What did Prabhupada mean when he said that 50% of his mission was still remaining?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
so question to Mukesh Shila Prabhupada said that 50% of his mission was to re-establish Varanashram so what exactly does this mean? it obviously doesn’t mean creating the kind of caste system that we wear in India but to create Daivi Varanashram but how exactly is it to be done and was it meant only for devotees or did Shila Prabhupada want it to be created for the full society and as devotees within Shila Prabhupada’s movement what can we do practically to contribute towards that mission and Prabhupada said that 50% of the caste system was it so difficult or was it so complex that Shila Prabhupada himself couldn’t complete and 50% Shila Prabhupada still remain answer so Shila Prabhupada as a Mahabharata Acharya coming from the spiritual world he adopted different strategies at different times while sharing Krishna consciousness if we look at his statements in 1966, 67, 68 in that period he is primarily saying that there is no need for a Varanashram and one can just practice Krishna consciousness and become transcendental but if we look at his statements from 1974, 75 76, 77 he increasingly starts talking about the importance and even the necessity of Varanashram so Ravindra Swaroop Prabhu among several other Shila Prabhupada’s scholar disciples have analysed these statements and he has tried to understand what was the context, what was the background so the movement spread dramatically under Shila Prabhupada’s inspirational guidance at the same time coming up culturally to the standards that are expected of Krishna conscious devotees did not happen the way Shila Prabhupada wanted so this happened both with respect to the sanyasis as well as the grhasthas Shila Prabhupada gave many young devotees sanyas and some of them were successful but many of them had serious difficulties and similarly Shila Prabhupada got his disciples married but then many of them had difficulties in their marriages also so we will see today in ISKCON the ashram system is reasonably functional, we have brahmacharis, we have grhasthas not so many vanaprasthas but still there is a vanaprastha option that is there and there are sanyasis so the ashram system has been implemented more or less the varna system has not yet been implemented so when Shila Prabhupada saw that this ashram system was not leading was not working in a sustainable way he felt that for this ashram system to help devotees to move towards Krishna, a foundation was needed and that was the ashram system that was the varna system, Shila Prabhupada explains in his books that varna is for the body, ashram is for the soul that means that the varna generally talks about our worldly professions by which we arrange for our livelihood, we arrange for our bodily necessities that’s why varna is for the body and ashram is for the soul means that the ashrams provide training and environment by which one can gradually make spiritual advancement so now Krishna consciousness in and of itself is transcendental, it is the soul’s relationship with Krishna, so does this relationship of the soul with Krishna require a particular culture to develop so for example if I have to chant Hare Krishna I can chant Hare Krishna whether I am wearing dhoti kurta or I am wearing shirt pant so in one sense we could say the shirt pant or dhoti kurta is a cultural aspect and the culture is not necessarily transcendental, the culture being material also, so one view which minimizes the need for varna ashram says that actually the culture is non-essential to the transcendental essence of Krishna consciousness so we can eat traditional Indian food by offering it to Krishna and calling it prasad or we can eat Chinese food, we can eat Italian food, American food so that way that is a matter of culture, the food that we eat and that doesn’t necessarily have to be what is there in the traditional Indian setting, so this view is of the idea that there is no need for the culture to be implemented for Krishna consciousness to be practiced the other view is that actually this culture is not just Indian this culture is also transcendental it is the culture of the spiritual world for example in the Goswami’s literature other places the food that Krishna eats is described the dress that Krishna associates with is described and this is what is eternally present in the spiritual world and that’s why we miss the point when we consider the culture that Srila Prabhupada gave us to be Indian it may be presently widespread in India or it may have been widespread in India at a particular time in history but that is because transcendence was manifest through history at that time and so the culture is transcendental so now which of these views is true is the culture entirely auxiliary and optional or is the culture integral and essential if we look at Srila Prabhupada’s own example Srila Prabhupada expanded the Krishna consciousness movement in two ways one was that he created within the cities a devotional subculture the word subculture sometimes has negative connotations in terms of something that is rebellious culture or something like that but subculture here just means that the main society had a mainstream materialistic culture and the temples and the temple communities that are there around it have a devotional culture but in the temple communities more or less the values and the usages were quite modern for example the at Srila Prabhupada’s time also Srila Prabhupada used technology he used computers and planes and now also we use cell phones and computers and other technologies so the values within the devotional subculture are different that we want to serve Krishna but to some extent the culture is similar to the outside culture of the society whereas Srila Prabhupada also encouraged farm communities where he wanted devotees to largely live without technology and largely live as Krishna lived that means taking care of the cows, growing wheat grains and utilizing one’s time to live in proximity with nature and proximity with Krishna. Srila Prabhupada considered both these visions important and devotees based on their individual inspiration can contribute to whichever vision whichever part of Srila Prabhupada’s vision they feel inspired to participate so if we have only the city temples they are no doubt oasis within the cities which are like deserts of materialism but still they are not necessarily the places where we can have demonstrations of spiritual culture as it is lived in day to day life at best the temples offer for most people stimulating spiritual breaks from the normal materialistic life.
