ISKCON Has Changed
BY: PARASURAM DAS (UK)
BY: PARASURAM DAS (UK)
HH Bhakti Vikasa Swami's open letter is so important, worthy of discussion. Here's my two cents worth, sorry in advance, I'm not the sharpest pencil in the box and tend to speak out of the ninth gate. Finally someone speaks out on what I'd been feeling for years. In my world ISKCON has changed so much, I can hardly recognise the movement I joined. Some changes were needed to bring us closer to where we should have been, but after that, why so many changes? It is like trying to mix Bhakti and Maya together, the result will be some kind of hodge podge rasabas.
The temple should be a place where one can go and render devotional service. Not for extra curriculum activities, earning money, Hindu weddings, car pujas, mindi, yoga, stress management, Hindi classes, Hindu schools, etc.
The way out is to keep the temple pure and set up external projects. Although prasad distribution is a primary duty for ISKCON, I set-up Food for All, a non-religious charity, to raise Laxmi so I could get on with the mission, and at the same time develop environmental and social welfare projects that would help the poor suffering jivas, and in the process some people did take seriously to spiritual life, the para upakara. People got involved because they wanted to help poor people and in the process became devotees, or poor people came due to suffering and become devotees. One girl came to learn computer skills and recently took initiation.
We offer a wide variety of services, depending on the grants we had received, but the temples cannot do this. Last week, I put the logo of an Indian wholesale shop on the van and in return, we get a van load of ghee annually, but the temple should not do this. We also get grants from the lottery (gambling), again not for the temples. Just like the books cannot be changed, the philosophy cannot be changed, the Deity worship cannot be changed, the temples also cannot be changed or we run the risk of missing the message of Srila Prabhupada.
your servant,
Parasuram das
The temple should be a place where one can go and render devotional service. Not for extra curriculum activities, earning money, Hindu weddings, car pujas, mindi, yoga, stress management, Hindi classes, Hindu schools, etc.
The way out is to keep the temple pure and set up external projects. Although prasad distribution is a primary duty for ISKCON, I set-up Food for All, a non-religious charity, to raise Laxmi so I could get on with the mission, and at the same time develop environmental and social welfare projects that would help the poor suffering jivas, and in the process some people did take seriously to spiritual life, the para upakara. People got involved because they wanted to help poor people and in the process became devotees, or poor people came due to suffering and become devotees. One girl came to learn computer skills and recently took initiation.
We offer a wide variety of services, depending on the grants we had received, but the temples cannot do this. Last week, I put the logo of an Indian wholesale shop on the van and in return, we get a van load of ghee annually, but the temple should not do this. We also get grants from the lottery (gambling), again not for the temples. Just like the books cannot be changed, the philosophy cannot be changed, the Deity worship cannot be changed, the temples also cannot be changed or we run the risk of missing the message of Srila Prabhupada.
your servant,
Parasuram das
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