CHAPTER ELEVEN
Don’t Put The Cart Before The Horse

Before unrolling this blueprint and taking a detailed look at it, I would like to pause for a moment to again remind you why this book is being written.

As I have stated from the very beginning, Lord Krishna In The 21st Century represents a specific strategy which is being humbly suggested by this author as a most excellent way for ISKCON to quickly and efficiently bring about the fulfillment of Shrila Prabhupada’s heartfelt desire—"Let us try to make them Krishna conscious. That is our only interest. Because I love Krishna, I want to see all—everybody in the world to become Krishna conscious."

I have also mentioned the highly successful Food For Life program in Australia—especially their meals-on-wheels program. Although modest in scope, it nonetheless received outstanding recognition from the Australian government. This shows us that it is quality and not quantity that counts.

And I have written about appreciation and how, when this appreciation is awakened in the heart for Lord Krishna, the fulfillment of Shrila Prabhupada’s dream begins to blossom. I have also said that the best place for this appreciation to occur is right inside the very homes that we are trying to reach—reaching this worldwide audience as they are reclined in their favorite easy chairs, doing what they enjoy most—watching television, reading their favorite newspapers, magazines, etc.

More than any other single advantage that devotees have at their disposal for the fulfillment of Shrila Prabhupada’s dream, it is this: EVERYONE LOVES A HERO.

Because Krishna is the greatest hero, I have suggested a formula. When a disaster strikes, shouldn’t the greatest hero be the first one to the rescue? Isn’t this showing the world Lord Krishna as He is? The following blueprint will explain how to do this. But first let me say a little something about building things. After all, this book is about building a disaster relief agency.

A blueprint is nothing more than a detailed drawing or picture of something that can be constructed. In my furniture business I create blueprints all the time. I like to say that if I can draw it I can build it. But there are serious pitfalls that I want to point out. They apply to many endeavors and should be highlighted in the back of your mind to constantly remind you of their presence and danger.

The first pitfall is pointed out in the title of this chapter. An example of this pitfall would be thinking you would like to open a business at a certain location in town. You THINK the building is going to be rented to you. But before you have actually acquired legal acquisition to the building, you go out and spend hundreds of dollars on fancy business cards and stationary, with the name of your establishment and address printed on them. However, later you sadly discover that the deal on the building has fallen through. Now you look foolish and have wasted so much time and money on a bunch of worthless stationary. Unfortunately, people do this sort of thing all the time. A lot of it probably has to do with being over enthusiastic.

Anyhow, this pitfall is a serious one and I was fortunate to have it explained to me when I was in college. For example, I have a letter in my filing cabinet from NVOAD inviting Krishna Disaster Relief to join their organization (see appendix). "This is fantastic," you might say. "Here is our stage pass!" But rather than accepting their offer, instead I sent back a polite letter thanking them for the honor. I asked them to please let Krishna Disaster Relief first develop beyond the paper-tiger stage before joining.

This is how I left it, other than an occasional donation that I send to help NVOAD with their administrative cost. This was really the right action to take. However, among other things, this book is going to show how to properly join NVOAD. It is very important that this is done right.

Speaking of the proper way, another important thing whenever building something is to be sure to complete each step as perfectly as possible before going to the next. This takes patience but in the long run it will help you to avoid many problems.

Carefully completing each step is kind of like adding a column of numbers. You may add half of the column correctly. But if you then add 53 + 7 and compute that you have 61, then by that much, at least, will your final answer be off mark.

I face this challenge every day. Constantly I am building various things. Of course, it could be said that nothing is going to be perfect in this material world. But believe me, unless each step involved in making something is performed as near perfectly as possible before going to the next, you’ll certainly end up with a mess.

Consider the Hubble telescope. It was built and sent into orbit. But when it was turned on, to the dismay of scientists back on Earth they could see that the telescope could not focus properly. Why? Because way back in the string of steps that went into building it, someone made a miscalculation in the lens configuration. The error was not detected and got built into the telescope. So this is also important. In the blueprint that follows, I have tried to make it free of any errors.

It is my sincere wish that someday soon ISKCON will use this book to fulfill Shrila Prabhupada’s dream. As I said, this can be done in our lifetime. It is a piece of cake. Not by using illusions or trickery. Not by hiring some expensive PR firm to fluff and perfume our image. All that is required is a logical presentation of Lord Krishna, as He is—the world’s greatest hero. The rest will follow automatically, in a real and genuine way.