NEW VRINDABAN, W.Va. -- At the end of four unremarkable miles of winding back roads in the hills of West Virginia's northern panhandle, a gilded dome emerges from the treetops.
The sight seems at odds with its remote location, but it's not hard to imagine how the Palace of Gold, the centerpiece of this Hare Krishna farm community about 70 miles southwest of Pittsburgh, has drawn scores of visitors since it opened in 1979.
Over the years, the steps leading up to the edifice have crumbled, while red paint faded to pink and chipped off the ornate wall surrounding it. The award-winning rose garden withered, and the stately gold-leafed chattras, a traditional Indian structure built at each corner, turned a muddy rust color.
Alongside that slow decline, its disciples went through one of their own, losing hundreds of members amid a decade of scandal. But twice in the past five years, community leaders have elected to enter into leases with a pair of natural gas companies to drill on the land surrounding New Vrindaban. The signing bonuses alone have brought in millions that the community is using to restore its buildings and its reputation.
Community president Jaya Krsna das came to New Vrindaban in 2011, after seven years as an administrator at a Krishna college in Belgium. Born in the Swiss Alps as Josef Imseng, he had worked in business for years -- most recently at a software company -- all while he and his wife struggled as "unhappy Catholics." He joined the Krishna movement in 2003 after the deaths of his wife and son.
In New Vrindaban, he found a community with "big potential" but in need of "rejuvenation."
COLLAPSE OF A COMMUNITY
Founded in 1968, New Vrindaban was once the largest Hare Krishna community in the United States with some 700 disciples and fundraising parties bringing in millions. In the 1970s, members from this community and across the country famously chanted on streets and in airports, donning saffron robes and handing out spiritual texts. Even two decades later, smaller groups performed the call-and-response kirtan at the University of Pittsburgh.
The community began to collapse amid power struggles following the death of the movement's founder, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Allegations of murder and child abuse followed in the 1980s, leading to the conviction of New Vrindaban's co-founder on federal racketeering charges. That spiritual leader, Swami Bhaktipada, who was excommunicated from the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, died in 2011. For years, New Vrindaban, too, was removed from the officially sanctioned list of Krishna temples and communities.
Krsna das refers to those times as "the troubles."
"When you have a religious movement, you have a charismatic person, and when he leaves, it's difficult to fill the gap," he said, referring to Srila Prabhupada's death. "All these young people were left alone without a father figure."
Krsna das uses words like "department heads" and "management structure" in describing his leadership style at New Vrindaban. On the same Macbook he uses to surf German-language news, he has built a PowerPoint presentation that outlines his six-point vision for the collective, called "Transformation of a Spiritual Community."
Analysis, change, transition, stabilization, deepening relationships and strong community spirit and unity are to be completed by 2018 for the community's 50th anniversary, and his tentative departure. Krsna das intends to leave all of his jobs after seven years and believes Krishna might have another project in mind for him back in his native Europe in three years.
Even though he brings stability to a role that he said had been a revolving door for years, some members resisted his approach. Some left; others were fired and replaced by newcomers, including several young people from as far away as Mexico, Europe and the African island nation of Mauritius.
"We're investing in our young people," he said.
One example he cited: The community paid for an online hospitality class for its youngest department head, a 24-year-old who oversees accommodations.
"They are our future," Krsna das said.
WORK AND WORSHIP
New Vrindaban's membership today numbers about 200. Twenty-three live in the ashram, or monastery; 39 rent apartments down the hill from the temple, and the rest own houses elsewhere in Marshall County, some along the road leading up to the community.
Some members have jobs at the local mall, university or post office, while others work at New Vrindaban cleaning, landscaping, organizing events -- including its popular Festival of Colors in the fall -- or threading fresh flowers for garlands used to adorn the deities from the community's $35,000-a-year flower budget. All are expected to refrain from eating meat, gambling, alcohol, smoking, drugs and extramarital sex.
The first service at New Vrindaban begins at 5 a.m. each day in the temple, a bland building on the exterior with intricate, brightly colored likenesses of Krishna and a lifelike effigy of Srila Prabhupada inside. The disciples worship Krishna in the male form and the female, which is called "expansion." The curtain opens to reveal the deities.
A devotee wearing the traditional robe near the altar waves incense while another leads the others in chanting the Hare Krishna mantra. Rooted in Hinduism, the Krishna movement affirms that the ultimate goal for all living beings is to "reawaken their love for God, or Lord Krishna, the 'all-attractive one.'"
Fifteen people are tasked with "taking care of the Lord," which includes dressing the deities in his likeness twice daily and placing strings of flowers around their necks. More than 200 elaborate costumes are stored in a room behind the temple. Krishna has his own kitchen, too, where a deity cook prepares six daily offerings. She must shower before entering and wear only freshly washed clothes. Like at every holy place at New Vrindaban, she must remove her shoes.
A home school co-op at the community started in 2006. One morning in November, Brinda Turner, the oldest of five students enrolled, was studying pre-algebra at a desk near the window of the colorful classroom, where class starts at 9:30 a.m. with chanting Hare Krishna and reading from the holy texts. The affable 12-year-old, whose favorite subject is art, said she was born at New Vrindaban.
"I wouldn't know what [life] would be like otherwise," Brinda said.
LUCRATIVE DEALS
On a recent weekday morning, a log truck pulled into a gravel lot off the road just outside New Vrindaban with one of 15 loads of wood. A gift from Southwestern Energy, an oil and gas company drilling nearby, it will likely be enough to provide heat and warm water at the temple for two or three years.
In the spring, Southwestern paved the road leading to the community, easing travel for trucks hauling heavy equipment and devotees making runs into town. Joe Rickman, the log truck driver, grew up in nearby Moundsville and remembered how perilous it had been before.
"It would have swallowed that truck right there, and that ain't exaggerating," the 45-year-old said, pointing to the truck belonging to Burns Drilling and Excavating, a Southwestern subcontractor based across the state line in Pennsylvania's Greene County.
The community has netted $4.3 million in gas money alone from signing leases with Fossil Energy Ohio in 2014 and with AB Resources, which was later acquired by Chevron, in 2010. They've spent $2.9 million so far on improvement projects around the community, including at the Palace of Gold.
The palace was intended as a residence for Srila Prabhupada, founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, during his visits to the farm community and potentially as a final retirement destination for him. After his death in 1977, the leaders instead dedicated it as a memorial to him.
Disciples with little to no formal construction skills erected the 52,000-square-foot structure, teaching themselves to pour concrete, cut and polish marble and create stained glass panels for the windows. While the inside remains nearly immaculate, poor craftsmanship underlays part of the outside construction because devotees didn't properly mix some materials in places.
So far, painters have restored one of the chattras to its former brilliance, and workers were continuing to repair the crumbling steps. The roof and domes are set for upgrades this year, followed by other improvements through 2022. More than two dozen capital projects have been completed or are in the works.
Work has begun on the first of a set of apartment buildings for devotees. Once completed, it will be the first new structure at New Vrindaban since the 1990s.
Bhagavan Bauer, 38, is a member of the construction crew whose recent projects have included repainting the monastery and repairing the palace steps. Born at New Vrindaban, he left the community but returned with his two boys, 10 and 12, and is writing a book about the Krishna movement. Like others, he had some reservations about the promise of future drilling in the area, but trusted in the community leaders.
"They really took the effort to negotiate a contract that talked about environmental issues. It wasn't just about the money."
Religion on 01/02/2016