Editorial Submission

[Guest guest]

Hari Bolo Friends and Assembled Vaishnavas;

 

Please accept my respects and obeisances. All glories to Sri Guru & Sri

Gauranga!

 

Attached is a four page Editorial in Microsoft Word Format that I am

submitting for publication and wide distribution. That file will provide an

index and proper formatting that you may use to read, resend, or post to a

web site. I am also pasting the same text to this e-mail after my

signature for those of you who do not have the proper software to read the

attached file.

 

Thank you all for your ongoing service to help restore man's lost

relationship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead Lord Sri Krishna.

Hoping this finds you earnestly engaged in the service of Lord Krishna.

 

Your servant,

 

mayesvara dasa

Ojai, California 93023

(805) 640-0405 Home

robertswg (M-F 7AM - 3PM)

mayesvara (About once a week on weekends.)

 

<<GoArchives.doc>>

Supporting the Legacy of Bhaktivedanta Swami

By mayesvara dasa

Table Of Contents:

Promoting the Sankirtan Movement 1

The BBT Archives... A Historic Contribution! 1

Spurious Excuses 2

Economic Priorities 2

Karmies Disgracing Vaishnavas? 3

Appreciate What We Have and Support It! 3

Kripana vrs Visionary 4

Disclaimer: 4

How to Contact the Author 4

 

Promoting the Sankirtan Movement

 

Those of us who frequent the portals of cyber space have encountered

numerous opportunities to purchase various parts of the work left behind by

his Divine Grace at bargain-basement-bootleg prices. Over the last few

years there have been several individuals who have demonstrated that they

are not hesitant about massively duplicating protected Vaishnava related

auto tapes, videos, books, and graphics for the purpose of serving their own

designs. Both large and small operations that produce paraphernalia for the

devotee community have been affected by this phenomenon. I myself have made

only a few small things for the commercial devotee market and even I have

had my copyrights violated on several different occasions. But the losses I

have endured as a result of these transgressions are not why I am writing

this article.

 

Instead my concern is for those who knowingly make and distribute

unauthorized copies of video, audio, art or publications for which they have

no legal or ethical claim. This includes all the work that has been done by

devotees who have dovetailed their talents to establish Krishna

Consciousness with their arts or sciences regardless of their political

allegiances, spiritual shortcomings, or individual personalities. Anyone who

comes to assist Lord Caitanya's Sankirtana movement should be respected and

encouraged. So I am writing now on behalf of all these talented people and

the businesses they support. But most specifically, I am writing to express

my feelings about the efforts of the original BBT Archives. Does anyone

have enough raw hubris to suggest that they haven't performed an essential

service for the rest of humanity ever since Krishna Consciousness first came

to the West?

 

The BBT Archives... A Historic Contribution!

 

We all owe a lot of gratitude to the BBT Archives because if they had not

been there, one can only imagine what would have happened to the extremely

large volume of material His Divine Grace Bhaktivedanta Swami left for us.

But how quickly we seem to have forgotten that the Archives didn't just pop

into existence. They have survived because a handful of devotees agree to

live simply and ask for just a little sustenance in exchange for doing this

most important work. They are the ones we have to thank for cataloguing the

most significant contribution to literature, art, religion and science that

the world has seen for the last 500 years! And yet, there are now several

individuals who don't seem to care if the Archives live or die.

 

Those who undermine the revenues of the BBT Archives are taking for granted

the tremendous job they have done providing state of the art quality

products that bring us closer to the teaching of His Divine Grace. It took

thousands of dollars to index, clean up, preserve and market what has become

the largest repository of rare Vaishnava teachings in the West. The devotees

working in the BBT Archives did that work. The products they offer didn't

just drop off trees like apples to be taken to the market! They are there

only because a team of dedicated devotees is committed to doing the work

necessary to make it available and they have been doing that consistently

for the last 30 years regardless of the latest political upheaval, intrigue,

scandal, or lawsuit.

 

We are fortunate that much has been accomplished, but there is still a lot

more work that is yet to be done. Only a few of the several hundred lectures

given by His Divine Grace are currently available on noise free, re-sampled,

compact disks. Ironically, many of the individuals who are the most

critical of the devotees, get their scriptural gunpowder from the VedaBase.

But has anyone ever noticed that there is no equivalent research tool for

exploring the excellent resources in Back-To-Godhead magazine, or the test

of the Mahabharata and Ramayana? The devotees in the Archives also wish to

scan and digitize every photo of Srila Prabhupada, along with all the

artwork that was ever done to illustrate his books. However, all of this

takes adequate funding.

 

Spurious Excuses

 

The main thing impeding these types of projects is revenue income. But where

will the funds for doing this work come from if unscrupulous individuals who

literally steal the fruits of their labor for their own personal reasons

sell the products offered from the Archives on the underground-market?

Perhaps the people engaging in this shameful business are too emotionally

confused or spiritually immature to realize how much their efforts impact

this important work. Anyone who patronizes them is equally culpable.

