About Us
Gita Nagari Yoga Farm
Simple Living, High Thinking
Set in the scenic Tuscarora Valley, framed by mountain ridges, boundaried by the Tuscarora Creek on the east side, inhabited by melodious birds and other creatures, home to 9 joyful volunteers, 19 peaceful cows/oxen, and a carefree flock of about 40 peacocks, Gita Nagari Organic Farm of 350 acres of rolling green hay fields, pastures and diverse woods engages in compassionate farming, above all its other activities.
We are a small community set in cozy rural Port Royal, PA with a singular aim of integrating our existence based on the principles of love, care and respect for all living beings. Spirituality, Sustainability and Community Care form the basis of our activities.
Intentional Community
The community residing at Gita Nagari Farm is an intentional community, which Wikipedia defines as:
“a planned residential community designed to have a much higher degree of teamwork than other communities. The members of an intentional community typically hold a common social, political, religious, or spiritual vision and are often part of the alternative society. They typically also share responsibilities and resources. Intentional communities include cohousing communities, residential land trusts, ecovillages, communes, survivalist retreats, kibbutzim, ashrams and housing cooperatives. Typically, new members of an intentional community are selected by the community’s existing membership, rather than by real-estate agents or land owners (if the land is not owned collectively by the community)”.
Spiritual Vision
The spiritual vision held by the residents is of understanding our identity as spirit souls and being engaged in a loving relationship with the Divine. The expression of this understanding translates into unconditional and uninterrupted service unmixed with any material or exploitative tendency. Understanding that the spirit soul is the basis of life, allows us to extend this mood of service to all residents – trees, animals, birds and people! Non identification with the bodily/temporary/material designations, allows the community to over come barriers of race, color, creed, age, etc and work synergistically in a mood of service. Non-violence and peace are natural by-products of such a world view.
Bhakti Yoga
The residents of Gita Nagari relate to God through loving devotional service. They practice bhakti yoga – the yoga of love and devotion. They utlise their abilities, intelligence, talents in service to the Supreme Lord, and in this way they are able to serve each other and the needs of a farm community.
Growing our own Food
A key principle of self sufficiency is to grow one’s own food. At Gita Nagari Yoga Farm we cultivated an acre last year (2009) and harvested an abundant crop. The harvest was offered to the presiding deities Sri Sri Radha Damodara. This is an important principle for our community – to offer back with love to the source of everything. We had to supplement our harvests with other sources because we do not grow everything we eat…yet!
Being inspired from last year’s season, and due to requests for produce, we plan to cultivate 10 acres this year. Please join us in any manner that suits your schedule and interests, and experience the fulfilment that comes from working so closely with Mother Nature.
Organic Farming
At this point in time, 100 acres of the farm’s pasture is certified organic. We currently grow hay on this parcel of land. This season, we will start an organic vegetable garden on about 20 acres of this land and launch our first ever Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Program. We have now have 160 acres that are certified organic!
A typical day @ Gita Nagari Yoga Farm
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4:30 am to 8:00 am
Spiritual/Yoga practice
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8:30 am to 9:00 am
Breakfast
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9:00 am to 1:00 pm
Hit the fields/farm work
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1:00 pm to 2:00 pm
Lunch
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2:00 pm to 7:00 pm
Farm work
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8:00 pm to 8:30 pm
Dinner
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9:00 pm
Lunch