Why Start A Temple?

(Source of quote on picture: Srila Prabhupada, London's Conway Hall, November 1969)

Recently there have been some major issues with our Movement internally and while I don't want to waste time getting into them, I do not want to ignore them either. My way of doing things is to put more focus on a solution. 

One solution, as I've touched on before, is to open your own little preaching center or even a temple. That way you know it's safe, accurate, and so on. 

It can done on a large scale, but also on a small scale. Whatever an individual can honestly handle. But folks out there, please do it!

Anyone can start a temple, and here Prabhupada has written such an instruction to a female:

 "I have heard from Govinda dasi that you are such a nice girl, and I appreciate your sincere interest in this Krishna Conscious philosophy and this Sankirtana movement of Lord Caitanya. I have also heard how you typed Sri Sri Brahma Samhita and I am very pleased with your sincere service.

Recently I have come to Los Angeles where the warmer climate is better for my health than in San Francisco. I am told the Bahama Islands are very warm year round, and I am very interested to come there. If you can find an appropriate storefront, and decorate it nicely for a Temple, with altar, pictures, candles, incense, etc., and begin holding Kirtana there, then I will come there in February to the Bahama Islands, and give lectures there in the Temple. You will be doing very good service to Krishna, and it is not very difficult to do. People will come, you will see. However, if it is not possible to do this, then I will be very happy to meet you when I go to New York in April, and to Montreal afterward." ~ SP, L.A., January 13, 1968

At least start worship and devotional service within your own home, than over time maybe as you tweak it, invite a friend or two. If you want to take it further and invite more, great! If that's sufficient for you, great! You now have devotee association. 

"Whether you live in temple or outside temple, the rules and regulation and the process must be followed. Then you are successful. It doesn't matter that you have to live in the temple. If he does not agree with other godbrothers, friends, he can live separately. But he must follow the rules and regulation. That is wanted." ~ Srila Prabhupada, morning walk conversation, February 3, 1975

For those who would like it, here is the Morning Program which Prabhupada has us do. A video to follow. 

"Those who are spiritually advanced, their photograph and ordinary photograph is different. Just like here is statue of Krishna. He's not different from Krishna. The original person Krishna and this statue of Krishna is the same. Similarly, a spiritually perfect person and his photograph is the same. Because it is in the absolute stage. In the absolute stage there is no difference. In the material stage there is difference. Is that clear?"  ~  Srila Prabhupada Lecture, New York, September 16, 1966
 
"There is no difference between me and my picture. Therefore we should honor and keep pictures in that spirit. If we throw pictures this way and that way, that is offence.  The name and picture are as good as the person in spiritual world. In the material world either picture or person, everything is illusion." ~ Srila Prabhupada letter, September 4, 1972


Helpful posts to assist your bliss of spiritual life:

 A Fun Spiritual Place - Your Home! :)

How To Create Your Home Altar, with steps, mantras, and more! :) 

We go beyond vegetarianism, we are prasadam-atarians. ha That is, turning vegetarian food into spiritual foodstuffs. 

Hatha Yoga?

 This?

haha. No.







This: 

Did you know that Hatha Yoga is authorized by Prabhupada?
 
Of course, lets be sure to understand this in the proper light. It is not to get highly involved in a different type of yoga other than Bhakti. It's purpose is health, and to improve physical facility for engaging in better or more Krishna Consciousness. If it is not used in those ways, than it is a waste of life-airs. With that said:

Tamala Krsna: "He’s been there now, Parivrajakacarya Swami, he’s been there for, I think, two or three years now (Tehran). He’s worked pretty faithfully there. He tricks them. In the guise of teaching a little hatha-yoga, then he teaches bhakti.

Srila Prabhupada: That is preaching."

SP  room conversation, October 9th vrndavana 1977.

~*~

"I understand Parivrajakacarya Swami is teaching a course combining both hatha and bhakti yoga to attract people. This is a very good idea. Somehow or other inject the bhakti yoga. That will save them from the degradations of sense gratification."