 

Economics is the excuse that is most frequently given to justify this

nonsense. The spurious argument that public lectures cannot be copyrighted

has also been offered but that obfuscates the more compelling point. What

type of self-respecting devotee would not want to support the most important

link we have today to the work of the most significant spiritual teacher

that ever came to the occident world? Perhaps we are not comfortable,

capable, or aware of the fact that Rupa Goswami instructed us to spend 50%

of our income on behalf of Krishna. How intelligent are those who need to

be told not to cut off their own current spiritual life support system and

the only hope for their future?

 

I can be somewhat forgiving of those devotees who are truly impoverished and

this article is not intended for them. But I am not so sympathetic for

those who are penniless simply because they don't want to work, feel the

world owes them something, or are too proud to accept instructions from a

non-devotee boss. Srila Prabhupada never advocated or appreciated laziness

and neither does Krishna. (Bg. 3.24) However, I also know that

understanding any individual's financial position is not my business. Each

one of us has to answer to paramatma for what we are capable of doing, how

we use our time and the endeavor we are willing to make.

 

An informal observation of devotee spending demographics seems to indicate

that only very few have no toothbrush and survive on a popcorn diet. Many

seem quite capable of financing bad habits, frivolous desires and in some

cases, foolishly participate in get rich quick business investments.

 

Economic Priorities

How much time do those who purchase bootleg products spend watching

television? What do they pay for cable hookup, Internet fees, pets or other

forms of entertainment? How much do they spend for gardeners, pool

maintenance, or cleaning services on their home and car that they could

easily do themselves? How often do they go to restaurants, the big

screen cinema or the local amusement parks? What do they invest in

various new-age amulets, talismans, paraphernalia, crystals, numerology,

palm reading, candles, and mundane magazines about the same? What do they

budget for un-proven homeopathic potions or various forms of strange

Ayurvedic powders and high viscosity goop that comes in and out of

popularity with each new wave of devotees returning from India? I wonder

how much the self-proclaimed "underprivileged" devotees spend following big

league sport events, pursuing useless hobbies, or servicing habits and

personal addictions that are completely irrelevant to Krishna Consciousness?

 

 

The devotees who invest in these types of things would have a hard time

rationalizing why they do so to Srila Prabhupada. They would also have an

equally difficult time explaining to him why they would not be willing to

support the single-most important remaining part of his extraordinary legacy

and intentionally route their income to individuals who, at least in some

cases, seem to be literally hell bent on destroying it! Anyone who

purchases the products offered by bootleggers are condoning their efforts to

collect fees from products they ought not to be selling and further their

own personal interests regardless of who they deprive. They will no-doubt

disappear after inflicting their chaos, but hopefully their damage will not

be significant enough to paralyze the real work that is being done by

devotees maintaining the Archives who have tirelessly served us and the rest

of humanity for the last 30 years.

 

Karmies Disgracing Vaishnavas?

 

Compare all of this to the Karmies that we seem sometimes a bit to quick to

deride and insult. Those who are in the mode of goodness give thousands of

dollars to finance organizations like Uniceff, United Way, Homeless

Shelters, or the Sierra Club, just to name a few. Some raise funds for

medical research in the hope of finding the cure for Cancer, Heart Disease,

Aids, Alzheimer's, or Multiple Sclerosis. They do this because they BELIEVE

IN THE CAUSE. Yet so called Vaishnavas who claim to be committed to Srila

Prabhupada's mission, somehow feel it is acceptable to undermine the efforts

of the most important work that is currently being done, not just for our

sake, but also for the rest of surviving humanity!

 

Even Christians who have difficulty understanding the basic

teachings of Lord Christ understand the need to support various biblical

history and research efforts. Every year they spend thousands of dollars

promoting their theology in the form of new Bible study guides, videos, and

major scholarly conferences. Even the whimsical new age adherents

contribute millions of dollars for propaganda to support and distribute

veiled atheism in the form of mayavadi impersonalism. It is a shame if we

cannot be equally vigilant about what we all know is far more important than

these other efforts. Don't the BBT Archives do exactly that?

 

Appreciate What We Have and Support It!

 

Those who understand the 17th chapter of Srila Prabhupada's Bhagavad Gita

know what the nature of charity is and ought to realize the importance of

supporting the archives -- regardless of one's own personal political

tincture. Historically the archives have remained a-political like the

Swiss government tends to do. Considering the fact that the Archives have

nearly a total monopoly on the original work left by the most influential

spiritual teacher in our current history, their pricing is extremely

reasonable and competitive. If anyone doubts that, then go and check out

how much the local new-age bookstore sells their wares from dime-store

gurus. It is also worth noting here, that despite the proliferation of

alternative religions, none of these other back yard gurus have anything

even remotely similar to the VedaBase. Even many of the biblical research

CD 's do not have the power and convenience of the Veda base!

