Philosophy: Should devotee websites be publishing articles about mundane subject matters?

It seems that there are more that enough websites that publish mundane articles not related to Krsna consciousness...is it a good idea for devotee websites to strictly stick to Krishna conscious subject matters?

you mean like this one?
http://www.sivaramaswami.com/?cat=14

There are two types of Krishna-katha: praising Krishna and talking down engagement in Maya.

This fits into the second category. It is designed to undermine your faith in the material arrangements of modern civilization.

Try reading the first canto puports for many examples of Prabhupada preaching in this way.

Try reading the articles in the context of the other content on Maharaja's site, such as his podcasts. The articles are not posted in isolation.

Read them in context of Planet ISKCON.

Or better yet, write your website and make a contribution to the whole endeavour. :-)

Send me the rss feed and I'll hook it up to Planet ISKCON, and then people can give you feedback on what you should be doing. After all, I don't think Maharaja reads Pariprashnena.com.

It is not "my website" albeit I appear as administrative contact. I do not even own the domain :).

All www.iskcontech.com projects are a conjoint effort of devotees so nobody claims ownership or "fatherhood" of any of them.

None of those sites are on any political side or promote webmaster personal conclusions on philosophy or social issues, but are designed as a service for vaishnavas.

www.vedanews.com is a specific clearly delineated world news site for devotees, not a spiritual master's website.

Maybe you can understand or adapt those posts and give them an explanation, but you are one isolated case in millions that should be given a clear perspective from scratch.

At least the Krishna conscious commentaries on the news should be clear enough situated, not scattered and you figure out what podcast or article is referring to that.

Shivaram Swami's site is open on the internet, Prabhu, not a private gathering of knowledgeable disciples or a private conference on COM. That seems to be the complain.

Well, why not write to Sivarama Swami and tell him how he should do his website?

asksrs@gmail.com is his email address.

Or why not write a "commentary on Sivarama Swami's website" website.

Oh, hang on, that's what we're doing...
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It's not hard to make the connection if you already know the philosophy. You guys are playing it up for controversy. Misra, the vedanews site is even more removed from direct KC philosophy "straight outta the Gita", and don't pretend that whoever is involved in it is not taking the role of instructor (guru) for the reading public. :-)
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As I understand it, and I may be wrong: those posts are not by H.H Sivarama Swami himself, they are by his secretary who puts them on there to keep some material flowing through, and also as means of self-expression. It's their contribution to the preaching. Remember that you are basically criticizing, sorry "critiquing" someone's personal contribution here.

I can understand the intent of the person behind them - it's to cast light on what's going on around the world. What kind of conclusion you draw is left to your own realization, just like vedanews.
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At the end of the day the only real critique is a superior result, as Srila Prabhupada demonstrated. *Anyone* can denounce, and everyone's offering, including all of us who have chimed in on this thread, has some fault that can be exposed. What we need are people who can actually show something in practice. If you really think that Sivarama Swami's site would be better with more commentary, then write to him or leave a comment on his site to suggest it, or write a Greasemonkey script that displays his site along with commentary on his site drawn from your "Commentary on Sivarama Swami's website" blog, and make it available to the public. :-P

Or write a website that can serve as an ideal example:

"If you have a success story to tell, then tell it. If you don't, but you know what to do, then get some credibility - go out and do it. If you don't know what to do, but you know someone who does, then follow them. If none of the above, then whatever you do, don't waste time fruitlessly criticizing others."

I'm serious about writing the commentary. If you really feel it needs commentary, and you don't want to write a whole site on your own, then you can do some humble service to H.H. Sivarama Swami by adding commentary to the news articles that appear there.

Prabhu, I don't have a "no-fault-finding philosophy" (?), and I'm not nailing you. I'm just being consistent. If we're going to go on someone's website for not having a Krishna conscious purport to news stories, then we'd have to admit that vedanews.com does the same thing. Is there an application of this idea of KC purports for vedanews.com? You may not be able to change Sivarama Swami's site, but you could do something about vedanews.com.

