On a different note

[Guest guest]

Dear Bhakti Visrambha Madhava Swami and respective

devotees,

 

Hare Krsna. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. PAMFO I

hope all is well.

 

I'm glad that in my asking for that previous sastric

reference, although there are different angles based

on sastra being submitted by the respective devotees,

no one is being disrespectful towards anyone's elses

submission; simply philosophical discussion. (Often

enough we see that where there are disagreements

between devotees on certain things philosophically,

the tone can become one of negativeness.)

 

I had remembered receiving something in the past from

Maharaj - the recommendations given by Lord Siva - but

when I went to look for it, I couldn't find it in my

account, so I think I must have accidentally deleted

the email.

 

As I also feel some things Maharaj said are important

points which I feel should be considered in the ISKCON

world today, I wanted to address this to the devotees,

so I'm going to keep only the part of Bhakti Visrambha

Madhava Swami's email in this regard because I think

that this is a VERY IMPORTANT point that should be

considered :

 

--- Bhakti Visrambha Madhava Swami

<Bhakti.Visrambha.Madhava.Swami (AT) pamho (DOT) net> wrote:

 

> what's your alternative to spending thousands of

> thousands of $$ in

> Bhaktivedanta and other Hospitals for intracable

> problems like cancer etc

> and for many daily small problems- that people have

> proved that by drinking

> urine, it cures?

> ...................................

> this still has not 100% resolved things. we are all

> dying off fast, without

> much help. the senior devotees are spending

> thousands of their disciples

> $$$$ which could of gone to Mayapur temple of

> understanding, instead of the

> pharmaceutical companies pockets.

>

> prabhupada didn't like hospitals and he personally

> told all of us, not to

> put him in a hospital when the end was near.

>

> When a devotee gets cancer,all the Iskcon devotees

> goes to the hospitals all

> around the world and spends the $$$$, guru or what

> have you.

>

> this has been my main My grouse here all along.

 

So many things can be said in this regard. But let's

get to this factor: ALL of us ARE going to die at SOME

point, be it from cancer, or some other factor, and we

will be - if we even have the funds - faced with how

much money we should be spending on our body to try to

preserve it, or to just let it do itself in.

 

Not getting into the "politics" of it all, I feel ONE

of the lessons senior devotees are there to teach us

is HOW to leave our bodies Krsna consciously, not

necessarily how to "stay in them as long as we can,"

(and spending SO MUCH of KRSNA'S laksmi to try to

prolong our lives). Obviously there must be a PROPER

balance between trying to preserve the soul's stay in

one's body (based on one's endeavor to attain Krsna

consciousness in THAT body), and allowing the soul to

leave the body, when it seems the body is no longer

very useful. WHAT is the point of trying to stay for

so much longer, unless we feel we must - that we need

that extra time, and by doing so, it will facilitate

our KRSNA CONSCIOUS goal. (Meaning, NOT that we are

trying to prolong our lives simply because we are

afraid to die.)

 

I'm sure that some devotees are aware of the fact that

there are certain sannyasis who are spending THOUSANDS

and THOUSANDS of dollars to fly here and there (all

over the world) for their health; cancer, or some

other malady, (as well as sometimes, some other

reasons. I know of one sannyasi who was flying ALL

over the world for his candida.) From what I know,

this is NOT what Srila Prabhupada wanted any of us to

do, be we possessed of this kind of money or not.

 

We saw from the example of Jayananda prabhu (when

Srila Prabhupada was present with us on the planet)

how Jayananda prabhu dealt with his bodily situation.

In fact, Jayananda prabhu had a sum of money which,

instead of deciding to use for his health, to prolong

his life, find a cure, etc., he instead gave his money

to Srila Prabhupada.

 

Srila Prabhupada Himself could have used so much $ to

go here and there to this and that doctor, for this

and that treatment in His last months with us, but

chose not to. Yes, it's a fact that Srila Prabhupada

took some medicine from Ayurvedic doctors, but He was

not wasting HUGE amounts of Krsna's $ on His body. We

certainly KNOW, HOW IMPORTANT Srila Prabhupada and His

continued existance in His body was to us, yet, Srila

Prabhupada by dint of His example showed us how to be

balanced; that we should know that death is going to

take us all at some point, and we should not be

wasting HUGE amounts of Krsna's $ to TRY to preserve

our existance in our body. As Krsna Himself says, BG

10.34: mrtyuh sarva haras caham "I am all-devouring

death."

 

So who is more important, greater than Srila

Prabhupada? who set for us the example of when and how

to relinquish the body? So I think this should be the

example that these sannyasis and senior Vaisnavas

should be setting for us, as opposed to spending SO

MUCH money on trying to preserve their lives in such a

body.

 

And this is also to be considered: WHY should we

consider one devotee (based on position) to be "more

important" than someone who is not in a position>

Often enough there are devotees NOT in any position,

who may be/are (even a LOT) MORE advanced than someone

who is possessed of some ISKCON position. And wouldn't

it be more important to be spending such HUGE sums of

$ in terms of doing things for spreading Krsna

consciousness?

 

>From what I see in North America, things have gone

down, decreased in terms of preaching and its results.

