Overview

In this article, adapted from various talks, Śrīla B.G. Narasiṅgha Mahārāja speaks candidly about the environmental and spiritual pollution afflicting Śrī Vṛndāvana-dhāma. He challenges the sādhus and gurus of Vraja to cease building more āśramas and guesthouses and instead dedicate themselves to the protection and restoration of the holy dhāma. He also explains what living in Vṛndāvana actually means.

“The Yamunā Doesn’t Flow Through Vṛndāvana.”

In the 1980s when I spent more time in Vraja, there were hardly any buildings around Govardhana – only a few temples and a few āśramas. There were more trees, more bushes, and all the kuṇḍas were clean. I used to spend a lot of time at Nārada-kuṇḍa and I saw that, in the beginning, the amount of soap that was used there was not so bad. It was digestible by the pond. They had gardens all around, the buffaloes would come there, and there’d be fish in the water and lilies growing in it. If it had been left alone, it would have flourished.

But more soap came in and the whole pond became green. Soap kills everything good and feeds everything bad. If it soaks into the ground, it’s not so bad. If the locals took the water to another place and washed clothes, it wouldn’t be a problem, but they don’t. They wash inside the kuṇḍas and the soap goes into the water. This has been going on ever since soap came to India. Previously they would use soap-nut, which was organic and didn’t harm the water. Water needs oxygen, which kills the algae and makes it clear. There needs to be an ecological balance in all these bodies of water.

A lot of the pollution is organic waste, which filters itself out in time. For example, if you bury a clay cup, after ten generations it will have dissolved. It’s what we call biodegradable. But chemical waste doesn’t do anything except stay there forever. If you bury a plastic bag, you can come back after ten generations, and the bag will still be there.

Now, most of the kuṇḍas in Vraja are dead – there’s hardly anything in them but algae. There’s nothing left in them but turtles, big ugly eels, and a few fish. What they should do is stop the use of soap in these places, then bring in a few truckloads of water hyacinths. Those will clean up the pond in one year. After that, they can pull all the old hyacinths out and use them for compost around the trees! Then they can sink big clay pots into the kuṇḍas, full of mud and lilies, and they’ll start to grow. There’s plenty of mud in these kuṇḍas. In two years’ time, you can come here and see completely clear water and it will look beautiful.

Once, I took some devotees to Mānasi-Gaṅgā for the first time and when I got there and looked at the state of the place, I thought, “What am I going to tell them this is?” This is a holy place that was born from the mind of Kṛṣṇa, and there was so much garbage and plastic floating in Mānasi-Gaṅgā that you could probably fill ten Tata trucks! I saw people doing parikramā around the kuṇḍa dripping milk from a plastic bag, and when they completed their parikramā, they simply threw their plastic milk bags into Mānasi-Gaṅgā. Then what happens? The fish eat them and die!

What to speak of the Yamunā! There was a time when I would take darśana of the Yamunā and drink three palmfuls of water. You do that now and they’ll be running you to the hospital! There’s so much sewage in the water that you could die. When the Yamunā begins at Yamunotrī in the Himalayas, her waters are crystal clear. Then she flows through a few cities, and by the time she emerges from the southern end of Delhi, she has become little more than a sewage canal. How can that be the Yamunā? At that point, Yamunā is not present – she withdraws. Yamunā is not simply going to accept anything. When there is abuse and offences are committed, divinity may retire.

Even back in the 1970s, Śrīla Prabhupāda made a statement – “The Yamunā doesn’t flow through Vṛndāvana anymore because of the sinful activities of the people that live there.” Go put that in your kathā! Today, the Yamunā just nicks Keśī Ghāṭa, but she used to flow straight past Madana-mohana. That’s why there are so many ghāṭas and temples along the parikramā-mārga. From Varāha Ghāṭa all the way to Keśī Ghāṭa, the Yamunā once flowed there, but she shifted her course.

Just Planting Trees is Not Enough!

There are many projects going on in Vraja, from little things to big renovation projects. But getting right down to the core of either the environmental issues or the spiritual issues, I still think there’s a big vacuum which is not being addressed. It’s really tough to get people to change if you’re coming from outside Vṛndāvana. If you’re a foreigner, or even from another state in India, and you try to do anything in Vṛndāvana to help the environment, sometimes you’re met with opposition from the locals. You can get in serious trouble, so its frustrating.

