Parijat and I, we were both graduate trainees that were recruited by Volkswagen in South
Africa and both of us were pretty ambitious.
I started out as a mechanical engineer.
I went to university, I studied business administration and management.
That's how I met Rover, actually, we were both recruited on this fast track graduate
training program and ever since I got a taste of that experience, I set very serious material
goals where I wanted to be professionally.
By the time 1999 came, I had joined the nuclear power station, which is the power utility in
South Africa.
It's a very, very competitive workplace, started to work as a senior engineer and then
gradually made my way to the boardroom level because, you know, we had made lots of money
and back home, success meant, you know, having a big house, having a large pool, having many
cars.
So we had already achieved all of these things, but because we were in the process of back
to yoga, we were definitely searching for something higher.
My last job, I served on five different boards at the same time and I thought I was at the
peak of my professional career.
And that is when we had got the request to be based in Itanadi here in Pennsylvania.
And guess at that stage, we made a decision to, yeah, I just left my job, you know, whether
they were devotees or not devotees, people were shocked, making such a drastic move in
terms of our lifestyle, in terms of our experience, you know, we had no farming experience whatsoever.
People couldn't really grasp and understand why.
In South Africa, materially, we were well positioned.
And so, you know, having to kind of move from that to a rural community like this was for
me personally a big adjustment.
But however, what made up 10-fold, 20-fold was just support and for me, those were my
mentors, that out of love for them, I would take on this responsibility of serving in
a project like this with commitment.
It had nothing to do with position because it doesn't really matter in the farm, if
you do everything, the growth is so much more authentic in an agrarian-based lifestyle.
There was a lot of growth when I was in corporate life.
It was centered on certain goals, mainly on success and what I wanted to be.
Here at agrarian-based lifestyle, there's a lot of growth centered around the principle
of selflessness.
What am I doing for others, what am I doing for the land, for the animals, for the people?
I definitely do not regret the decision of changing jobs, changing lifestyle.
In one sense, of course, from a practical work point of view, you can say I'm not an
engineer anymore, but at the same time, there's so many opportunities for innovation and development.
Right now, we are developing a bio-digester for the farm to create alternative energy
source.
At some point, we got the farm certified organic, so all our pasture land, all our hairland
is all certified organic.
I feel so, so satisfied, I feel I got more than I deserved by embracing this lifestyle.
I feel unworthy sometimes of what I get every day, wonderful, fresh, clean air, great organic
food from our own land, fresh, rich, tasty dairy from the cows, a community that I feel
so committed to, that is so authentic, and I can be myself every day with and grow and
feel kindness and so much love.
I feel very, very fulfilled and satisfied that somehow I am able to play some insignificant
role in such a message.
It's a very important message, and it is the future that communities, as things do not
function as people want, whether it's the information technology or things that we're
so dependent on, the schooling systems, whatever, as those are not proving to do what people
think they would do for them, would eventually look to a simplified lifestyle.
Shreya Prabhupada had written a prophecy for Gaten Agha in 1956, way before he had even
come to the US, how he wanted this vision of simple living, high thinking, to become
manifest, just as the city preachers out there, they go and show off all the books, show off
what ideal lifestyle would be, how one needs to dovetail all the activities in the service
of the Lord.
Yet at the same time, people may ask, where is this ideal lifestyle, which may be very,
very difficult to practice in the cities.
But in this way, Prabhupada encouraged and wanted farm communities, so that if people
ask, where is this ideal lifestyle, then people can be a director and be shown.
I think living with contentment of a simple life, at the same time being very responsible,
informed, knowledgeable, and practical, is success.
And not having a negative impact on Gaten Agha is definitely success.
So I'm also seeing what the true measures of success are.
Is it a bottom line in the cooperation versus, you know, ethical living?
Because I think this is real success.
