Care for Cows - Vrindavan

Care for Cows Inc. maintains abandoned cows, bulls, retired oxen, and orphaned calves. We are international volunteers who offer our talents and resources to tend to the neglected cows living in Krishna's holy land Vrindavana. We provide stray cows hay, flour, fresh grass, medical attention and a place where they can recuperate from injuries. At present we host a herd of four hundred.

There are approximately three to four hundred abandoned cows in Vrindavan requiring accommodation. Unless they are protected they are destined to subsist on refuse and become plagued by various debilitating and often terminal diseases or suffer injury from careless motorists. However, the most immediate danger is that they become abducted for slaughter by cattle rustlers who are active in this area today.

Food for Life Vrindavan

 

Food for Life Vrindavan is a humanitarian association officially recognized by the Indian government. For the last ten years, Food for Life Vrindavan has worked in the poorest villages in the Vrindavan area (120 Km south of New Delhi).

Our work includes:

• food distribution
• basic medical assistance
• training courses for women
• drilling for drinking water and constructing water tanks
• assistance to the elderly and the disabled
• distribution of clothes
• environmental projects and education
• taking care of cows
• providing primary school education for disadvantaged children.

Friends of Vrindavan

Friends of Vrindavan is a community project which has arisen from the existing World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Vrindavan Forest Revival Project. This project focusses on environmental regeneration and care based on the spiritual values of Hinduism, which are deeply ingrained in the cultural traditions of Vrindavan.

Friends of Vrindavan's work in India focuses around three main areas: Greening, Cleaning and Education. These are the factors which directly impinge on the quality of life of the people of India.

In addition, Friends of Vrindavan now works in partnership with Food For Life Vrindavan, who offer essential support in villages of the Vrindavan region in the form of free food for the children, the handicapped, pilgrims, widows and sadhus, free health clinics for mothers and children and the Trees for Life programme in village schools. 

The Vrindavan Declaration

At WWF India's 25th Anniversary Congress in 1994, a declaration written by a senior religious figure of Vrindavan, Shrivatsa Goswami, was presented to the President of India along with a sacred Kadam tree from Vrindavan. The declaration explained how Lord Krishna had acted to restore the ecological balance of Vrindavan, and underlined the community's commitment to conserving their environment.

'Nature enjoys being enjoyed, but reacts furiously to exploitation. Today's situation is caused by our separation from Krishna and his message of commitment. Let us act on his message to play, not to exploit. '

Why Vrindavan Deserves World Heritage Status – A Reminder to Stay the Course

by Swami B.A. Paramadvaiti on November 17, 2010

Dear Readers,

Vrindavan is the most important place existing  in the world today.  Along with the rest of the Braj cultural region of which it is a part, Vrindavan is a holy land comparable only to Jerusalem and Mecca.

It must be recognized as an international place of pilgramage. It should be regonized as a World Heritage Site.

Why is anybody hesitating to support such recognition?
The reasons for recognition are obvious for those of us who live in  Vrindavan as devotees, but I will list them all together here, so we can be reminded of just how much we have to be proud of and to  treasure, protect and showcase to the world:

