Voting in elections is the social responsibility of devotees

Elections are integral part of the democratic process. They take up a fever of their own. During this time the media itself is filled up with ads, analysis, reports of elections, the trends and predictions. From spiritual perspective there may be different responses possible to this social situation: Three attitudes towards the world There is the idea that all this is temporary and nothing is going to change in this world full of miseries. Ex. One may quote Srila Prabhupada here, when congress lost power in the 1970s, that time elections were coming up, at that time Srila Prabhupada told that ‘this is not going to make any difference. Adhyatmik adjustment is what is going to solve the problem. Not the social Adjustment.’ That may make some devotees dismissive towards the elections. From Transcendental perspective it is true that the material changes don’t make much difference. But Srila Prabhupada himself was not indifferent towards the social situations. At one time Srila Prabhupada encourages devotees to form a political party called ‘in god we trust’. There were devotees who campaigned in America as well as Australia. Srila Prabhupada said that one advantage of this democratic set-up of elections is that you can freely criticize others. So as to bring the people towards the awareness of the core issues and make healthy choices. So Srila Prabhupada had both these attitudes. Rather to say we may find Srila Prabhupada quotes for whichever attitude we may have. So if we look at the Vedic philosophy at large there are 3 ways to look at the world:-

1. ‘Demonize the world’ —–> Gyan Marg (everything in this world is dangerous, distracting and entangling so there is no need to indulge in it)
2. Romanticize the world’ —-> Karma Marg (If only a few things change, then everything will be so wonderful in this world and we will be happy. Changes at material level can bring happiness)
3. ‘Utilize the World’ —-> Bhakti Marg (Everything belongs to Krishna and should be used in the service of Krishna. Principle of Yukta Vairagya i.e. whatever is usable in Krishna’s service, shouldn’t be rejected)

Bhagwad Gita doesn’t endorse 1st and 2nd interpretations, but supports the 3rd way.The way Democracy works is that the way citizens can express their power is through voting. There is a material level and there is a transcendental level to it. Within the material level (made up of Goodness, Passion and ignorance) there are things that are Pro-spirituality and there are things that are anti-spirituality. For example Excessive passion and ignorance would be anti-spiritual. For Bhakti, out of these material elements, what is Pro-spiritual is encouraged
 and what is Anti-spiritual is discouraged (lower modes). 
At one level devotees are meant to practice spirituality without getting entangled in this world. But at the same time Srila Prabhupada told devotees to contribute to the world by raising the consciousness of the society.
 So by the principal of Yukta-Vairagya whatever principle we can use for raising the consciousness we should use. And government is vastly useful and powerful machinery in today’s society. Whether that government is in the hand of those who are pro-spiritual or anti-spiritual that is something that is significantly going to determine if spiritual message that can be practiced and shared. Fanaticism – secular and religious There are irreligious fanatics which make practice of spirituality impossible. We had in Soviet Russia where devotees were tortured and persecuted because they were practicing religious principles. Communism which rejected all the religions as opium of the masses is irreligious fanaticism. Similarly there are theocracies that encourage practices of one religion and ban the practices of other religions (at least publically). Indian Tradition has been a tradition of plurality and broad-mindedness. There have been different paths for different people, according to their traditions/ mentalities/ psycho-physical natures. That’s why there are gyan marg, karma marg, and bhakti marg.
So in today’s society this plurality is being endangered in the name of secularism. Often secularism should broadly mean that different religions to be allowed to practice without any interference by the state. But unfortunately in India, secularism often leads to reverse-discrimination against the majority. So what it ends up doing is in the name of being Secular the minorities are given disproportionate favors and majority is disproportionately disfavored. This sort of secular intolerance makes the practice of the mainstream Vedic culture more and more difficult. That is undesirable. That has to be avoided. Of course at the other extreme is the religious fanaticism that is also not a part of the Vedic tradition. The Vedic tradition was that different people can propagate their ideas. There can be intellectual debate and the one which is intellectually strongest would triumph. But there are religious fanatics who do not tolerate any intellectual debate and they go into aggression.
 So both secular fanaticism and religious fanaticism are very dangerous for the plural culture of India for sharing the spiritual wisdom. Of course the mainstream media today highlights the dangers of loss of secularism far than the dangers of religious fanaticism in terms of the disproportionate favor to the minorities. Three concentric circles
 That’s why devotees who at one level wants to practice their spiritual life (the innermost circle) and want to share it with other and help them to come to the devotional level (the outer circle), and the outermost circle are people broadly who are not practicing spiritual life but are appreciative of the spiritual life, that what the spiritual culture would spread broader and broader.
If the government is anti-spiritual or is run by those who are anti-spiritual or anti-Vedic religion can have injurious effects not only for the core practitioners or those who want to share the devotional culture but the outer culture can also be harmful. So devotees have to be very intelligent and responsible recognizing that just as we practice Krishna Consciousness, while doing so we use technology and so many things that were not used in the past because we understand the principle of Yukta-Vairagya, that whatever can be used in Krishna’s service must be used in Krishna’s Service. Similarly the process of democracy and elections can also be utilized by the principle of the Yukta Vairagya for making the choices that will help in establishment of broad socio-cultural governance that is favorable to India’s broad-minded tolerant and pluralistic spiritual culture. So that’s why the elections provides the devotees the opportunity to exercise their social responsibility that by participating in the electoral process, casting one’s vote to those candidates who will promote the spiritual values, who will not reject spiritual values in the name of secularism, and who will gradually enable the establishment of socio-culture administration that raises people’s consciousness, in that way the devotees can help in re-spiritualization of society as Srila Prabhupada desired and wrote in his preface to Srimad Bhagwatam.    

