Does Prabhupada’s request to cooperate with devotees mean that we allow them to exploit us?

Thank you.

Hare Krishna. Question. Does Shri Prabhupada's request that your love for me will be shown by how you cooperate among each other mean that we should let other devotees exploit us? Answer.

Definitely not. Although the word exploit can often be biased or skewed judgment which may be wrong for us. That means somebody may not be exploiting us but we may be feeling like we are being exploited.

Sometimes a devotee may want something good for us but because we are not able to understand how that is good for us so we may feel that the devotee is exploiting us. But if it is actually true that that devotee is not really focused on glorifying Krishna and Shri Prabhupada but has some ulterior agenda and that devotee wants to use us for that ulterior agenda then it doesn't mean that we have to cooperate with that or we have to agree to that just for the sake of cooperating as Shri Prabhupada wanted. The word cooperate includes the word operate.

That means two people are operating and they choose to operate together. However, if one person is so dominating and wants to exploit the other person then the other person has very little room to operate. If we are so troubled by someone else's behavior that we are constantly thinking about how much that person is hurting us and why that person is hurting us and our mind is going off into revenge fantasies then where are we thinking about Krishna? So now at one level somebody could say this is all my karmic reaction coming.

That is possible but just because the karmic reaction is coming doesn't mean that we have to passively accept it. It also means that we have to intelligently choose how I can best serve Krishna. So in some situations if we are so troubled by someone that we are just not able to fix the mind in Krishna then it is best that we be able to steadily move forward by keeping a little bit distance from that person.

Maybe changing our position a little bit, changing our service a little bit so that we keep a distance and with a little bit peace of mind we can focus on serving Krishna. So cooperation doesn't mean that in the name of cooperation we are allowed no operation. We are allowed no room, freedom, peace of mind for operating in Krishna's mission in service of Srila Prabhupada.

So in an extreme situation where we feel that our operation itself is being completely suppressed then certainly we can keep a distance. Even at such times it's not that we have to go on a campaign against that person proving how that person is wrong and I am right. No, we can just say that different devotees have different ways of doing things and I felt that I am unable to work with him and I won't go into a whole debate about who is right and who is wrong.

I will focus more on this. I needed some room to do service myself but now that's why I am doing like this. We can tell others and that way we can continue our service.

So if we are not vilifying another person then that is also one level of cooperation. But at the same time this is an extreme step. It may not be required at all times.

It may be at some time and Srila Prabhupada also accepted it. Sometimes some devotees could not work together. Prabhupada said you go to this temple, you go to that temple.

But don't fight with each other and don't keep spreading negative things about each other. Just understand that our movement, the movement that Srila Prabhupada has given and Krishna's message is broad enough to accommodate devotees with different moods and different ways of working and all of them can keep serving Krishna. But beyond that if we are in a situation where we have to work with someone and if we feel that we are being exploited then we can always take recourse and go to some senior devotee and clarify the situation.

Then that senior devotee may either amend our perception by telling how actually it is not an exploitation, how it is for our spiritual growth in the long run or the devotee may help us adjust by reallocating some service something like that or the devotee may tell that senior devotee who we feel is exploiting us that that devotee needs to change the ways and therefore we will have again more room to operate. So the mandate for cooperation essentially means that our energies should not get flittered away in fighting with each other. But there is operation required and Srila Prabhupada when he found that he could not work with the Gauri Amar devotees he started his con.

But then even then he had cordial relationship as much as possible with his godbrothers and he continued serving. So is it that Srila Prabhupada could not show his love for Bhaktiswami Thakur by cooperating with his godbrothers? No. He tried as much as possible to cooperate.

He described how he was ready to act as their subordinate and do editing of their magazines. But they did not have that vision and the ambition to fulfil Srila Bhaktiswami Thakur's desire for worldwide preaching. And Prabhupada had that.

So when he found that he could not do it with his godbrothers then he went out and he did his own preaching over there. But still he maintained a respectful disposition towards his godbrothers. Only when sometimes they started speaking things which were very critical of him and which threatened the spiritual lives of his disciples then he spoke on a few occasions in a way to protect his disciples.

But overall Srila Prabhupada strove very hard to cooperate with his godbrothers and he wanted us to cooperate. But we also should know that cooperate includes the word operate. So our first and foremost focus in how do we show our love for Krishna or our love for Srila Prabhupada by being Krishna conscious.

So if some relationship is sapping our mental energy so much that we can't be Krishna conscious while being in that power hierarchy in a particular relationship then changing that is what is unapproachable for our bhakti and we should do it. But at the same time by doing such a thing we should know that changing externalism will lead to sustainable solutions. So I may have one authority today and I find that authority is troublesome.

I go somewhere else and have another authority and that also I find troublesome. Third also I find that also is troublesome and in that way there will be no end to my troubles. So what I should keep in mind is a rolling stone gathers no mass.

A person I had to stabilize somewhere and wherever I stabilize there will be some problems. But there should be a basic level of facility and calmness by which you can practice your own service. And to strive for that is very much our responsibility so that we can operate in Srila Prabhupada's mission.

And when we are operating then there can be cooperating also. So how we can do it? We can use our good intelligence assimilated by studying Srila Prabhupada's books and by taking guidance from Sri Disciples of Srila Prabhupada. We can learn how best to serve Krishna.

In a way that is pleasing to Srila Prabhupada and that is also peaceful and satisfying for us in our spiritual growth. Thank you very much.