 

We should be very thankful for the work done in the BBT Archives. In one

small sense it is that service that distinguishes the work of Bhaktivedanta

Swami from all of the other bogus rascals who are holding "Satsangas" and

taping their rhetoric. Even though the followers of many of these pop-up

gurus give a lot of money to their causes, none has a department working for

them as sophisticated as the BBT Archives. To the best of my knowledge even

the most prominent and Hollywood favorite Dalai Lama doesn't have a product

line that comes close to that offered by the Archives.

 

If we really understood the full scope and significance of the

transcendental work done by the devotees in the Archives, why would we not

feel anything less then extremely honored to be one of the few people who

knows the importance of their work and support it enthusiastically? Have we

forgotten that every book that was authored by Srila Prabhupada, regardless

of which editorial version you prefer, has come to us via the Archives?

 

Kripana vs. Visionary

 

So it is my hope that all devotees give careful consideration to

these things the next time they are tempted to invest in the rogue efforts

of those who have no respect for mundane laws, the higher Brahminical

principals of integrity, or what Srila Prabhupada would prefer. We may

continue to argue about esoteric Vaishnava etiquette, and we may even feel

strongly about implementing certain management techniques. We may not be

able to stop feuding over the wrongs that have been alleged and we may even

hold some deep personal wound that has been inappropriately committed

against us by an immature aspiring devotee from the past. But despite all

these things, we should be very careful not to become so Kripana (miserly)

that we loose perspective of the important work that is being done in the

BBT Archives. They are not asking for blind donations like many other

religious organizations do. They simply want to continue providing us with

the tools for making the whole world Krishna Conscious! How we apply those

tools is for each of us to decide, but it would be a tragedy if wise and

mature devotees stand by and watch the tool shed get plundered when there is

still a lot of serious work to be done.

 

If we don't feel privileged to support the Archives, then somewhere along

the line, we took a wrong turn. If we claim to be part of Srila

Prabhupad's legacy, then we should demonstrate our loyalty to that by making

sure we do all we can to insure that the work in the Archives not only

continues but also thrives! The truly visionary devotees knows they are

contributing to an extraordinary effort when they purchase something from

the devotees working out of a small building at Sandy Ridge North Carolina.

For them it is not just "The Archives" but the humble beginning of an

extremely important transcendental research center that has the potential to

become as significant as the National Archives or the Library of Congress!

 

Having this type of vision may be our only saving grace at this time when

the pangs of Kali yuga continue to accelerate out of control. We are all

aware of the numerous internal conflicts in which the disciples of

Bhaktivedanta have become entangled. We may never be able to resolve those

issues and there may be much more growth from Srila Prabhupada's branch on

Lord Caitanya's tree. But let those of us who were invited to join in this

wonderful cause by His Divine Grace be very careful not to cut off the very

source of our nourishment. The whole world depends on us to carry the

torchlight of Srila Prabhupada's divine legacy, and to this day the BBT

Archives in particular are still clearly the most prolific in preserving His

work. That is something we should all be thankful for and proud of because

Srila Prabhupada's legacy deserves the best and it is our duty to see to it

that He gets it.

 

Disclaimer:

Sadly I feel it is necessary to clearly state here that I have no personal

vested interest in the Archives other then the ones stated in this article.

I receive no special discounts from the Archives and I have no particular

political affiliation with any group or individual. Nobody has asked me to

write this. I am simply expressing the opinions that I strongly believe

Srila Prabhupada would be most likely to endorse.

How to Contact the Author

mayesvara dasa

AKA: William G. Roberts MBA/MIS, CCP

687 Villanova Road

Ojai, California 93023

United States Of America

(805) 640-0405 Home

E-mail: robertswg (Every Weekday)

mayesvara (About once every two weeks.)

 

Other Articles by This Author (Not to be published with article)

(Available on VNN under "USA" & "Editorial" Archives Button)

Guru Crisis - Personal Letter to GBC (October 15, 1998 -

Two Pages)

The Process of Vaishnava Initiation and ISKCON (October 3, 1998 -

28 pages)

Drop the Bomb and End the War (December 1, 1998 -

5 Pages)

Whoever Thinks They Can Manage ISKCON is Disqualified (December 15, 1998 -

4 Pages)

Put The Extremists Where They Belong (December 27, 1998 -

6 Pages)

"The Art Of War" in ISKCON (January 7, 1999 - 7

pages)

Fail to Plan is a Plan to Fail (January 13, 1999 -

5 pages)

Petition for Sanity and Maturity (PowerPoint Presentation) (January 16,

1999 -17 slides)

"12 Points Toward Unity & Respect" (Mission Statement) (January 16, 1999 -

2 Pages)

The LA January 16 Reform Show (January 29, 1999 -

5 Pages)

He Who Knows Has No Need To Shout (February 22, 1999 -

7 Pages)

Accepting the Challenge (March 15, 1999 - 10

Pages)

Who Is Changing What? (March 22, 1999 - 13

Pages)

Did He Or Didn't He? (April 12, 1999 -

20 Pages)

Modification Crazy (April 26, 1999 - 15

Pages)

Star Trek Spiritualism (March 14, 2001 - 2

Pages)

Attachment: (application/msword) GoArchives.doc [not stored]