charity and ISKCON

[Guest guest]

Dear mother Arcita dd,

Please accept my humble obeisances.All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

 

Thank you very much for your great service wich you did there.Prasadam

distribution is great service and one of the main weapon for destroying

ignorance and establish bhakti in the hand of Lord Gauranga.

It s wonderfull that someon have such entusiasam to do that important

service and thus help others lot.

 

If alow me small remark,from this insignificunt servant who happen somehow

or other to searved as leader in yatra with lot of financial problems for

few years.It s great pressure for menagers when they have on they back havy

financial burden,debhts and costly projects.By chance I searved in Berlin

Temple as well for about 6 months in 1993 and I know bit about many projects

wich were there in Germany in 90thies.Wisbaden,Goloka Dhama,Nrsimha

Ksetra...as leader there Harikesh prabhu must fealth great financial

pressure how to get together all this project to work.....that s why He

needed very much flow in off laxmi and for that He needed much more some

buisnees with prasadam instead of FFL.I remember for Berlin Temple prasadam

selling was importunt thing in order to keep Temple alive financialy.

So FFL is great service,but it may be and issue how to proper balance it in

some yatra according time,place and sercomstances.And that is great burden

for accountable menagers of related areas,how to get together everything to

work.I am shure that you untherstund this things what I am tolking about

here.

 

I would like to add here that devotees have different natures and its most

reccomanded that they are engaged according it.So those who have such nature

and inclinations and inspiration to serve in FFL and similar,it s nice,some

are perhapse more buisniss oriented and like to earn and make money,that s

nice and some prefer chanting and preaching,or book distribution,that s

great as well,some like farming and living in nature,protect house etc,that

s great as well.There are enough room for any nature in Krsna s family,so I

think we should focuse on seva according to our nature and also do the

needfull in emegrancy situations and thin positivly about other devotees

with different nature and inclinations.I do not see any contraversy,everyone

should do according His or Her capacaity and nature,under the guidence of

Guru,Sadhu and Shastras.Whatever any soul freely and volunteerly contribute

in service to the Lord in Sankirtana Moovement,that s wonderfull and we

should encourage that.

In same time ISKCON as institution must have in general proper balance

according desire and establishment and instruction of our Founder Acarya

Srila Prabhupada.And HH Srila Jayadvaita Maharaja and other senior

vaisnavas,sanyasis,Prabhupada desciples can help us to keep that balance as

whole intackt.That s importunt,I am shure you will agree with that.

So please go on with your importunt and nice service,all the best,das o

smi,a.das

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 4/26/2005 2:50:26 AM Eastern Standard Time, VIHE (AT) pamho (DOT) net

writes:

Sorry but I can't understand one thing: if we have innumerable ways of using

almost everything in direct devotional service then why we're so much

advocating doing the material charity works?

Dear Visista prabhu,

Please accept my humble obeisances, all glories to Srila Prabhupada.

 

I really can't understand why prasadam distribution keeps being referred to

as material charity work. You have not been the first to make that comparison,

so please don't feel that you are being singled out. Prasad distribution is

never mundane. It is not that just because we feed prasad to someone who

happens

to be hungry, it becomes a mundane activity.

 

If we examine the quotes that have been offered, Srila Prabhupada instructed

us not to discriminate, we offer prasad to the rich and poor alike. But to

neglect a segment of the community because they happen to actually be needy,

for

fear that our help is material in some way, doesn't make sense. I also don't

believe it was what Srila Prabhupada intended. If you examine the quotes, he is

 

correcting the attitude that we are only for distributing food to the hungry.

He was encouraging the attitude that we distribute prasad to all. If some of

them happen to be hungry, what is the problem? Prasad is never mundane.

Distributing prasad to the hungry, certainly also doesn't exclude preaching at

the

same time, nor distributing mercy to the wealthy as well. So now we are feeding

 

Krsna's mercy and preaching, how does this qualify as mundane charity?

