Prabhupāda: Now, the Spiritual Sky... I have heard that you are paying two thousand rupees, er, two thousand dollars, per month to the accountant, and one thousand dollars to Karandhara.
Jayatīrtha: Yes, about that.
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Jayatīrtha: Seventeen hundred dollars a month to the accountant, full-time accountant. That is the average price in America for a first-class accountant. Otherwise, we have to hire, get Atreya Ṛṣi to come and do it.
Prabhupāda: And Karandhara is taking one thousand dollars?
Jayatīrtha: Well, here's the problem, that because it is a business, people must, that work there, have to get regular salary and pay taxes. Otherwise we can get in a lot of trouble. We can get in a lot of trouble. Maybe Bhagavān may know.
Bhagavān: Well, I have the same thing in France. Spiritual Sky is a legal business. That means you have to legally employ people. But I employ the temple people and just take their salary.
Jayatīrtha: Yes. That's all right.
Bhagavān: Do you take Karandhara's salary?
Jayatīrtha: No, that's a different thing. Anyway, let me finish the point. The point is that legal salary has to be paid, and then taxes have to paid from that. So for example, Karandhara's salary is not really a good example because he doesn't give fifty percent. But one thousand dollars is the salary.
Bhagavān: Minimum? Minimum salary?
Prabhupāda: No.
Jayatīrtha: That eight hundred, two hundred goes for taxes...
Prabhupāda: No our, our... That was the... Formerly, who was managing?
Jayatīrtha: Formerly, I was managing.
Prabhupāda: So you were also taking one thousand?
Jayatīrtha: I was... But that was... But I was... I wasn't taking anything. But that was...
Prabhupāda: Then? How...? Why he is taking?
Jayatīrtha: Because we were working illegally.
Haṁsadūta: The thing is the whole situation has deteriorated into a karmī business, and no one's making any profit on it.
Jayatīrtha: Well, now, let's...
Haṁsadūta: It's just a headache.
Jayatīrtha: That is a... That is an unschooled statement, an uneducated statement. It's not a...
Haṁsadūta: No, that's not a fact. Where is the advantage?
Jayatīrtha: Anyway, let me finish... That's why I don't want to discuss this in front of Prabhupāda, because of argument. Anyway, the next point is that, as far as Karandhara's salary is concerned...
Prabhupāda: No, the Spiritual Sky was contemplated that our gṛhastha bhaktas may be employed...
Haṁsadūta: Yeah, but they're not employed anymore.
Jayatīrtha: That's not true.
Prabhupāda: And the bare necessities should be paid.
Jayatīrtha: Right. Well, generally we have about seventeen, eighteen gṛhasthas employed in Los Angeles, and they get much smaller salary, and they, for the most part, they're giving everything over subsistence to the temple as donation. They take out minimum subsistence...
Prabhupāda: But Karandhara is not giving anything.
Jayatīrtha: Well, his point is... As you know, he made that unauthorized loan from BBT when he left, for five thousand dollars. And he has to pay it back at three hundred dollars per month. So after he makes...
Prabhupāda: Unauthorized loan?
Jayatīrtha: When he left last year, he took loan for five thousand dollars, and he is repaying at three hundred dollars per month. So after taxes, he gets eight hundred dollars. Three hundred dollars goes to BBT. That's five hundred. Now, with the balance, he supports his wife and children, and his wife is giving donations for Deities and so on. So he is not actually...
Prabhupāda: No, that you discuss whether he is... Otherwise I can give you a very first-class man, but he won't charge anything.
Jayatīrtha: Who is that?
Prabhupāda: That I'll not disclose. (laughter) You give him simply, his wife and him, a shelter. He's Indian, I can say.
Jayatīrtha: Oh.
Prabhupāda: And he is qualified man. He can do. Yes.
Atreya Ṛṣi: Śrīla Prabhupāda...
Jayatīrtha: But he's not a devotee.
Atreya Ṛṣi: Karandhara's management is—I mean I'm just looking at it from another view—is worth more than two thousand dollars. So if he is getting only one...
Prabhupāda: But your management is not worth five thousand dollars?
Atreya Ṛṣi: Mine is worth nothing.
Prabhupāda: Then why you are giving free service? Anyone, all of my disciples, they are qualified. Their service is worth more than any thousands of... Yes. So why you are maintaining Karandhara? All of them, they are giving free service. But they are all worthy to take salary, two thousand, three thousand, five thousand...
Atreya Ṛṣi: Karandhara is only, what he's getting is only enough for his maintenance.
Prabhupāda: That's all right.
Atreya Ṛṣi: We are being maintained.
Prabhupāda: No, no. Maintenance... Here, everyone can earn money and maintain him, but here this expense should be sacrifice. The essential is service.
Haṁsadūta: It's his service...
Prabhupāda: Service, yes.
Haṁsadūta: It was started for that reason.
Prabhupāda: If we take payment, that is not service. That is business. That is business.
Jayatīrtha: It is, no doubt, a fact that Karandhara is not giving his full, is giving his full life as service. That is a fact. It may be taken...
Prabhupāda: Yes. Our organization is to give service.
Haṁsadūta: And then another point in this connection is that when I was in Los Angeles last time, all the people that worked for Spiritual Sky, they were, they were starting to fall away because of Karandhara's karmic attitude...
Jayatīrtha: That's...
Prabhupāda: So this point you discuss.
Jayatīrtha: (to Haṁsadūta:) That problem we'll discuss, and I'll discuss it with you.
Atreya Ṛṣi: Śrīla Prabhupāda, there are also two reports we don't have here, and we should read those before... One is Karandhara's report, and one is Gopāla Kṛṣṇa Prabhu's report, who have investigated this.
Jagadīśa: He's told us to make his report.
Atreya Ṛṣi: Hm? Well, yes, that we have not heard yet. So we should hear and read the...
Prabhupāda: All have contact. (?)
Atreya Ṛṣi: ...and then discuss this point.
Prabhupāda: Yes. That is your GBC.
Jayatīrtha: All right. So that we'll discuss. The other thing we'll discuss is ISKCON Food Relief. And we'll also discuss the complaints about books in India.
Prabhupāda: Yes, that is the main...
Jayatīrtha: So these things we can discuss.
Prabhupāda: ...how these complaints can be stopped.