Where is the question of taking money?

suchandra · 07-29-2008, 01:54 PM

Brahmanas are forbidden to levy fees - but who is following this ?

Hrdayananda: Prabhupada, generally in colleges in the West, they charge some fee for going to the college. What is our position?

Prabhupada: No, we don’t charge any fee. There is no question of money. Because the brahmanas, they’ll teach free. They require money because they have to give fat salary to these rascals. But we haven’t got to. And even we have to feed them, we produce our own grain. So where is the question of taking money? So therefore it is required, somebody must produce food. Then there is no necessity of money.

Hrdayananda: The vaisya students will produce the food.

Prabhupada: Yes.

Morning Walk
“Varnasrama College”
by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
March 14, 1974, Vṛndavana

http://causelessmercy.com/t/t/740314...tm?i=1974&vm=0

Svarupa · 07-29-2008, 03:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by suchandra

Brahmanas are forbidden to levy fees - but who is following this ?

Hrdayananda: Prabhupada, generally in colleges in the West, they charge some fee for going to the college. What is our position?

Prabhupada: No, we don’t charge any fee. There is no question of money. Because the brahmanas, they’ll teach free. They require money because they have to give fat salary to these rascals. But we haven’t got to. And even we have to feed them, we produce our own grain. So where is the question of taking money? So therefore it is required, somebody must produce food. Then there is no necessity of money.

Hrdayananda: The vaisya students will produce the food.

Prabhupada: Yes.

Morning Walk
“Varnasrama College”
by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada March 14, 1974, Vṛndavana

http://causelessmercy.com/t/t/740314...tm?i=1974&vm=0

Another example of how ISKCON used to be. No one in ISKCON management took wages in the beginning, everything was simply supplied to them to meet their and their families needs

suchandra · 07-30-2008, 01:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Svarupa

Another example of how ISKCON used to be. No one in ISKCON management took wages in the beginning, everything was simply supplied to them to meet their and their families needs

At least meanwhile they started to think although basically nothing changed, just some re-arranging of words.
When adding to below all the other costs, like prasadam fee, air ticket, accomodation fee, shuttle service fee, temple entrance fee, etc etc. the Bhakti-sastri Course becomes a luxury for the rich.
Also see HH Bhakticaru Swami, why is it necessary to rent such an expensive retreat in Florida: "If you are planning to mail the payment check, my address is at the bottom of this e-mail."

http://mihet.org/financial
Financial Considerations

The Mayapur Institute administration accepts the Vedic principle that sastric knowledge should not be sold. In the past, we called the money we collected from students "tuition fees", but this made it appear that we were "selling" Vedic knowledge. We now prefer the term "service charges," as this accurately describes how we use the funds. The service charges merely cover our administrative expenses. The main principle that Srila Prabhupada emphasized -- that teachers not get paid or charge for transferring transcendental knowledge -- has always been, and remains a cornerstone of the Mayapur Institute's ethos.
Due to the extraordinary qualifications of our course facilitators, we expect to have more devotees desiring to enter the course than we can accommodate. We therefore strongly recommend that devotees register online and remit their service charges online or by demand draft well in advance of the course to receive a confirmed seat.

Service Charges/Course *	Rs.
6 hours or less	800
7 - 14 hours	1000
15 - 19 hours	1350
20 - 29 hours	1900
30 - 35 hours	2450
36 - 39 hours	2975

Students remit service charges just for the courses they take. We calculate service charges per course based upon the number of class hours in the course (see the table on the left). Students may remit these funds on our website or at the time of registration in Mayapur.
Service charges do not cover room and board, but do cover course materials.
Please refer to our Course Descriptions for the starting date and duration for each course. You can add or drop classes through the second day of classes. You can even start taking courses beginning with any Module of the Mayapur Institute semester, but you must get teacher approval to enter courses once they have begun.
The Service Charges are Rs. 9500 (US $245) for the Bhakti-sastri Course and Rs.9000 (US $235) for the Bhaktivaibhava Course.

* We do not give refunds, but students may apply their remittances to other courses, another devotee, or another semester.