For transmitting spiritual knowledge cultivate fixity of purpose and flexibility of process

In the Bhagavatam, there is a very interesting history about how spiritual knowledge is transmitted. Of course, one, we know that the oral tradition, when the past people were Shukidhar, they just heard and remembered. But then I was reading some other books, some of the Acharya's commentaries.

Was it that everyone in the past was Shukidhar? You can understand that people who are Brahmanically oriented, they might have had phenomenal memories. But is it that everyone who heard everything once was Shukidhar? No, it's even among Brahmanas, there are some who are especially, everybody had very good memories, but some were Shukidhar. So the whole idea was that there was a vibrant oral tradition which people could keep hearing.

And by hearing they could learn. So now, if you read the previous Acharya's books, we find that most of them are philosophical books. Say, for example, in India there was a huge tradition of debate between the Dwaitavadis and Adwaitavadis.

So, when the Dwaita scholars say, the Madhva scholars, they would write a book refuting Adwaitavad. Then after that completed that book, one scholar would write the book, other scholars would go through it, review it. They had some kind of peer review process and then they would place that book on an elephant.

And then that elephant would go from say Udupi to Sringeri. And then that book would be gifted, Sringeri is the capital of the Adwaitavadis in South India. And the book would be gifted to them.

And it was like dropping, the elephant would be like dropping an intellectual bomb among the opposite party. And then all the Adwaitavadi scholars would come together and they would read the book, they would analyse the book, they would try to come up with arguments to refute it. And when they came out with arguments, they would make their, one prominent Adwaita scholar would write his own book.

And then he would place that book on an elephant. And they would send that book, that elephant back to Udupi. So, this was the tradition of intellectual debate and it was all centred on intellectuals addressing other intellectuals.

As far as the general people were concerned, their spiritual sustenance came not from the written tradition but from the oral tradition. That means that in every village there would be some local sadhus, some local pandits. And sadhus usually refers to those who have renounced the world.

Pandits refer to those who are scholarly. So, pandits can often be also householders. And these would actually speak the philosophy.

Speak the, especially not so much the philosophy, they would speak the philosophy but more they would focus on the practicals. And by that most of the knowledge that was needed for people to apply in their lives would be given. So, philosophy always needs to be translated into practical application.

So, for example, if you read the books of Baldevidya Bhushan, he will not give instructions such as we should chant Hare Krishna everyday or we should avoid sense gratification or we should regulate our sleep or this or that. Because that is already implicit in Brahminical culture. And he is writing for other Brahmanas.

So, he focuses only on the philosophy. And it is the oral tradition which would give this practical instruction, this practical guidelines. And that is how it went on for generations, centuries and millennia.

And when Shri Prabhupada started preaching in the West, he faced a very unique situation. Because his audience was completely disconnected from the traditional culture. And they had no understanding of how to practice spiritual life.

Even the basics were not known. And Prabhupada, if you see, initially he spent a lot of quality time first in New York, then in San Francisco. And he helped a young group of devotees mature in their spiritual life.

Thereafter, he started travelling extensively. And while he was travelling extensively, he couldn't spend much time with individual devotees or even at individual places. So, then for him, his books, his letters, they became the means for instruction.

So, Shri Prabhupada's books, they contain both the, so they serve the function of the oral tradition also. Shri Prabhupada set the oral tradition in the form of Bhagavatam class daily and the weekly congregation programs. That is something which started only recently in the 80s, 90s.

Because prior to that, most people would live within ISKCON also in the temples. ISKCON was a temple-based movement. Not just temple-based movement, it was almost a movement restricted to temples.

And the idea of preaching also was that people who are outside, when the preaching is successful, they will join inside. But then over the years, especially in the 80s, people understood that they will have lot of congregation devotees who are not going to stay in the temples. And still they are also serious.

And that's how congregation programs, in the sense of weekly programs, where people come to temples started. Now, if we consider, now also in ISKCON we have the written tradition and the oral tradition. And we have to some extent an overlap of functions.

As such, the Prabhupada's books serve the function of the oral tradition also. Because they needed to have, he had to give practical guidelines to his disciples, his followers. Now, if we consider the oral tradition today, where the daily classes are there, and through that also, we have not just practical application, we also have basic philosophical exposition.

And then for concentrated intellectual teaching, we have courses like Bhakti Shastri, we have forums like especially MI, VI, MI or VIHE or whatever. So, now if we consider what we are trying to do through portals like the spiritual scientists, is that we are trying to, we are trying to provide through the Indian medium, what was traditionally provided through the intellectual, through the two traditions, the written and the oral. The primary purpose of the written tradition is to help people to move towards, intellectuals to move towards intellectual understanding.

And the oral tradition was to help people in general to gain basic philosophical understanding and primarily to apply scripture in their own lives. So, now if we see the written medium is also a medium for practical dissemination of teachings and the oral medium is also a medium for systematic exposition, where we have systematic courses. So, in the past, also there would be not exactly courses the way we designed them, but it would be there where people would go to the Gurukul and stay there and study for years together a particular system of thought.

So, basically there is a long, long line of tradition in which there has been, there has been fixity of purpose and flexibility of procedure. Fixity of purpose means that the purpose is to help each other rise to higher consciousness. It is not that just the speaker helps the audience to rise to higher consciousness by speaking.

The speaker also rises to higher consciousness. That fixity of purpose is there, but there is flexibility of procedure. Flexibility of procedure means that how exactly will people be best benefited with spiritual knowledge.

So, Krishna Prabhupada was the first Acharya who started bringing in social commentary in his, in his scriptural commentary. If you look at Vishwanath Acharya's Bhagavatam commentary, he wrote it at a time when Vrindavan had just been devastated by the Brajivas, by Aurangzeb and his successors. As he went back and restored Vrindavan practically.

And yet, in his entire 12th century Bhagavatam commentary, there is not one word about the devastation which has been caused by Islamic aggressors. Why? Because that is not a part of his audience. He is writing for people who are out to relish, they want to relish Bhagavatam and he is helping them relish Bhagavatam.

So, Srila Prabhupada is the first Acharya who integrated social commentary. And that was again fixity of purpose to help people rise to higher consciousness, but flexibility of process. So, that way we all can find out the best ways in which we can serve the purpose of fixing the mind on Krishna and helping others to fix the mind on Krishna.

So, speaking of online classes, transcribing them, hearing them, making them accessible. These are all means by which we are finding our way of fixing the mind on Krishna. So, whenever we do any service, we need to recognize that there is a fixity of purpose.

I want to fix my mind on Krishna as it is possible. I want to help others fix their mind on Krishna, but there is a flexibility of process. How exactly I can do it in my situation will vary from how somebody else can do it in their situation.

So, we all need to find some service within the Krishna consciousness movement by which we can fix our mind on Krishna and we can also, as it is possible, inspire others to fix their mind on Krishna.