It seems too much $ is being WASTED UNnecessarily on

other things which are NOT directly Krsna conscious.

 

Again, I won't go into any "politics" or "unnecessary"

details here, but it IS a fact, that some of these

wealthy sannyasis - some of them even OWNING their own

houses, even MORE than one - running around the world

(or having doctors flown in) for their cancer, or

other maladies, have NOT been up and up in terms of

their sannyas vows. (No need to mention names, and no,

I am not one of those devotees who "gets upset" when

some sannyasi falls down, although I do feel that we

need to become honest; a LOT more honest than we've

been in the ISKCON world, both individually and

collectively.) This is NOT a criticism of anyone in

particular, but a fact. And thus, besides this, and

other factors, factors which I'm SURE SRILA PRABHUPADA

would be considering, I do NOT believe that Srila

Prabhupada would be wanting SO MUCH of this $ which

HAS been being spent in such a way, to have been spent

by these devotees as has been spent.

 

As I said, ultimately we are ALL going to die, and we

have seen examples of how the (truly) GREAT souls

leave their bodies, both present and past, as there

are the examples in our sastras as well. Maybe the

ISKCON authorities should be providing facility for

older (and even younger) devotees who WILL be dying.

And maybe we even have to ask WHY it is that such

sannyasis possessed of THIS KIND OF MONEY? when

 

1) Sannyas means giving everything to Krsna?, and 2)

 

2)I KNOW FOR A FACT that Srila Prabhupada did NOT want

ANY of His (ISKCON) sannyasis to be "rich," (in

terms of $), but rather to be rich in terms of KRSNA

CONSCIOUSNESS!

 

And yes, there should be a balance in terms of one's

trying to keep one's body fit enough to practice

spiritual life, so $ will have to be spent in this

regard, but sometimes I think these rich sannyasis are

OVERDOING it. They can ALSO SET A KRSNA CONSCIOUS

example for us "small folks" by teaching us HOW TO DIE

KRSNA CONSCIOUSLY!

 

I might add here that one of the present sannyasis who

was going here and there in the world, spending SO

MANY thousands and thousands of dollars for his

cancer, both his own laksmi, and that which was being

publically collected from devotees through internet

appeals on his behalf had a few falldowns which were

all covered up. In one case, in his desire to keep one

of his falldowns covered up, he purposely arranged for

the woman to be put into a situation where she would

and did get killed. Yet this sannyasi is being so much

glorified as well as spending so much $ for his

health.

 

Because I was aware of this sannyasi's falldown at

that particular time, he also tried to have me killed,

but was not successful. He was successful in having me

pushed out of ISKCON due to his lies, after his other

attempts at getting me killed were not successful.

 

I might also add that this particular sannyasi, under

who I was serving as GBC, after sending me to a very

dangerous area, would NOT even send me to a doctor in

1984 after I had been attacked by FIVE men, although

he was present to SEE the injuries and direct results

of the attack. What is the really crazy part about

this, was that I had given to this sannyasi THOUSANDS

of dollars (from a settlement I had received) to pay

for books, etc. to be used in his GBC area where I was

sent by him for preaching. Three months prior to this

attack, when this sannyasi came to visit the country

he had sent me to at that time, he had taken ALL the $

I had left with me, so when I was attacked, I didn't

have any $ to be able to go to and pay for a doctor;

thus, I could NOT go to a doctor. Yet this sannyasi

was right there to SEE the VERY OBVIOUS physical

effects sustained from the attack, including injuries

to the spine, head - which brought about visual,

hearing and other perceptual losses - and other areas,

including broken bones, but he did NOT send me to ANY

doctor for these injuries, so NONE of them were

medically attended to or even documented. Thus, I was

denied ANY/all medical help I could have gotten for

such injuries for which I NEEDED medical help, and to

this day, I'm STILL suffering certain effects from

those injuries.

 

So I have to admit, that when I see these "higher ups"

spending THOUSANDS and THOUSANDS of $ on themselves

(their own bodily care), and practically NOTHING (IF

even anything) is spent for a "normal" devotee's

minimul health care, it makes me feel VERY SICKENED to

see such an UNbalanced situation in our ISKCON devotee

society.

 

So I think this is something we in the ISKCON society,

(where devotees have TRULY surrendered their lives to

the service of Krsna and Vaisnava), MUST consider and

MAKE a PROPER BALANCE - including "bank" balance.

 

Personally, I find it LUDICROUS that some ISKCON

leader is spending OVER $7,000 PER WEEK - that's

right; $7,000 per WEEK - on his bodily health, when at

some point he, like the rest of us IS going to die

anyway. I think the words of Vidura to Dhrtarastha in

the SB apply in some of these cases. If our leaders

can show by their example BG 3.21 how to die a Krsna

conscious death, and PROVIDE for devotees to be able

to do so, this would be VERY GOOD for ALL of us.

 

Just my own comments to this part of your email.

 

I pray that I haven't offended anyone by this post. I

just felt I had to say this.

 

Your servant,

 

Mahavegavati Dasi

Hare Krsna

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

> I pray that I haven't offended anyone by this post. I

> just felt I had to say this.

 

There is a lot more to not offending someone than praying you haven't.