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Before we discuss the proposed project, what it is, and why
it is needed, etc., let me direct your attention to 2 buttons on
the right. We use a lot of Sanskrit language words and phrases
(such as Bharat-Varsha, Dham, VarnaAshram, Dharma, etc.) see the
Word Def button for definitions of many of these words and
phrases. Also, there is another button Urgency, which
explains the Urgency we must all have to see that these sort of
villages are established. Please read it.
New Bharat Varsh Dham. Here is a brief outline of my
proposal. This is all in the idea stages.
First, let me discuss the background. My spiritual master
long ago requested that we, his followers, make many such
villages all over the world. In the 1970's he had
predicted that at some point life will turn to chaos in the
cities and become so hellish that people will come by the
millions to our farms to seek shelter. And, in America a
number of farming communities were started, and while our
spiritual master was physically present the farms slowly built
up. But, most of our members were still involved with the
temples in the cities. And then, in November of 1977, our
spiritual master, AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupad physically
passed from this world. Following this so many conflicts
arose. Most of the farm communities floundered and the
momentum was lost.
My self personally, the project I was working on took me into
the mid 1980's and then funding for that dried up. I have
been, since youth, sensitive to air pollution, and in the late
1980's could no longer live in Los Angeles, as my upper
respiratory system had become badly inflamed. I wound up
moving to the mountains of Northern Calif and for 4 1/2 years
lived, just my wife and I, far away from any other Krsna
devotees. At that time, late 1980's to early 1990's I very
much wanted to start a community there, but, we were totally on
our own, and without funding. We tried to purchase a 375
acre land, but, could not swing it. At that time many of
our long established farms were in financial trouble and members
were not able to make a living and were leaving them. But,
there was one community in the country side in Florida that was
attracting many members. In 1993 we wound up moving there
and lived there for nearly 10 years.
But, I was disappointed. Although the temple property had
125 acres, it was zoned such that only 7 families could live
there. So, everyone had to buy their own houses with their
own land in the area. Eventually 100's of families
moved there, and today over 500 families live there.
But, the main disappointment for me was that there was no effort
by the members to make it a self-sufficient community. A
few members took up farming, but, no real cottage industry, and
even though there were 100's of families, it was not at all a
functioning village. Personally I bought 3
acres, one neighbor had 10, another had 3. But, we were
not farmers. And, my land was full of trees. One
year, though, we did plant squash and earned income from
selling. But, not enough to pay our bills. And, that
was what i observed, by having to each get our own property,
build our own houses, we were stuck in the same mold as
everyone else, meaning we had to earn the same as everyone else
to pay for everything. This meant we were still 100%
totally a part of the outside economy. It wasn't possible
to unplug. We were stuck with all the same bills, and so
we were forced to work the same outside jobs and there went all
our time - we weren't able to devotee any time toward on-going
development of make a real functioning self-sufficient
community.
After 10 years and not seeing any progress, I left that
community with the hope of starting my own temple. One thing i
gained was insight as to what was needed. I have been an
electronics engineer and a software computer programmer and
analyst for years. Even as a teen my friends nicknamed me
the philosopher because i was very contemplative, not saying
much, just observing, and then after observing a situation and
analyzing it, speak my conclusions, and often everyone would
agree. So, i have always had that ability. And, this
is something i have been thinking on for nearly 20 years, how to
make such a community that can actually be self-sufficient, how
to make it work, and how to set it up.
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| Rishikesh |
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| Haridwar |
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I have just moved here to Albuquerque to try and start
something, but, this is not a new thing for me.
It is something I have been working hard at, if only in ideas
and planning, for 20 years. I have seen and analyzed the
short comings of a number of other attempts and I have resolved
those issues, at least, on paper.
One thing I observed was that there were a large number of
people who 'want' to live in such a cottage industry based
village. And, there are those who like farming, who like
to work with their hands and make their living by making the
goods of a cottage industry. But, no one can do so on
their own.
