If others do politics to sideline us from our service, should we also do politics to continue our service?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Thank you.
If we are to do some service. And especially to some senior devotee. Who is coming.
To our place. There is some other devotee. Who is not very competent.
But then that devotee. By doing some kind of politics. Gains an influential position.
And then. We can also do politics. But then we feel I have come to Krishna not to do politics.
But then. We get sidelined. And then on one side.
We have to do politics. And gain a position. Or we have to.
Work under some incompetent. Who is political. Or we just get sidelined.
None of these options seem palatable. So what to do in such a situation. I’d say politics is a very dirty word.
And. If you ask anyone. Should I do politics? Nobody will say yes.
That’s obvious. At the same time. See that.
We all need to do. Whatever is required. For our service to Krishna.
Say some devotee decides to. Preach at a particular place. Brahmachari, Sanyasi.
Then. They may just be interested. In speaking Krishna katha.
But then. As people start coming. Then they decide.
We are going to build a temple over here. They have to start handling money. Start worrying about money.
And then they have to worry about. Getting legal permissions. And all this involves.
You have to do whatever it takes. To get those permissions. So.
The service has a purpose. That is to share Krishna’s message. But in this world.
We cannot do. One service alone. To do that service.
We have to do many other things. I personally don’t like management much. I have consciously kept myself out of.
It’s called management. But still. When I am traveling.
I have to do my travel management. Nobody else can do that for me. The other devotees will manage at local place.
But overall planning I have to do. Coordinating I have to do. So now if I don’t want to do that.
I am not able to travel too much. Or travel too effectively. So now.
What may happen is. Some devotees. Their service itself may be like.
Managing the travel of some other devotees. So for me. My service is speaking about Krishna.
For that I need to do. Traveling I will do the management. So there are three possibilities here.
One is. That one has a particular service. And for that.
One has to do other things which one may not like. One has to do that. Second is.
Doing the second thing itself is a service. Like travel management. Somebody may have very good.
Contact with travel agencies. Knows which websites to visit. How to get the best deals.
And they do it in a mood of service to Krishna. And the third is. Somebody who does that.
But for trying to. Make money for themselves. I will show this was for the ticket.
But actually I paid this much. And they are doing it with some ulterior motives. So I would say rather than using.
The word politics. It is simply. All of us need to develop the right connections.
And developing the right connections. So that we can get our service done. Some people may see it as politics.
But that is just the way the world functions. So now. If I want to do a particular service.
My service is speaking about Krishna. My service is writing about Krishna. Now for that.
I develop some connections. With the local temple leaders. Or local devotees who want to distribute books.
Now somebody may say. Why are you spending so much time with this devotee and not that devotee. People may argue like that.
But my purpose is clear. That is for my service. This is what I need to do.
And I will do it. But then. There are some devotees whose service is simply developing connections.
They are in communications department. They don’t give so much classes. But they know so many politicians.
There are so many influential movie stars, sports stars. And that is their main service. And there are some devotees.
Who do these connections. Who have these connections. Just so that they can have photo ops.
I met the Prime Minister of India. I met this person. Now.
We don’t want to go into any service in the third zone. Where we are doing it for our own ulterior motive. But the second and the first.
It’s a valid way of serving Krishna. Even if it’s some adjustments need to be done over there. So.
We. Basically. In working with an institution.
Or working within an institution. There are only three ways you work. Lead.
Follow. Or get out of the way. So now.
Lead also cannot be the sole leader. And in following also we may be having some cooperative working. But still.
In general. We will not get two things together. We will not get freedom.
And facility together. If you want freedom. Then.
You have to create your own facility. So I will give you an example for this. Now.
If. If. The temple has a preaching going on by the Bhaktiviksha model.
But I want to design my own course. And I want to use my own course. Then the temple may not support me for that.
Temple may not provide prasad for me. For that kind of program. So then.
But if I want the freedom to do that. Then. Or consider for example.
I have my websites. Now. It is not that any temple is supporting my website.
Because. It is only my content only. If it is a temple website.
They will say put many other people’s content also. That is perfectly valid. But I speak in a particular way.
I want to make my website target to a particular audience. So if I want the freedom. Then I cannot expect the facility from the leaders of the institution.
If I want the facility. Then I will have to work with the leaders. So now.
Sometimes we can find a medium. Where I do some things with my freedom. And I do something with the.
Under the guidance of the authorities. Where they provide me some facilities. But both will not come together.
It is not that. Wanting freedom is wrong. Many times in Prabhupada.
They appreciated his disciples where they were. They came up with innovative ideas. For serving Krishna.
Because you are so intelligent. Because you are so sincere. So Krishna is giving you intelligence from within.
Prabhupada would quote. So. The point I am making.
Here is that. Sometimes the senior Vaishnava. When he comes.
He is also like an institution. If you want to work with him. Work for him.
Whatever comes with him. It is like a package. So we will have to work with that.
So rather than. Calling it politics and thinking I don’t want to do politics. You can just see.
That this is what is required for my service to Krishna. So. It is more of.
Again it is developing connections. And it is not so much that you are flattering someone. It is more that.
Different people. Have different needs. Some people.
They feel valued. When you just. Seek their guidance.
Some people feel valued. When. You.
Do some practical service for them. Some people feel valued. When you publicly praise them.
Some people feel valued. When you spend time with them. So.
Now. It may be. That some people.
They just delight in their praise in public. It is possible. That could be because of the ego.
But it can also be just a need of a person. If that means. Some people have that need.
To feel publicly validated. So. If that is the case.
When it becomes a pandering to somebody’s ego. Is when. We speak totally untrue things.
