What does Prabhupada’s statement about 50% of his mission being incomplete mean​?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

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ok so now you just said that 50% of my work is remaining in terms of Varna Ashram so what exactly is Varna Ashram? how is it to be implemented in today’s world? firstly whatever Prabhupada wanted to emphasize, he gave in his books and this emphasis on Varna Ashram is not found in his books this statement 50% of my work is remaining it is not found in any of his written books it is there in his conversations but still the conversations are not of that same level of authority as his written books second point is that Prabhupada also told us that I have given you everything necessary for going back to Godhead that means Prabhupada has given us 100% in whatever he has given us for our practice of bhakti and for our going back to Godhead so now Varna Ashram is a material arrangement it is meant for a spiritual purpose but Varna Ashram is not a spiritual arrangement itself, it is a material arrangement and as I said that in Mahabharata in his famous verse he actually rejects all Varna Ashram naaham vipro nija narpati naapi vaishyo asyutro naaham varni nija grahapati manastho yathirva kintu prudhya nikhila paramananda punaam utadhi gopi bhaktur padakam anayor dasa dasan udasa I am not a brahmachari I am simply a servant of the lord of the gopis servant of the servant of the lord of the gopis that is Krishna so Varna Ashram is also something which we have to transcend ultimately so Varna Ashram was when he saw that he was Prabhupada was very pragmatic pragmatic means he was very practical he was like a warrior when a warrior is fighting a war the warrior has to fight the war based on the conditions that are there at that time so if we look at Srila Prabhupada’s writing in 1965-66 upto 1970 even upto 1972-73 now he basically says the system of Varna Ashram has failed in India and Varna Ashram is not practical the caste system has become very degenerative and therefore one should simply practice bhakti and move onwards towards Krishna then later on when devotees still had difficulties in their practices those with renounced order could not continue even the marriages were not very stable so at that time Prabhupada felt that some devotees are not just able to practice transcendence directly so there has to be some social arrangement by which they can practice as they transcend and he recommended Varna Ashram but Prabhupada himself did not give any clear directions about how Varna Ashram must be practiced how it is to be implemented and the essence of Varna Ashram is not division of society into four Varnas and four Ashrams the essence of Varna Ashram is making one’s material circumstances conducive for one’s spiritual growth the essence is that we create our orient our material life in such a way that it becomes conducive for our practice of bhakti so that will vary depending on how that is to be done that will vary depending on time and place circumstances so some devotees feel that Varna Ashram means that people should go and live in the villages in farm communities and that’s where they should practice bhakti yes that’s one way of practicing bhakti but bhakti is not dependent on anything material it is not dependent on somebody living in a rural circumstance or somebody living in urban circumstances so we cannot wait for the practice of bhakti to ourselves practice and to propagate till somehow Varna Ashram manifests itself so what can be practically done in today’s world is we as an individual and we as a community can find out how we can make our material life harmonious with our spiritual life so there is one who is Deva Amrit Maharaj when Bhaktivant hospital was inaugurated and he came to the Bhaktivant hospital in Mumbai which is basically a hospital where devotees have come together and they have established a hospital so he said that this is a working model of Varna Ashram in today’s world what does that mean actually? it’s not in the hospital he has somebody No, but there are devotees who have come together and as devotees they have created an environment where in a materially conducive way in a material environment where they are associating with devotees other devotees they have created an atmosphere which is relatively conducive with the practice of bhakti and within that they are practicing bhakti so how that can be done in various parts of the world that will vary according to time and place circumstances so I was in Australia last year when I met Deva Amrit Maharaj Deva Amrit Maharaj has created a system in India whenever marriages happen they are basically arranged marriages now either it’s if you are devotees then there is marriage board or whatever but in America, in the western world there is no culture of arranged marriages in fact nowadays there is no culture of marriage people simply live together but anyway for devotees people become devotees most of the devotees want to get married so how do you do that? so we cannot the parents are not devotees, there are not many elders in the community how do we replicate the traditional system of marriage it cannot be done so the principle is that there is the marriage as an arrangement should be made in such a way that it is conducive for bhakti so what he as well as several other leaders in the west in the west most of the marriages happen through the boy and the girl meet they court each other and then after they find they are compatible then they marry so he said that if the boys and girls are going to court each other they should not take any impulsive decisions so he said the boys and girls if they are courting they should first they have a courting period of 18 months whereas in the first 9 months the boy and the girl only meet in the presence of a chaperone chaperone is some other elder in their presence they meet and then they can meet together alone but the point is why 18 months? because initially when we may look at someone and they may look at us and say oh we love each other and it all is driven by impulses and the same force by which people come together afterwards when the impulses go away when the hormones dry up then same force people repel against each other so what happens there is that basically he said that after if people are meeting each other courting each other for 10 months, 12 months in a regulated environment then they get to see get to see each other quite well and if they find that we gel then that’s fine if they don’t gel then they honorably separate and then they move onwards so this is basically in the element of forming a marriage relationship there is marriage as a relationship is formed, there is a lot of rajoguna in it so in the traditional culture the satraguna is brought in by the regulation from the elders, from the parents but when that system is not available then the satraguna can be brought in by creating a time period where there is patience required then what happens, the passion goes and things can be administered in a more mature way so different devotees based on different situations they can create various ways in which the material life can be harmonized for the spiritual growth so for example some devotees may come together and form a teaching institute or some devotees may come together and form what is that? mad over sandwich so from the cultural point of view, the name mad over sandwich, nobody will think of this as varnashram but if the intention is to help devotees orient their material life in a way that is harmonious with their spiritual growth then that is a practical application of varnashram so how to apply varnashram that will require a lot of improvisation improvisation means we have to find out according to the circumstances what is most practical so it is not again about turning back the clock but it is about turning over the compass now devotees and their guides they both maturely and intelligently discern how can I practice bhakti in today’s environment in a way that is having least conflict there is anyway going to be conflict varnashram’s expertise everyone has problems in life varnashram’s expertise is to allocate to people the kind of problems they like to face that means a brahmana likes to study so if you tell a brahmana you know there is some verse which says this, can you find this verse brahmana will get excited, yes I will search this verse there is a vaisya vaisya will tell you find this verse why do you need the verse give the class without the verse there is some vaisya likes to work lets earn money and then the vaisya tells, ok we want to build a big temple and we want to raise this much funds very good, I will go and do it now if a brahmana you tell him, no we want to raise funds to build a big temple after building a big temple, the way you want to study shastra study shastra now only so essentially the principle of varnashram is what everybody has to face challenges everybody has to deal with problems but if people are told to deal with problems that they are equal to deal with then they can grow they can contribute constructively and that’s how they themselves gain satisfaction at the material level that I am doing something constructive and society also benefited by that so the essence of varnashram is to engage people people’s material nature in a way that is satisfactory for themselves and contributing for society so that’s not necessary to divide society into the four varnas but what is important is to engage people in a way by which they are individually satisfied and they are socially contributing how that is to be done that will vary according to time and place circumstances