We see that there is a continuing sensitivity by devotees working and living in the temple as to pay, and what constitutes pay. Or is it better to be maintained?

Most are only on what is a standard minimum wage but then should those being paid rather than being directly paid be maintained by the temple? Should they be bought a house as part of this maintenance?

I also know that there has been situations during festival time that rather than taking this as service individuals have included this in there so called contracted hours. The notion of devotional service appears to have been lost in what could be described as a business contract.

Interestingly it is the view of some that if the job can be done by someone willing to be maintained by the temple or even as devotional service then they will be used first.

I was however shocked and dismayed to here that some who have much needed skills were in some ways holding our temples to ransom, I will do this for you at this cost if you don’t pay then I walk. Hum!

During a recent class these arguments were again raised, unsurprisingly given the content of the class but what became clear and was acknowledged was that Srila Prabhupada had left instructions to follow covering not only devotee pay but also the use of the temple.

More of note was that there is another sensitive issues that of weddings being conducted especially in the temple room. Again it was stated that Srila Prabhupada had given clear instruction; most importantly was the fact that he did not wish devotees to conduct marriage ceremonies in the temple room. And the hurt by some of his disciples that these marriage ceremonies were being conducted in front of their spiritual master despite his request that the temple room should not be used for this purpose; for them it is an issue of respect for the founding spiritual master?

Yes uncomfortable for all present especially those who are either paid or involved in the marriage services.

Actually what I did not realise is that the individual taking the marriage ceremony takes some of the karmic reaction for the results.

This impressed on me how serious entering into marriage actually is, do we realise this? I guess looking at the statistics we see that the divorce rate is higher in devotee circles than outside devotee circles. Worrying to say the least, especially as we have to take onboard the fact that the individual who conducted the service takes some reaction for these failed marriages should make devotees more cautious.

There is some good guidelines that was e-mailed me some months ago from New Zealand I will check if this could be made available online giving guidelines and a period of time to get to know each other rather than rushing into things.

Ultimately the issue comes down to a simple question are we willing to follow the direction of our spiritual masters?

By following their direction then these issues become unimportant.