Srila Prabhupada recommended monarchy in his books, yet instituted democracy in managing ISKCON through the GBC. Why?

From Pancha Pandava P

Transcript

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Thank you very much Hare Krishna Question from Panchpandra Prabhu Shila Prabhupada has talked about monarchy in his books based on Vedic literature then why did he institute democracy in his con with respect to the functioning of the jibis which operates based on majority votes answer even in the Vedic culture there was democracy among the brahmanas among the brahmanas if there is a brahminical council and in the brahminical council if there was a discussion and a debate then generally they would try to come to a conclusion by consensus if they could not come to a conclusion by consensus if there was a unanimous conclusion or there was a discussion and a conclusion and if that did not happen then there would be further discussions and another resolution and there would be voting also and there would be a decision based majority so the important point which Shila Prabhupada would make with respect to democracy the problem with the democracy is that the people who are utterly uninformed are expected to make decisions on issues which require a significant amount of knowledge you know we see there is to some extent the harmful effect of democracy of the democratic spirit of delegating all rights to everyone where in some healthcare situations the doctor tells the patient these are your symptoms you may have this disease, this disease, this disease and if this disease is there you can take this treatment, this treatment, this treatment and like that the doctor gives 16 options 4 possible diseases and 4 possible treatments for each disease and the doctor gives 16 options and tells the patient now you choose what you want how can the patient choose the situation so the patient just doesn’t have the knowledge so the problem with democracy often is that it’s not that democracy appeals to people’s spirits because the idea is that yes every human being should have equal rights yes every human being should be respected and every human being should be valued that valuing is there in the utmost extent in the Indian culture because every soul is considered to be a part of God a precious eternal part of God but at the current level of mortal nature not everybody is equally informed and equally intelligent and that’s why Prabhupada had some concerns about democracy and at the same time Prabhupada was not completely against democracy Prabhupada also pointed out that if there is an autocratic ruler who is very evil and who suppresses all freedom of people including the freedom of religion then as compared to that a democracy where people are allowed to practice the situation is much better and we see this even in the current global scenario let’s say there are countries which are religious theocracies or they are other kinds of theocracies as communism was then religious freedom was completely stamped out so completely stamped out or in the Islamic countries only one kind of religion is allowed to be practiced so this kind of autocracy that is unfavorable to devotional service and ultimately we have to understand whether it is monarchy or whether it is democracy both are material and we have to see what is uncool to Bhagwan so in the current socio-political framework of the world in many cases autocracy is unfavorable for Bhagwan and democracy whatever its limitations is favorable for Bhagwan so if we had a more ideal situation that the king is spiritually trained and is guided by a body of truly realized Brahminical advisors then a monarchy would be much much better than democracy so it’s not that we can unilaterally say that Prabhupada always rejected democracy and always accepted glorified monarchy no, he was also aware of the current socio-political realities and he presented Krishna consciousness accordingly so with respect to the administration of ISKCON Prabhupada was very clear that he saw his spiritual master’s mission getting disrupted and almost destroyed because of one upsmanship because of different leaders claiming to be the successor the in upper case so Prabhupada did not want that sort of thing and he said that his new world succession is not a material transfer Prabhupada said whoever wants to be successor can become a successor that means whoever takes the mission and shares the mission that person will get the legacy of the spiritual master that’s how Prabhupada inherited the legacy but this was not getting material assets it took up the desire to share Krishna consciousness and from that desire books, temples, humans, devotees manifested so same Prabhupada wanted for disciples so now in order to avoid one upsmanship he had the GBC which operates on majority and is it against the very principle of monarchy GBC is a brahminical body Srila Prabhupada wanted ISKCON also largely to be a body of brahmanas so it’s a brahminical body operating on a brahminical principle of indiscretion, unanimity or consensus or majority there are precedents for this in the Vedic tradition also especially for the brahmanas and as far as monarchy is concerned we could say to some extent that Srila Prabhupada retained it within the principle of the guru-disciple relationship the disciple and the guru they have a relationship where the guru being representative of Krishna and Srila Prabhupada is an authority much like the monarch so the spiritual master’s instruction the devotees should take them as very serious and along with that also the devotees should know that the spiritual master is not separate from Prabhupada, is not separate from the GBC is not separate from Prabhupada’s books it’s an integrated yoga so in that sense Srila Prabhupada has given us a system that is uncool for our practice of Krishna consciousness and did Srila Prabhupada literally want everyone to be transported back to a ancient age 5000 years ago or sometime in the past well Srila Prabhupada’s statements in GBC they were very broad and his vision was magnificent but Srila Prabhupada took steps one by one by one for spreading Krishna consciousness so in the current socio-cultural scenario whatever Srila Prabhupada instituted that rather than being considered to be a something objectionable or some kind of contamination in the Vedic system is actually an ornamentation of the demonstration of Prabhupada’s brilliance in presenting the same time-honored tradition according to time-place circumstances Desh-kal-nibhag as it’s told about Nishapitama he knew how to implement the principles about time-place circumstances Srila Prabhupada also knew how to do that in the most expert way and that is what he has done in his arrangement with the administration of the school.
Thank you. Hare Krishna Hare Krishna