Pariprashnena — Q&A Archive

...not a Iskcon Vancouver,they are not allowed to have a Temple President.

It used to be heard: All the maha prasadam belongs to the President!"
Presidents are not like it used to be:there are even some working full time karmi job! And some getting high wages and no need to come to temple daily....[New Vrindaban]
Who cares?

yes of course and they should serve prasadam too.

PARIPRASHNENA IS A WASTE OF TIME

sure, why not? Seems obvious to me.

I like Krpamoyas explanation of groups of up to 15 people, and how early ISKCON temples had around this many people in them. After 15 people things start to become impersonal. Small is beautiful! :-)

I seem to remember that only the most senior or advanced devotees should serve prasadam and not the new bhaktas....anyone remember reading or hearing this?

I remember reading that too. The logic, as I recall, is that the advanced/senior devotees senses are not as agitated as the newer devotees, which makes the whole experience more sattvic and conducive to KC (and digestion!.) Besides that, young devotees learn not only how to serve properly but the serving mood .

I find that the mood of those serving prasad really establishes the whole atmosphere. In my experience there is a world of difference between being served by a devotee who has one eye his plate and the other eye on watching the paneer subji quickly disappear as he runs past shouting dahl, dahl, dahl. and being served by a devotee whose focus is on serving each individual to their satisfaction in order to please both them and Krishna. Actually, one of my greatest inspirations is thinking of Srila Prabhupada cook for, serve and clean up after dirty hippies with his own hands!

So in terms of the question, I would say not only should the authorities honor prasad with the other devotees, but they should be the ones serving.