Thank you.
Hare krsna
AGTSP ! ! !

We’ll be there in a week!

Prabhupada: If we take payment, that is not service. That is business. That is business.

>>> Ref. VedaBase => Conversation with the GBC — March 27, 1975, Mayapur

My copy of Vedabase has BBT Early editions pre 1978 so they should be OK. Right?

Looking forward to seeing you guys.

Dwija

So.. didn’t anyone ever show Jayadwaita Swami any of those conversations where Prabhupada said “don’t change my books?” Or doesn’t that count?

Now, while the whole wearing robes, interfaith thing was not something I was ever particularly into, when it was presented by senior devotees of the time such as Kirtananda, Devamrita Swami, Radhanatha Swami, and many Prabhupada disciples and long time devotees, it did have a certain logic to it. (The point is we’re supposed to preach, if this makes it easier for people to accept the message, we should do it.)

I personally did not find that it was better for preaching, but that’s what the senior devotees were saying, so who was I to publicly object.

I will never forget the day that all our gut feelings were completely validated. Someone showed us a letter from years ago where Srila Prabhupada wrote to Kirtananda telling him not to preach in this way. Oh my God! Did I read that right? I could not believe it! How did no one ever point this out before? (This was after several years of the “changes”)

After the winnebago incident it was quite the in vogue thing for big shot devotees to visit New Vrindaban. When Jayadwaita Swami was here there was an open program where he was talking to all of us, mostly about how stupid we were to follow such insanity. He gave a very good example:

If your temple president tells you, “Go preach on 52nd street. Do not go to 48th street.” A situation may come up where once you’re on 52nd street things don’t work out so well, so you may decide to go to any other street, but you’d be a fool to go to 48th street. That would be directly disobeying instructions.

Then he continued to say how no one in ISKCON could believe that we were all following Kirtananda in this, as Prabhupada had specifically said not to do it. I remember thinking at the time that it would have been nice for those who knew about these letters from Srila Prabhupada to show them to us, it could have saved us a lot of suffering. But anyway.

So it seems that now we have a similar situation with temples paying wages. It may even make some sense on some levels to us conditioned souls. But the fact remains that Srila Prabhupada said not to do it.

Have we learned nothing?

As for the Vedic Library with only the edited books, you *can* get it with the unedited, original books here. The BBT seems to make it, but does not distribute it. I could be mistaken though, maybe they don’t make it, however, I think they do. Either way, you can get it for $10 from Krishnastore.com. Yay!

The development of Vedabase has possibly been the cause of much concern and tribulation to the powers that be. Perhaps that’s why the full version, with the ability to search and cross reference lectures, conversations and letters of Srila Prabhupada costs $400 and the Vedic Library which only has the (edited) books only costs $10.

One day, I thought to myself “I wonder what Srila Prabhupada actually said about wages.” He said a lot more then you might think. I started to compile a list. One side for quotes against Temple wages and the other side for quotes in favor of wages. After some time, one column had many and the other had NONE. Can anyone guess which one was empty? The one against wages of course. All is well, we have not been cheated and lied to by our leaders and Gurus. The system we have now is just as Srila Prabhupada desired. All glories to our wonderful GBC.

Is anyone buying this?

If you answered YES to that last question, please leave your brain at the door, it’s defective.

A couple of years ago, there was a New Vrindaban town meeting to discuss hiring a new Temple Manager. All kinds of big shots were there. GBC’s, Trustees, Board Members, senior devotees galore. When given the chance, I expressed the desire of many 2nd generation devotees to join together in Prabhupada’s sankirtan movement but I had to ask why this new position was automatically a paid one. They didn’t have any intention of asking for a volunteer. This was so very odd you see because there are many, many places where Prabhupada had forbiden Iskcon from paying wages.

Tamohar prabhu, one of the five GBC’s present, explained that “Prabhupada said different things, at different times, in different places and it’s easy to become confused.” I admitted that I had heard that before and that some people could easily be confused. Could he please give me an example of when Srila Prabhupada DID sanction a Temple paying wages. The room fell silent while the prabhu meditated on His Divine Grace, no doubt formulating an answer that would help me understand how things really are. All at once his head drooped a little and the word “NO” came forth. Not to worry, surly one of our other GBC’s can quote an example, I mean, this is a principle that Iskcon’s been working on for the last thirty years. Did an answer come? From anyone; in a room packed with senior devotees? NO. Only silence filled the air and a perhaps a nervous shuffle. Then all at once, they all just carried on with the meeting. Arguing about who was going to get the job.

By the way. That was the last Town Meeting at New Vrindaban for the past two and a half years. We were promised more, but they never happened. Or perhaps we weren’t invited.

Dwija.

It’s my understanding that grihastas are not supposed to leave their jobs to preach full time. For the reasons you mention and more.

You are such a beautiful sweet devotee, I think a part of you would always feel unhappy if you did decide to accept that offer. Hope you’re doing well.