Disclaimer: This transcript was generated using AI and may contain occasional errors or inaccuracies.

Hare Krishna. Voting in elections is the social responsibility of devotees. When we talk about the elections, which are an integral and essential part of the democratic process, they often take up a fever or even a mania of their own whenever the period of elections comes up.

The media itself is filled with advertisements, analysis, reports of the elections, the trends and the predictions. So now there can be from the spiritual perspective different responses to this sort of social situation. Now one response could be that there is the idea that okay all this is temporary and nothing is going to change and ultimately all material things, material world is filled with misery and some people may even quote Shila Prabhupada saying that when in the 1970s, when the Congress lost power after the emergency, at that time the elections were going on, so elections were coming up, so that time Shila Prabhupada said that this is not going to make any difference, there is adhyatmic adjustment is what is going to solve the problem, it is not social adjustment.

So that may make some devotees become dismissive towards elections that actually nothing, no difference is going to take place. Now from the transcendental perspective, it is true that material changes do not make much difference but Shila Prabhupada himself was not indifferent towards the social situations. At one time, Shila Prabhupada even encouraged devotees to form a political party, it was called In God We Trust and there were devotees who campaigned even in Britain, in America as well as in Australia and Prabhupada said about elections, about the democratic process and voting elections is that one advantage of politics is that you can freely criticize others.

So the point is that this criticism of course meant to bring about a proper understanding of the core issues and help people to make healthy choices. So Shila Prabhupada had both these attitudes or we can rather find Prabhupada's quotes for whichever attitude which we may have. So actually if we look at the Vedic philosophy at large, there can be three attitudes towards the world.

One is to demonize the world, the other is to romanticize the world, a third is to utilize the world. So to demonize the world means to think that everything in this world is just dangerous and distracting and entangling so there's no need to get involved with it, it's demonization of the world. That is actually the attitude of the Jnana Marga.

There is the romanticization of the world, the romanticization of the world means that to think oh if just some things change then everything will become wonderful and we will be happy, that is actually the Karma Marga, just make things better at the material level and then there will be happiness. So both these attitudes are actually not endorsed by the Bhagavad Gita, neither is endorsed. Bhagavad Gita has the bhakti attitude which is to utilize.

So we as devotees we understand that even the world is Krishna's energy and is meant to be used in Krishna's service. So the principle of Yukta Vairagya, that means that whatever is usable in Krishna's service should not be rejected. So in the present world scenario democracy is the prominent form of governance and in democracy the way the citizens can exercise their power, can express their voice is by voting.

