Money Madness

Andy Serwer and Allan Sloan write today in their Time article "How Financial Madness Overtook Wall Street":

"If you're having a little trouble coping with what seems to be the complete unraveling of the world's financial system, you needn't feel bad about yourself. It's horribly confusing, not to say terrifying; even people like us, with a combined 65 years of writing about business, have never seen anything like what's going on."

Under the relentless push of greed, financial operations kept becoming more and more esoteric and hard to grasp--even for those whose fortunes depended on them. Nearly incomprehensible schemes were hatched and accepted due to the belief in the words of the professionals who voiced for their plausibility and reliability. Unfortunately all involved suffered from bhrama, pramada, vipralipsa and karanapatava (the tendency to make mistakes, being prone to illusion, cheating propensities and imperfected senses) and their heady tricks caused a situation in which, in the words of the authors: "Banks and other financial companies around the globe are struggling to pull themselves out of this mess," "All of us are now paying the price for Wall Street's excesses," and "Whatever the politicians do, we as a society are going to be poorer than we were. . . . Coping in this new world will require adjustments by millions of Americans. We all will have to start living within our means — or preferably below them."

By the way, Badrinarayana Prabhu brought attention to "a recent article in the Reader's Digest about a family that made a vow to not spend one dollar beyond bills for utilities, mortgage, and a very minimum food budget--- for a month. The father writes "We found we could get a perfectly delicious free lunch at the local Hare Krishna temple". Now these folks are emblems of middle-class mid-America, but there they are, dropping by their local Hare Krishna temple for prasadam lunch. That make visiting a temple about as mainstream as you can get."

But, besides the opportunities uncovered by widespread misery, the circumstances remind us of the grim Bhagavatam prophesies: "He who can maintain a family will be regarded as an expert man" (SB 12.2.6) and "Harassed by famine and excessive taxes, people will resort to eating leaves, roots, flesh, wild honey, fruits, flowers and seeds. Struck by drought, they will become completely ruined" (SB 12.2.9).

For sober, frugal devotees there are words of comfort and encouragement in the Time article: "If you don't overborrow or overspend, you're far less vulnerable to whatever problems the financial system may have."

Today's Politicians & Today's Devotees

The media is abuzz with news of the upcoming USA presidential election.

Thankfully, I am not an American citizen and I don't really need to consider if I should vote for Obama or for McCain. Yet, it's a time that inspires to meditate on general issues of left and right, of liberality or conservatism, and how it all applies to those who endeavor to align with Lord Krishna in every matter, including participating in choosing their country's commander in chief.

I assume that many devotees won't bother to vote.

Some devotees will vote for Obama, some for McCain (just as some in the last election, I hear, voted for Bush).

Some will consider Obama closer to ISKCON's values and perspectives because he grew up in a home in which the book shelf hosted, among other books, the Bible, the Koran and the Bhagavad-gita (don't ask me what edition...).

Some will consider McCain closer to an ideal enlightened monarch because he officially poses as an anti-abortionist (despite his ambiguous stance on the subject, his choice of the determinedly pro-life Sarah Palin as running mate tends to reinforce his appearance as protector of the fetuses).

Some devotees will identify more with Obama because his vague but insistent peddling of CHANGE reverberates with the profound change they expressed by joining the Hare Krishna movement.

Other Vaisnavas will support McCain because his (largely passive) heroism during the Vietnam years reminds them of the ksatriyas of yesteryear.

It's difficult to get voted into power by a politically, culturally, economically, religiously and racially fragmented constituency. The candidates know that and I find almost endearing (almost) to witness their theatrics, their frantic gyrating and cautious tiptoeing on and around hot subjects, their vertiginous, straight-faced shifts on issues and emphases, and the merciless scrutiny they endure in the pursuit of their dream of reaching a four-year stint at the White House.

In any case, as Srila Prabhupada warily notes in the First Canto:

"The modern elected executive head of a state is just like a puppet because he has no kingly power. Even if he is enlightened like Maharaja Yudhisthira, he cannot do anything out of his own good will due to his constitutional position" (SB 1.10.3p).

Democracy is the government of the vaisyas (the kali-yuga brand of ruthless vaisyas, a far cry from the Vrajavasis led by Nanda Maharaja). No candidate has any choice of success without securing the approval of Big Money, without convincing the big capitalists who control the media and other empires that he will be a loyal servant of their interests.

Whoever wins will have to toll the line. Or get unceremoniously removed from their present position (or present body).

Survey on ISKCON Leadership Structuring

We are working on asking different devotees what they think about certain issues related to the structuring of ISKCON: the role and authority of the GBC zonal secretary in his area; the nature and function of the RGBs (Regional Governing Bodies); the application of certain instructions by Srila Prabhupada on these matters; the financing of the different levels of the Society, and so on.

If you are interested in these subject and would like to share your thoughts, please contact me personally at: iskconoclast@gmail.com. In case I don't know you personally I will require some basic information on who you are. In any case you are requested to keep the questions of the survey confidential.

Anarchy, Fractional Reserve Banking and ISKCON

Today I was talking with a very senior devotee; he said that ISKCON is an a state of anarchy. I didn't agree on the description and I offered a different analysis of the situation of ISKCON structure and operation worldwide.

I compared the trust of the devotees in the GBC in the faith that people have in the current banking system, technically and somewhat euphemistically called fractional reserve banking, in which only a small portion of the deposits are actually available for redemption by the clients. In other words the idea that our money is safely stored in impenetrable bank vaults represents a myth, a mere illusion. This psychological phenomenon maintains the modern system afloat.

Similarly in some places the ISKCON system of spiritual/administrative supervision is largely (not entirely) an empty structure of nominal responsibilities, lack of assessment on performances, unclear lines of command, vague checks and balances, missing job descriptions, contradictory legal statuses and plain neglect. The system survives more as a psycho-emotional entity than as an organized organization with short, medium and long term planning in place.

Well... now that I think of it, it does look pretty much like anarchy!

PS - the present situation allows the local manifestations of totalitarianism, autocratic expressions of illegitimate power.

PPS - Thank God, God exists and has a plan. The present inconsistencies could be possibly classified as the growing pain of a divinely inspired movement that expanded too much too quickly, sometimes "running on empty" socially, culturally, economically and even morally.

PPPS - I look forward to the next phase, in which professionalism, maturity and spirituality will likely manifest much more homogeneously throughout the International Society of Krishna Consciousness.