Another problem I observed was the economic basis for the
community. That, in the ideal end, a self-sufficient
village will be able to fully sustain itself without any outside
trade and without any reliance on the current Fed Reserve
monetary system. I am not saying that trading with other
communities outside is unwanted, but, the definition of a
self-sufficient village means a village that 'can' sustain it's
people entirely on it's own. Meaning food, clothing,
household goods needed for living is all produced by the
villagers themselves. Within that village, between the
inhabitants, Fed Reserve money is not used or needed.
When, not if, when there is a total collapse of the
Dollar-industrial based economy, that is exactly what such a
village and it's inhabitant will need to do. But, the
problem is that while setting up such a village the inhabitants
still must live by the economies of the current society.
Fed Reserve money is needed to purchase the land and build the
village, and until the inhabitants are able to grow and make all
food and items needed, they will still need to buy many things,
and will need to still function within the modern economy while
setting up it's own, entirely independent, economy.
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Vrndaban |
A solution I came up with was to set up the village in stages,
slowly developing it, first, as a resort - theme-park
attraction, where the theme park itself will be educating people
about the village, it's concept, purpose and goal, and about
spiritual life, God, and His many incarnations, . The
resort/theme park will bring in income, and that income will be
used to build up the village's self-sustaining infrastructure
and economy as well.
This is what the New Bharat-Varsh Dham is all about. It's
layout and buildings and temple will serve to become the core of
the village itself.
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Krsna Lila |
The plan is to obtain at least 2000 or more acres in total.
The larger areas of the land will be for farming and cow grazing
and where the residents will live, as some residents will live
in the farming land itself. 100 or more acres will
be set aside for the New Bharat Dham park. This park, or
the actual village itself, will contain many functioning temples
and ashrams each temple will depict a different holy place.
There will be the Haridwar and Rishikesh ashrams,
and the Mathura and Vrndaban temples, as well as Ayodhya
temple. To the West - Dwarka and Goy, to the East - Mayapur and
Jagannath Puri, in the middle places like Varnasi, and Tirupathi,
Ramesvaram Sri Lanka, etc. Not all can be large temples,
some will be like shrines, and others ashrams. Each depicting
that holy place. Each temple will have an exhibit or
presentation that explains Krishna's pastimes in that place, or
the significance of that holy place. Many people want to
go to India and travel to all the Holy places, and here we
will have all the many holy places in one location.
There will be plays and dances and constant
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| Ayodhya |
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festivals at various centers that will serve as cultural
presentations - entertainment, as well as educational and
informative about the culture and the teachings of the Vedic
sciences.
There will also be yoga ashrams and Ayurvedic clinics, so that
people will come for a variety of reasons. There will be
various overnight accommodations so that it will be a resort
destination. There will be facilities for those with
greater income, to more humble settings, to even tent sites and
various types of ashrams, including ashrams where one can earn
one's stay by doing various work at the center/village.
There will also be a University campus in the city teaching all
sorts of topics, such as teaching the various varnas,
Vaishnav-brahmincal study of scripture, Ayurvedic medicine and
natural healing and herbology, as well as to military arts and
the science of producing well trained administrative government
leaders, to business and agriculture, including self-sustaining
farming, and the arts and crafts, the cottage industries.
This way the center will serve as a model for others similar
villages to be built.
There will also be apartments flats and separate modest housing
for majority of permanent residents of the village. Those
residents will work and live full time, some as priests of the
temples, others as tour guides, teachers, but, there will
be many occupations, as it will be a functioning village.
Many of the residents will be artisans and craftsmen. They
will be engaged in making hand made household items, furniture,
etc. Black smiths as well silver and gold. Their workshops
will be part of the tour.
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Mayapur |
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Varnasi |
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Ramesvaram |
At the village there will be a large bazzar or market place,
with many shops. In that market place all the hand made
crafts and goods will be for sale. Hand crafted
furnishing, metal work, jewelry, household items, clothing.
The sales of these items will help give Fed Reserve based income
needed to help the community survive in the current economy,
while the craftsmen who are needed to make a village
self-sustainable get established. Within the community,
among it's members, most transactions will be via bartering with
the direct exchange of commodity goods, and the village will
mint it's own precious metal coins, used only between village
members. Thus, they will establish a village economy that
is no longer dependent on the Fed Reserve fiat money, yet will
be within the current economy as well. It will allow the
village to offer facility, a place to live, and income to live,
to the artisans and craftsmen who make the very cottage industry
goods that the village residents also need to live and will
especially need when the collapse of the Fed Reserve monetary
system and modern industry.
