How do we balance between remaining faithful to Srila Prabhupada and presenting according to time-place-circumstances?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So, Prabhupada means a machine put it on both sides, but in a improvised because of vertical circumstance. Now, whether that means, if we place a circumstance, can we also improvise and can we also do something, one of the option that Prabhupada has done, can we also do something which Prabhupada has not done. How do we actually, that means, present a certain circumstance and at the same time maintain physical restriction of Prabhupada.
Actually, there is no direct answer to this, specifically. In general, every tradition survives and expands by two conditions. There is fidelity and there is flexibility.
Fidelity is faithfulness. Fidelity connects it with its past. Flexibility connects it with its present.
If Prabhupada had not been flexible, he would not have been able to go to America also because according to tradition, sannyasis do not travel across the ocean also. So, flexibility is what connects us with the contemporary environment. Fidelity is what connects us with our roots.
So, if either connection becomes too strong, if we choose fidelity too much and have no flexibility, then we become basically like a fossil. We become irrelevant. We become, people can’t comprehend what we are doing, why we are doing, we have no appeal for people.
And if we do so much flexibility without fidelity, then we end up becoming deviant. One is we become irrelevant, the other is we become deviant. That means we lose our connection with our roots.
So, how do we manage to have the balance? That depends first and foremost on understanding the difference between the principle and the details or the core and the periphery. And our own tradition talks about this. That there is niyamana kriya, that there is a rule and there is a purpose for the rule.
So, to fulfill the purpose and the rule, sometimes the rule itself may have to be given up. And sometimes the rule may be followed diligently, but the purpose may be forgotten. So, that the point of there being a core thing which has to be fulfilled, that is, there are pointers towards that within our tradition also.
So, in general, when we do this, when we have to decide something or take up some strategy which say has not been done in the past. Say, for example, online bhakti shastra course which I did or online preaching entirely. Now, at the time of Prabhupada, there was no concept of online preaching.
The internet was not their way. So, then what do we do? So, then we consult the current government practitioners. Current, so there is guru, sadhu and shastra.
Sadhu is not just the previous acharyas. Sadhu is also the current acharyas. And we consult them, see their examples, see their works.
And by that it is understood whether something which will inspire you, is it in harmony with Prabhupada’s philosophy. Now, we may say even the sadhus may have different opinions. That is also possible.
Then, ultimately, for example, this is the strategy. So, vidhama-nudri-yogam-tan-inamabhyam. Krishna will guide a devotee how to serve Krishna best.
And if some other devotee feels that this is not what I should do, then leave that devotee and we find out those who are encouraging and we continue that. So, overall, there are certain activities where somebody just says you can eat meat and it’s alright. That is clearly against Prabhupada’s teachings.
But otherwise, if we try to envision Prabhupada as something very narrow, certainly we want to be faithful to Prabhupada, but we shouldn’t think of tradition as something frozen. Tradition itself is dynamic. Tradition itself is continuously reinventing itself.
Not reinventing its core, but reinventing its periphery so that it is relevant to people. So, Prabhupada himself, you know, had an institution. He himself was a novelist.
Vatsyam Thakur did that of course. You can say Vatsyam Thakur was a novelist. Now, we may say that we are not at the level of acharya to do that.
That is definitely true. Nobody is claiming that. But then, the point is that Prabhupada encouraged even his young disciples to come up with newer and newer ideas of preaching.
The whole idea of book distribution in American streets, that just came up as an innovation. And you know how it happened. The devotees had taken a van for fueling the petrol.
And the devotee did not have money. So, they asked the petrol boomer, can you take this book? Vishwa Prabhupada said, yes. And then they went to another shop and they purchased something.
They said, can you take this book? Oh, this is a big book. One second, I will take it. And they thought, oh, we can distribute books like this.
And that is how they started. So, now in the past, Vishwa Prabhupada did not do this. This kind of distribution was not there so much.
But they did that. And it worked out very well. So, rather than, we certainly want to be faithful to Vishwa Prabhupada.
Okay. I will conclude. This is a very complex discussion.
And there are no final answers. But one important thing still I will tell you. There is Sambandha, there is Abhideva and there is Paryusha.
So, Sambandha is philosophical knowledge. That is something which will not change. If any Acharya comes along and says that, oh, we and Krishna are one.
You can say that. This is nonsense. But Abhideva is the means by which one fixes one’s mind and consciousness.
And that will change the whole language. In fact, Prabhupada has said that, you know, I have practically invented this entire Krishna consciousness movement. Now Prabhupada said, I did not change one thing.
And he said, I invented. Invent means to make something new. So, what has he invented? The whole mode of engaging western devotees, according to their propensity, in serving Krishna, that is something which Prabhupada himself thought about.
And Prabhupada says also, it is the responsibility of the spiritual master to find ways and means by which the disciple can fix the mind and consciousness. So, that means, the Abhideva will change. So, for example, now, you know, hey, somebody will say, hey, there was no internet, Prabhupada did not pitch an internet, somebody did not pitch an internet.
Now, for many devotees today in the Sambandha, you know, it is through the internet that they get to hear about. And they are connected to Krishna, very much to the internet. And actually, you may say, it’s gone, we will not do it.
But then other organizations are doing it. And there are people who are spiritual seekers, we will go to other organizations. So, then, our, the means of fixing the mind of Krishna, Abhidheya, that will change.
But the principle that it is Krishna, whom I have to fix the mind, that will not change. So, if somebody starts changing Sambandha, that is a serious one, that is a revelation. But as far as changing Abhidheya is concerned, now I am not saying that everything in Abhidheya can be changed.
But in some aspects of Abhidheya, if they are changed, that does not necessarily mean that it is wrong. As long as the principle of fixing the mind on Krishna is observed.