If we take payment, that is not service.
That is business.
BY: DWIJAMANI DAS
Oct 12, USA (SUN) — I've spent a great deal of time researching the subject of ISKCON wages. For many years, as a brahmacari in England, I accepted the situation of certain key householders receiving a wage. "It's sanctioned by the GBC so it must be in line with the instructions of Srila Prabhupada," I thought. There were only a handful of paid devotees, all "essential" to preaching and it was "a waste of ISKCON resources, after years of training, to lose them to a karmi job" (to quote a prominent GBC and Guru).
Spending many long hours in freezing rain on the street, collecting money to pay the wages of householders in their comfy office, seemed a tad weird. But we had faith in our 1st generation Guru and GBC -- he wouldn't, couldn't possibly be misleading us, could he?
The development of Vedabase has possibly been the cause of much concern and tribulation for 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 costs a mere $10.
One day, a few years ago, while using Vedabase, I thought to myself, "I wonder what Srila Prabhupada actually said about wages?" Turns out, 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 had many? The one in favor of 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 pushing forward Srila Prabhupada's Sankirtana movement, but I had to ask why this new position was automatically a paid one. They didn't have any intention of first asking for a volunteer. This was so very odd, you see, because there are many, many places where Srila Prabhupada had forbidden 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 a person could easily be confused. Could he please give 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. After some time, his head drooped a little and the word "NO" slipped out of his mouth.
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 under 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 of chairs. Then all at once, they just carried on with the meeting. Apparently, arguing about who was going to get the job was more important than discussing the instructions of His Divine Grace.
By the way, that was the last management related Town Meeting at New Vrindaban for the past two and a half years. We were promised more, but they never happened. Or perhaps we simply weren't invited.