The entire village will take in Fed Reserve money from the
visitors and guests who come now, in it's forming years, while
building it's self-sustaining foudation. Fed Reserve
income will be in the form of sales of accommodation rooms, to
restaurants selling lunches and dinners, to the sales of all the
cottage industry goods, as well as the organic vegetables sold
in the market place and grown on the land. Brahmans will be
maintained by performance of ceremonies, donations and teaching
at the University.
Administrative offices will be needed and these will become the
governmental offices of the village. Even though county,
state and Federal taxes will need to be paid by the community
and it's members, the village administration will also collect a
percentage from all the sales in market, hotels, etc. This
money will be used to pay for those who work in administration
and run the village (all large theme parks do this, they charge
a set fee or percentage of profits from all the venders as
income source for the administration - the only difference here
is that this will become the foundation for the village's own
government in the future). The village
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will have it's own community laws, and need to train it's own
village security team. Over time, following a plan of
development, it will become a fully incorporated and functioning
township, but with the unique goal of becoming a self-sufficient
community that lives in harmony with mother earth, where
spiritual life is the center and goal of the community, as
opposed to raw sense-enjoyment and industrial based economic
development.
The Benefits For
Major Financial Donors:
Spiritual Benefits:
What will be the benefit for those who can contribute
significantly toward this project? The greatest
benefits are those that last eternally, the spiritual benefits.
This project is the desire and will of His Divine Grace A. C.
Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupad, Founder-Acharya of ISKCON.
He is the bona-fide direct representative, Transparent
Via-Media, of the Supreme Personality of Godhead for our age.
To render service to such a pure devotee and great acharya sows
eternal spiritual benefit that cannot be defined in monetary
terms. The spiritual rewards are immeasurably greater then any
other benefit.
How does one please Krsna, God? What can you give to God
what He doesn't already have? Yet there is one thing we
posses that even God may not have. What is that?
Your love and devotion. These are things that you can keep
from God and deny Him, or give Him. You can give God your
love and devotion via worship of the Deity in the temple, or in
so many ways. But, it is like trying to please any wealthy
man in this world. Say you get a chance to visit a very
wealth man. What gift could you possibly take him that he does
not already have in greater quality then you can afford?
But, if he has one small child, or even a favorite pet, like a
dog, if you bring some simple toy or treat for the child
or the pet, they can be made so happy with just a simple cheap
toy or treat. On doing this, the wealthy man will be so
happy that you have made their child or pet happy. The
point is, we are limited in what we can offer God, but, He sends
His authorized representatives and we can then directly render
service unto them. By helping to fund such a project as
this it will immensely please Srila Prabhupad, who very much
wanted these projects, and thus it serves as the most direct way
one can please the Supreme Godhead. Srila Prabhupad had told us
on his dying bed in 1977 that 1/2 of his work was complete.
That half was the building of the temples and establishing Krsna
Consciousness all over the world, establishing the temples and
translating the scriptures. The other half, the unfinished
half, he said was the building of these self-sufficient
VarnAshram-Dharma based villages. That work, he said, he was
leaving to us, his followers, to complete. To
help fund such projects will very much make one very dear to
Srila Prabhupad, and very dear directly to Krsna, the Supreme
Personality of Godhead.
Material Benefits:
Yet, I have also incorporated means that one can benefit
materially as well. The material benefits can be achieved
in one of two (or possibly both) ways.
Shelter From the Storm:
A main reason we want to build such self-sufficient villages is
explained in the
Urgency
section. As we said there, our current monetary system, the
Federal Reserve Dollars, as well as the current system of most
all countries today, is a Fiat, or fake money system. It is not
based on anything of real value. Currently our money is
not backed by gold or any other substance of any value.
The majority of today's money exists only in the form of
ethereal digital data bits stored in the computers of the
banking industry. Such digital or electronic money has
absolutely no intrinsic value at all. 0 - no value. It
only has value as long as we, the people, give it value. As long
as stores accept it, then we can exchange it for goods, and we
also accept it for the work we perform. But, that can
change virtually over night. When a Fiat monetary system
collapses, it can collapse completely, and can do so in just
days.
