susvagatam jagannatha

[Guest guest]

My dear Devakinandana Prabhu,

 

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

 

> I spoke to Pacaratna prabhu who is our Sankirtana leader and he said that

> in Juhu we are not selling any commercial casettes. Only casettes we are

> selling are those which are sung by ISKCON devotees and some casettes like

> those sung by Hari Om Sharan, Jagjit & Chitra Singh which were authorised

> by previous management.

 

Thank you for the good news about the commercial casettes in Juhu now.

 

> I am of the opinion that it is high time that Indian leaders start

> thinking of boiling the milk. Prabhupada said 'purity is the force'. So

> let us bring back purity in ISKCON by throwing out all the so called ways

> and means for public attraction, profit and adoration.

 

I certainly agree with the principle here.

 

> How to stop this?

 

The leaders must be sincere, and they must allow only sincere devotees to

join. Here, Srila Prabhupada suggested we open downtown preaching centers

with chairs and regular lectures rather than more big temples. He said the

intelligent class wants substantial knowledge, not more temple worship. He

further said that when we have big temples and Deity worship, the leaders

think they need more men and money to maintain them and so fill the temples

with less qualified men. Srila Prabhupada's ideas were practical and bold,

but we tend to fall into the stereotyped pattern of "showing the Deity" to

attract people and collect money--rather than attracting and inspiring

people by intelligent and relevant discourses, as Srila Prabhupada wanted.

The point may seem subtle, but temple worship can also become one of "the

so-called ways and means for public attraction, profit and adoration," and

lead to more complications and compromises.

 

(In other words, "preaching is the essence" supports "purity is the force.")

 

Thank you. Hare Krishna.

 

Your servant,

Giriraj Swami