Reflections on the Mode of Goodness- Sattva Guna

As Vyasa Dasa mentions in the first podcast episode, there are many ways to offer foodstuffs to Krishna. However, offering fresh fruits and vegetables is most healthy and appetizing.

Think of how many places in the world experience the plight of hunger and many who live in communities are still without access to these fresh vegetables with the convenience cultures that have formed in so many urban settings.

Authors who write for social justice mention Latin America and Africa as being the major land masses where a lot of the foodstuffs we eat, popular food items are grown.

Think about how in these coffee, chocolate and avocado lands, it is more difficult to find food grown ethically and bought with a clear consciousness. For years there have been coops and initiatives to make the moves towards eating and consuiming ethically, but by and large those groups are often in critical condition to sustain their livelihood. Moreover, the diversity in leadership of the organizations is often from people who are outside of the society that they support. What comes to mind is that from a humanistic standpoint, racially, there is that emphasized imbalance of power, even now that the Black Lives Matter movement is being considered for a Nobel Peace Prize. Two examples of organizations that benefit from the poverty stricken market going class of people in the world is arguably Ten Thousand Villages and Starbucks. In other words these are organizations who make it seem that the growers benefit from their time and resources inversion. However, the top beneficiaries still remain the richest profitting of off the labor of many not even named and with high potential of being stereotyped as people with social liability. One urban grassroots solution is to adopt vertical gardening. It has been a hit since 2010 and probably before then too. In the United States, the city of Atlanta, GA has a botanical garden that showcases their vertical garden as a pride of the city. As for other urban solutions that have not gained momentum, in many neighbourhoods the idea of compost is one that seems good, but not sustainable due to the potential presence of rats and other critters. It is easier to think of exterminating a population that overbreeds than it is to see the mercy behind what potential there is to balance the ecosystem on a neighbourhood scale often. So, the question becomes, now that your family is somewhat organized, during this Pandemic, do you place your neighbourhood as what needs community organizing next, or is it the educational institutions? Gladened you have joined us today. As Pete Seeger sang, ʻround may the world go.ʻ