How does one start a preaching center?

When I joined 1972 a preaching center was not called a "preaching center", but simply a temple.

Of course, any preaching attempt should carry the blessings of spiritual master and Krsna; this is surely the basic requirement. But there are practical sides to be considered as there is much to be learned from the mistakes done in the past. ISKCON, being a "movement", is all the time "moving", sometimes so fast and so passionately that there is little space and time for some to stay. As one of my godbrothers so accurately commented, the word ISKCON shouldn’t stand for a large tube where on one end people enter and on the other exit as fast as they came in.

Goodness is the key word, accompanied of course by a doses of passion, or "aggressiveness" as Srila Prabhupada used to call it, which is necessary for any kind of creation. And so the preacher, powered by much needed compassionate nature towards the conditioned souls, may TEAM UP with another preacher of similar nature. Single attempt to preach very rarely meets some lasting result, if the preacher is not entirely equipped with the spiritual potency Srila Prabhupada exhibited. Even Srila Prabhupada quickly tried to establish a team of devotees, which, however small, could constitute a base of a temple.

Best temples are generated by the best congregation. Congregation is generated by common interest to serve the Supreme Lord and His mission. That inspiration can be generated by one or two preachers, but they should not be effected by any sort of megalomania, but rather focus on quality as quantity. Fools dash in where angels don’t dare and so it has to be expected that the first most enthusiastic customers for receiving the message of Krsna consciousness are desperate lunatics, drug addicts and highly mentally troubled individuals. Angels take time to consider and ask questions of sober kind. Madmen don’t. But as long even the troubled ones can follow guidance given to them by the preacher, they may be admitted to take part on close range. Otherwise, as Srila Prabhupada pointed out, “we don’t want bad cows”.

We may tend to quickly DESIGNATE those who try to chant the Holy Name to be vaisnavas. Srila Prabhupada EMPOWERED them to be vaisnavas. The difference can be seen in the result. And so time is needed to see who is who. Premature admittance including premature initiation by occasionally too ambitious spiritual masters results besides the fact that temples become unmanageable, in giving Srila Prabhupada’s movement bad image. As He considered each of His temples being embassies of the spiritual world, the public may get a perverted impression of the transcendence when it is represented by imposters of all kinds.

And so even simple honest preaching attempt, where the preachers is aware of his conditioning and honestly points towards the ultimate example of his spiritual master, is far more effective as inappropriate preaching introducing themes which are not relevant neither for the preachers or the listener. Srila Prabhupada’s lectures were the standard presentations of Krsna consciousness; His personal guidance took then far more individual form. And so everybody benefited.

It is very little known that Srila Prabhupada said in times where His movement had maybe 300 devotees, that “we have now enough devotees, let’s focus on educating them”. That certainly didn’t include some artificial academic education, but formation of character and exemplary presentation of one’s devotion to Krsna and guru. But the movement kept on growing rapidly and even Srila Prabhupada had to take the risk to take those along who were not actually qualified. Such was His never ending mercy.

To copy Him in this attempt may result in a situation where the more sober ones take distance and fools prevail. But beside these considerations, practical points have to be also addressed:

1) The maintenance of the temple shouldn’t jeopardize the preaching. Ideally it should be proportionally growing along the preaching. Preachers should always remain free to preach.

I do personally remember a visit of a Danish professor whom I once met in Sweden. He specially studied different contemporary religious movements and so he was well aware of the presence of the devotes worldwide. He told me that his respect for devotees is indeed immense as "I saw them doing things none of the other movements can do". His realizations were quite interesting. He said:

“Two of your brahmacaries go to any country on this planet and preach and collect money in such a determined and fierce fashion that they indeed open after a while… a temple. Then they realize that the temple needs maintenance and so they keep on collecting… until its either closed down or they, being exhausted with collection of funds, move to another country… doing the same.”

The man laughed. I didn’t. After all, I saw quite few examples illustrating his observation. Temples being collected for by enthusiastic collectors with any kind of paraphernalia one can imagine, finally being abandoned as the collection organizer and consequently his followers left in despair. Quite contrary I saw enthusiastic preachers entirely focusing on inspiring the LOCAL people to start THEIR temple. With initial guidance and training a congregation arose into existence which took finally care of the creation and maintenance of the temple while the preachers remained in the preaching position all the time. This is of course an ideal scenario.

Even Srila Prabhupada had to constantly keep balance between preaching and management. As He pointed out, “when you preach, management will follow you as a shadow”. But he also said that “when you preach, management will be at your finger tips.”

As we saw in ISKCON history, ambitious purchase of castles and waste properties, if not brahminical supervised and not supported by stabile leadership, can perish at worst or become an unmanageable burden at best. No loss of personal contact with the potential audience can be compensated by size of the temple which may finally accommodate more Deities as devotees.

2) Location of the temple plays also a role. The place should be reachable by public transportation. In more developed stages, a combination of a temple, adjoining restaurant and a shop is most effective as a visitor on any level of consciousness may be reached in this way. Of course a consideration should be given to the neighborhood. To start a temple in a rowhouse where the neighbor may be an agitated old man with allergy to any sort of kirtan.

3) Loans, especially mortgaging one temple for the sake of another are for evident reasons forbidden, neither should the temple economy serve as credit institute for individual enterprise. Ideally Srila Prabhupada wanted the temples being sustained by book and prasadam distribution mainly, of course not ruling out any support of any enthusiastic guest or congregational member. Simple temples packed every Sunday with congregational members who are praised by the local preacher for their devotional support are places of ecstasy. Temples surviving barely week by week due to unmanageable overhead, revisited by cynical previous supporters are places of rather depressing nature. Temples which are doomed to compromise preaching for financial purposes by introducing all kinds of fashionable New Age seminars are a disgrace to Srila Prabhupada’s mission and the original purpose of His preaching.
 

… to be continued …