Inis Rath Island Temple ferry boat

Here's a little story: Yesterday we visited an island 40 miles away on Lower Lough Erne. The island is called Lusty Beg and there's a pub, spa, restaurant and holiday accommodation there. The owner started in the 1980's shortly after Inis Rath Island became a temple. They have a ferry boat just like the temple's boat. The owner hired the temple's boat to carry materials way back 25 years ago. Today Lusty Beg Island's boat is immaculately maintained. The temple's boat needs some investment.

I guess there are different ways to look at this. One way is that we could be better organised in our temple. That will always be true (We can always do better). Another way is that, basically, this is what we tend to spend our money on: drink for ourselves, holidays for ourselves, massages for ourselves, food that tastes nice for me. In the Krishna temple we hear about Krishna, sing about Krishna, discuss Krishna's philosophy and share Krishna's food (which tastes the nicest!). By the dictionary definition of God, I don't think Krishna needs our money. However we have an option to voluntarily share some of our money for Krishna's cause. The boat currently has to be pulled out of the water with a crane (£1000), repairs and maintenance, and has to be painted to prevent rust. If we were to get too much money in this fundraising effort (which would be great!!) after that we could do with painting the temple building also.

Finally, someone might make a good point that if we're going to donate, then what about all the famines and wars and terrible things in the world. How are you going to help them? Well, these things take place due to lust, anger, hate, envy, and intense greed. Krishna's philosophy offers solutions to tackle the root of the problem, and a temple is an education centre on these points. For example, during the rule of the British Empire in India, more than 20 million people died of starvation in multiple famines due to neglect of maintaining canals and irrigation, astronomical taxation on Indian produce, growing cash crops rather than food, etc. So the root cause of the problem was greed, etc etc etc. A Krishna temple is an education centre where the study of how to overcome base qualities is taken place. Krishna in the 'Song of God' (Bhagavad Gita) explains Bhakti-Yoga, meditation and wisdom in glorious detail.  

Surely hundreds of people will read this. If many people were kind enough to donate a 10 or a 20, it would be celestial :-)
I don't know about you, but if the temple building looks a bit scruffy and the boat doesn't work on occasion I can hardly invite people to come to hear the chanting of Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare

The top image of a crowd of people on the boat is from the Open Day in 2010. Image above: this is the temple house after being painted. It needs to be painted now. But first things first: the ferry boat being in order
www.LakeisleRetreats.com

Last year we had 29 retreats with between 5 to 10 guests on each retreat. This year we're due to have over 30 retreats. More than 90% of all guests attend the Greeting of the Deities and hear kirtan chant music from 7.00am on Saturday morning. More than 90% of new guests have never visited a Hare Krishna temple before. More than 90% of guests hear philosophy presented by Tulasi Priya prabhu, Prahlada Bhakta prabhu, Gopal Acarya prabhu, Max prabhu, Madhava Krishna prabhu, Derek prabhu, or visiting sannyasis or devotees. 100% guests take Krishna prasadam (spiritualised food) and 95%+ take some maha-prasadam (extra special spiritual food)

Finally, 100% of the money donated will be used to pay people to repair boat, for boat parts, to buy paint, etc. Thank you very much...

Sincerely,
Tim McEvitt