{"id":4873,"date":"2007-12-04T17:26:13","date_gmt":"2007-12-04T16:26:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=4873"},"modified":"2007-12-04T17:26:13","modified_gmt":"2007-12-04T16:26:13","slug":"we%e2%80%99re-looking-for-a-few-good-vaisnavas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=4873","title":{"rendered":"We\u2019re looking for a few good vaisnavas"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Candra dasa<\/strong><\/p>\n

After having a substantial discourse with one of my favorite senior godbrothers, friend and disciple of Srila Prabhupada, Chandra Shekar das and I labored over the future prospects of IPM (ISKCON PRISON MINISTRY). Rather how do we meet the demands of a growing inmate populace with a fixed number of IPM volunteers? Due to my great fortune I was honored to tackle this issue with one of the pioneers of IPM. Hence, we appropriated the slogan \u201cWe\u2019re looking for a few good men\u201d and replaced it with the word \u201cvaisnavas\u201d. Naturally, this slogan morphed into a mission statement, which spawned our desire to meet the needs of the most falling and often neglected, \u201cthe prisoners within the prison, within the prison\u201d. <\/p>\n

So our obvious dilemma was how to expend a growing demand for preaching programs, books and letter correspondence etc. The obvious solution to the dilemma was to get more vaisnavas volunteers. This was easier said than done. In our estimation, Europe and South American was growing leaps and bounds and it seem that many devotees were indulging themselves in these fertile pastures, all the while neglecting the starting point, the geneses of this illustrious movement in the west: ISKCON. There have been vast discourses about what caused the drought stricken North American to be so challenged with attracting new devotees. Some have conjectured that the golden age of ISKCON when one would shave up and move into the temple is over. Others maintained that the interest in the philosophy is not the same; rather there is no great crisis that spawned a cultural revolution, which was concurrent with Prabhupada coming to North America. Others simply say that a combination of new and old generations of devotees have become materially fixated and or complacent with spreading the movement in their respective communities. <\/p>\n

Oddly enough Srila Prabhupada was confronted with a unique set of objections, which were not all that dissimilar to the challenges we face today as he endeavored to spread this movement to the west. For example, his contemporaries chastised him for initiating women, melechas, and or those who were not born of a brahminical parentage. Similarly, Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu encountered formidable malaise, which ranged from being the dancing sannyasi (not complementary) to physically embracing and initiating the untouchables, which was taboo for the upper crust, or a first class man. A notable mention Srila Haridasa Thakura, certainly stood-out as an issue of contention for a community preoccupied with material status or cast. He was an intimate associated of Lord Caitanya in spite of him being a melecha, as so termed, from the Mohammedian faith. Yet, we all are fully aware of the exalted position Srila Haridasa Thakura holds in the modernity of propagating the holy name. <\/p>\n

Regardless if there is some anecdotal validity to our modern consternation to reaching and preaching to inmates, it does not specifically address the aversion many hold to preaching to this community of imprisoned jivas. A direct account from Chandra Shekar helped to shed some light on sentiments offered by many devotees. Yet before we recount these statements, we would first like to state that our efforts to report these comments are not meant to disparage the devotees who were open and honest to expressing their fears and reservation, rather we wanted to illustrate that this minds set does exist prior to offering recourses for these objections. <\/p>\n

Chandra Shekar reiterated statements he has collected from years of requesting devotee participation, which goes as follows: \u201cThey are getting what the deserve\u2026Why should we help these rascals\u2026its not safe to associate with this caliber of people\u201d. It is safe to say as previously illustrated that Lord Caitanya, Srila Prabhupada and Jesus as well as other pioneers herd similar statements. How fortunate we are (the once untouchables) that we have the luxury to repeat these statements while basking in the comfort of the mercy of those who sacrificed much for our spiritual emancipation. At some point these inmates will be released, released with the very same tools (if not better) that brought them to the prison within the prison. Our shelter from them is loosely constructed of straw, wood and mortar, which only resemble a glass houses at best. Our criticisms of this serviceable group can be equated to throwing stones at them while inside our glass domain. <\/p>\n

Many of us have been expert in identifying the problem, but solutions have been less than forthcoming. Therefore, Chandra Shakar and I wanted to consult the scriptures, believing that this dilemma was not a new one. Subscribing to the axiom that \u201cthere is nothing new under the sun\u201d we found in the C.C Antya lila 3:50 through 90, a wonderful dialog between Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Srila Haridasa Thakura that specifically address some sentiments about devotees aversions to ministering to the leopards of society. Lord Caitanya offers his anxiety to Srila Haridasa Thakura with the following statements:<\/p>\n

CC Antya 3.50: “My dear T\u0323h\u0101kura Harid\u0101sa, in this Age of Kali most people are bereft of Vedic culture, and therefore they are called yavanas. They are concerned only with killing cows and brahminical culture. In this way they all engage in sinful acts.
\nCC Antya 3.51: “How will these yavanas be delivered? To My great unhappiness, I do not see any way.”
\nCC Antya 3.52: Harid\u0101sa T\u0323h\u0101kura replied, “My dear Lord, do not be in anxiety. Do not be unhappy to see the condition of the yavanas in material existence.
\nCC Antya 3.53: “Because the yavanas are accustomed to saying ‘h\u0101 r\u0101ma, h\u0101 r\u0101ma’ [‘O Lord R\u0101macandra’], they will very easily be delivered by this n\u0101m\u0101bh\u0101sa.
\nCC Antya 3.54: “A devotee in advanced ecstatic love exclaims, ‘O my Lord R\u0101macandra! O my Lord R\u0101macandra!’ But the yavanas also chant, ‘h\u0101 r\u0101ma, h\u0101 r\u0101ma!’ Just see their good fortune!”
\nCC Antya 3.55: N\u0101m\u0101c\u0101rya Harid\u0101sa T\u0323h\u0101kura, the authority on the chanting of the holy name, said, “The chanting of the Lord’s holy name to indicate something other than the Lord is an instance of n\u0101m\u0101bh\u0101sa. Even when the holy name is chanted in this way, its transcendental power is not destroyed.
\nCC Antya 3.56: “‘Even a mleccha who is being killed by the tusk of a boar and who cries in distress again and again, “h\u0101 r\u0101ma, h\u0101 r\u0101ma” attains liberation. What then to speak of those who chant the holy name with veneration and faith?’
\nCC Antya 3.57: “Aj\u0101mila was a great sinner during his life, but at the time of death he accidentally called for his youngest son, whose name was N\u0101r\u0101yan\u0323a, and the attendants of Lord Vis\u0323n\u0323u came to relieve him from the bonds of Yamar\u0101ja, the superintendent of death.
\nOur weapon in this age of Kali is the vaisnava. They like Srila Haridasa Thakura, are armed with the holy name. We can provided that instrument and facilitate the mission of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu only by accepting the order of spreading the holy name in every town and village which does not exclude the prison within the prison. If you feel that you have the suitable set of skills to embrace this endeavor please contact Chandra Shekar at chandra16108@yahoo.com, Shyama Priya devi dasi at shyamapriya@aol.com, Bhakta Jerry at IPM 1716 West Lunt Chicago, Ill 60626 or visit our website at namahatta.org\/en\/prison_preach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"HareBy Candra dasa<\/strong><\/p>\n

After having a substantial discourse with one of my favorite senior godbrothers, friend and disciple of Srila Prabhupada, Chandra Shekar das and I labored over the future prospects of IPM (ISKCON PRISON MINISTRY)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-announce"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4873\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}