Surya Nagar Farm Hawaii is located in Kaimu/Kalapana in the Puna District of the Big Island (also known as the Island of Hawaii). We are located near the coast, 300 feet above the ocean, and from one end of the property whales are sometimes visible. We are also very close to the most active volcano in the world, Kileua. The night sky is often lit by the volcano.

The Big Island is diverse. It has two 14,000 foot high mountains, desert areas with less than 5 inches of rain per year, rainforests with up to 400 inches of rain per year, the largest cattle ranch in the US, and a beautiful and rugged coastline. The big island is BIG - all the rest of the Hawaiian Islands could fit within the big island with room to spare. The Big island is also less densely populated than many of the other Hawaii Islands - less than 150,000 people live here. By contrast, Oahu, (the island where Honolulu is located) has more than 800,000 residents.

Nearby, there are naturally occurring warm ponds, where you can sit at the edge of the sea in volcanically heated water. There are black sand beaches, where you can occasionally swim with whales and dolphins. The Red Road hugs the spectacular rugged coastline from Kalapana to Kopoho. For 15 miles there is almost no development, and it is possible to camp along here for free. Many people live off-grid, utilizing solar energy to generate electricity and heat water. The volcanic soil is rocky but fertile.

Kalapana has an excellent climate, generally getting enough rain but not too much. Since ancient Hawaiian times, Kalapana has been famous for coconuts. Many tropical fruits grow abundantly here including mangoes, payas, bananas, avocados, jakfruit, durian, rambutan, and many others too numerous to mention. Tropical medicinal plants like noni, ginger, tumeric and ava (Kava) also grow abundantly here.


The population of Puna is made up of people of Native hawaiin desent (the Hawaiin Soverienty movement is active here), refugees from the 1960's (Pahoa often looks like the parking lot of a Grateful Dead concert), and newcomers escaping the high cost of land on other islands like Maui.

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Surya Nagar Farm Iowa is located in southeast Iowa in the town of Fairfield. The farm currently consists of an earth plastered straw bale building, orchard, annual and perenial vegetable gardens, solar electric and wind power, roof water catchment, Jenks-type composting toilet, greenhouses, and aquaculture pond.

This years projects include 300,000 gallon pond, commercial greenhouse with straw bale end walls, vermicomposting, planting 150-200 trees, vines, and berry bushes, solar water pumping, and cider pressing. We are at the point where we grow 90-100 percent of our own vegetables with some left over to sell or trade or give away to friends and visitors.

Internships involve working on any number of projects from renewable energy, organic gardenng and orcharding, and building with natural materials like straw, clay, and earth. Internships also involve formal and informal classes on each of these topics. Surya Nagar Farm has an extensive library, computers, and Internet access. Interns also have access to an excellent public library and the library of Maharishi University of Management within biking distance. We have some room inside, but most interns camp in a tent. Internships are available from April through October. Interns are asked to work 20 hours per week (4 hours 5 days a week) in exchage for food, simple camping facilites, and lots of practical and theoretical knowledge about sustainable living. All the homes in the immediate neighboorhood of Surya Nagar are also solar and wind powered.

Fairfield is a town of 10,000, home to Maharishi University of Management, and headquarters of the transcendental meditation program for the United States. Several thousand people meditate together twice a day, many gathering morning and evening in two huge golden domes built for this purpose twenty years ago. This gives Fairfield a much different flavor than most small southeast Iowa towns. We have 10 vegetarian restaurants, a truly awesome health food store, a movie theatre, 3 theatre companies, several dance troupes, regular classical Indian music concerts, and a multicutural atmosphere from the people from over 40 countries who live, work, and study in Fairfield.

In addition to the transcendental meditation and TM siddhis programs, there is a wide range of spiritual disciplines available in Fairfield. Opportunities abound to take a yoga class, learn Sanskrit, participate in Vedic ceremonies, see traveling saints, and participate in Native American rituals. Maharishi University of Management offers a wide range of traditional academic programs (physics, electrical engineering, computer science, sustainable agriculture, biology, the arts, music, english literature, psychology, etc) in addition to unique programs in Vedic Science including Ayurved, Jyotish, Stapatya Ved and vedic literature.

Fairfield is also a hot bed for experimentation and use of natural building materials and renewable energy. There are 40 or so solar and wind powered off-the-grid homes, one the highest concentrations in the US. There are dozens of homes constructed of a wide range of of natural materials- straw, clay, rammed earth, and wood chip/concrete block.

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