Material system is a failure!

July 1, 2005

Hare Krishna!

All glories to Srila Prabhupada! I offer my humble obeisances unto him!

I was reminiscing and wondering how this world, the media and so forth has portrayed Hare Krishnas.

It is sad to see that how in this age of Kali, people just point fingers and criticize very easily. If i do a google search on Hare Krishna, most of the individuals anecdotes are but crass depiction of the Hare Krishnas.

I have not seen one article by any individual (outside the ISKCON society) who has talked nice about the Vaishnava tradition and its heritage and how it has transformed many people's lives significantly (turn around of 360 deg).

I work in a non-profit in the US and believe me when i say this, the non-profits spend millions of dollars of donation money to "TRY" to change people's lives. The key word is "TRY" and they actually dont change anything. The non-profit industry has been in this country successfully for more than 100 years and yet today there is a greater need to bridge the gap between the haves and have nots.

However, if the non-profits successfully change a persons life, the media makes a big deal out of it and they use it to generate more donations. I have been to many meetings where they talk only about change in couple of people's lives and how they changed it and i know for a fact the non-profits (not just one), close to the entire bunch in a particular city spend in millions of doallrs (to what- to change 2 or 3 people's lives significantly).

Of-course the spending of dollars depends on the size of the city and its population. Nevertheless, a decent sized city of more than 100,000 population spends more than 20million in donation dollars on charity and non-profit work and guess how many people are impacted, only a handful (iam indicating in a significant life-changing manner and not some help or service rendered to the disadvantaged).

The local MEDIA makes this a big HOOPLA and celebrate this as the success of humanity. I just was in one such HOOPLA in Marriott hotel(they spend so much money just for the food and place) where they were patting themselves in the back. Of-course, this is another strategy to boast and milk more money from the business community. However, the point remains, the Hare-Krishnas have changed many people's lives significantly while the material system has failed, yet, we are portrayed by the media only for bad things (probably isolated incidents committed by one or two people).

Not a single article i have read talks about Srila Prabhupada "SINGLE HANDEDLY" transforming millions of lives (not some service) but significant change from drug addiction and vagabond lifestyle to the highest grade of men- from the deepest mire to the highest echelons of human character.

Ofcourse, i recognize there are devotees who have fallen and also many have been affected emotionaly and physically. But, one has to remember this is the material world where people make mistakes. But that doesnt undermine the greatness of the Society as a whole and the greatness of the Srila Prabhupada's significant impact on people's lives (especially Americans who were not raised or introduced to Krishna or Vaishnava philosophy)

This reiterates that we live in the age of Kali and hence it is all the more important to NOT to LOSE FAITH and be more TOLERANT to the general PUBLIC and go the Extra Mile to help the deluded people.

Also, it shows how the material system is but a 'showbottle' of sorts where not necessarily millions of dollars is needed to change a persons life but all it needs is love and compassion towards people and how God is the ultimate savior of mankind and not the MONEY created by MAN.

THIS IS MY OPINION and EXPERIENCE!

HARIBOL!

anand