or where they can contact for resources or something like that? You can connect with Anuttama Prabhu in the communications ministry.

You can connect with me. You can connect with Gopal Patel Gopal Leela Prabhu in New York You know there are many such initiatives happening and I think in this May 2021-22 period there is a conference also being conducted So many such environmental initiatives are happening. You can connect with your local thing and GBC is very soon going to pass a resolution on the ISKCON statement, position statement on environment and things like that If you only know ISKCON news So it seems to be an overall institutional thrust now That's wonderful Thank you very much for sparing your time and sharing your insights as well as your adventures in this follow-up Thank you!