emergency relief

[Guest guest]

>Regarding food distribution, they may come to take at our Temple. With

>travelling sankirtana we can distribute wherever we go, but not to the

>emergency spot, like that.

> --letter to Jayapataka Swami, 09/28/76

>

> ("After we did local flood relief and food distribution we found it to

>be quite effective in various ways. I wrote Srila Prabhupada whether we

>could go to similar relief to the Bay of Bengal Coast if there was a

>cyclone (hurricane type storm) or similar crisis. Srila Prabhupada gave the

>above reply." --letter to Priyavrata Dasa from Jayapataka Swami, 12/12/94)

 

 

Dear Bhakti Vikasa Maharaja,

 

Please accept my humble obeisances unto your lotus feet. All glories to

Srila Prabhupada.

 

I happened to be involved in FFL relief effort in Chechnya (that is, by all

considerations in an emergency zone) for some 4 months out of 18 months

years.

 

I can attest here that during that 1.5 years:

 

- not only did we get some "cheap popularity", when both Muslims and

Russians, armed rebels and troops, governments and international charity

workers, reporters and local clergy -- in other words literally EVERYBODY

swore that "Hare Krishnas" were living saints (which they really were,

living in ruins for 18 months while feeding 3.000 people every single day

with no sources of money and food),

 

- not only would all local Muslims knew and loved devotees to the point of

folding hands and saying "Hare Krsna" whenever they saw us,

 

- not only did book distribution throughout Russia surge by leaps and

bounds, when affluent people would get out of their limousines just to shake

hands with a sankirtana devotee and ask him for one of those books "which

makes people so selfless and humane",

 

- not only did we get a tremendous amount of most positive publicity

throughout the world extolling devotees as the only Russians who risked

their lives to save their own brethren,

 

- not only did other international charities start requesting us to teach

them effective emergency relief strategies, techniques and public relations,

and consider it an honor for themselves to give our program some bulk food

or logistic assistance,

 

- not only UK Overseas Development Agency, impresses with our work, offer us

some $380.000 for six months to support prasadam distribution,

 

- not only did UN, OSCE and other international bodies include us in their

reports as examples of most positive impact on the war-ravaged country and

its people, which they tried so hard to get together,

 

- not only would our beneficiaries come begging us to please reveal to them

the recipe of "that miracle porridge", which tasted so wonderfully -- and

which in actuality contained nothing but millet, water, hardly any salt, no

butter or sugar, but an abundance of Lord Caitanya's mercy,

 

- not only would local Muslim leaders protect and respect our program so

much so that when some scoundrels took our only van away at gunpoint, they

threatened them to immediately return the car to us or else "Allah will

never forgive you",

 

- not only would they come respectfully asking our view on different

theological issues and would sit politely conversing with us about

philosophy of the BG and the Koran,

 

- BUT also that we -- a handful of junior devotees -- felt there so

intensely ecstatic and blissful, so inspired and infused with the mercy of

Lord Caitanya helping desperate people, that we were literally pleading with

our authorities to never take us away from the dangers of the Chechen war

back to our quite and peaceful ashrams.

 

SB 8.7.39: "People in general, being bewildered by the illusory energy of

the Supreme Personality of Godhead, are always engaged in animosity toward

one another. But devotees, even at the risk of their own temporary lives,

try to save them."

 

Are we now to consider the above just some "mundane charity", which

displeases Srila Prabhupada and goes against his explicit instructions and

desires? And what else should have we done there amidst raging war save and

except a massive and intelligent prasadam distribution at governmental

expense?

 

Of course, I can also fully sympathize with the apprehension that such

charitable activity can potentially degrade to mere mundane work. But what

possibly cannot?

 

Even giving lectures on Srimad Bhagavatam, worshipping the deity, chanting

Hare Krsna and distributing books, as we all know just too well from Srila

Prabhupada's books and our own experience, can be performed for completely

materialistic purposes.

 

I could witness myself that in India in some ISKCON temples this has already

started to happen -- when food for distribution, although nicknamed

"prasadam", is not even offered, is cooked by non-devotees and distributed

just for the sake of creating good reputation and helping to collect more

donations. I think THIS is what we should be concerned with as a downright

deviation from Srila Prabhupada's teachings and should try to change or stop

it by all means.

 

But the same vigilance applies to any other insincerely performed anga of

devotional service, which in that case becomes no less of a mundane activity

that mundane food distribution. So, with this danger in mind, are we

supposed to get rid of all angas of devotional service altogether -- or just

to perform them correctly.

 

With your kind permission would like to conclude with a very clear and

self-evident quote from Srila Prabhupada's purport on SB 4.12.10 -- which,

according to Srila Jayadvaita Maharaja's brilliant essay "The VedaBase: What

to make of what you find", hold the ultimate level of authority exceeding

that of quotes from his letters:

 

"Somehow or other, everyone can manage to perform such a yajna and

distribute prasada to the people in general. That is quite sufficient for

this age of Kali. The Krsna consciousness movement is based on this

principle: chant the Hare Krsna mantra at every moment, as much as possible,

both inside and outside of the temples, and, as far as possible, distribute

prasada. ***This process can be accelerated with the cooperation of state

administrators and those who are producing the country's wealth.*** Simply

by liberal distribution of prasada and sankirtana, the whole world can

become peaceful and prosperous".

 

As we see, the quote above gives full scope for all forms of vast and

massive prasadam distribution that can secure governmental and business

community's support. And if we come to conclude that all we have to do to

secure their full cooperation in our devotional service to Krsna is just to

be organized, reliable AND socially relevant -- what's wrong with that?

 

Please forgive me for my being so long-winded and brazen here.

 

Begging to remain

 

your servant,

Madana-mohana das