Everybody is following Prabhupada as the Founder-acharya, so if we're involved in something that's useful within that mission, then taking the instruction of guru to see that you're doing that, that's following the instruction of the guru.
As ISKCON movement is established by Śrīla Prabhupāda for the purpose of educating people about spiritual life, our strategic planning model should concur with that of an educational institution, not the political or corporate institutions.
As ISKCON movement is established by Śrīla Prabhupāda for the purpose of educating people about spiritual life, our strategic planning model should concur with that of an educational institution, not the political or corporate institutions.
We think simple means no opulence. But in the Vedic the opulence is designed for the mode of goodness. We say marble is very expensive, but from the Vedic perspective it’s very pure. It’s more pure the gold. So it’s simpler because a floor of gold would be quite expensive.
The rules that do matter are where we don't care, and the ones that don't really matter, that becomes the 'make it or break it' deal. So these things, peacock feather, the fall of the soul, these things, these are not actually important issues. But they make them into it,
Attachment to sexual activities keeps you in the material world. The point is to give it up, not transfer it. Being in the material world is wrong, so no situation in the material world they should champion and try to make it special.
It is not based on spiritual values. No one should fool themselves on this. It is based purely on social values, modern social values, that the women should be dīkṣā-gurus.
Institution is necessary because you are dealing with neophytes, the evil is the neophytes themselves. It is not that the system itself is the problem, it is the system how it is used by the neophyte mentality. If the institution is used for one's own purpose, that's the evil.
It takes about ten minutes to teach someone how to do book distribution, but the lifestyle of Vaiṣṇavism, to have the cleanliness, to have all the different things like that, that takes a lifetime to train.