And. Internally. It is like.
I have no appreciation for the person. But still. I speak something just to get my work done.
It may be that. The person has x, y, z attributes. x, y, z. Now I like the x part.
I don’t like the y part. And I dislike the z part. So then if I start appreciating the z part.
That will be hypocritical. It is like I can appreciate the x part. In that person.
It is. To some extent. It is again.
Rather than saying that this is flattery. Or chamchagiri. It is not necessary like that.
It can be. But it is just. Doing what is required for our service.
And without necessarily. So if I appreciate them for z. It will be compromising with my principles. But if I appreciate them for.
It will be almost like lying. But if I appreciate them for x. That is not like. So.
It is. Now. To feel that I can’t work with this person.
I would not get into the zone. Whether this is my ego. Or that person’s ego.
I would say that we all are made differently. And we all have. Different natures.
And working with some people is easier. Working with some people is difficult. So.
If working with some people is difficult. Then. We have to decide.
Every choice as I said will come with a consequence. That means if I want to do this service. I have to work with this person.
So that means then I will get the facility. Of serving a senior Vaishnava. But then I will not have that much freedom.
Because I have the discomfort of working with this person. But then if I don’t want that thing. Then I will have my own freedom.
But then I will not have any facility at all. It is not that. It is wrong.
It is not that. Suppose we are doing some service ourselves. We are driven.
We are inspired. That is wonderful. But the important thing is.
The important thing is that we have a service attitude. So. It is.
It is. For functioning in this world. In different situations.
Different skills are required. And. There was a god brother of Shri Prabhupada.
And Prabhupada came first time to Vrindavan. Not second time. Vrindavan is a big busload of devotees.
First time he came just with two devotees. When he was sick. Second time when he came.
It was like a sensation in Vrindavan. And the Vrindavan’s mayor. Or whatever.
They have. They organize a big celebration. Welcoming Prabhupada and felicitating him.
So then he said that. This god brother said that actually. We are pure sanyasis.
We have lived a life of. He said I have lived a life of nashtik brahmachari. Now I. I can’t associate with this low class western people.
But. Bhaktivinand Swami. He was a businessman.
He knew how to organize his business. So he had experience dealing with all kind of people. So.
He has used that experience and has made these people devotees. In a subtle way. He was undermining Prabhupada.
He is. Now. You could say that Prabhupada had business experience.
Prabhupada knew how to deal with different people. That’s not a disqualification. Now my purity.
What purpose does it have? Purity is meant to serve Krishna. So. Did Prabhupada have those material abilities to organize.
To deal with people. He had. But it was not because of that he made people devotees.
It was because he had a spiritual. He was so spiritually advanced. He had taken up the mission of a spiritual master.
With such dedication. And after he had the dedication. He used.
Whatever resources he had. And Prabhupada was also quite candid. When he said that my.
He writes publicly in the Bhagavatam. Our attempt to write in the English language will fail. Because this is.
I don’t know English. In simple words. So well.
Prabhupada’s English editors do it for him. So the point is that. Whatever is required for a service.
If I want to do that service. Then whatever is required. I will have to do that.
I can do that in a. As sattvic way as possible. So for example. If I have to raise funds.
Now I can raise funds by. You could say. Instead of fundraising.
We say friend raising. You create friends and they contribute. Or I can raise funds by.
Just going to the people. Talking about what is required to get the one. And we have no concern for the spiritual one.
Or sometimes we may even tell counterfactual things. To get funds. So I would say that.
This could be roughly in goodness, passion, ignorance. Now whether I am actually developing a relationship. And seeking their well being.
Or I just remember them at the time when I need money. And I talk nicely with them at that time. And get the money.
Or we are doing x. But we tell we are doing y. So that we get the money. This is goodness, passion, ignorance. So similarly with what we call as politics.
That can also be in goodness, passion, ignorance. So if. If.
If I have an overall attitude. Intention of serving Krishna. And.
I appreciate the people around me. But I still understand. This person has this position.
This person has this power. And if I need to do this. I have to work with this person.
And we do it in a. In a. Non offensive. Non duplicitous way. Just develop the right contacts.
And we do it yes. I respect you for what you are doing. I may not be able to respect you for everything that you are.
But okay you are doing this service. And I appreciate you and I get it done. So we respect people for what they are.
Not that we respect everything that they are. And we. We work with them in our service to Krishna.
That would be in goodness. In passion it would be that. I somehow.
I make it like a. Almost like a ego tussle. I want to get this done. And how dare you stop me.
How come in my way. They throw their weight around. We throw our weight around.
And then maybe. We somehow push through and get it done. In ignorance we may decide that.
I won’t do it only. And I won’t do it may not be necessarily ignorance. It’s I won’t do it.
And then I feel sorry for myself. I go into the zone of self pity. Nobody cares me.
Nobody values me. Things are so rotten in the world. That zone is self pity.
Now if sometimes I might decide. In the mode of goodness also. This is not the kind of thing I want to get involved in.
So that’s also fine. There are many ISKCON leaders. Who choose not to become GBC members.
They had the position. They had the invitation also. We don’t want to get involved in this.
Well that’s certainly the privilege. But that is not out of frustration. That is out of conscious choice.
And they know that choice brings some implication. When some decisions are made. They may not have a say in that decision.
And they are okay with that. So. There is no need to associate.
The negative imagery. That comes with words like politics. With what we are doing for our service to Krishna.
We just do whatever is required. And do it as much in the. Mode of goodness as possible.
So. If our purpose is to serve Krishna. And that is a strong defining purpose.
Then whatever it takes. Doing that is also a service to Krishna only.