I hope this meets you in good health.

Your ever well wisher,
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami"

Letter to Atreya rsi, December 4, 1974


Not shastra but form devotees who were there:

"Regarding teaching other kinds of yoga, so that we may advertise an 8 or 9 day course for tourists, Srila Prabhupada liked the idea. He said, “That will be very attractive. Other types of yoga are mentioned in the Bhagavad Gita. We can adopt that. Three of four men I can teach how to do it. Then you’ll be able to attract them. I can teach how to sit down, posture, asana, and pranayama, without any difficulty. The yoga system as mentioned in Bhagavad Gita we can take up. That will be bhakti-yoga. Use one, or two of the big rooms in the Gurukula building. I can teach the teachers how to practice.”
 
Prabhupada’s secretary, Jagadish, writing a report to HH GKG. It is in the Folio.
 

Nanda Kumar:
Srila Prabhupad was walking in the park in San Diego when he noticed someone doing the headstand pose in the distance... He said... "That is called Sirsasana... it is very good for the health. There are many poses,,, Sirsasana, Yogasana, Padmasana... they are all very good for the health"

One of His GBC disciples, who I knew before we became devotees and who had been a hatha yoga practitioner himself, asked in a sarcastic tone (not toward Srila Prabhupad Himself, more toward hatha yoga, since the nature of new and neophyte devotees is often to reject things and become fanatical)... "So, we should do this every day?"... Srila Prabhupad did not answer right away, and remained quiet for five minutes, until He reached His car, then turned to that person and said in a quiet and reserved way... "It is not necessary." 

My understanding of His answer then and now is based on my own experience as His personal servant in Los Angeles, when He encouraged me to do hatha yoga... 

I had been a hatha yoga practitioner before meeting His Divine Grace and the devotees, and felt that it helped me to eventually come to Him... when I joined the temple, they told me it was maya to pay attention to the body, that our bhakti yoga process was supreme and included the benefits of all the other yoga systems... I didn't agree with that, but surrendered to the fact that there was no time or place to continue doing it, at least at that time... 

When I got to be Srila Prabhupad's cook and personal servant, He lived separately from the temple with just Devananda and myself living with Him.

I had also been into raw and healthy diet before becoming a devotee, and was grateful that I could eat salads and fruits and a more simple diet, since I had my own kitchen and nobody to tell me what to eat.

One day I started doing asanas again in the back yard in the hour before starting to prepare Srila Prabhupad's lunch. On the second day, I decided to ask His Divine Grace about whether it was alright to do yoga. As it was so many times, He knew ahead of time, and when I went into His room to ask, He said... "I see you are doing hatha yoga exercises" since His window opened the view into the back yard... I answered... "Yes, Srila Prabhupad, I was about to ask you if it was alright" and He laughed... He said... "We do not tell devotees in general to do it, although it is very good for the mental and physical health, and is part of our Vedic system, because at the early stages of devotional service, we don't want them to get distracted from the main practice of chanting and bhakti yoga. In your case, you can do it... it is very good and will help you come to the modes of goodness, which is the platform you must reach to become Krishna conscious"...
 
Not that I was, or am, advanced... just that my body type and mindset is such that I don't get distracted by it.
 
It was the same with dietary things too... I asked Him about raw and simple diet without sugar and heavy foods and He said... "That is the best diet for Krishna consciousness, but again, many cannot follow it, and since eating is the last sense gratification allowed, we make the restriction that it must be prasadam, and allow devotees to eat more opulent things if they like. Simpler is better, though, as well as controlling the amount you eat. - from Nanda Kumar

 
Bhavatrini devi dasi: My husband was living in Vrndavana in 1976 when Srila Prabhupada instructed the devotees to do hatha yoga every day for health. He expected it to be implemented into the program but it was never brought up again.