The Real Significance of Bhumi Puja
By HH Radhanath Swami Maharaj
At Govardhan Farm, Wada - 2nd October 2009

I am very grateful to be here today with all of you. Especially thankful that you have all come from long distances for what I am hoping will be seen for generations in the future as a most historical day. Historical, because it is a genuine and sincere effort to fulfill the prayers and the direction of our beloved gurudev Srila Prabhupada and the previous acaryas of the sampradaya. Whatever they spoke was a manifestation of their love, of their hearts and their deep compassion for all living beings. Real compassion is a sentiment or feeling, para dukha dukhi, where another person’s sufferings is our suffering. Another person’s happiness is our happiness. This is a universal spiritual principle. True compassion must also be based on knowledge of what really is the true welfare for all living beings. How to alleviate suffering and how to elevate people to the true happiness beyond real birth and death? The happiness of the soul and the pure love or prema which one shares with the absolute truth, Lord Krsna. This our scriptures tell us is complete knowledge, the body, mind and words. That in fact is the only real purpose of human life and the only real purpose of everything we should endeavor for in lives individually and collectively.
Why to perform the ritual – bhumi puja?
Today we will be performing bhumi puja. This ceremony will be the inauguration of a temple and a whole project and community that is centered around that temple. Bhumi Puja is very significant to understand in its spirit. Any ritual that is performed only has much value as the content of the intention of those who are performing. A ritual is like an envelope, which should be addressed to God. But if you send God even with the right address the envelope is meaningless unless there is within it a sincere message. Many rituals today are just empty envelopes with nothing inside. The message that the ritual is supposed to carry is our sincere intentions.
Atha pumbhir dvija srestha varanashrama vibhagasah… whatever our occupation, our varna, our ashrama, our success is the intention to please Krsna, to please God through our efforts. Bhumi is the feminine energy of the absolute truth. In our Vedic scriptures as well as the mystical traditions of the other spiritual paths, we understand that the absolute truth is one that absolute truth as many features, Brahman, paramatma, bhagavan. The all pervading impersonal feature, the paramatma, the lord sitting in the heart, as the witness and ultimately the guide of every living being and bhagavan the supreme personality of Godhead, the all attractive all loving person whose body is sat-cid-ananda vigraha, eternal, full of knowledge and full of bliss. Who is rasa vihari, who enjoys giving the highest pleasure to all living beings to accept it. Now that one absolute truth is both male and female. Within this world we live, we understand that everything is existing on the basis of the interaction of male and female. Every human being, every animal, any lizard, any fish, any plant, any tree, its all coming about due to this natural attraction between male and female energies of material nature. It’s the basis of creation. What is the origin of this? The Bhagavat Gita explains that this material world is the reflection of the banyan tree on the lake. There is a real banyan tree and the reflection looks like the same banyan tree. But the difference is if you try to eat the fruits of the reflection, you will not get the same result. Similarly this whole material existence is the reflection of the eternal spiritual existence, the para vyoma. There the basis of spiritual existence is enjoyment, ever lasting, ever increasing enjoyment, between the male and female aspects of the absolute truth. Radha Krsna pranaya vikriti … The Supreme Truth is one but is eternally sepreated in the forms of Radha Krsna, Sita Rama, Lakshmi Narayan. Or in the context of this world, Parvati Siva. Bhu Varaha, that feminine energy of the Lord is the energy of compassion, the asraya vigraha. The abode of Love. Krsna is the vishaya vigraha the object of love. So the feminine side of God is that which nourishes and brings about compassion and real love. Bhumi is an expansion of the feminine divinity of the absolute truth. That is why they call her mother earth. She is the consort of Sri Varaha dev, the presiding deity of this entire earth planet is his consort. And just as we learnt that we approach Krsna through Sri Radha, on a practical level we have to approach Krsna through Radha in her expansions as well. In living in this world, we approach Krsna, on a spiritual level through Sri Radha, through our bhakti, but also by respect and living in harmony with Bhumi devi.