These self-sufficient villages are meant to serve as oasis, as
shelters from the storm, where they can provide the residents
with food, clothing, shelter, and a stable way of life, while
the cities basically burn and become unlivable war zones.
These villages will then serve as working models and give help
and guidance for others to set up similar communities. For
those who can donate significantly toward this project, they
will be given not only a place to live, but, the village will be
indebted to them for helping to make the village reality.
You see, there are many people who like to farm and live simple
and in harmony with nature. Who want to make an honest living
with their hands via making cottage industry based crafts.
But, in this mass produced mechanized industry, it is difficult
at best for some, and impossible for most to earn a living this
way. They want to live in such a village, but are
powerless to do anything. But, those who have some wealth,
if they can donate toward this significantly and make this a
reality for those who cannot afford it, naturally the craftsmen,
farmers, etc., will be life long indebted and grateful.
And, to help give security, certain aspects can be written in
contractual form. But, those who give substantially will
be assured of a comfortable place to live, food and necessities
when the storm does come.
Imagine, even if one has so much wealth today, when the economy
collapses that wealth will become as worthless as meaningless
1's and 0's on a hard drive on a bank's computers. When stores
no longer accept such worthless money, due to a total melt down
of the modern banking system, then all the digital data money in
the world will not buy you a glass of water. When, not IF,
but WHEN this occurs (as history has proven all fiat money
systems collapse sooner or later, and right now our current
system is at the very edge of collapse) what will your
retirement accounts and plans do for you? Stocks will be
worthless as most companies will close. What will 100,000
buy if a gallon of milk is 4,000 or 40,000? Or worse, if
no one accepts it any more at all? How will a big house in
a gated community protect you when tanks are patrolling the
streets and rioting and street gangs are everywhere? When there
isn't any food in the stores, no gas at the stations and Army or
UN trucks deliver rations of food and you have to stand in the
same long food lines as the homeless family on the other side of
town? Food shortage is a whole other issue.
Right now the chemical based large corporate farming in the US
has stressed out the land and food production per acre has long
ago reached it's peak. A large percentage of US food is now
imported, grown in South America. Intimes of complete economic,
social, political and military chaos and turmoil with the
monetary system collapsing, the stock market collapsing, how is
food going to be delivered on time 1,000's of miles away?
Food is now mostly produced by large corporations with so much
chemical sprays, and depends on gasoline to power the machinery
and big industry to process and deliver the food. Imagine
if rioting and turmoil stops the delivery of gas for a few
weeks, crops can't be harvested, there could be
massive and severe food shortages that the US Army and UN just
don't have the food to feed everyone.
Thus, one benefit to those who can help us, now, finance and
fund such a community is that it is the best investment you can
make for your and your families security and well being.
The village will provide you with a place to live, and food,
shelter, and a loving community who will be indebted to those
who helped them make this a reality.
But, What IF those horrible and worse scenarios do not unfold?
What IF the bail out works and the credit markets, the banks,
corporations all go on to flourish in an up-beat economy?
What if there isn't a total collapse, may be just a recession,
or a depression for a few years. What monetary benefit
could we offer for those who invest in such a things as making a
self-sufficient village?
That, I have also considered. And, again, the New Bharat
Varsh Dham is the solution. That is why I propose to set this up
as a type of theme park. A resort and tourist attraction.
A little India theme park. But, as India is itself a spiritual
holy dham, the park will be a spiritual theme park.
Yoga, Ayurveda, temples, religious celebrations, Krsna Prasad
sanctified food, Ratha Yatras, religious dances, it is all a
part of India. The theme park will not be about present
day India, but India's ancient heritage, Vedic scripture and
culture. It will attract many in the West who look to the
East for spiritual guidance and insight. It will be a cultural
theme park. But, a theme park that will collect income.
The idea is that the actual village will not be set up as a
non-profit, rather it will be incorporated as a for profit
business. The temples and ashrams will be separately
incorporated as non-profits. They will not be taxed or
charged any fees, nor will the brahmans, priest or teachers, but
the market place vendors, the merchants (Vaishyas) will be.