You go there for retreat and refreshment but normally that is not the way people can normally live on the other hand what Srila Prabhupada wanted in the village communities, farm communities is that it need not just be a break from the materialistic life it can be a break with the materialistic life that means devotees live in an entirely different way dependent on nature and dependent on Krishna so for many of the devotees for many of the people who get introduced to the temples going to places where spiritual culture is practiced in a much more focused community based way is a transformational experience for example people who get introduced to the city temples when they go to a place like Mayapur and Mayapur may itself also be having technology but still it’s like a mini town of devotees, the Mayapur Chandrodaya Mandir itself is itself like a mini town and Navadweep itself is a spiritual town to some extent as it can be seen even by people who visit it at a material level so the point is that as of now both these can contribute to each other that those who get introduced to these they get further inspired by coming to the temples by coming to the places where there is a spiritual culture much more prominently but at the same time so we need the spiritual culture centers for demonstrating to society that the kind of lifestyle that is talked about in Krishna conscious ideal is possible, it’s possible, it’s feasible and there is also an increasing concern that the way modern society is living is not ecologically sustainable and because of that thoughtful people all over the world are exploring alternatives alternative ways of living that are less damaging to the ecology and are more sustainable in terms of utilization of the natural resources in a regenerative way so that is something which we can demonstrate through our farm communities in some places like the devotees in Brazil the devotees in some places in Africa the farm communities over there have become models for environmentalists as well as for the national governments and they have been quite successful so that can also be an outreach means, now the important thing to understand here is that when Srila Prabhupada said 50% of his mission was incomplete, that essentially means that he felt that he had given the philosophy he has given the books, Prabhupada wanted to complete the Bhagavatam but he had already given us the 10th canto before as Krishna book, so he felt that he had given the philosophy but giving the culture essentially meant giving Varanashram and he felt that that was something which he still had to do now Srila Prabhupada himself did not give clear or detailed guidelines of how this was to be done so that is something which will gradually be revealed to those who sincerely follow Srila Prabhupada over a period of time in general the movement also has to adapt to changing circumstances and changing requirements, for example in the early days of the movement it was devotees all devotees used to live in the temple, whether they were brahmacharis or grahasthas but over a period of time and the grahasthas would also earn from the temples by distributing books or doing other services so but over a period of time the movement has become more community based now in terms of devotees living the congregation living outside the temples having their own professions, having their own families and homes and also still being well connected to the temples and this is the moral letter is now being widely replicated that means in the city there is a temple, earlier the temple itself was the full devotee community but now the temple is like the headquarters of the devotee community in the city and radiating outward from there there is a network of devotees who are all connected with the temple and they all form to some extent a subculture so the devotional subculture within the cities is vital for two reasons one is that most devotees may not find it very feasible to relocate to farm communities because of their financial and social and professional requirements and also we need within the cities examples of people who can be exemplary for new people who want to become devotees so both for the devotees own lives and setting the example for outsiders, we need a significant number of devotees in the cities also, so as of now this has been the main way the Krishna Consciousness movement has spread in India as well as in Russia, these are two places where the Krishna Consciousness movement is strongest right now, some extreme South Africa also in London, these are places where the movement is largely congregation based there are of course temples with brahmacharis but most of the devotees are living in congregation and they are more situated around the temple in various places at various distances from the temple but getting spiritual inspiration from the temple when people live like this actually living amidst materialist culture though it is necessary for one’s own material life, livelihood as well as outreach, it often leads to a certain level of compromise because one has to live with neighbours who are non devotees one has to work with people who are non devotees and that creates a conflict in terms of how much one can follow the standards, that’s why Srila Prabhupada wanted that devotees want to live according to high standards, if they can be in a devotee community where they not only have to, can work in a way that leads to, they will be able to earn their living without having to associate with non devotees much then they can maintain their standards better so maintaining the standards means if you are working with non devotees then we may have to go for parties where we have to eat non prasad food or so many things like that come up, so Varanashram