To a certain extent, the local government is trying to do something, but it’s not enough. There are private trusts renovating different places and planting thousands of trees in Vraja, which is good. But then the goat-herders come by with a knife, chop the leaves and branches, and feed them to their goats.

One day, I met one gentleman who was in charge of planting the trees and told him, “Look, you’re planting all these trees, but the goat-herders are coming and chopping them to feed the goats.”
He said, “Yes, we know. So now we’re passing out leaflets in the schools to tell the local children not to chop the trees.”
I told him, “The boys that herd the goats don’t go to school!”

For every hundred trees they plant, maybe one or two of them thrive. If people are not cutting them for their animals, they are chopping them, taking the wood home, drying it out, and using it for firewood. Planting trees in Vraja is great – it needs more trees. But more than trees, education is required. You need to educate the local people and tell them to stop chopping the trees down. That lies with the authorities.

In Śrīla Prabhupāda’s time there used to be many nīma trees on the way to Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma Temple. We used to climb those trees and get nīma for Prabhupāda, and every once in a while the villagers would come and literally butcher all the trees. They’d cut every piece of nīma. You can’t do that to trees and expect them to be healthy or to look nice.

When Vṛndāvana started, there were only a few buildings and so many trees, and people were conscious about the trees. But when they needed more buildings, the trees got cut down – all of them! If I gave you a hundred dollars for each tree you can find on the parikramā-mārga, I wouldn’t have to be a rich man. There are not many trees there. From my window in Rādhā-Dāmodara Temple, when I look past Rūpa Gosvāmī’s samādhi, I can see a piece of one tree. It used to be a forest out there. Nobody lived in big houses. They lived in small mud huts with thatched roofs; they built beautiful temples for the Deities, and there were little dirt trails in-between. That’s the way Vṛndāvana was in the time of the Six Gosvāmīs, and for centuries afterwards. But it just failed to have a master plan.

Kṛṣṇa Likes Old?

There is a certain type of ignorance that even affects the devotees. They know Bhagavad-gītā, they know you’re not the body, they know Kṛṣṇa’s God, but there is a certain relative ignorance of this world that, if you don’t pay attention to it, you can be in great trouble.

When we started renovating Rūpa Gosvāmī’s samādhi at Rādhā-Dāmodara, one old man came up to me and complained, “Why are you changing it? Kṛṣṇa likes old!”
I told him, “The roof is cracked and will cave in. Will Kṛṣṇa be happy when His pūjārī gets crushed during the ārati?”
Later, I heard that this gentleman was a retired businessman who lives in a very nice newly constructed three-storey villa in Vṛndāvana – so he likes new, but Kṛṣṇa should just stay in an old, broken-down temple! It’s not written anywhere that in order for Kṛṣṇa to be in Vṛndāvana, it must be run down and the kuṇḍas must be full of algae.

When you bring this topic of Vṛndāvana and the environment up, some devotees say, “Well, anyhow, Kṛṣṇa is there!”
Okay, so then when you drive, why do you wear a seat belt? Why put your hand on the steering wheel? Why not just sit in the car and push on the gas? It’s okay – Kṛṣṇa is there, right? Yes! Kṛṣṇa is there to watch you run straight into a truck and die! Kṛṣṇa gave you a brain. Use it! He gave you ears – pay attention! Why do you teach your children to stay away from a plug socket? Let them stick their fingers in it! Kṛṣṇa is there, right? No – the mother will pull her child back and shout because she knows that if he sticks his fingers in that hole, he’ll suffer.
So what is the difference between protecting your child and protecting the environment, the plants, and the kuṇḍas in Vraja? They all need protection through proper guardianship and proper knowledge. Devotees should be guardians of the land and teach people how to live properly.

At the moment, it’s an environmental nightmare – an overpopulated city with no infrastructure. There are overflowing septic tanks everywhere you look. When it rains, there’s just an ocean of sewage running through the streets of Vṛndāvana. Then there’s the crazy monkeys who are taking over, and the rats. One of my goswami friends told me that its normal for his family to take injections every month for some disease or another. I don’t think that’s how Vṛndāvana is supposed to be. If there wasn’t another dimension to the dhāma, I wouldn’t want to go there.

