If you wanted to make a case I haven’t had an original idea since 1998, the following could be used to bolster your case. The message of branding ourselves as environmentalists and establishing an endowment fund for cows continues to today. It would also serve as an example of how easy it is to have ideas and how hard to implement them.

From - Thu Jan 08 07:17:37 1998
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The 70s are over. Competent people aren’t dropping out of the meat eating society because of ethical stands. The thrust of alternative culture today is ecologically oriented. Srila Prabhupada has given us a vision that, if pursued, would leave us positioned to be a leader in the field of environmentalism.

Environmentalists pick battles that are fundable. What they aren’t even touching is the fact that 50% of environmental damage comes from the production of meat by factory farming methods. It’s one thing to attack big business or to promote conservation of natural areas. That will elicit lots of donations. What won’t get donations is when you start talking about a demand driven industry like meat-eating when most of your potential donors eat meat. So 50% of environmental damage is left ignored.

Many vegetarians, and most vegans, don’t eat animal products based on ethical and environmental concerns about the way these products are produced. An endowed cow protection program, based on the village concepts as proposed by Srila Prabhupada could be a source of milk for these people, leaving us excellently positioned for the inevitable crossing of the meat frontier in the environmental movement.

A Varnasrama college based on the land and the cow in a sustainable agricultural context could be quite a draw to the young idealists who will be the future leaders in that movement.

Ecology is basically a synonym for Universal Form, or at least a subset thereof. The Universal Form is seeing Krsna in the environment. It’s a misconception that each higher level of realization negates the “lower” one; that by chanting and hearing we can then ignore the Universal Form as some material conception.

In my humble opinion, just like rungs on a ladder—if you only have the top two rungs, you don’t have a ladder. You have no connection to the earth, and no practical way to elevate people. Srila Prabhupada has said that Krsna Consciousness is a practical movement. If an institution lacks a method of practical application of it’s philosophy, then it cannot be said to be truly Krsna Conscious. The “Highest” is inclusive, not
exclusive.

Srila Prabhupada has given us the vision; it remains to us to grasp it.