A Map of Select UNESCO World Heritage Sites in India

1. Vrindavan is considered in many sacred texts as the center of  Braj, a region covering over 45 square miles in which the majority of the villages,  water tanks and  natural landscape are connected to a longstanding living tradition of local folklore associated with the events narrated in the holy scripture called the Srimad Bhagavatam.
2. Vrindavan as part of  Braj is constantly filled with residents and visitors from all over the world that possess a love for the place and its heritage that is stronger than all other considerations.
3. Vrindavan as part of Braj is the fountainhead of religious festivals such as Janmashtami which are lavishly celebrated all over the world including in the British Parliament.
4. Vrindavan as part of Braj receives 80 crore pilgrims annually who demonstrate the living devotional heritage of Braj by engaging in various unique and heartfelt activities, including the the 21 kilometer circumambulation of  Govardhan Hill in dandavats (the act of lying down, marking one’s place, and then moving one body length forward to lie down again until circumcmbulation is complete).
5. Vrindavan and Braj culture influences the greater Indian culture through its traditions of holy dances; dramas; paintings; sculptures, poetry and literature.
6. Lord Krishna, the hero of Braj, and his heroine Sri Radha are the famous centerpiece of the loving circle dance called the Rasa dance, which teaches the world that God loves everyone and allows all to long for Him and to enter into His abode.
7. Lord Krishna of Braj is the same hero of the world famous religious text the Bhagavad Gita, a discourse that includes the delineation of  fundamental moral principles: that all souls are equal, eternal and deserve to be loved and cared for.
8. Vrindavan and the greater area of  Braj have inspired the founding of religious and monastic communities all over the world, many of which are named after places in Braj such as Vrindavan and the events which have taken place there.
9. There are not many New Yorks but many New Vrindavans, New Varsanas, New Govardhans, and New Gokulas in all countries around the world which are visited by pilgrims. These are all places created in the spirit and image of Vrindavan and greater Braj.
10. All philosophical schools of India have ashrams in Vrindavan, making it home to a wider variety of Hindu philosophy than any other tirtha in India.
11. Vrindavan and the greater Braj region encompass an amazingly broad range of living devotion; God can be worshiped as a child in Vatsalya Rasa, as a friend in Sakya Rasa, as a servant in Dasya Rasa and even as a sweetheart in Madhurya Rasa. These modes of devotion are unique as a broadly accepted multi-part system, and the theological concepts they embody are arguably more varied than those found in other world religions.
12. Vrindavan and the greater Braj region have the most impressive architecture made entirely as works of love; slave labor was unthinkable for the Sadhus who inspired Braj’s monuments of devotion.
13. Vrindavan and the greater Braj region  practice vegetarianism and abstinence from the consumption of alcohol as a spiritual observance, which, even without being imposed, is followed by almost all.
14. Vrindavan and the greater area of Braj have a longstanding reputation as an auspicious place to die and millions of Hindus worldwide hope to finish their lives here.
15. Vrindavan and Braj has a grand history of royal patronage; it was once the place where every Indian maharajah had to have a temple, guesthouse, goshalla (cow shelter) etc.
16. Today, devotees of Lord Krishna who come from distant countries often acquire and renovate these palaces,  which are abandoned and neglected since the maharajahs of the past have had their government stipends and royal status taken away.
17. The name of Krishna in the form of the Mahamantra, Govinda etc is the most recorded and most heard music in the world; for example, George Harrison’s song,  “My Sweet Lord” , is still amongst the world’s most requested and well-known songs.
18. Vrindavan has the old Yamuna ghats, which, if properly renovated with a canal, hold the potential of making  the Yamuna at Vrindavan one of  the world’s most beautiful landmarks; the boating experience here could be more aesthetically and spiritually enjoyable than those experienced in Venice and Varanasi combined.

If you need more reasons, please associate with those who love Vrindavan and Braj and listen to what they have to say about this place that inspires so much feeling in them. You can even come visit Vrindavan and Braj to see for yourself. It is truly a  treasure of unique universal value.

Attend BVHA meetings and join us in seeking World Heritage Status for Vrindavan, or, better yet, all of Braj. Please also participate in the greater discussion as BVHA works to maintain and restore the treasures of Vrindavan and greater Braj, demanding economic growth that is pursued fairly and thoughtfully, with development that respects heritage. If you cannot attend meetings, please post your comments and suggestions on sites like bvhalliance.org or Vrindavan Today.

Dandavats,
Swami B. A. Paramadvaiti
Vrinda Kunja Vrindavan

Vrindavan is inviting us to serve

You can observe that there is a lot of garbage, destruction of important sites, etc. And why? This happens because Vrindavan is inviting us to serve it. Vrindavan invites us to become activists. By mercy, Vrindavan takes this shape to give us service, to let us do something for the dham, dham seva.

  

If Vrindavan would be a nice garden or a perfect forest, then what service could we do there, how could we serve it? In Vrindavan they are so worried about the internal cleaning that they forget about the external aspect, they don't care about the external things. And for that reason we many times see garbage or places which are not clean, but they are pure internally. On the contrary, in the West, everything is clean outside, on the external level. We are dedicated to have all the things well organized. But internally we have all the things dirty and unclean. For this, it is important to serve the dham with systematic projects. Because Kali Yuga moves fordward constantly, everyday Kali advances.

Source: vina.cc

Keeping Vrindavan Clean

The holy dham is inundated with plastic. Previously, India was the best recycling nation with leaf plates and clay cups. But with the inundation of plastics, in form of bags, cups and plates, now even the holy places are inundated with filth.

According to our capacity we are trying to clean some holy places to give an example to the local residents and to show how different the atmosphere becomes when everything is clean.

In cooperation with local cleanup crews, Food for Life, Friends of Vrindavan and with the local Pancajats (village elders) plans are being made to keep the holy places clean.

We are setting up information panels for locals to inform them how garbage can be collected.

In many cases during our cleanup efforst, local people join in with enthusiasm. In the case of the kundas - lakes, we also clean inside the water.

We invited volunteer to join, by personally coming to Vrindavan and to help to pickup garbage from the Holy Lila Places of Sri Krishna. Please contact us under the following number: 09927888664.

This is just a humble effort to fulfill the vision of cleanliness by our spiritual teachers.

After the Kumbha Mela, one illegal dumping ground may be recovered and we will adopt this place to make a place for Vrindavan peacock. Since Vrindavan is right now a construction site, we hope that the overall cleanliness situation will improve in the near future.

The World Vaishnava Association donated 50 garbage collection rikshas to the Municipality and to organization who are doing active cleaning work.

Source: Vina.cc