 

It occurs to me that the mataji was politely and humbly expressing the

opinion that she does not fall into the category of so called great devotee who

has

no concern for anyone's material condition, so she will continue to do what

she can for others and wait for Krsna's mercy herself. I believe what she was

saying in a polite way is that the one who considers himself too advanced to be

 

concerned with the mundane welfare of others, is perhaps missing part of his

or her heart. Helping someone for their temporary needs, does not exclude

spiritual help. Srila Prabhupada was pragmatic but he was also very soft

hearted.

He was pained to see children going through the garbage for food and he

instructed us to feed them. It is not because it was Mayapur, it was because it

was

hungry children. But he did not want us to become only an agency of charity in

the mundane sense of neglecting those who are not in need of charity, but in

need of Krsna - because everyone falls into that category. He also instructed

us not to feed the needy when we could not afford to, again a practical

consideration. That we convert the donations of others into prasad for the

needy is

good use for money that would probably not be donated otherwise. That we take

donations made to Krsna directly and convert it into charity work for the needy

 

is another thing. I don't think anyone is advocating that.

 

There is place in IsKcon for all kinds of service and those who perform the

service of caring for the needy with prasad and preaching from donations that

have been given for that purpose, are still performing devotional service.

Those who would rather preach to the well-to-do, have many souls to enlighten

also. We know that being wealthy will not bring eternal satisfaction, and that

even the wealthy suffer in this place, no one is excluded from suffering. But

if

someone is in need, there is no reason not to help them on the temporary

level, while we are helping them on the eternal level, if we can. There is a

place

and service for everyone here. Please, let us stop discouraging one another

in our attempts to distribute Krsna's mercy some how or other, whatever the

other might be. yhs, Kanti dasi

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 4/26/2005 4:10:27 AM Eastern Standard Time,

Atmabhu.HKS (AT) pamho (DOT) net writes:

So those who have such nature

and inclinations and inspiration to serve in FFL and similar,it s nice,some

are perhapse more buisniss oriented and like to earn and make money,that s

nice and some prefer chanting and preaching,or book distribution,that s

great as well,some like farming and living in nature,protect house etc,that

s great as well.There are enough room for any nature in Krsna s family,so I

think we should focuse on seva according to our nature and also do the

needfull in emegrancy situations and thin positivly about other devotees

with different nature and inclinations.I do not see any contraversy,everyone

should do according His or Her capacaity and nature,under the guidence of

Guru,Sadhu and Shastras.Whatever any soul freely and volunteerly contribute

in service to the Lord in Sankirtana Moovement,that s wonderfull and we

should encourage that.

Dear Atmabhu prabhu,

Please accept my humble obeisances, all glories to Srila Prabhupada.

Nicely said, thank you. yhs, Kanti dasi

[Guest guest]

Dear Adipurusa Prabhu

 

Nice to hear from you.

 

I does appear to me that if one does such wonderful preaching while

knowing that it is in direct violation of Srila Prabhupadas instructions

-- which are based on reasons that we may not be fully aware of -- it

asks for additional humility from the disciple. "I know that this PR

preaching or FFL emergency relief was not authorised by Srila

Prabhupada. I feel and know that there is so much need in it, so I will

do it as my imperfect offering to Lord Chaitanyas movement".

 

Not that one claims: "_Prabhupada said_ -- "books are the basis,

prasadam is the force" (:-)) -- everyone must go to Sri Lanka! Feed the

poor (except for the temple folk, and never near the temple). That is

what Srila Prabhupada wanted!"

 

What do you think?

 

Sluga

 

Caitanya

 

 

> So - can't we use these same charity works in direct devotional

> service, according to your own principle? Is it beyond the "almost"

> you mentioned? People lavishly gave for tsunami relief, billions of

> dollars, -- why not use some of it to feed Muslims and Buddhists

> Krsna-prasadam and make many of them FINALLY favorable to devotees

> and Hare Krishna mantra in countries where we had difficulties?

>

> And the Hindus in the affected areas were really inspired to join in

> chanting Hare Krishna, which has amazing curative effect on the

> distressed and distraught survivors. They were reminded of their true

> heritage.

>

> Didn't anybody read Indradyumna Maharaja's diaries from there?