A LITTLE STRUGGLE IS HEALTHY

A LITTLE STRUGGLE IS HEALTHY
His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada
Regarding the several smaller temples being dependent upon the central temple of Washington D.C., that is up to you to decide, but so far as I am concerned, I have not got much stock in such centralized management or organization. I never wanted any of my temples to be dependent upon other temples. Rather, our main business is to train up men to be self-sufficient and competent in many ways to carry on the preaching work, not to make them into specialists or to minimize their responsibility by centralizing everything. If each center must rely upon its own strength to stand, that will be a better training ground for the devotees. We must learn how to do all kinds of varieties of engagements for Krishna’s service. Not that we shall expect others to act for us and thus avoid something ourselves. For reasons of spreading the Krishna consciousness movement, we may sometimes centralize, just like the books and money for the BBT are managed by Karandhara in Los Angles. … If that were left for each temple to manage, there would be great difficulty and the books would not get printed, paid for, nor distributed widely. So in that case, centralized management is preferable. But in the case of new temples, it is better if they have to struggle a little while to establish themselves in their cities, become familiar with the local city officials and leading citizens, and elicit support from all quarters of the city. Otherwise these things will be neglected and there will be a false dependency upon outside supplies. This will deteriorate everything. The purpose of our Krishna consciousness movement is to create firstclass servants of Krishna. That means they know how to do everything. 
— Letter to Damodara, 9 January 1973.

– An expert from Sri Krishna-kathamrta Bindu, a free bi-monthly magazine service provided by Gopal Jiu Publications.