Jagannatha's blogging Hut

If all your problem is bums, drugadicts and derelicts, then is your mismanagement. 2 bads (bum interruption, then charging feast) cannot give a “good”.
Have you though of other solutions?

My experience in AU or any first world country is that even bums can pay $5. So what drove them away (positive in your view, a disaster in mine) wasn’t probably the price.

If you give free, then you have the moral right to arrange and command people for a peaceful program for everyone. I explained some tips on my above post. I had this experience too, and I managed to accommodate everybody.

And, what happens if the hippies outnumber the “normal”.? are you going to throw away the “normals”.

I think trying to get rid of people is anti-mercy. Then talk about maha-vadanya, saviour of the most fallen, etc etc

It becomes meaningless.

http://www.pariprashnena.com/discussion/190/should-sunday-feast-be-charged/#Item_5

Tamal Krishna Maharaj innovation is not necessarily the best thing to do. Srila Prabhupada was very practical and he allowed many things that at the end, we westerners made into disasters, like money focused book distribution (another TKG innovation), etc

Srila Prabhupada himself never charged his Feasts at Matchless gifts, did he?

I have an argument that might interest you. I have practical experience in starting a (successful) temple from scratch. So I am not speaking on others information, but my own.

I NEVER charged Sunday Feast.
Lets see some arguments in favor of charging:

+ the costs of the bhoga should come from somewhere
+ people will appreciate more when they pay
+ you stop bums from coming

my view from experience:

Why we see Sunday Feast as an expense and buying a new car (for the temple) as an asset?

You should see the Sunday Feast as an asset not an expense. Krishna will reciprocate million-fold.

People will appreciate more in the case of a book, but the prasadam is our special purifying preaching secret weapon, and the use of this weapon is better for free

Why?

Apart from the purifying effect we all know, people feels so good and pampered that they automatically (or with time) want to do service and they feel that this free feast is out of the world , and it is!

People were asking how can you feed people like this and with this food quality and this friendship without asking for anything?

“Please let me do something”… I was asked many times.

That has such an effect in people with an unbelievable conversion ratio guest–>friend–>devotee

If people pays that becomes like a restaurant. I have seen people complaining that they wanted more samosas and they were none left (they payed for it, so they were naturally demanding)

Why devotees start charging feast?

I understand why. It is simple Rajo guna, Vaishya mentality, Money is the most important to advance KC.

Do not try to tell a vaishya that Krishna will provide, they just nod their heads and start a business. (for Krishna of course)

But the Sunday Feast seen as a business ruins the “magic” that it’s needed to make devotees and uplift people’s consciousness.

To stop bums. well a bum is going to come to a cheap nice food feast anyway. Is it a solution charge more? then you start escalating as a restaurant…

And besides, were not the majority of our honorable first disciples of SP bums, quasi bums or just crack-pot hippies?
Have we upgraded Lord Caitanya’s standard of mercy?

Its more work to do that. It takes faith. You have to preach personally and be yourself a living example to really inspire people to do devotional service. But is that not the “normal” work of brahmanas?

From my practical experience, Free Sunday Feast is the way to go.

Need a system to sleep soundly in your sleeping bag without being haunted by receipts produced by the bhoga bill?

Here is a solution: Sponsor the Sunday Feast. Make a list of all the Sundays and people can choose to sponsor a given Sunday, maybe for a relative, a birthday or whatever. At the beginning of the Sunday Feast, you say aloud the name and purpose of the donor and jaya! everybody seated.. sarira avidya jal!

And, no, do not charge the sponsored feast, that is again coming from vaishya TP, “get the most of it” and in the mid-time you ruin the thing and left people (specially the sponsors) scratching their heads.

questions, comments and complains, please leave a message here

click to enlarge:

 excerpt from Rocana’s  Desa-kala-patra

http://www.harekrsna.com/sun/editorials/08-07/editorials1893.htm

“They understand that Caitya Guru is in their heart, and that he has already led them to a Sampradaya Acarya, and to one or more siksa gurus. As such, they know that Caitya Guru will also, in due course, fulfill their desires for an eternal diksa guru when the circumstances are ripe for them. But they’re not in great anxiety about it, and they don’t believe that getting diksa as fast as possible is an absolute requirement, even before they understand the philosophy enough to be able to discern who is and is not a bona fide diksa guru. Nor are they going to be pushed by some institutional circumstance or peer pressure to be committed to the institution, or committed to a so-called diksa guru who they might see occasionally throughout their whole lifetime, and who never trains them.