So yes there is the material level and there is the transcendental level but in the material level there is goodness, passion and ignorance and there in the material level itself there are things which are pro-spirituality and there are things which are anti-spirituality. So for example in general goodness will be pro-spiritual, excessive passion and ignorance will be anti-spiritual. So therefore it is important that within the material level that which is goodness or that which is pro-spiritual is encouraged and that which is encouraging the lower modes or that which is anti-spiritual be discouraged.

So at one level devotees simply want to practice spiritual life and make spiritual advancement without entangling in the material world. But Srila Prabhupada said that actually devotees are also meant to contribute to the world in raising the consciousness of people. So by the principle of Yukta-Vairagya whatever method we can use for raising the consciousness we should use and the government is a vastly powerful and resourceful machinery in today's society and whether that government is in the hands of powers which are pro-spiritual or anti-spiritual that is something which is significantly going to determine whether the spiritual message can be shared with others or even can be practiced.

Now there are fanatical tyrannies, fanatical autocracies in the world which often make the practice of spirituality nearly impossible. So we have in Soviet Russia where devotees were tortured and persecuted just because they are practicing spiritual life and similarly there are some countries where there are theocracies which recognize only one religion and ban the practice of other religions. So there can be religious fanaticism and there can be irreligious fanaticism.

So communism which rejected all religion as the opium of the masses is irreligious fanaticism and there are religious fanatics also which do not allow the practice of any other religion at least not publicly. So the Indian tradition has been a tradition of plurality and broad-mindedness. So there have been even in the Vedic tradition there have been many various parts for different people according to their traditions or their mentalities, their psychophysical nature.

So that's why we discuss the karma marga, jnana marga, bhakti marga. So in today's society unfortunately this plurality is being endangered in the name of secularism. Often secularism broadly should mean that different religions should be different religions should be allowed to practice without any interference by the state but unfortunately in India secularism often leads to a reverse persecution of the majority.

So what it ends up doing is that in the name of being secular the minorities are often given disproportionate favors and the majority are disproportionately disfavored. So this is undesirable. So this sort of secular fanatic secular this sort of secular intolerance, intolerance which makes the practice of the mainstream Vedic culture more and more difficult that is undesirable and that has to be avoided.

So of course the other extreme there is also religious fanaticism which also is not the part of the Vedic tradition. The Vedic tradition was that different people can propagate their ideas and there is intellectual debate and then that which is the intellectually strongest will triumph but there are religious fanatics who do not tolerate an intellectual debate and they go into aggression. So both the secular fanaticism and the religious fanaticism are very dangerous for today's for the plural culture of India and for the sharing of spiritual wisdom.

So of course the mainstream media today highlights the dangers of of the loss of secularism far more than the dangers of religious fanaticism in terms of the disproportionate favoring of the minorities. So that's why the spiritualists, the devotees who at one level want to practice their own Krishna consciousness that is that is the one circle. Second level is they would like to share Krishna consciousness with others and help them to come to devotional service.

A third concentric circle we could have is where people are broadly even if they're not practicing actively spiritual life they're appreciative of spiritual life and that way the spiritual culture's influence will spread broader and broader. So if the government is anti-spiritual or the government is run by forces that are anti-spiritual, anti-Vedic culture then that can have injurious effects for not just the core practice of devotional service, the sharing of devotional service but the outer culture can also be harmful. So devotees have to be very intelligent and responsible recognizing that just as we practice Krishna consciousness and while practicing Krishna consciousness we use technology.

We use so many things which are not used in the past because we understand the principle of Yukta Vairagya that whatever is usable in Krishna's service we should use in Krishna's service. Similarly the process of democracy and elections can also be utilized by the principle of Yukta Vairagya for making the choices that will help in the establishment of a broad socio-cultural governance that is favorable to India's broad-minded, tolerant and pluralistic spiritual culture. So that's why the elections provide devotees the opportunity to exercise their social responsibility that by participating in the electoral process, by casting one's vote in a way or giving the vote to those candidates who will promote spiritual values, who will not reject spiritual values in the name of secularism and who will gradually enable the establishment of a socio-cultural ethos that raises people's consciousness.

In that way the devotees can actually help in the re-spiritualization of society as Srila Prabhupada desired and Srila Prabhupada wrote in the start of, in the preface to his Srimad Bhagavatam. Thank you.