Apr 14, '07 TORONTO, CANADA — Giving in charity to the brahmanas is essential to Vedic culture. Our Iskcon society may be benefited tremendously if we simply encourage our congregational grhastas to actually do this! There are too many poverty-restricted brahmanas, but where is the program to ensure that they are given sufficient charity to maintain themselves and their families, what to speak of performing the brahminical duty of expansively passing such charity on to others in need? Who better to empower than the surrendered, poverty-stricken devotees? Who do we want in control, a selfless brahmana or a self-motivated administrator? So where does Krsna’s Iskcon money go? Are the congregational members encouraged to give charity to the brahmanas, or are our brahmanas considered to be kali-yuga fakes not worthy of spending any money to support? I am not talking salaries here, but spontaneous donations to worthy devotees.
A place to sleep, nutritious prasadam, and steady service is more than enough charity to satisfy this brahmana-wannabe, but I myself have no family and no personal aspirations to great wealth except inasmuch as is required to keep body and soul together. I know of several devotees, just off the top of my head, who are pure devotees, but living in dire circumstances with no resources, sometimes ill, sometimes feeling forsaken, but still remaining in pure loving attachment to the Lord. I wish to see distribution of the resources a little more evenly. How is it that some sannyasis apparently control millions, while other Godbrothers who are pure and devoted have hardly a pair of socks without holes in them? I know that these prabhus do not complain, so all the more shame on the rest of us for failing to support the brahmanas adequately. Does the rule of every man for himself control us?
Our culture supports austerity, and it is evident enough, but we also stand for supporting devotional service. Who does more active service than the lowly sweeper of floors and cleaners of pots, the surrendered souls? Again, living in a temple is ideal, and should be encouraged, rather than discouraged as seems to be the case in some Canadian temples. There is inadequate facility to even house the devotees, but thousands are spent on up-grading pujari facilities, etc. and paying salaries to mixed devotees. Huge festivals go on, while Krsnadasa hasn’t even dental service. They will be rewarded, and Krsna knows their wages fair, so there is ultimately no loss on their part. But the rest of us will pay in hell if we fail to recognize the devotees as God-like and worthy of every support.
Like most others, I have had to take up work in order to maintain, instead of being at the temple preaching, where I actually belong, and where Srila Prabhupada intended those in the renounced ashrams to be. If we are finding that Srila Prabhupada’s disciples are largely living outside of the Iskcon structures, it is in part because there was no choice, there was no support, there was no encouragement. Those who have steadily stayed in Iskcon deserve less credit than is given, as many of these were in positions of privilege and power, and so for them it was relatively easy. So far as samadhis, build them for the 100% sincere devotees who split when some of our Godbrothers went nuts and tried prematurely to become themselves as good as God, forcing their greedy sick egos on the rest of us. Let those who said, “No change!” to Srila Prabhupada’s instructions be glorified, not those innovators who consider themselves better than our Sampradaya Founder-Acarya, and who continue to thus screw things up to the anxiety of the rest of us.
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