Bounty Jumpers for Krishna
Sponsor A Brahman To Substitute For Your Ekadasi Vigil
During the American Civil War, the rich folks who were conscripted into the army could pay someone to take their place. Often, they would be paying a what was termed a “bounty jumper,” a “professional” who would take their $200, join a regiment only to almost immediately leave in order to collect another rich guy’s bounty. Some would do this over and over, even though it was highly illegal. These men were seen as the lowest of the low. Bounty jumpers were more likely to receive the death penalty than typical army deserters. Neither side tolerated such behavior.
Similarly, a company calling itself Art 4 Krishna is offering the richer (and lazier) practitioners of Krishna consciousness the chance to pay them a bounty to follow Ekadasi (fasting from grains and beans) so they don’t have to.
And, like the bounty jumpers, they are collecting their $200 $125 (there’s a sale going on) and moving onto another individual with the desire to be cheated out of their money.
This is something that I would have written for the Hing. When I first saw it, I thought it was satire and really, I wish it were.
They claim that in the book Hari Bhakti Vilasa allowance is made where if you can’t follow Ekadasi, a brahman can do it for you. It is customary to give a donation for such a service.
However a donation is a far cry from charging a fistful of cash and spiritually bounty jumping.1
This cannot be stressed enough: if you are collecting a wage, stipend, set “donation” for something that you believe is spiritual – its not. You are receiving zero spiritual benefit because it’s not actually a spiritual act, it’s an act done for monetary gain. You are simply cheating in the name of Krishna.
This Art 4 Krishna nastiness is the text book definition of cheating. It really is bounty jumping and these spiritual bounty jumpers are the lowest of the low.
This isn’t Krishna consciousness. It’s modern Hinduism and gross materialism under the guise of spirituality. I’m sorry to see that it’s come to this.
*Edit – it should be made clear that this really isn’t bounty jumping *for* Krishna. It’s bounty jumping for money (not Laxmi). It’s just bad ol’ fashioned greed.
- Not actually spiritual. [↩]
