Nanda-grama wrote:Generally, this is good thing- to speak and to live by same way. But it should be so-at the first to live according own nature and to then to express it. In ISKCON all was on the contrary- there was definite matrix of what person should speak and then he tried to live according it.
.Simhacalam.de -
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As you may know consciousness is understood to be not a product of matter but rather a symptom of the soul.
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When we look at all the people on the photo above who are gathered in the temple room of the Prahlad Nrsimhadeva temple in Jandelsbrunn in the south of Germany close to the border to Austria one may ask oneself why do this people actually behave in such a way? Grown up people who are bowing down in front of a plant. Very, very strange. Are this people not in their right mind or why are they doing such things? Is this the way to act like a grown-up person an onlooker from outside might ask.
But for one who is living within such groups like ISKCON or others of this kind such a behavior might be quite normal. The reason to do such things and behave in such a submissive manner every morning, or whenever one may meet ones guru, another swami or come in front of the deities of Radha Krishna or Lord Nrsimhadeva might be or is self-evident and natural. Now one may ask why is this so? The answer is because one accepted such a behavior as a means to an end or goal, to become Krishna conscious, self-realized and so on. And as the proverb goes there's no fool like an old fool, one does or may really believe and have faith in this "
process of devotional service," a term invented by Prabhupada as a description for the Sanskrit term bhakti yoga. And often this "devotional service" was and is understood by the members or followers of such groups as a kind of "
military service" or "social welfare service" (book distribution and so on) for the other people whose souls were "struggling in the clutches of maya", which is or was practiced and executed for the goal one had or has in mind. Growing on the job so to speak and become Krishna conscious, God conscious, and realize or become aware of oneself as spirit soul, part and parcel of the Supreme Soul and act and behave accordingly. And since many are or were too young to be experienced one is or was really believing that such a thing would be indeed possible.
As you may know the concept was that everything belonged to Krishna, to the deities on the altar. I remember in this regard an incident from my time (in Iskcon) when I was put together with another man to be in charge and to take care of the cows and bulls of the Nrsimha farm seen above, here in Germany. It was around the year 1986 when a young man came on a visit to the farm in the Bavarian forest near Passau. He stood overnight and decided than to stay longer. On the ground floor of the temple building seen above was the kitchen and a few rooms where we were eating together, man and woman in separate rooms, on the first floor was the temple building and a few other rooms and the office of the temple president. On the second floor were the living rooms were the brahmacaris were sleeping at night on the floor in their sleeping bags, there were no beds. The woman were living and sleeping also on the bare floor in the building seen behind the temple building.
Than there was some free place for sleeping under the roof, the garret, were we sometimes also deposited some things. This man made there his place to stay and to live in "Krishna's temple". The first time he was OK, he helped us during the day in the cow barn or house. There was a lot to do we had around 14 cows, and 8 bulls or so, I don't remember the exact number now anymore. It was summertime and in the morning after milking the cows we were driving them outside on the pasture ground for grazing (there are around 10 hectares there) and in the evening back to the cow barn were we were milking the cows. It was a full time job of around 12 hours a day. We were engaged also a lot with the agriculture. So after some time this man felt that this work or "devotional service" was to much or to hard so he very often was not helping us anymore.
Temple room in Simhacalam
He was just staying and sleeping in "his room" under the roof and just came to eat prasadam whenever it was served to the members of the community. He was reading a lot and was also participating sometimes to the morning and evening temple program where he always heard during the lectures that this was Krishnas temple, where we were all living and serving, that we were all members of Krishnas society, ISKCON and so on. So he slowly developed the understanding that we were all just guests in the house of Krishna or in this case Lord Nrsimhadeva. So as a guest he felt he could do whatever he liked and nobody could force him to work or do anything, since he was just a guest among all other guests, meaning us. And that the building he was living was not ours or anybodies rather belonged to Krishna and the deities. Who is Krishna? Well who knows what his understanding was.
After two or three weeks this behavior become to much for our temple president, Ashoka Kumara, who felt that this man is not in his right mind since he was just eating and sleeping so called on the expenses of others meaning us all who were living and working there. So he one day went up the stairs and under the roof and told this guy to leave the building since he was not working anything or was not doing any "devotional service". I was at that time also in our sleeping rooms on the second floor and listened to the conversation.
The man was just defending his right to stay in "Krishna's temple" and Ashoka Kumar had to even force him physically together with a few other man to get him down from "his living room" in "Krishnas temple." This event just shows that all this talk is just relative. All to often it was just a pretext to defend ones own understanding or point of view. As the saying goes "faith can move mountains" but cannot necessarily prevent one to make a spectacle of oneself.
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When I came to ISKCON I just finished to training in conservatoire very successfully,but " authoriteties" told me: if you want to be disciple of Vishnupada you should sell books. I thought:" why should I sell books? I never sold something!" They told me: "understand,mataji, when you play violin your desecrate consciousness spreads itself through this music. In order to be purged you should preach!" After I had studied to sell books good and to do it not simply as sale and to get enjoy from it. May be, I suppressed my nature then but ,may be, I found some other aspects of myself. Any way this was not my choice.My husband who cooks very tasty was cook in ISKCON and all loved his " prasadam" but he always thought about himself as about a person of second sort because he could not cell books good. Even when he became president of a temple he thought that he could not satisfy his spiritual master because he was not good distributer of book 
. The nature of man and person himself was not valuable in ISKCON, it's energy or egregor simply used people.