But when you point out the problems in Vṛndāvana, some devotees think it’s offensive. “You shouldn’t see the dhāma with mundane eyes! Everything is cintāmaṇi!” So tell me, who’s more offensive – the guy ruining the dhāma with trash, sewage, and cement-dust, or the guy pointing these things out? Many of the people who think its offensive have never even touched vraja-raja (the dust of vraja) – they spend most of their time living in New Watseka (the MVT), eating pizza at the restaurant and gossiping. And others are just living in la-la-land, thinking that they’ve become advanced devotees who pretend that they can see past all the garbage and sewage. They’re both in māyā – not yogamāyā, but mahāmāya. Meanwhile, devotees will wear t-shirts and bags saying, “I Love Vṛndāvana” – but if you love someone, would you allow everyone to abuse them? Would you let people dump garbage and sewage all over your wife or your kids? Of course not. So if the dhāma is non-different from Kṛṣṇa, how can you allow it to be abused and at the same time say, “I love Vṛndāvana”?

Because of ignorance and not knowing what to do in the environment, the people here have been doing the wrong things for the last hundred years. Nobody wants to say it, but there’s a huge amount of ignorance in Vṛndāvana. People can be very backward, very rigid, and they don’t care. When the local people who are born here see the garbage, the insane amount of traffic, the dirty kuṇḍas, and all these things, they think that this is simply the way it’s supposed to be.

On the parikramā-mārga, you are standing on top of twenty feet of garbage! You have to dig down about six feet before you get to Vṛndāvana, and every time we do, we harvest it. The earth is completely pure. It’s very silty with a lot of mica in it – it has shiny particles that look like cintāmaṇi. It’s the light grey sand of the Yamunā.

Talking Līlā and Going to Hell!

Nowadays the sādhus hardly speak about any of this. There are a few that are trying, but most of them are just trying to be big mahānts and impress everybody. That’s why I sometimes say that there are no paramahaṁsas in Vṛndāvana! If there were, they’d be talking about these things and trying to do something about them – planting more trees, cleaning the Yamunā, educating people in basic hygiene, protecting the dhāma – not just building more āśramas and guesthouses to make more money and more disciples. What I am saying about the environment, every sādhu should also be telling as part of their hari-kathā – but they’re not. They’re just singing, “Kṛṣṇa jinkā nām hai,” or “Rādhe! Rādhe!” and all this stuff, while māyā is coming into Vraja in every possible way.

All the big mahānts are talking rāsa-līlā, rāsa-līlā, rāsa-līlā, and meanwhile there are signs for abortion clinics popping up at the Vṛndāvana bus stand, a McDonald’s on the Mathurā highway, and liquor shops in the dhāma. What the hell is that? All the mahānts are talking līlā and all the people are going to hell! They’re all so proud about who has seen Kṛṣṇa and who is talking about the highest topic, but they cannot even save the people they are talking to from the basic miseries of this material world. They’re too busy trying to pose as some super-enlightened beings who have transcended this world, and this is a heavy contributor to the external problems that we see in Vṛndāvana today.

When it comes to hearing, who has taken up most of the perches in Vṛndāvana? The different brands of sahajiyās, māyāvādīs, and deviant sampradāyas. It’s hard to find anyone pakka. You can still find proper hari-kathā in the line of Caitanya Mahāprabhu in the Gauḍīya Maṭha, but outside that? Good luck! There are so many popular bābās in Vṛndāvana now. Some of them are half māyāvādī, some are half sahajiyā, some preach hindu-vāda. They claim to belong to a paramparā, but it’s false. None of them are actually in a genuine disciplic succession. They simply make very high claims, and in that fog of misconception, people naturally develop all kinds of wrong conclusions.

Prema Kiśora (Śrīpāda Araṇya Mahārāja) coined the phrase ‘front-line misconception.’ That’s exactly what is going on in Vṛndāvana. Vṛndāvana is meant to represent Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism. Yet because of its popularity, every sort of misconception has been drawn to Vṛndāvana.

