Bhaktivedanta Manor, European headquarters for the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, is a model community that exemplifies the principle of plain living and high thinking. Krsna consciousness, or God consciousness, is the center of all activity at Bhaktivedanta Manor. Despite its tranquility, however, the Manor is a challenge to the destructive thrust of modern civilization, for it offers a spiritual vantage point from which to see clearly the inconsistencies of modern human society.
His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada often speaks of the imbalance caused by today's artificial civilization. He writes in his Srimad-Bhagavatam purports, "It is understood that in the past people depended on nature's gifts of fruits and flowers without industrial enterprises promoting filthy slums for residential quarters. Advancement of civilization is not established on the growth of mills and factories to deteriorate the finer instincts of the human being; it rests on developing the potent spiritual instincts of humanity."
Bhaktivedanta Manor is dedicated to this essential spiritual development. Our beautiful estate, with its Tudor buildings, fertile gardens and orchards, dairy cows, lakes, paths, footbridges and greenhouses, could provide an ideal home or business opportunity for a materialist. But our spiritual master, following the Vedic injunction that everything in truth belongs to God, has sanctified the Manor- Krsna-ized it-by dedicating it to the service of the Supreme Lord, Sri Krsna. By pleasing Krsna, one can bring pleasure to the entire world. Therefore every square inch of Bhaktivedanta Manor is dedicated to the service of Krsna.
At Bhaktivedanta Manor, therefore, and in centers around the world, the Krsna conscious devotees are living spiritually purified lives, guided by the ideas presented here in Back to Godhead. We therefore take great pleasure in offering you this transcendental journal of Krsna conscious philosophy and inviting you to our international centers to see how this philosophy actually works.