Social: Is Pariprashnena a fringie site?

...of the 323 questions posted so far,very few concern critizing the GBC,there's nothing wrong with an open forum to discuss Iskcon's GBC,the good and the bad.

There is a little too much focus on "institutional issues" here for my liking. If you have a problem with it, go do something about it and get back to us with a report on what you did. That's Prabhupada's personal example. I don't read books of him continually harping on about problems in the Math. :-)

The other day someone sent me a link to an interesting article. Don't visit this site if you're a brahmacari:

http://www.cracked.com/index.php?name=News&sid=2417

It takes the guy a little while to get to his point, but it's a good one. A lot of the talk that people call "criticism" is to me the sound of disempowered people complaining about their inability to change things to conform to the way they want them to be. If we just made a slight adjustment to the way we see the world our wheels stop spinning in the mud, and we can start moving forward, and feeling happy.

If you want to see a change, then be the change, and help others to do so. Too much focusing on "the problems" and blaming "the man" and "the system" is really unproductive.

if it is true that no censorship is done here, then the denomination of the site will be made out of the posts, not the personal opinion or likings of the owners.
More critics post that will make this site a critic one, more nice informative devotional posts, likewise etc.
Am I wrong?

Internet can be utilized to uproot evil individuals who are plaguing this Movement!
As new bhaktas do not know all the history of Iskcon,they tend to see the rosy picture of the Movement,and do not wish to look in the cupboard for any skeletons.There have been betrayal in the past to the Founder Acarya,who gave all his love to the devotees,and with time such people have already paid for their crimes.But there are still materialistic devotees in this Movement,not really interested in the spiritual side,but can easily pretend,as they are surrounded by new disciples,and yes men.If only Pariprashnena could be used for such uprooting,then it is doing a good job.....
Now ,for constructive part,it can also be a brainstorming site to promote Srila Prabhupada's dream!

The only way to defeat evil is to advance in good. So let's hear about what you are actually doing. It's not following Srila Prabhupada, the Acarya, to spend time meditating on the faults. He didn't do that - he got out there and did something. If you want to follow him, and join the real essential ISKCON, then get on with fufilling the seven purposes, and inspire the rest of us with your reports of progress.

On a slightly different note - the conception of "fringie" belongs to a rapidly outmoding conceptual model of ISKCON's constitution.

It used to be a valid sankhya back in the day, but it's less useful today as we transition from cult to real community, with all the diversity and breadth that this implies.

Things are more complex and multi-dimensional now, and don't reduce down into the same neat categories that accurately described our demographics at an earlier stage of evolution of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness.

ekendra:yo check it: http://www.sankirtandiary.com/2007/10/warning-about-pariprashnena-website.html ROFL! :)

This will bring in more visitors and probably more members! :)

Yeah great, but what kind of people are going to respond to that?

I disagree with most of what Janmastami prabhu says, but I love the way he says it. If it's about the search for Internet allies, I'm not keen for Pariprashnena to descend into a mosh pit of ISKCON controversy and complaints. I prefer to keep focusing on moving forward.

Sure we've all been ripped off and disappointed. However, that's not a function of ISKCON, that's a function of the material world. There's no sense in being a cry baby about it - man up and go back home, back to Godhead.

We can learn the lessons from our past without having to dwell on the details. And we don't need to keep dragging out the same old tired stories either. People change, and we should give them the chance to learn from their mistakes and to move forward, and we should do the same thing.

SKC: Aspersions, insinuations, doubts, suspicions, "guilt by implication", "guilt by association", "what people were up to twenty years ago", are no substitute for real personal experience of present realities.

I'd be interested in hearing from you about your day to day life. About things that happened in the past I speak first hand to people who were there, whom I know personally. That way I know who I am hearing from, what their actual first-hand experience is, and something about their perspective and agenda.

So you can tell as many stories as you like, but I doubt you can tell me anything that I haven't already heard from people that I know who were there and saw it first hand, and again, I'm personally focused on moving forward.

If you want to be credible, then be credible. We already know what happened. If you want to influence people, then be yourself, don't rely on stories about other people. It detracts from the credibility of your posture to be all about demanding accountability of others while you have none yourself. I'm sure you're a great person - so why not be yourself and let that speak to the world?

Did someone say something? Or was that digital wind whistling through the trees?

Anyway, SKC, I've given you some advice on how you can get some traction. Do the same thing, get the same result. Don't make any changes if you're happy with the way things are going. However, it seems to me that you're not happy with the response that your current approach is getting. If you want a different result, then try something different. You have my ten cents - collect a few more from others and you'll have enough change to buy an ice cream cone, or enough advice to make some real changes to the situation, starting with yourself - it's up to you what you choose to do.

abrennan:Funny thing is there are lots of sites that actually do openly criticize for no other purpose than attack and damage, why single out this site?

yeah. at least on this one we can criticize back! :) (just kidding here) (kinda)

SRI ISOPANISAD

mantra 12, from the purport:

Sri Isopanishad advises us not to bother with any destination within this dark material universe, but to try to get out of it and reach the effulgent kingdom of God. There are many pseudo worshipers who become religionists only for the sake of name and fame. Such pseudo religionists do not wish to get out of this universe and reach the spiritual sky.

(full text below as attachment)

abrennan:Funny thing is there are lots of sites that actually do openly criticize for no other purpose than attack and damage, why single out this site?

There is a danger that pariprashnena is sucessful. Sucess if normaly the main reason for putting others down. Nobody bothers with failing projects or people who can not do anything. So its a compliment I take for pariprashnena.com

openness is good. anonymity i find disappointing though. the combination can be sickening sometimes.

Last messages pertained to a different new possible question and became at one point personal attacks. For your convenience we are putting the deleted posts as an attachment in case you want to read it. Please stick to the question at hand and avoid personal quarrel. Thank you.

is bhakta corey a fringie guy?

just kidding!
:)

kes: please read above, is a problem of form not content. we are keeping the posts as attachment. The theme can be added as a new question (without the personal petty quarrels :)

Question for Corey. Are you the same Corey who send an email on PAMHO dated 25 July, announcing the launch of Pariprashnena?