Does maintaining an institute make managers rigid and impersonal?

So, sometimes to keep the institution moving, there are so many things to do and that may make devotees rigid and they may become impersonal.

This is what has to be done. So, how do we deal with this? Yes, when individuals work in an institution, there are two forces at work. There is the institution's growth and there is the individual's growth.

So, both are important. The individual institution's growth means that, first of all, whatever service is there, deity worship is there, temple cleaning is there, prasadam cooking is there. These are things which have to go on.

Along with that, the individual's growth means that it's not just growth in stature, it's not just growth in position. Individual's growth means growth in the desire to serve. It means if a devotee has come new, that devotee may be told, please come to the temple, please come for this program, please come for this festival.

But if a devotee has been around for five years, ten years, even if that devotee is placed in a place where there are no devotees, the devotee should have the motivation that I want to serve Krishna. That the success, the growth of a devotee is that wherever the devotee is put, the devotee's desire to serve Krishna is so strong that the devotee keeps serving always. And for this, the devotee has to find and be situated in a service that is according to their nature.

We all can do services as per the need of the situation. And we should, that's our surrender. But it's also the maturity of the leaders by which they find, okay, how can I engage this devotee lifelong? How can this devotee be inspired? So while doing whatever services we are told to do, we also observe which services we feel good at doing, we feel good while doing and we are actually good at doing.

Krishna says, guna karma vibhagashah, there is qualities and there is activities. So we can say guna refers to comfort or compatibility. I feel comfortable doing this service.

And karma refers to competence. I'm good at doing this. I like to sing kirtans and I'm good at it.

I like to give classes, I'm good at it. I like to cook and I'm good at it. So if this agreement is there, both comfort and competence, then that is a service we can do lifelong.

So over a period of time, we need to gravitate towards a service of that kind. That doesn't mean we reject whatever services we are doing, but both the institution and the individual have to have this long term vision. Sometimes the temple may be understaffed and that's why whatever service is required, we may do it.

And that's our surrender to do it. But over a period of time, the temple or the institution should have that vision that we engage devotees in a way that they can practice sustainably. So sometimes the individual's needs may take priority.

So the institution's needs may take priority. At the same time, the thing should be structured in a way that in the long run, devotees can serve in a way they are inspired to serve. So if we find that keeping the things moving, that itself is becoming a drain, that itself is draining the devotees, then that means we are so caught in maintenance that we are not able to share, that we are not able to preach, we are not able to attract new people.

Because when the community is small, whatever is required, we will do. But as we grow, we need our space so that we can make our offering to Krishna. So then sometimes, even if some maintenance goes on a little bit, if we can focus on preaching for some time, get some more people, then we will have more devotees and devotees can serve according to their nature.

We can't entirely reject the institutional responsibilities. But at the same time, we can't entirely repress the individual nature also. So harmony has to be found between the two, where sometimes one may take priority.

But overall, the whole system of Varanashram was serving according to one's nature. So we need to move towards that gradually.