I notice that recently people have been posting news stories with purports on Planet ISKCON, but I don't know if that's related to this discussion, unless mystically. :-)

Sivarama Swami's email address is on his website. You'll notice, though, if you go to this page: http://www.sivaramaswami.com/?page_id=1162 that it goes to Braja Sevaki dd. She is actually the person that you would suggest the change to.

Just remember that it's someone's personal website, and I'm not sure how well it goes over when people get up on a soap box and start telling other people what they should and shouldn't do with their personal contribution. People can be sensitive about that because its intimately connected with them as a person. They get upset when you start treating it insensitively or impersonally. Of course, people often appreciate assistance, appreciation, and useful advice, as long as it's delivered nicely. :-)

Two days ago I presented our question through Maharaja's website. I got the following from the site administrator: (Please note I did not ask her permission to post this correspondence, but she does know that there is another web discussion going on about Maharaja's site)

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Before I send this to Maharaja, I will comment myself, as I am the site editor. Maharaja does choose most of the news items himself. They are, all of them, indications of the degradation of the world, the advance of Kali-yuga, and the lack of spiritual values or knowledge. Surely that much is obvious?

Regarding your other statement, it is not correct that "it is just news and on its own doesn't have any particular relevance for us as devotees." It's not "just" a news site, nor are items posted randomly or on their own: it doesn't take much intelligence to deduce that the news items being posted are themselves commentaries on the sad state of the world. It seems that some people, however, are easily addled by the obvious, so I will suggest to Maharaja that he makes a comment on the news story so that those who are currently disturbed, aren't. If that is possible for them.

But, in conclusion, it should be noted that www.sivaramaswami.com is a 100% Krishna conscious website: it does not, has never, and will never advocate adharmic principles, nor promote unprincipled, materialistic values, nor support those who do. You can quote me on that. If someone think www.sivaramaswami.com is guilty of any of these things...well, you can't please everyone, can you? :) It should be very obvious--even without commentaries--that these articles are posted to make devotees more aware of the importance of preaching and book distribution.

Thank you for your mail. I'm sure you concern will result in an improved category. Please note that since Maharaja leaves for India within a few short days, I doubt he will have time to answer any more questions on the site apart from the ones he has already been sent. I will try and discuss this with him when he arrives here in Mayapur.

Hare Krishna
your servant
Braja Sevaki dd
Site Administrator

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In the next correspondence she replied:

".....I will ask Maharaja to post a comment, so that those who are currently disturbed aren't. I also said it's unintelligent to "conclude" that the news story--posted on a Krishna conscious site--is anything *but* a comment on the state of the world. How could it be anything else? To be disturbed about that means there's a chance it is promoting materialistic or adharmic values, ie: the stock market article, the Sai Baba article, etc. What is the stock market article posted for? Lamenting that our shares may have devalued? No :) It is an indication that the world is gliding down to hell, that there is no security in supporting and promoting materialistic values. I do not think it is required to post commentaries for such articles, but since some people are disturbed, since they are unable to draw the proper conclusions (ie: their intelligence is clouded by ??), then as I said, I'll ask Maharaja to comment on some articles.

Anyway it may be some time before this changes, as Maharaja is leaving for India in a few days, so let's see what he says. Until then, I really don't think the universe will stop turning, do you :)

Hare Krishna :)
your servant
Braja Sevaki dd

There are many good examples of devotee commentary on current news events, here's one excellent example:

Food prices around the world have spiked because of higher oil prices, needed for fertilizer, irrigation and transportation. Prices for basic ingredients such as corn and wheat are also up sharply, and the increasing global demand for biofuels is pressuring food markets as well. The problem is particularly dire in the Caribbean, where island nations depend on imports and food prices are up 40 percent in places.

Poor Haitians resort to eating dirt

"Harassed by famine and excessive taxes, people will resort to eating leaves, roots, flesh, wild honey, fruits, flowers and seeds. Struck by drought, they will become completely ruined."