Durgā, Hanumān, and Pizza Hut

So many things have come into Vṛndāvana now – huge statues of Durgā, huge statues of Hanumān and Gaṇeśa. What is this? People are starting to say that Vṛndāvana is like Haridwar. There’s a billboard every ten feet as you drive down the last seven kilometres into Vṛndāvana – it looks like you are entering Chennai. Apartment buildings are being built everywhere. Recently I went to meet some godbrothers in a ‘modern building’ built by some Russian devotee. As soon as I got there I thought, “Welcome to Los Angeles!” The reception looked like the lobby of a bank, there was a beautiful stainless-steel elevator, and all these top-quality modern fixtures. Where was I? Noida? No – I was on the top floor of an apartment building in Ramaṇa-reti! I wonder how you can even be in Vṛndāvana in such an atmosphere when you are surrounded by all this. You are completely out of the environment of Vraja.

Śrīla Prabhupāda also said, “Kṛṣṇa is not in Loi Bazaar.” But where is Loi Bazaar? It’s in the centre where all the principal temples are in Vṛndāvana, where the rāsa-līlā took place – the rāsa-sthālī. So what does it mean that “Kṛṣṇa is not there”? It means that most of the people there are simply in māyā. They’re doing business and capitalising on the dhāma.

There’s even a Pizza Hut there in Vṛndāvana, all these modern restaurants – such things should not be encouraged in Vṛndāvana. That is for life outside.

What Living in Vṛndāvana Means

Life in Vṛndāvana means full engagement. Prabhupāda said that you are allowed three days of ‘eye-candy’ – looking around and getting your shopping done – then get to work for Kṛṣṇa. Hearing, chanting, cleaning the temple – that’s what it means to be in Vṛndāvana. Yet people try to imitate higher bhakti.
At Rādhā-Dāmodara Temple, a thousand people every morning go round and round, but nobody thinks to pick up a broom. Nobody thinks about cleaning. Everybody just walks round and round. How much ‘benefit’ are they actually getting walking round and round? Not very much. Most people there don’t have any service – they just walk around the temple in the morning, and only a fraction of them even do that. So what’s everybody doing there? Making money, building houses, and carrying on with their own affairs.

Life in Vṛndāvana is meant to be full engagement in Kṛṣṇa’s service. That means hearing, chanting, serving, maintaining the dhāma, and helping preserve the holy places – not simply living there. If you’re coming to Vṛndāvana, come and do dhāma-sevā. Don’t come with an attitude to ‘enjoy’ the dhāma – just being a rubbernecker and coming for darśana, or stuffing your face with prasādam. If you’re coming with that sort of mentality you will be nowhere and you will make offences. All you will do is simply contribute to the sewage system there!

Vṛndāvana – A Lawless Land

Nowadays, on the parikramā-mārga, people drive their motorcycles and cars forty kilometres an hour and you can easily get run over. There’s practically no law. Ultimately, that reflects something of the nature of the highest spiritual world, which is a land governed not by rules but by spontaneous love. Service, surrender and love are not ruled by the mood of “you have to.” There are no laws governing Kṛṣṇa’s service there – it is simply the natural flow of the heart.

But somehow, by the time that principle manifests down here, it has become something much less desirable. That’s why devotees should become guardians of Vṛndāvana. Otherwise, everyone will go on talking about Goloka Vṛndāvana while the external Vṛndāvana down here falls apart and gets trashed!

About the Author: Śrīla Bhakti Gaurava Narasiṅgha Mahārāja

Śrīla Bhakti Gaurava Narasiṅgha Mahārāja (Jagat Guru Swami) appeared on Annadā Ekādaśī at Corpus Christi, USA in 1946. After studies in haṭha-yoga, he took initiation from his guru, Śrīla A.C. Bhaktivedānta Swami Prabhupāda in 1970 and preached in the African continent for 3 years before accepting sannyāsa in 1976. After Prabhupāda’s disappearance, Śrīla Narasiṅgha Mahārāja took śīkṣā (spiritual instruction) from Śrīla B.R. Śrīdhara Deva Gosvāmī and Śrīla B.P Purī Gosvāmī. Although he spent most of his spiritual life preaching in India, Narasiṅgha Mahārāja also travelled to Europe, Mexico and the United States to spread the message of his spiritual masters. He penned over 200 essays and 13 books delineating Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava siddhānta. He left this world in his āśrama in South India in 2020.