The Maui Plan

Now, more so then ever before, Vaisnavas need to bring the Vedic paradigm to the world’s elites.

ISKCON and others have created beautiful mandirs in India and around the world. They have also done quite a lot in India and around the globe by taking the Bhagavat conception of Sri Caitanya far and wide all over the land. Still, as wonderful as that is, often times in India it is little more then preaching to the choir. What is the result after 40 years? Has the success in India really done anything to change India, or the rest of the world? Is India a better place today then it was before ISKCON gained it’s foothold and following? Is the world being objectively changed in any real way by ISKCON or others?

My ideas are about reaching the worlds elite families. So much of the worlds wealth and power is concentrated in so few hands. A tiny fraction of the world’s population owns or controls most of the wealth of the world. Which in turn translates into a massive amount of power in the hands of a very few people.

These statistics are from the early 1990s:

Of the world’s 6 billion people, more than 1.2 billion live on less than $1 a day. Two billion more people are only marginally better off. About 60 percent of the people living on less than $1 a day live in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.The world’s 3 richest people have wealth greater than the combined Gross Domestic Product (the value of all goods and services) of the world’s 48 poorest nations. The world’s richest 225 people (number of billionaires at that time) have combined assets equal to the combined annual income of the world’s 2.5 billion poorest people.

Since that time according to recent studies the rich have gotten much richer and the poor much poorer. Today that list of the worlds richest people has gone from 225 billionaires in the early ’90s to 946. Not only that but the wealth of the super wealthy has skyrocketed, vaulting them to a much larger piece of the world pie of wealth and power.In today’s world all of the power is held in very few hands. Power over media, over governments, over national economies, etc.

Reaching those people is what I would like to do. Maui offers a perfect opportunity to do that because it is a hang out for the worlds elites. There are several places around the world that are like a circuit for the super wealthy and their extended families. They include Hawaii, Switzerland, French, Italian and Spanish Rivieras, the Greek islands, the Caribbean islands, Los Angeles, London, and New York City.

Maui is the most popular destination for the elites in Hawaii.They hang out on Maui because it’s part of their circuit. The elite class of people jet set and yacht around the world going from party to party within their own social caste whenever they are not working, if they work. Maui is one of their gathering places because the weather is perfect, the beaches and jungles are gorgeous, and it’s a short flight from California where they also hang out for various reasons e.g meeting celebrities and working with the entertainment business.

So it turns out that Maui is a place that is always full of the world’s elites and their families. Maui is unique amongst the world’s elite hangouts because it is small and remote from the rest of the world and and culturally it has nothing to offer. There is no culture there. On the Riviera, or Switzerland, or Paris or London, or even California, there is culture of some type i.e many varied enjoyable things to do to entertain you: Live music from cutting edge and famous bands, theatre, big nightclubs, european culture of all types, cultural offerings of all varieties. But on Maui there is none of that. Maui is popular because of the beautiful natural surroundings, the comfortable amenities, and the perfect weather. A common complaint of the residents is that Maui has nothing to offer but that. Maui is a cultural wasteland. You hear that all the time from the people who live there. But because Maui is extremely heavenly and beautiful the super wealthy have made it a popular hang out for their circle. In fact Maui is the single wealthiest place on earth. In the 1980′s Maui overtook the French Riviera for that title.

So on Maui what we have is a captive audience in a very small place with nothing to do besides relaxing at health spas, enjoying the perfect weather and beautiful beaches along with enjoying the pristine rainforests which are teeming with countless waterfalls with crystal clear pools as well as wild fruits galore e.g mangos, gauvas, avacados, papayas, passionfruit, bananas, coconut, etc. Enjoying nature and water sports and spas as well as partying with their friends is really all there is for the wealthy to do on Maui. So any kind of entertaining cultural offering and everyone will go. Thats a given because there is no cultural scene there at all.

So my plan is to create a cultural center in the populated area of the island. With a theatre, restaurant, and beautiful temple complex. In the secluded sparsely populated part of the island where all the waterfalls and jungles are, the “Hana side” of East Maui, I envision a yoga retreat and ayurveda healing spa as well as a vaisnava familial community.

I envision it as a place for cultivating relationships with the world’s elites. I want it to be a place where people can relax and enjoy associating with devotees in a vedic environment in a tropical paradise. Preaching directly at the world’s elite families in the same fashion as is done in ordinary circumstances by vaisnavas would be seen by them as trying to separate them from their money. They are generally fearful of people outside of their caste as wanting to exploit them for their wealth. The correct method of influencing them to take to vaisnavism is to become their friends, then they will mingle with us and becomed exposed to our lifestyle. If our lifestyle is to have a beautiful vedic environment populated by a blissful community enjoying ecstatic kirtans, prasadam, sadhu sanga etc, then that would be enough exposure to Krishna consciousness to affect the world’s elite familes. Simply by becoming their friends, becoming their social peers, by giving them exposure to vaisnavas in a setting that they will be attracted to, that will be a very powerful influence on them. They will naturally inquire and want to know what we are all about. The power of the association of Vaisnavas as friends rather then as preachers will be much more effective then trying to preach to them without their asking for it. The Vaisnava youth would be especially effective in attracting the families of the world’s most powerful people.

