Begging Money for Expensive Electronic Toys

BY: JAHNAVA NITAI DAS

Jan 10, 2014 — BHADRAK, ORISSA (SUN) — Feeding poor children is bad, but begging money to buy expensive electronic toys is good?

Recently I saw a ridiculous post on Facebook by Basu Ghosh das, President of the Baroda ISKCON temple in India. The title of his post was:

"Appeal - continuing to upgrade my camera equipment - need support from you!"

Basically he was asking for the congregation of devotees to donate money to him so he could buy a $2,500 USD camera lens to "upgrade his camera equipment". I posted a comment to him, which quickly resulted in him banning me from his page, where I questioned whether it is appropriate to waste Krishna's money on electronic toys that no normal working person could afford.

Basu Ghosh speaks very vocally against distributing food or prasadam to poor children. How can someone think it is bad to feed a poor child, but think it is fine to beg for money to buy an expensive electronic toy to play around with? These ISKCON leaders are out of touch with reality.

The following is the comment I sent to him, which resulted in him banning me from his page:

Not trying to make you angry, but how can you justify asking the public to pay for a camera costing thousands of dollar, which most working people can't afford themselves, while you have many times criticized feeding food to poor children? So you think its bad to feed food to poor children, but you think it is good for people to buy you a professional camera costing thousands of dollars so you can play around with it?

Further, in all of your posted albums I see you are in the pictures. So who is the camera actually for? Who is it that is taking the pictures of you that you are posting? Is this camera a toy for someone else, or perhaps for one of your assistants?

Having already "upgraded" your camera in the past to another costly model, I fail to understand the necessity for you to spend many thousands of dollars of the public's money for something which will basically be used as a toy. Do you realize that when you upload your 20 megapixel photos to facebook, they still end up donwsized to 1,000 pixels wide after being uploaded? You don't need a professional camera to post pictures to facebook, google plus, or the internet.

I personally feel that you as well as most of the iskcon leadership are completely out of touch with reality. Those who have not had to earn money to live, lose the ability to value things properly. I don't know of any working person who could even think to pay many thousands of dollars for a camera, both those living in the west and in India.

Would people in Baroda, where you live, think it is a proper utilization of Krishna's money to spend many lakhs of rupees to buy an electronic gadget? Is this the proper example for ISKCON devotees to set for the public, who often earn only a few thousand rupees a month after working very hard?

When many people in society are having difficulty to even find a job, does it seem right to throw thousands of dollars away on toys at the public's expense? How is this any better than the politicians who also misuse the public's money through corruption?

Is this the example of "Simple Living and High Thinking" that Srila Prabhupada wanted his disciples to follow? Would Srila Prabhupada approve of a temple president asking the devotee congregation to give him thousands of dollars to buy an electronic toy, when he already possessed other cameras which would perform just as well for his purpose?

For someone who is so vocal against feeding the poor, I am surprised that you think expensive electronic toys are a proper channel for charity. And as you are a leader in ISKCON I think you are setting a terrible example for simple living as Srila Prabhupada had taught. To save money Srila Prabhupada did not let temple presidents communicate by phone, but insisted they communicate by letter instead. There is no way Srila Prabhupada would be happy with this wasteful example you are setting at public's expense.

The full content of his original post is as follows:

From Basu Ghosh Das's facebook page

"Appeal - continuing to upgrade my camera equipment - need support from you!"

January 6, 2014 at 12:18pm

Dear facebook friends,

Namaskaar. Hare Krishna!

Many of you are familiar with the many photo albums that Ihave been publishing on the internet over the past several years.

Here is the link to my latest photo albums:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/basughoshdas/photos_albums

and internet:

https://plus.google.com/u/1/photos/112544826681615168208/albums

The quality of the photos that I have been posting on the internet has increased over the years, mainly due to being able to upgrade my camera equipment with the help of some generous donors.

Back during October 2010, I acquired a Canon "Rebel T1"entry level SLR digital camera. Later on someone brought me a 100 – 200 mm zoom lens for that camera.

Later on here at Baroda, one of the temple's well-wishers and donors was inspired by my photographic endeavors, and donated us a NikonD-3000 entry level SLR digital camera.

Subsequently, this past April, a very generous businessman at Dubai, was kind enough to help me upgrade my camera equipment further, and he covered the entire cost of a much more advanced SLR camera, the Canon EOS6D, which came with a 24-105 mm lens.

Now, to once again upgrade this present equipment, it is my desire to acquire a Canon 28-300 lens. The cost of this new lens is US $2,500.

Sriman Radhananda Das (aka "Jaimin Barot") who resides at Miami, Florida, has come forward to cover some of the costs of this lens. A godbrother from Miami, Sriman Jayadhvaj Das, who is in touch with Radhananda Prabhu, will be coming to India in two weeks time and is planning to come to Baroda on January 29, 2014 and will carry the lens here when he comes.

In view of the above, I would like to humbly appeal to you all to help us meet the remaining cost of this camera lens.

To contribute any amount towards this end, please contact Radhananda Prabhu via e-mail at: , and he will guide you as to how to send the funds to him so he can purchase the lens and send it here with Jayadhvaj Prabhu. He has a paypal account into which you can deposit your kind contribution.

Thanks very much for your kind consideration of the above humble request.

Hope this meets you and your family members well.

Yours,

Basu Ghosh Das
President – ISKCON Baroda

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