Part of those funds go to administrative overhead, the rest of
that income will be set aside as payments to those who invested
in this as a profit making investment.
Contributors can choose to donate to to the building of the
temples and ashrams as a straight non-profit tax deductable
donation, or to invest in the for-profit aspects of funding the
village infrastructure, the accommodations, the market place,
etc.
Those who invest - as a for profit investment - will be paid
back out of the collected merchandise and accommodation fees,
University class fees, etc. However, to keep the spirit of
the entire project, profits will be capped. That is,
once an investor recoups the full amount they invested, they
will be paid additional profits up to a preset limit. Once
that limit is paid to them, then they will retain a much smaller
dividend of the profits. The rest of the income would now
be used to further expand or enhance the village itself.
For those who want to purchase a home, flat or villa outright,
those facilities will be made as part of the village and be
sold, with the profits used to build the community.
The building of the community will be built, as much as
possible, by those who eventually want to become residents of
the village.
Currently all of this is just my own idea. I am in the
networking phase of trying to find interest in this undertaking.
We need volunteers to help push the awareness and fund raising.
We need to start collecting names of those who want to become
residents, how they see themselves fitting in, as craftsmen,
farmers, artisans, teachers, administrators, fund raisers, etc.
Email us, even if you just have a far off desire to be involved
at a later date. Help us at least build up a database of
people along with your talents and were you want or see yourself
contributing or fitting in.
---- ended here, posted online so that i have something up
there, but this is a work in-progress and no where
complete.
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Urgency In Implementing
The Self-Sufficient Villages |
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I am writing this just after the 700
Billion $ bailout bill was passed. There are some
of us who caught wind of just how serious all this is,
and there are many who have taken the events of the past
few weeks as just another bump in the road. It is
not just a bump in the road, it is a warning that the
bridge ahead is gone, and if we keep driving down the
road we are on, we are going to go over a fatal edge.
If I have sounded like an alarmist, it is because that
is what I am trying to do, sound a Wake Up Alarm.
I realize there have been religious/spiritual seers and
quacks alike who have sounded the doomsday alarm for the
past 100 years. But, what has made the past 2
weeks different is that mainstream media has always
viewed such alarmists as misguided fanatics. This
time, if you paid attention carefully and caught the
right reports, you would have seen that it is
mainstream media and our Senators as well as
leading economists who are the ones saying that we are
standing on the edge of doomsday.
I caught some interesting talk radio shows where two US
Senators were being interviewed on separate days, and
they both spoke of a coming economic collapse that will
be at least equal - at very best, but most likely far
worse then that of the 1930's. The talk show radio
host said that he had spoken with people who knew the
President personally, and the President was speaking of
this being The Armageddon.
They were speaking of a complete collapse of the US
Dollar, and with it a complete collapse of not just the
US economy, but wide-spread economic (and political, and
military) chaos. The entire banking and industrial
machine coming to a halt. As I write this, the
credit markets are still frozen. The State of
California only has weeks left. They have not been
able to obtain bank loans, and without those loans they
will not have the funds to pay state employees.
State police, state hospitals, universities, all would
close. And, what about cities and counties?
I just read a report last night that someone in a county
in the state of Washington leaked out that the county
has been holding very secret finance meetings, -
there are being held secretly because the county board
members do not know what to do, and do not want there to
be a wide spread panic. They are meeting secretly to
come up with a solution, if there is one, before the
public finds out. So, what is the problem?
The county had invested heavily into other bonds which
were heavily invested in what is now toxic mortgages
that have gone into default. The county has lost
over 200 million dollars, which is nearly it's whole
year's budget. And, they are not able to get any
loan. They are now operating in the red,
increasing the county's debt each day. They cannot
sustain many more days and are looking at a total shut
down of all county operations, that includes schools,
sheriffs, road work, etc. In such hard economic times,
how can they go to the tax payers and tell them that
this year they are going to have to pay their property
taxes 2 times, because we just lost all the tax
money you paid us? Can they turn to their
State and seek help? The same problem, everyone is
experience a severe credit and cash crunch. The
money is drying up. These are what we are hearing
of 1 state, 1 county. Will the 700 $ billion fix all
this, or will these counties, cities and states
need additional bailing out?
