(H H Kadamba Kanana Swami, Prague, Czech Republic, 15th March 2012) Lecture: CC. Adi-lila 17.22
I was in Vrindavan (In India) for six years, and then they sent me to Australia. They paid for my ticket. When I came to the temple, the temple president said:
‘Do you have any money left from the money that we had sent you?’
I said:
‘Yes, I do.’
I wanted to give it to him but he said:
‘No, no you keep it. Buy some clothes for yourself and your wife.’
So were buying clothes and saying that he is a really nice guy.
The next day he calls us again into his office and asks:
‘So how are you going to pay your debt?’
I replied:
‘Why didn’t you tell me yesterday? Before I brought all the clothes.’
Then he said that I had to pay it back by selling paintings. I said:
‘Okay, I’ll sell the paintings.’
So they took me in the car and drove me to the middle of an area full of factories. As I am walking in the street I see a sign:
‘Blood and bones, $20.’
And I’m thinking:
‘Whose blood and bones?’
So I go into the first factory, which is a place where they kill chickens! There was a guy who was chopping them one after another and throwing each dead chicken onto the conveyor belt. I showed him the paintings, and he brought four hundred dollars worth, and there was blood on the money – intense.
Then for one month I visited all the slaughterhouses. I came to one where there were big bins. In those bins there were heads, legs and tails from many different animals. There was a huge kettle where they were cooking all of these things! This kettle was actually a huge pressure cooker, and this is where they made the stabilisers, thickeners and all those nice substances!
So since that time I made sure that whatever I had, has no stabilisers, no thickeners, and not even in my toothpaste. So you have to start somewhere. Whatever comes natural? You can understand that for me that came very natural! After seeing that I’m careful about ‘E’ numbers and similar things. That was intense!
3 Comments
The best way to avoid all nonsense additives is to not eat any processed foods.
I stopped using toothpaste, replacing it alternately with baking soda and salt. Soda also serves as my soap and shampoo and can be used in many other ways. My year’s supply (1 kg packages) costs below 4 Eur.
For years I don’t buy any commercial-made medicines which I’ve successfully replaced mainly with spices and oils. With only a basic knowledge of Ayurveda it’s really simple. See Links on our site.
Hari Hari
It is not so hard to make nice hard cheese at home. Only then one can be sure that no nasty thing are inside. Once we even asked on telephone one cheese factory if they do not put any non vegetarian items there and they say “No – its purely vegetarian. Then we asked to send us certificate of the product. And in certificate we found that there are some pig products inside. One can never be sure nowadays. They just want to sell it.
I’m glad the Swami can rationalize away his bad experience with that Temple President, but the fact remains that this gentleman engaged in deceitful conduct that did permanent damage to ISKCON’s reputation and its devotees. Such deception and exploitation of devotees is exactly why so many respectable people think of ISKCON as an untrustworthy cult.