is being implemented in various ways within the movement, the essence of Varanashram is not necessarily dividing people into castes more or less the division has naturally happened within our movement but should devotees be divided into castes that’s not necessary, the essence of the division into Varanas was to help people to earn their living according to their natural talents actually Varanashram the Varana system essentially means that people who are talented as intellectuals can serve as Brahmins and people who are talented in money making can serve as Vaishyas so the essence is that people can arrange to earn their living according to their talents in a setting that is also devotionally conducive so for example, there are some projects, say there is the Bhaktivam hospital in Mumbai so here it’s a hospital started by devotees, doctors, they have to anyway earn their living but instead of working with other non devotees doctors they come together and start practicing their professions within an overall devotional setting so when Diwanput Maharaj came to the hospital he said this is the only he said this almost 7-8 years ago, this is the only working model of Varanashram that is there in the whole movement right now so how is Bhaktivam hospital a working model of Varanashram, essentially the principle is that devotees are able to take care for their own living for earning their living they don’t have to associate with non devotees, they are working pramptly with other devotees and they are all living in a closely clustered community that is around the hospital so that’s why they are surrounded by devotees also so there may be innovative things like this which work out where the innovation is not in principle but in practice the principle is that devotees should be able to earn their living in a harmonious way in a way that is spiritually harmonious both from the professional as well as the social point of view and that is working out in various ways and that will be evolving so we cannot in general force devotees to adopt to a particular way of life necessarily those who have lived in cities are habituated to a certain level of comfort and facilities and to put them in a farm community may make their spiritual life more difficult than what it needs to be so rather than sort of standardizing or monopolizing one cultural way as being the standard way of practicing Krishna Consciousness there may be different ways that will be required and that will evolve as to how devotees will practice so this is an article called Varanashram a manifest to unfulfilled and how it will be fulfilled will also be gradually revealed so as individual devotees what can we do? Firstly the essence of Varanashram is that we become self-realized not in terms of necessarily realizing our soul that is a long term goal but we understand our own psychophysical nature and find out a service that suits our psychophysical nature so that then we are productively and joyfully engaged in Krishna’s service and then a happy devotee is itself a very good creature in and of itself and along with that trying to discover our nature and serving according to our nature we also try to play our role according to that nature so as of now with respect to the Varanas the Brahmins are extremely important in society the Brahmins, Shrila Prabhupada wanted ISKCON to be the head of the rest of society you would say that the rest of society doesn’t have a head, it doesn’t have intellectuals so devotees become well educated in the study of Shrila Prabhupada’s books, in the understanding of the philosophy of Krishna Consciousness and the subtlety of how it can be applied to real life situations then they can make a very valuable contribution to not just the Krishna Conscious Society but to the broader society at large so at one level those devotees who have intellectual inclinations if they take up seriously the responsibility of becoming Brahmanically educated and playing the role of spiritual intellectuals by which they share the spiritual message with others and then every devotee ultimately has to live his or her own life and nobody else even the pure, not Shrila Prabhupada, not the spiritual master nobody can live their life for them but for living one’s own life we all need guidance and so if we can play that role of spiritual intellectuals or Brahmins by sharing spiritual knowledge then the first part of Shrila Prabhupada’s mission that was sharing the philosophy which he felt he has done that at least will go on in a more effective and sustainable way and also that will help devotees so once people are more and more philosophically educated then they can themselves arrive at a mature decision of how much of the Krishna conscious culture they can adopt and how much of the Krishna conscious culture they can adapt so adopt means just take it as it is adapt means change according to time, place and circumstance so without proper philosophical education this decision will often be immature and that may be counterproductive so people may go to the extreme of completely indiscriminately adopting the full culture so people go to colleges or companies in Dhoti, Kurta and Tilak and unnecessarily inherit others or at the other extreme is people just in the name of socializing with others eat non-devotional food and see that is what is required, the culture doesn’t matter so for devotees to be able to evolve that balance the spiritual study and assimilation of spiritual knowledge is important and that is the role that we can surely play and that way we can contribute for the organic evolution of Paradashram over the next generation so that is not going to happen immediately but that will happen gradually so what was another reason that Srila Prabhupada stressed