Most precarious situation in humanity – exploitation of Bhumi devi
Today we see the condition of the world. Never before in history has the world been in a more dangerous situation. We have made progress through technology and science. We have cured diseases such as small pox. Made vaccinations for polio. Made breakthrough in open heart surgeries to keep people living after major heart attacks. These are good things. But at the same time, what are we doing on the other side. We are creating other diseases due to pollution and other unnatural styles. Due to toxic waste in the air, in the food we eat, in the water we drink. There is a major up rise in cancer, due to lifestyles that are uncontrolled in values, hepatitis, aids, due to such stress and depression that is becoming more and more insurmountable like never before in the world, there is heart disease and the WHO explains in this century, one of the three greatest causes of suffering and death will be depression and mental illness. And from another perspective due to the green house effect the solar ice caps are melting. It’s creating already dramatic and tragic climatic changes. And what’s in store for us. Some geologists have explained that it appears that soon there may not be a ganges or Yamuna, which is the main means of sustenance for hundreds and millions of people. With the ice caps melting, the oceans rising, Bombay may just be a bay. Many of the major cities may be under water and as far as the bomb part, we are exploiting material nature to create nuclear bombs. We take the gifts of mother nature and due to our perverted ignorance, we utilize those gifts to create weapons of mass destruction which are meant to massacre the children of mother earth. And will all the toxic chemicals in the soil in the ocean, in the rivers and in the air, if you look at it realistically the world is in a hopeless state. Politicians don’t want to tell you and we don’t want to hear about it, because we are just caught up in our petty pursuance of fulfilling our greed. It is a big problem. When scientists compromise their values and ethics for funding purposes when politicians compromise their values for the sake of votes, when business men and industrialists compromise their human values for profits, what’s happening. A few days ago was Dussera, the day of victory. Ravana wanted to exploit Sita. Bhumi is Sita. Human kind is plundering, exploiting, raping our own mother, Mother Earth. Who is providing all nourishments, all facilities for our lives. It is from a spiritual perspective, highly offensive. From a material perspective, it is suicidal. If your mother provides you everything in life and if you take what she has to give you and you use it to abuse her and neglect her, is that humanity. But that is the situation of the world today. Bhumi puja as a spirit we are worshipping, honoring and serving mother earth. She is the consort of the supreme Lord. Everything, Sita, Radha or Lakshmi have is meant for the service of Narayan. Everything  the earth produces is meant for the physical, emotional and spiritual health of the children. That means everything has to be used as an offering to God for the welfare of everyone. So this Bhumi puja concept is critical for the emotional, physical, spiritual well being of entire humanity.
The principle behind a spiritual Farm community
From the very beginning, of ISKCON one of the objectives was to create agricultural communities. Not only so that devotees could make tremendous spiritual progress by developing this type of consciousness of compassion and service to our mother and to all of her children, but also as an example, an alternative to display to the world. In the west, in the colleges among thoughtful students the number one concern is not how to make money. Its how to deal with the problem of the ecology and the environment, because they are thoughtful enough to understand that no matter how much money we make, we are going  to be diseased, miserable and going to die unless mother earth provides for us. We have created a society that is unsustainable, unnatural and offensive to human spiritual values. Srila Prabhupada explained the principle of simple living, high thinking for these communities. Actually, this is the principle of Vrindavan.