I feel that the best way to influence them to take to the study of vaisnavism is that we will provide full facility for them to find out about it without us coming across as people who want to convert them. All of this done in arguably the most heavenly place on earth. This would have the effect that they cannot help but want to know what we are all about.

There are plenty of qualified vaisnavas to take part. What it needs is funding from people who see the potential. ISKCON has received and spent huge amounts of money on enormously lavish projects that have little in the way of results compared to what that money could accomplish on Maui. From a Caitanya Caritamrta purport by A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami:

A Vaisnava is immediately purified, provided he follows the rules and regulations of his bona fide spiritual master. It is not necessary that the rules and regulations followed in India be exactly the same as those in Europe, America and other Western countries.

Simply imitating without effect is called niyamagraha. Not following the regulative principles but instead living extravagantly is also called niyamagraha. The word niyama means “regulative principles,” and agraha means “eagerness.” The word agraha means “not to accept.” We should not follow regulative principles without an effect, nor should we fail to accept the regulative principles. What is required is a special technique according to country, time and candidate. In this connection, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura comments on these points by quoting two verses by Sri Rupa Gosvami (Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu 1.2.255-256).

anasaktasya visayan
yatharham upayunjatah
nirbandhah krsna-sambandhe
yuktam vairagyam ucyate
prapancikataya buddhya
hari-sambandhi-vastunah
mumuksubhih parityago
vairagyam phalgu kathyate

“When one is not attached to anything but at the same time accepts everything in relation to Krsna, one is rightly situated above possessiveness. On the other hand, one who rejects everything without knowledge of its relationship to Krsna is not as complete in his renunciation.”

To preach the bhakti cult, one should seriously consider these verses.

I feel that the types of demands put on people living in Iskcon and other yoga ashramas when it comes to total renunciation of all sensual enjoyments would be a detriment and counter productive for the purpose of the Maui vaisnava community I envision.  Wealthy powerful people greedily desire enjoyments of all kinds and they are used to and demand them. The yoga ashrama culture of ISKCON temples, ashramas, and country communities is fine for the purpose they are intended for. They are for the cultivation of bhakti yoga following the yogic ashrama standard of sadhana and tapasya.

The people we wish to cultivate will not be accepting of us as their friends if we make ourselves out as holier then thou by presenting ourselves as superior to them or as people who seem to want them to give up their enjoying lifestyle. We do not want to come across as people who look down on them or as people who shun the enjoying spirit. Suggesting that they should be giving up their lavish lifestyles of sense enjoyment will have the effect that they will not care to be around people who try and convince them to do so. The stressing of the renunciation of material enjoyment is counterproductive for achieving the goal of this project. The goal is to cultivate friendships, to associate with the world’s wealthiest people in a community of vaishnavas.

Creating an atmosphere of inclusion and fun is what I see as the best vehicle for reaching out and touching the world’s elite in a way that they will be attracted towards. It is by teaching Vedic Dharma in this way that the worlds elite will be attracted to learn from Vedic sources and Bhakti Yoga practitioners. What we want to avoid is coming across as people who renounce enjoyment. The people we wish to cultivate simply cannot relate to the conception that they can never get enough enjoyment no matter how hard they try. Most of them have been waited on hand and foot since the time they were born, all they do is enjoy, they don’t work, they don’t struggle for existence, they live life like demigods to a degree.

The world’s elite are very interested in Yoga and Vedic culture. By presenting a community of tolerant, inclusive, happy, fun loving vaisnavas, people will naturally want to be a part of the scene and get to know us and become our friends. We don’t want to come across as religious extremists who are all about renouncing enjoying. Reaching out and touching the world’s elite class of people requires a special methodology. But by doing so the entire world can be affected because those people have connections to the world’s leaders in all fields of endeavor.

What we need is financing from those who can see the potential. Maui is the ideal place for the cultivation of the world’s elite class. It is small and there is not much in the way of entertainment and therefore any type of interesting attraction will generate interest from that class of people. This project is not about preaching Krishna consciousness in the way that is usually done in the traditional manner. This project is about becoming close to the leaders of society as friends of them and their families. We will need an attraction to get the people out to meet the vaisnavas. I propose a restaurant and live theatre complex. There is nothing like that on Maui. It will generate instant and ongoing interest from the elite class of people who regularly vacation and live there. Ideally we would like to also have an ayurvedic spa-yoga retreat and community center with living arrangements in the Hana side of Maui. It is very secluded and beautiful and is often referred to as the most beautiful place on the planet. We would also ideally require a large home on the other side of the island where the restaurant and theatre complex would be located. There the devotees who work in the restaurant and theatre can live and entertain. Essentially we would have devotees living in the populated part of the island and also in the secluded sparsely populated part of the island. This is because even though the island is small, the terrain between the populated side and the Hana side makes the journey very slow going. The road to Hana is one of the most famous roads in the world and it takes a good 3 hours to travel it. Here is a video (Youtube.com) of that road.

Hana Road

Here are some videos of the area around Hana

Hana Area
Hana Area 2
Hana Area 3

Here are the more populated parts of the island

Maui 1
Maui 2
Maui 3
Maui 4
Maui 5
Maui 6

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