- Srimad Bhagavatam 12.2.9

Srimad-Bhagavatam authoritatively describes the future of our planet. Just as a leaf disconnected from a plant or tree dries up, withers and disintegrates, when human society is disconnected from the Supreme Lord it withers up and disintegrates in violence and chaos. Despite our computers and rockets, if the Supreme Lord does not send rain we shall all starve.

The rest of the article is here: http://www.atmayogi.com/node/572

I took the advice provided here and tried to read Maharaja's news articles in the context of the other material on the site. Call me stupid but I just couldn't make the connection between marijuana vending machines and the "Colours of Prem" podcast. Both topics seem to me to be impractical and irrelevant for most devotees.

Maybe he is trying to draw readers from search engines by posting straight up news stories. It could be a preaching strategy that he hopes once they are at his site, they will also read the KC stuff. Not every devotee site needs to be aimed only at devotees.

Mantra 11. Only one who can learn the process of nescience and that of transcendental knowledge side by side can transcend the influence of repeated birth and death and enjoy the full blessings of immortality.

Sri Isopanisad

Another side is how should devotees get there news of the world we are stuck in? By immersing themselves in the mass media or by seeing articles filtered by a devotee that they can use as intellectual stimulus.

I think teaching someone to think on their own is better than telling them what to think.

As we can see there are examples of devotees that give commentary on current news stories...it's definitely helpful for making the connection for newcomers not neccessarily older devotees.

same for vedanews.com, but we better the offer:
* you can select and publish yourself the news and comment it with a few clicks
* we promise not to edit (unless utterly displaced or unintelligible)
:)

ekendra:We're looking forward to your decontaminating us.

Your the man Ekendra :)

Deena prabhu, so take some of the time that you spend writing on Pariprashnena.com and channel it into making a website that can become an example of what you think it should be, and then you can point to it and say, "See, like this," or others can do that for it, if it answers a need strongly enough to animate them.

Sure devotee sites should post mundane news, comment on mundane news and relate to mundane news. we are not a sect, we want to relate to the world. is someone took karma sannyas that a different story.

Otherwise all of the hypocrites and dropouts will just go and use non devotee websites to look for news.

in fact we should have devotees running biggest magazines and newspapers, owning google and yahoo, be best lawyers and journalists, be in the government and show a good example, and NOT be a dropouts from a hippy movement, irrelevant and sectarian.

huh that was a comment..

"The next impediment to devotional service is prajalpa, talking of mundane subject matter. Many people unnecessarily talk of the daily happenings in the newspapers and pass the time without any profit. A devotee, however, does not indulge in unnecessary talks of politics or economics."

From Narada Bhakti Sutra Chapter 1 Verse 5

It seems to me that all the information we ever need to know about the material world and maya is contained completely in Srila Prabhupada's books, do we really need to bolster or qualify that? Don't we stand on the power of SP's books to convince others and ourselves about the material world?

So all the devotee websites including this one are completely full of mundane subject matters like the news...lol mmm
I am sure you don't actually think that SP's books aren't enough for us to understand the material world and the material energy...or maybe you do ccd!

ccd:I challenge you to provide any support to your statement that EVERYTHING ANYONE EVER will need to know is in Prabhupadas books.

My observation was "It seems to me that all the information we ever need to know about the material world and maya is contained completely in Srila Prabhupada's books"....that is different from saying "everything about the material world is contained in SP's books". By your own admittance it is true - "The correct statement is that for a disciple his books are sufficient to learn about the material world...." - actually for everyone it is sufficient....hence SP's repeated emphasis on mass book distribution. The original discussion was not about who has looked at mundane news, it was about whether we should include mundane material (esp. without commentary) on devotee websites.

...Prabhupadas books do in fact contain everything you need to know, but we must fully understand this statement, the material world is an illusion " maya ", it's all temporary , the ONLY purpose of human life is to cultivate Krishna Conciousness , as instructed in Prabhupada's books.This does not mean that we all become material world " zombies " , no , we have to struggle to maintain our material bodies,according to our individual karma , this is punishment , not the goal of human life.