Many have stated that this 700 Billion may only, at
best, buy another year. It may not even do that,
as others are saying the melt down is too far along.
What will it mean if there is a total melt down, a total
collapse of the financial system? It will mean
that most business will close. Most people will be
without work. For some time goods and services
will dry up. The Dollar will become totally
useless, as it collapses. $4 for a gallon of gas,
$4 for a gallon of milk, it is a REAL and
virtually very Likely possibility that the Dollar could
drop by 1,000 times in a matter of days. That $4
gallon of milk or gas will now be $4,000 !!!!.
Even if you have $40,000 in the bank, all
you could do is put 10 gallons in your tank, or buy 10
gallons of milk. After that, you will be just as
broke as the homeless guy on the street corner.
Because no one will have money, truckers won't be able
to afford gas, it can take weeks of total chaos and
turmoil for people to scramble to some other means of
pay. That would mean no food delivered to stores
for weeks. Basic services like water and
electricity may stop. There will be wide
spread rioting and gangs roaming the streets.
Obviously the National Guard will be called and martial
law declared. Martial law, with US
Army Combat troupes needed to patrol the city streets
with tanks and sophisticated weapons. The US wll plummet
in the matter of only DAYS into no better then Bagdad or
any other war torn 3rd world country.
Am I a fanatic alarmist who is way way off here?
NO, this is the picture many are saying we are standing
right on the edge of looking at. Did you know that
as of Oct 1st of this year the US Army's 3rd Infantry
Combat Division has been placed on standby alert, ready
to patrol US streets? This is a first in US history.
This is why President Bush told friends in private,
this could very well be The Armageddon.
These are the reasons why it is a dire URGENCY to get a
self-sufficient community together NOW. The only
way to survive such a calamity is to live in a community
which grows it's own food, makes its own clothes and
household goods. The only way to do this is to set
it up NOW, because once the dollar collapses
no one will have the money to do it. With tanks
patrolling the streets and Army soldiers delivering food
it will not be possibly for us to band together then and
make a self-sufficient community, we will be in a life
and death struggle just to breath for another day.
If there isn't enough food or water to deliver,
then what?
Am I taking all this too far? Won't the 700
Billion solve the problem? No way these things
could ever happen! WAKE UP,
Combat Infantry soldiers are right now on standby alert
to patrol our city streets with all their tanks,
helicopters, and sophisticated crowd control weaponry.
Sending US Army to patrol our city streets is against
the US Constitution, unless there is an insurrection
against the Federal Government. But, the report by the
Army Times website cited that the 3rd Infantry
Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team “Will be under the
day-to-day control of U.S. Army North, the Army service
component of Northern Command, as an on-call federal
response force for natural or manmade emergencies and
disasters, including terrorist attacks.” This is
unconstitutional to use US Army Combat soldiers to
police US streets simply due to a natural or manmade
emergency. But, the government leaders know that
when the dollar totally collapses and there are no jobs,
there is no money, there isn't even food, that the
people will riot and the National Guard is simply not
large enough on it's own to handle it.
We can't take this with our head in the sand. We
have to understand, this is a wake up call.
Our monetary system is called Fiat money, simply that
means FAKE or artificial, as it is no longer based on
gold. It is really not worth any more then the paper it
is printed on. Worse, most of it today only exists
as computer data - it has no real value.
Because it has no actual value of it's own, it can
totally collapse. And, EVERY fiat monetary system
in all of history has, at one time, collapsed.
And, the melt down talked about these past weeks has all
indications this could be it. And, at best the 700
Billion may just buy a little time.
We need to use that time to get ourselves set up and
prepared.
And, what IF the 700 billion pulls us out and the
economy doesn't collapse for the rest of our life time?
They village I am proposing is just as viable as a more
simple life is wanted. And those who invest in this,
either they will have a place to go to should the storm
come, should the collapse come, and if not, they
will get a return profit on their investment (That
is part of my plan for making the Bharat Varsh Dham...
for more on that aspect, go back to the main Village
article).
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