Hare Krishna all,
PAMHO
AGSP
I have seen ISKCON selling books, food, and now even maha mantra. The charges laid are not common they are always more than the market price. I am not in india and the place near to my workplace has govindas, they have meditating room and they charge to go into that room and meditate. My friend was asking me why these people charge a lot and why god needs money to spread his name. He is eternal and most powerful, I know he will be happy if we do something for him out of love. But ISKCON is making lot of money worldwide using the knowledge gained from scriptures, My humble question is where this money is going, why they are building these many temples and why creating these many groups.God dont need any representatives to spread his glories, his opulence can be seen in everthing in this material world and everybody knows about the supreme power.
ISKCON feeds and care for people who are good economically or who can do some service. They are running some schools and 'Food for life' but even for that they are getting extra money. Why dont spiritual leaders come into politics and serve public if they are really concerned about them. In even bhaktivedanta hospital they charge more than normal hospital. Just by reading scriptures and explaining philosophy will not solve problem. We should feed poor people prasadam, we should open educational institutes that dont charge anything and include philosophy as a subject. Krishna consiousness is not a procedure to wipe of all your past sins and simply go back to godhead. Krishna is in everyone and we should have concern for everybody. I feel many are becoming fanatic and thinking themselves as special chosen one but it is not we dont know our place in krishnas heart. Anyways I failed to answer my friend about the necessity of this much money . I humbly apologise if I am offensive, I should not have any doubt when I follow something.
Hari bol
Replies
Hare Krishna Askash Menon Prabhu, Please accept my humble obeisances! All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
for example, some times before i was a treasurer in our Temple. i had a big key of an iron made lock box. i used to collect all the incomes, charities at the same time to write all the expenses to the special notebook.
As we could not have right to distribute books we used to distribute Prasadam and collect some lakshmi for taking care of our Deities, Pujaris, Sunday Programs.
Doing this service i became a greedy person in the eyes of even some Devotees. They thought that there are so much money and she might using it for herself...
as a result i started to wear only two simple dresses and eat prasad earned from myself not excepting Temple Prasad. i could see how much money is coming and how much money is going.
We cooked and distributed Prasad but our food used to become costly because we used natural ghee, milk...because we should not offer to our Deities poisoned food stuffs made of trans fats, and all other artificial things.
----------
Devotees in the Temples live very simple life. they sleep on the floors, eat daily rice and dhal. Only in Sunday programs there are sweets or other expensive preparations.
They sacrificed their lives and became brahmacharis and sannyasis in order to serve to the society FULL TIME. It is very easy to charge someone sitting in the soft sofa and drinking apple juice, or eating pizza.
We come to the Temple only on Sundays and if we just see some one who is lying down for just a minute to take a nap we think that: aha! see what is he doing at the Temple! SLEEPING!
Yes, why not? i had this experience in my life. We do not know that in order just to organize Sunday Program so many Devotees start to work 2-3 days prior. Buying needed food stuffs, collecting charities, or earning money. What to say of cutting vegetables for 300-500 people? what to say of cooking? and cleaning the Temple after the program? What to say of cleaning the kitchen tools?
so much work.
Lakshmi Devi is always with Her Eternal Husband. In IsKCON Devotees serve to Her Husband and of cause She won't leave us!!! We will use money not for sex advertisements, production of alcohols, or drugs but for Book publishing!
for example for me also to eat in Govindas is very costly. i do not go there. but what is the need to criticize someone? i am sure that all other restaurants are also costly. Some people who have money go and enjoy, but i have no money, i won't go. but what is the need to cry loudly that it is costly?
--------
people are spending million dollars for those people who are just running after the ball (so called football players), why we can not spend money to spreading the glories of the Holy Names?
Media spend to the prostitutes who show their naked body in the film billion dollars, why? So why we can not spend whatever we have for glorifying the Supreme Personality of Godhead?
as i am media student, i know how much money Indian films spend for just a one clip of a movie. There are were 20 girls who danced with loose hair and wearing dresses up to their...took 1000 $ per 5 days. What can you say to this?
DID YOU EVER THINK OF THESE THINGS?
Please, Prabhu, open Your eyes! And see things in the real way!
Your servant in serving to Srila Prabhupada's mission, maral
Hare Krishna Maral Mataji,
PAMHO
AGSP,
I first of all apologise from deep of my heart if have heart your feelings. I know how tough the life of bramhacharis is, because i have seen here in our temple they work from morning before mangal aarti till late night, I am not even eligible to speak about those people, and it is really heart breaking to see their pocket expenses they get paid only $100 per week which is 2 hour salary of common man here, They work like machines and never ever have a trace of complaint on their face, I came to know that sometimes they even dont have their dinner when prasadam gets over.They are pure souls who dedicated their youth and life in the service of lord and I have lot of respect for these vaishnavas from bottom of my heart.
But what I want to know is why we need so much money, cant we spread our mission with what we have, in the temple many times they cook so much and throw into bin, there is enough money coming in the form of donations, then why should we charge for chanting, why on prasadam, why to collect money from those who dont want to give.