The first farm community which Srila Prabhupada established in India is in Hyderabad. And he installed Krsna Balaram deities there. And he explained that Balaram carries a plough to symbolize natural agriculture. Tractors may be good on short term, but it is not sustainable. So much energy is required. You need oil. You fight wars for oil. To put it in your machine. Oxen are Krsna’s gift and Balaram has the plough. He is offering to share his plough with all of us. Sometimes Balram killed demons with his plough. Like Balavala, in this sense with this plough of Balaram, we want to kill the demoniac mentality that is exploiting and destroying mother earth. That plough in Balaram’s hands is very symbolic and important to understand, that is impeding us from protecting and sustain mother earth, the demon of ignorance. And Krsna plays flute to attract the cows. The cow is also our mother. We drink her milk when we are young and then when she grows old, human society cuts her throat, drinks her blood and eats her meat. Is that the way to treat your mother? Is that the way to treat mother earth, mother cow? Cow protection isnot only very necessary for a proper spiritually based culture but is basic human ethic. Krsna protected his cows. In fact he was Gopal, a cowherd boy. In Nanda Gaon, in Ter Kadamba, he would play his flute to attract the cows. And each cow would hear his particular name being sung through Krsna’s flute. And now Krsna had 900,000 cows. So you may ask that it may have taken a long time for Krsna to take every name of every cow. It would take you or me a long time. But Krsna has acintya sakti, inconceivable potencies. He could just play one note or say one name and each and every cow would hear her name personally. Just like Krsna danced with the gopis and every gopi was thinking Krsna is only with me. Krsna took Prasad on the bank of the Yamuna with the gopas and each gopa was thinking that Krsna is only looking at me. Similarly when Krsna plays his flute, every cow and calf hears his or her name and they all respond intimately by mowing very loudly in ecstasy with tears in eyes and Krsna would hear each one the mows personally. Reciprocation of love. This is Vrindavan. Simple living high thinking, based on the highest values of humanity. Based on the values of respect, love and devotion. And of course compassion naturally emerges from those values.
The vision for Govardhan Farm
This community we want to develop according to the vision of our acaryas, our scriptures, thoughtful people throughout the world. A model example of agriculture, sustainable natural agriculture and cow protection. More and more as our society begins to crumble by its own unnatural ways, people are going to be looking for practical and real alternatives. And also the building materials which we will use and the methods of building, through sustainable natural methods, that don’t exploit and deplete the earth but rather, honor, respect, replenish and nourish the earth. Actually natural building materials are more sustainable to the environment and if done right, it is healthier and more enduring than the modern styles. Recently some of our devotees were in Humpi. People from all over the world go to Humpi to see the ancient buildings and structures of the Vijaynagara empire. It is all made of stone. There are temples and buildings that are thousands of years old made of natural substances and built of natural processes. Now we are using all sorts of short-cuts with steel and chemicals and different types of modern cement. How long are these buildings going to last? Even the architects and engineers know that they are only going to last a century at the most or may be two if you put a large amount of money into it. And when they fall, its all stuff which you can’t replenish the earth with, you can’t do anything with. You just add to all the waste that cannot be accommodated or transformed to any good use. It only causes permanent pollution. Building up. So through natural construction processes, not only will we have the best facilities that are natural and have a vibration which awakens God consciousness within us. But also it is an example. This is what human beings can do. Factually in the early seventies, Srila Prabhupada had this concept of natural houses made out of natural local materials. In New Vrindavan, he personally with his own hand he wrote, an architectural plan and told what material should be used. He said to use, wood, mud and he wanted grihastas to stay in those houses. And about 6-7 houses were made and grihastas were living in them. and they were known as Srila Prabhupada houses. And they were happy, so natural and beautiful. Such a feeling. And Srila Prabhupada came and he was in tears of pride. Because this was the first step to present this virtue to humanity. But them what happened is in the passion for fast progress, we replaced the oxen with tractors and heavy machinery, we replaced cows as milking machines, we replaced the beautiful natural Prabhupada’s houses with buildings of unsustainable materials, thinking that that will bring fast progress. But the result, the whole community, build up, built up, built up and then crashed down and crumbled into powder. There is hardly anyone there left. And what’s there is so unsustainable that its unbelievable. Its spirit is practically dead.
Srila Prabhupada had a vision and if we would have just carried on that vision of his to grow natural foods, build our houses in that way, keep loving devotional service to Krsna in the center, with the way world is today, it would have been a shining model for the whole world definitely. Algore would probably be living there. Nobel laureates would be coming there to see that this is the answer to this most complicated dilemma, a happy civilization with sustainable organic, natural living. Srila Prabhupada had the vision, but we didn’t follow it. But its never too late. Most of you are from Mumbai or Pune. And our temples there are very much fulfilling Srila Prabhupada’s instructions, his prayers, and his dreams. But there is something we have completely all neglected. And that’s to really do it right. A model community based on real bhumi puja. And if you worship bhumi nicely and she is the personification of love and devotion, she will offer the fruits of all of our efforts to Krsna.
