Does the publicizing the names of donors in temples not encourage ego in the name of religion?
Thank you giving donations to a temple so they already have the pride and why not just spiritualize their pride and instead of they giving some donations for some mundane causes or just wasting their money in sensual things if they give donations to Krishna at least to that extent they are going to become purified so there are multiple levels in the practice of religion initially when somebody comes along in the practice of Bhakti then the principles somehow or other comes to mind in Krishna somehow or other in Krishna's service so initially for us to get people to connect with Krishna in some way to contribute in some way so that their own spiritual life will begin whatever Lakshmi that they have hoarded that can be the cause of suffering anyone so if we offer that for the service of Narayana then they will be at least getting some pious some devotional credits so it is for their good and because these people are motivated by ego then if their name is going to be displayed that becomes a further incentive for them to give and they may not give otherwise so what we are doing is we are encouraging those people who would not otherwise connect with Krishna to connect with Krishna at the same time it is also our responsibility that if somebody gives some donations to us we should not just take the donation we should also offer something in return and what we offer in return is spiritual we offer them spiritual knowledge we offer them if they are ready to give us some spiritual counsel we give them books we try to share the philosophy as much as they are ready to take and actually if they take that then they will understand that the purpose of practicing spirituality and giving donations is far greater than just having the name displayed on the temple actually the purpose is to gain the eternal own beloved and gradually they are likely to become purified of that egoistic motivation so we should also try to elevate them to a higher level of consciousness not in a disapproving or insensitive way where we directly tell them that you are being ego driven in a sensitive way we try to elevate them to a higher level of consciousness so actually Srila Prabhupada also did that Srila Prabhupada in Gurdas temple collecting a lot of money Prabhupada had his name put prominently in the temple in the service of Gurdas so now we should not assume that if a devotee if this sort of thing happens among devotees then the devotees are materially motivated sometimes in the temple when somebody sponsors a Sunday program it's a devotee sponsoring and the devotee may be asked to come and accept a gift from the speaker so we shouldn't assume that all the time it is just between the two there can also be reciprocation of appreciation, in appreciation the human being it is not necessarily driven by the ego if some devotee is rendering service then for the rest of the community it is important to recognize the devotee's service and appreciate them so now it is for that devotee to take that appreciation in the right consciousness and not become proud and that will be done elsewhere through the education that is offered and the culture that is cultivated we don't want to encourage pride but God encouraging pride doesn't mean not appreciating if somebody has done noteworthy service then that deserves appreciating and we see Chaitanya Mahaprabhu appreciating devotees quite continuously in the Chaitanya Charita Amrit so one way of appreciation could be by mentioning the name of the person and if that is happening then we shouldn't feel that that is devotee at all so that means this can be at two levels one level is that we want to encourage people to connect with Krishna and if they are able if publishing their name somewhere is what is required and we may do that but we will also try to elevate them to a higher level of consciousness so that they are no longer equal and secondly if it is in the devotee community then it could well be an expression of appreciation for some noteworthy service that somebody has done and that may not be included that may just be expression of appreciation as a human being and as a spiritual imperative as a part of the devotional culture and then the other parts of the devotional culture will take care that the person will not become proud so actually this idea of not becoming proud we should use it for ourselves not so much for others we shouldn't judge others and think that if somebody is parading the name parading his or her name that person is equal to him it may be true, it may not be true it is best that we not judge others but rather we make sure we make it apply for ourselves and overall our culture is not a culture so much of judging others, it is of helping others so we should be careful ourselves and we should create a culture of education and unity where others also get similarly inspired but these kind of things are not to be imposed we can't say ban names so that people will not become proud not becoming proud cannot be mandated through some legislation that has to be chosen by one's own devotion and all that we can do is we can offer the wisdom and the culture by which people will make that choice by their own devotion.