Mataji, Everyone is not fortunate enough to get good job,good salary. Almost everyone is struggling to exists and after doing so much hard work in the office when we reach home, family Members in the house list their problems, current bill,water bill, school fees,doctor bill, house rent, family problems and truly speaking it is like hell through out the day and dont feel like sitting on sofa and have juice. Even after this we try to make sure that our devotional life shouldnt get effected. I have my eyes open and have seen few things that hurt my feelings.If you feel everything is going good then its Ok, My only concern was the money of the devotees should be utilized properly, I may be ignorant, But I beg for forgiveness if i have hurt the feelings of vaishnavas.
Hare Krishna Askash Menon Prabhu,
Please accept my humble obeisances!
All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Your question made me little bit angry, but it was for my benefit. after this i got a strength to follow my previous sadhana. i got some kind of determination! Thank You for Your interesting questions!
Your servant, maral
Hare Krsna,
The questions that you are asking show a genuine concern to understand why ISKCON is involved in so many activities which appear more material than spiritual. Fortunately, his divine grace, A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, as well as his own master, his divine grace, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati has given explanations in several books, on this topic and the quotes should help to understand and differentiate genuine from fake service.
From the Srimad Bhagavatam,
"One should not be attached to material opulence, but material opulence may be accepted in the Krsna consciousness movement to facilitate the propagation of the movement. In other words, material opulence may be accepted as yukta-vairagya, that is, for renunciation."
"However, we should note that the times have changed. It may be beneficial for a saintly person's own interest to go to the forest and live in a cottage, but if one becomes a preacher, especially in Western countries, he has to invite many classes of men who are accustomed to living in comfortable apartments. Therefore in this age a saintly person has to make proper arrangements to receive people and attract them to the message of Krsna consciousness. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, perhaps for the first time, introduced motorcars and palatial buildings for the residence of saintly persons just to attract the general public in big cities. The main fact is that one has to
associate with a saintly person. In this age people are not going to search out a saint in the forest, so the saints and sages have to come to the big cities to make arrangements to receive the people in general, who are accustomed to the modern amenities of material life. Gradually such persons will learn that palatial buildings or comfortable apartments are not at all necessary. The real necessity is to become free from material bondage in whatever way possible."
"In our preaching work also, we deal with so much property and money and so many books bought and sold, but because these dealings all pertain to the Krsna consciousness movement, they should never be considered material. That one is absorbed in thoughts of such management does not mean that he is outside of Krsna consciousness. If one rigidly observes the regulative principle of chanting sixteen rounds of the maha-mantra every day, his dealings with the material world for the sake of spreading
the Krsna consciousness movement are not different from the spiritual cultivation of Krsna consciousness."
"The politicians want a peaceful situation between man and man, and nation and nation, but at the same time, because of too much attachment for material domination, there is illusion and
fearfulness. Therefore the politicians' peace conferences cannot bring about peace in society. It can only be done by hearing the subject matter described in the Srimad-Bhagavatam about the Supreme Personality of Godhead Sri Krsna. The foolish politicians may go on holding peace and summit conferences for hundreds of years, but they will fail to achieve success. Until we reach the stage of reestablishing our lost relation with Krsna, the illusion of accepting the body as the self will prevail,
and thus fearfulness will also prevail."
"Similarly, advancement of learning, economic development, philosophical research, study in the Vedic literature or even the execution of pious activities (like charity, opening of hospitals, and the distribution of food grains) should be done in relation with the Lord. The aim of all such acts and endeavors must be the pleasure of the Lord and not the satisfaction of any other identity,
individual or collective (samsiddhir hari-tosanam)."
"Those who are not devotees, therefore, are interested in so-called humanitarian or philanthropic
work, such as opening a hospital or charitable institution. These are undoubtedly good works in the sense that they are pious activities, and their result is that the performer may get some opportunities for sense gratification, either in this life or in the next. Devotional service,
however, is beyond the boundary of sense gratification."
"Arousing this consciousness of the conditioned soul is the greatest service, not posing oneself as a great friend of another living entity. The power of friendship is limited. Although one claims to be a friend, he cannot be a friend unlimitedly. There are an unlimited number of living entities, and our resources are limited; therefore we cannot be of any real benefit to the people in general. The best service to the people in general is to awaken them to Krsna consciousness so that they may know
that the supreme enjoyer, the supreme proprietor and the supreme friend is Krsna. Then this illusory dream of lording it over material nature will vanish."
Hari Bol,
Hare Krishna jai krishnan prabhu,
Your Answer was point to point and very enlightening, thank you .
hari bol
Oh! You mean prabhu that all the money is not Krishna's??
ISKCON is TRYING A BIT to get bak LAXMI which's wholely Krsna's property
And the preaching does require ppl money tym enrgy everything prabhu...
Don't misunderstand ISKCON
Everything is krishnas property prabhu, and his property should be used properly.
-
1
-
2
of 2 Next