Govardhan Farm – A place of Pilgrimage
We want this community to be a place of pilgrimage. If we do the agricultural side, but we don’t have a place of pilgrimage where people can come to feel it, to see it, to live it, it will be a message that will not go beyond ourseves. We want to recreat the spirit of Virndavan. We will have Balaram with the oxen and the plough, we have Krsna with the cows. Balaram means all the agriculture. But we are also going to be developing replicas of the 12 forests of Vrindavan. There will be walkways, auscpicious trees where people can actually come and feel Vrindavan. We already have diaromas of pastimes of Krsna in those areas. And devotees can walk into the forests and come to Mahavan Gokul. And there there will be diaromas of Tranavarta and Putana, Yasoda Mayi giving birth to Krsna, Damodar Lila. Some of the principle lilas that took place in Gokul Mahavan and each one will have a forest garden area with sitting places and caves like structures to do your bhajan. If you mediate on that place sincerely, that place literally becomes Gokul Mahavan. It is no more a replica, it is that place. And there is no beggars and there is no pandas trying to take you around. It is really Mahavan, the way it was when Krsna was there 5000 years ago. And there will be Govardhan with the parikrama of the different places of Govinda Kunda, Radha Kunda, Shyama Kunda, etc. where we could go on a real pilgrimage to Govardhan, where we could meditate, discuss the pastimes and hear the pastimes, discuss the devotional secrets of these places and pastimes which took place there. There will be Barsana where we will visit Srimati Radharani’s home, there will be Nandagram where we will visit Krsna and Balram’s home. A place where we could  actually get away from the passionate ugrakarma lifestyle of Mumbai and Pune and be in Vrindavan. Live in natural homes, walk through the forests. Just as Bhakti Vedanta hospital is an hospiotal to heal the body, mind and soul, this will be a place of pilgrimage to heal the body, mind and soul.
Other Plans for Govardhan Farm
We are planning to have an ayurvedic clinic, Nirmal Chandra prabhu is here with his good wife. Plans are already being made. People could come here to get ayurvedic massages, ayurvedic therapies, panca karma and meanwhile doing their japas and bhajans, walking through the beautiful forests of Vrindavan. There will be natural walks for one’s health. Absolutely pure fresh air. We can climb these mountains. We can go to bath in waters of the Vaitarini river which is a 10 minutes walk from here. Beautiful place for rejuvenation of one’s health. At the same time there will be kirtans and kathas. There will be beautiful temple and darshans and pujas. And seva. All of you who sit behind computers all day will get a chance to work an ox. Or do some gardening, grow some vegetables. Some flowers. Come in contact with the earth. Mayapur dham, Srila Prabhupada would have his sannyasis working oxen’s. Panca Dravida Maharaj would tell these stories. Just to give a feeling of connection. A place where we could really bond each other our hearts. Away from all the hectic responsibilities we have in our homes and offices. Emotionally to be in this environment would be so soothing. Physically so rejuvenating and spiritually empowering and inspiring. On behalf of Srila Prabhupada we are begging and praying that we can have the chance to create such a place of pilgrimage for our congregation. Counselee groups could come, individual families could come, students could come, but beyond that, we have sincere belief that this will be a place that will attract people from all over the world. As we are talking, our dear devotee Radha Kunda, is bringing about 20 yoga students, headed by Raghunath the great yoga teacher, he is bringing them to Hrishikesh, Haridwar, then they are coming to Mumbai for Sharad Poornima. Just a couple of weeks back Robert Moses a very established yoga teacher in the west in America, and another yoga teacher from Japan, they came to Hrishikesh, Haridwar, Uttar Kashi, Gangotri, Go Mukha, Vrindavan. And they started at Radha Gopinath Temple. More and more. Gaura Vani Prabhu was here, they are making big connections in the big yoga circuit world in the west. Millions of Americans and Europeans regularly perform yoga. And because they connect to asanas and pranayams. That culture, they naturally want to understand more. And one of the biggest cravings in the yoga studios today all over the western world is to understand bhakti, the yoga of the heart. The yoga of life, there is no doubt, that yoga students, college students, alternative energy people, they will be coming here, to live in this beautiful peaceful environment, to see that are not just speaking, but trying seriously to live by these principles of natural sustainable life based on pure spiritual principles. And I believe in this environment people’s hearts will be transformed. Bhakti, devotion to God will naturally awaken within their hearts if they are in a devotional atmosphere that makes so much sense to them.
