South India 2012: Govardhan Eco Village

Just wanted to let you know about one of the highlights of the trip for me so far....from Tirupati we flew to Mumbai and boarded a bus that took us 3 hours North to an Eco Village that is run by the ISKCON Mumbai temple. They have just finished the 2nd phase of their building project of nice guest quarters, a conference center and performance theatre and a sugar cane thatched roof yogashala. The buildings are all made out of adobe brick from soil on the land that were sun dried and everything was built with water catchment systems in mind so that during the rainy season they are able to collect much of the water they need for the whole year. The hot water is from solar panels on the roof and they have set up a greywater system throughout the guest quarters. A Ph.D from one of the best Technical colleges in India designed a water purification system on the land where all the water goes to be filtered through various layers of soil, sand and rock and passed onto fruit trees and also back into the loos! They have a goshala - a cow protection area and they use the cow dung to make methane gas and run their entire kitchen off this fuel source as well as a huge generator to make electricity. The process is so simple its a shame more states in the US are not using this fuel source with so many cows and hogs like in Texas and Iowa, where the pollution is rampant in the soil and waterways due to the excrement of tens of thousands of animals. They also have a huge organic farm and 1000's of fruit trees on the property. It is truly a model for "simple living and high thinking" as Srila Prabhupada promoted and the time for moving back into the country is upon us as city living is becoming more and more congested, polluted and unsustainable. I was only able to get pics of the property and not much video as i thought I would be going back but was unable to at the last minute! So since I have also had a request for more pics, here they are.....

The Guest House

Landscaping phase now begins

Planting Grass

Surrounded by Mtns. it's one of the densest bioregions in India

Flower Farm

Grey Water Treatment center with garden on top

Non- Chemical water Treatment

The Goshala

Methane Gas Production Area

A slurry is made of the cow dung mixed with water and then drained underground to these holding tanks, as it ferments & creates the methane gas, the metal tops which just rest on top rise as the gas builds up and a hose is connected and then a long metal pipe which carries the methane gas into the stoves in the kitchen located just behind! Wow! The rest of the slurry is then made into a nice fertilizer for the trees and flowers! Whats even more amazing is that there is no bad smell at all in this entire area. Its the methane that smells and cow dung is considered sacred in India

Organic Vegetable Garden

Papaya Tree

YogaShala

Conference Center

Performance Center

Me and my new friend Elizabeth from Houston

Having breakfast on the yogashala floor made with cow dung and straw and water to keep bugs at bay and wow is the design on it nice - half moon lines

Radhanath Swami comes to visit us from Mumbai for half a day

Cooks from Govindas Restaurant in Mumbai came and made us the most amazing food.

This was an outdoor kitchen they set up for some of the food like the breakfast dosas

Much of the fruits and veggies were from the land and we even got buttermilk from the gosahala. They even made us Italian food one night with the best minestrone I have ever had!