Putting ISKCON in perspective

Why ISKCON seems to only focus on well-to-do people?

I have some thoughts on this, stated below:

- We must tell the people that ISKCON goes to the intelligencia, to the IITs, and other top colleges because that’s the fastest way of spreading the movement. These people have tremendous potential and can do wonders when their energies are channelised properly. If we focus our preaching effors on the illiterate, poor, and so on, then where is the hope of spreading the movement. However, once we have very intelligent and competent people, they can then start up preaching (and other devotional activities like Kirtan and Prasadam distribution etc.) in the other sections of the society. The policy is to first create a lot of competent devotees, and then send them out to conquer more and more unconquered land! The ultimate goal is to spread the movement in every town and village on the face of Earth and for that its imperative that we have the best as our leaders!

- Having said that, it doesn’t mean that ISKCON neglects the poor! On the contrary, the only way to help the poor is to inspire the rich and talented to help the have-nots. Thus, because of having such talented and competent and intelligent and compassionate associates, gradually, ISKCON's influence is spreading to a wider and wider spectrum of the society. Thus, even if in the major preaching centers one might see the majority as the well-to-do, a lot of activity happens elsewhere which is often unknown to the casual observer.

- Furthermore, there is no organisation in the world that can totally satisfy all the food and shelter needs of the poor people in general. Therefore, its not quite logical to put that responsibility on ISKCON, knowing full well that that is not ISKCON's focus area anyway. Just like, one cannot go and accuse a school for not providing food and shelter to the students outside of school hours! Or, one cannot go to a cardiologist and accuse him that he is not curing brain diseases!

- Even people who do not understand the profound spiritual mission of ISKCON have a lot to appreciate. They can easily look upon ISKCON as an international educational organisation with organised professional grade teaching about the highest Vedic principles hapenning all over the world. Then, people can look upon ISKCON as a Yoga institution which is teaching the highest principles of Bhakti Yoga to the general mass of people free or at some easily affordable costs. This involves highly scientific concepts, most prominent of which is the Mantra Meditation (chanting of Hare Krishna MahaMantra!) This has given relief and brought joy to about a million people in the world as of today! Then, people can look upon ISKCON as an organization that distributes a lot of free food (which is actually prasadam!!) all around the world. ISKCON's "Food For Life" organization is one of the largest, if not the largest organization in the world that distributes free vegetarian food! These are just a few instances of the many many that prove that ISKCON is as good as (if not better than) any other social work organization. In this regard, you might want to visit the following link : The Barsana Eye Camp


- However, ISKCON is way way more than just a social work organization. It is the movement of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu who is Krishna Himself, according to a lot of major Vedic literatures like the Srimad Bhagavatam and the MahaBharat. It is an organization that systematically propogates the message of God using the latest technological tools in order to reach the most number of people in as less time as possible. It is providing the opportunity for the general mass of people to transcend the cycle of repeated birth and death and go back to the Kingdom of God that is promised in the various major religious scriptures of the world.

Your servant,
Abhijit.