Aiding the poor, hungry victims of the Orissa cyclone

[Guest guest]

Dear Maharajas and Prabhus, PAMHO. AGTSP!

 

Apparently there was some earlier discussion which I missed, as I have

received only this text from Nayana Ranjana Prabhu. The topic needs to be

debated and resolved so that confusion does not arise in the future. The two

quotes from Srila Prabhupada seem pretty clear that at least at that point

in time he did not want us to be in the front lines of relief work rubbing

shoulders with CARE and other NGO's. And it seems that the proposal is that

this should be made as ISKCON policy.

 

But there is clearly another side to the story. Thus I am adding Anuttama

Prabhu and Priyavrata Prabhu as receivers. I just received a text from

Anuttama which mentioned that he is in the process of applying to the UN for

recognition as an NGO like CARE, etc. I am sure that he is aware of the two

quotes from Srila Prabhupada and he has done a lot of thinking about these

subject matters, but still he thinks that this is good type of activity for

our society. So many factors have to be weighed. Our public image is

extremely important in many ways, but there is also a risk that the devotees

will forget about our main business of serving Hari, Guru and Vaishnavas,

and instead think that it is more important to serve mankind.

 

Perhaps our top IC devotees can enlighten us.

 

Your servant, Bhaktarupa Das

 

PS. The two quotes are replicated here from Nayana Ranjana's text:

 

> > So I am hopeful that if we can

> > widely distribute free foodstuffs to the people of India, by giving it

> > out at our centers as well as by travelling parties to villages, we will

> > win over the whole country and the whole world by this activity on

> > Krsna's behalf.

>

> > "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, 28 September 1976