Govardhan Farm an offering of compassion to the world
Today we are inaugurating this vision, this plan, this prayer.
On behalf of our gurudev who wants it so dearly. To be instruments of that compassion for the world. This potentially could be one of the greatest offerings of our society for the health of our own devotees, devotees all over the world, and the people in general. It’s a small step, towards a sublime destination. We may need more land, but that will not be a problem. If there is a desire without ulterior motives, Krsna provides, Krsna empowers and it will be a success. The most important thing is we cannot our compromise our sacred values. We have to be what we are trying to teach. We have to be what we are striving to offer to the world.
Conclusion
And to bless our humble efforts we have such wonderful persons today, Chitra who has become just like a family member for all those who know her. She has dedicated her life, to this type of sustainable lifestyle and has made an amazing community in Bangalore area. And our devotees travelled all over india to see what will be most suitable for our purpose and most harmonious with our vision. and they concluded that it would be best to give her the project. Her love for her work is what we need. She will be designing  and arranging of all of our constructions. We have to give us the all auspicious blessings of the spiritual world, we have with us the head pujari for the entire ISKCON. Intimate servitor from Mayapur dham, HG Jananivas Prabhu. Just his glance on this land will assure us all success and let alone his foot prints. We have Bhakti Vidya Purna Maharaj, in Mayapur has actually created such a gurukul and farm community with such love and respect for Radharani and Bhumidevi, with such unlimited devotion to Madhava. He has trained these children in these values for several decades and has become such an authority and blessings of the Lord through his genuine heart felt pujas. I cant think of better people to be with us today than who we have. Sanat Kumar Prabhu has been working so hard on every level of this project. Gauranga Prabhu, Vasudev prabhu have been travelling all over India for ways to develop this center for taking care of the cows and the agriculture. We have our orphanage and cow shed. I sincerely believe that in two years it will be transformed into the spiritual world. At one time Prabhupada said New Vrindavan is non-different from Vrindavan, and in fact we make it so that it feels better, with no mayavadis, pandas, beggars or trash and pollution in Yamuna or all these things. all these things are on the superficial level of Vrindavan, people will be really able to feel, if we have the spirit of Vrindavan. But it should be done very purely. This is my very sincere and humble proposal to all of you. Let us work together to make this dream of Srila Prabhupada a divine reality. Thank you very much! 
The Future Lords who will bless – Govardhan Farm
Would you like to know our thoughts about which deities could be installed where we are doing the Bhumi Puja?
We were thinkgin to invite deities that would best personify the spirit and purpose here as well as educate people into the essence of the mission of Govardhan Farm. We were speaking about Bhumi Puja. How through Bhakti or devotional service, we utilize the feminine energy of the Lord for devotion, the cows, the earth in the service of the Supreme Lord. So our particular deities are Radha and Krsna. And we want to teach people how to worship the feminine and masculine aspects of Radha and Krsna according to the most appropriate method for this age. Sri Krsna Caitanya, Radha Krsna nahi anya.. Radha and Krsna have come in the form of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Radha bhava dyuti svalalitam….
Krsna who comes in the devotional prema of Sri Radha and with her complexion. In Calcutta Srila Prabhupada installed deities in the same way Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur did in many places with this philosophical principles in the fore front. That Radha and Krsna are now Lord Caitanya. They are worshipped most appropriate method of the congregational chanting of the holy names.
Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare/ Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
So we were thinking in that spirit which Srila Prabhupada did in Calcutta, as Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur did in almost all of his centers, having Radha Krsna and Caitanya Mahaprabhu.
And from the perspective of a natural community representing cow protection, farming and the spirit of Vrindavan, another alter with very beautiful, merciful deities of Sri Sri Krsna Balaram. So we were thinking of having two alters, Radha Krsna and Mahaprabhu in one and Krsna Balaram in the other. And if you all approve we will place the order for the deities soon