Why salary?

[Guest guest]

Why salary? Krsna's servant. We are eternal servant. That is the beauty of

our institution. We have no hired men.

 

Srila Prabhupada in a Conversation on August 3, 1976, New Mayapur (French

farm)

[Guest guest]

>Really? When I was in my Guru Maharaja's asrama there was never any

>idea of this... and I would never ever have expected it anywhere...

 

That is the difference between a small personal ashram where the guru is

personally present and controlling the center, and an international society

of temples where gurus are no allowed control over the centers.

 

In a small ashram it is natural for the initiated disciples to want to stay

and serve their guru in his temple (a situation where they will not consider

remuneration).

 

Since ISKCON is less guru-centered it results in less dedication to the

local center. Devotees become free-agents, finding little reason to dedicate

themselves to the local center as opposed to any of the hundreds of centers

in the world. They become fruitive and look for the temple where they will

benefit the most in exchange for their service.

 

For whatever reason, people are willing to sacrifice their life for a person

(the guru), not for an institution. Even in the times of the zonal acharya's

the temple's were full of devotees serving for free without salary. It is

simply the reality of a guru-centered society. Whether the guru is authentic

or bhogus, the guru centered culture leads to self-sacrifice, or sacrifice

for the cause of the guru.

 

Thus it is not amazing that in your guru's ashram people are serving without

monetary remuneration, as that ashram is centered on the personality of the

guru.

 

There are benefits and drawbacks for such guru-centered societies. ISKCON in

the times of Prabhupada was the most guru-centric, and ISKCON flourished.

Latter the same guru-centric ISKCON failed when some gurus were not up to

par - though it could have succeeded provided the gurus hadn't failed their

disciples.