How can we cultivate more of a family atmosphere in our movement?

Anwser Podcast

Transcript

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Thank you. So, where there is amount of negativity or hostility towards women in our movement, so how can we counter that and have more of a family relationship, family atmosphere? Once we start talking about how to do something in ISKCON, ISKCON is a very big organization. So we can always start with ourselves and the people around us at an individual level.
Gradually things will grow. it’s not that you mentioned that in the Christian culture the understanding is that a good wife is a gift from God. If you consider the broad Indian culture or the broad Vedic culture, whatever you want to say, that understanding is there also.
It is not that it is not there. There are many verses in the scripture canon where I was born in an Indian Brahmin family and you know when marriage happens, when in a family marriage happens, when the bride comes to the home, the bride is treated as Lakshmi. The bride is Lakshmi Devi, a manifestation of us coming into the house.
And I think Manu Smriti, there is a verse which says, Manu Smriti, I don’t, the verse which says in a house where the women are not happy, the gods will never shower their blessings. Prabhupada also says that. So there are definitely in the scripture tradition, if you consider the Indian tradition itself, among all the, among the many ancient cultures that are existing, that existed in the past, you know which ancient civilization is still now existing? Egyptian civilization, Mesopotamian civilization, Iranian civilization, none of them are there now.
Indian civilization is still existing and although there are so many invaders who came to India, where did the resilience come from? For any civilization, the family is the fundamental unit of the society. Unless the family structure was strong, the civilization could not have survived. So, I’ll say that it’s not a, it’s not that the Christian, Christian understanding of family life is more affirmative and the Vedic understanding is negative.
Rather, within our movement, because of various factors, we have got a negative conception. The Vedic understanding is quite affirmative. There is recognition that there is a renounced order and the renounced order is culturally respected.
But that does not mean that the householder order is degraded. See, the nature of the conditioned mind is that when we take, make one thing as important, we make it as all important. Krishna says, knowledge in the mode of ignorance means to take one thing and make that into everything.
Take that one thing, make it into everything and it does not, proper understanding of the truth is not there in it. So, renunciation is important. It’s a vital part of spiritual culture and in general, in those religions where the renounced order is not emphasized or sometimes the renounced order is not present also.
So, for example, in Protestant Christianity, there is no renounced order. Quite often, in Islam also there is no renounced order at all. Except in Sufis among them, a few are there.
But otherwise there is no renounced order. In those religions, those religions become quite materialistic. For example, most of Protestant Christianity is governed by the idea of prosperity theology.
Prosperity theology means that if I am devoted to God, God will provide me material prosperity. And by the other way, because God has provided me prosperity, therefore, I must be very religious. It’s a measure.
And say, countries like India, they are poor, that means they are not religious. So, the prosperity theology is very negative. So, unless there is a renounced order, Islam, there are many pious, good followers of Islam, but at an institutional, organizational or national level, Islam is very strongly defined by, more by a political search for power than a search for God.
It can be a search for God, but at an organizational level, it is very much a political search for power at a level of community. So, the absence of a renounced order leads to problems, where the religions become very materialistic. But when the renounced order is present, if they become, if that is all that is made important, then it can lead to problems of entirely different kind and they can be equally serious.
So, as our movement evolves into second and third generations, we ourselves are seeing that the renunciation centered model is not sustainable. There are some devotees who are renounced and they are very pure and they exemplify renunciation very wonderfully. But it is not for everyone.
It is not even for the majority. And as this renunciation sinks in, then gradually whatever is required for the sustainable practice of grahastha ashram, that will also be adjusted. So, what we can do is, in our own individual circle of influence, in our own life, in our social circles, we promote the proper understanding of grahastha life more as a partnership in the battle against temptation.
It is not that the spouses are in the battle for temptation, in temptation. That understanding as it comes up, then in the Bhagavatam also there are words. I think there is third canto where it is said that when a king is attacked, the fort protects the king.
So, like that, a man who is attacked by the censors, wife protects the man. There are many verses like that but often they are not highlighted enough. So, over a period of time, just the experience of living in the world, it helps us realize that there is something wrong in the way things are being done over it and then the course correction will happen.
So, historically, within our Krishna conscious movement, we have got a got an understanding which is overemphasizing enunciation and that has to be counterbalanced and it will be balanced over a period of time. I can see a lot happening in that direction and I would say that you know, if I had been speaking in this class 10 years ago, I would have spoken in a very different class. You know, I didn’t have this understanding.
I don’t even say that I have the right understanding now. I also have much more to understand still but just by interacting with devotees, just by practicing bhakti oneself, observing the devotee community, we all learn and then we grow. So, scripture is actually understood not just by studying, scripture is understood also by living.
So, as we keep studying and living scripture in a symbiotic way, gradually the balanced understanding will come. Does that answer your question? Yes. Thank you very much, Hare Krishna.
So, we will have a break and then around 3-5, we will join for the last session. Hare Krishna.