Won’t adjusting according to time-place-circumstances lead to deviations?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Thank you. Hare Krishna. Question from Stuka Krishna Prabhu, Sandeep Chadda.
This is based on the Gita Daily article of be flexible but not fickle. So, as for today’s post, I am not able to understand how far we can stretch flexibility taking excuses of time, place and circumstances. Say, for example, women become sannyasin, becoming sannyasins, wearing saffron.
As from Srila Prabhupada’s performance in Srimad Bhagavatam, Dakshashiva pastime, only a yogini, when she is giving up her body, can change to saffron. Homosexuals being initiated and staying in brahmachari ashrams. As far as my understanding goes, Srila Prabhupada categorically stated that whatever dilution had to be done in practices has been done by him and there should not be any further dilution.
If we just keep two practices of mantra meditation, scriptural study of Srila Prabhupada intact and apply, and apply time, place, circumstances to others, then tomorrow, onion, garlic, food would come to temples, gays would become gurus and the list may go on. Of course, I am not an authority and have no right to comment on the institutions working. But whatever I feel from my heart, I have stated and I am not even sure if this comes in the category of Vaishnavapurad.
Could you please enlighten and reply to me? Answer. When I talk about flexibility, in general, the Gita daily articles are not talking about institutional standards. They are talking about individual applications.
So, when I say cultural specifics, for example, so when devotees go for working in their companies or offices, do they have to wear dhoti kurta? Do they have to wear tilak? Do they have to prominently display to the world that they are devotees? That may not be necessary. Srila Prabhupada even allowed devotees who were distributing his books to not wear dhoti kurta but to wear a shirt kind of, because that created unnecessary barrier between the devotees and the people distributing books. So, these are what cultural specifics refer to.
So, the institutional standards that are to be followed, that will vary and that Srila Prabhupada’s trusted followers who have been in the movement, who have dedicated their life to Srila Prabhupada for decades and they understand the preaching scenario, they will decide that. So, Gita daily is not in any way an institutional guideline. It is for individual application.
And all of us, when we are trying to live the Bhagavad Gita, we will definitely be having, forced to make decisions about what we are going to do in certain situations and how we will decide that will vary. So, to the extent we are doing the co-devotional activities seriously, to the extent we are chanting and studying properly, to that extent we will get the guidance of what needs to be adjusted and what needs to be treated as non-negotiable, non-adjustable. So, in an individual devotee’s life, there will always be times, for example, when a devotee is sick, there is no medicine available and some medicine involves some alcohol.
So, can the devotee take that medicine? If that’s what is required, then that can be taken. There is nothing in principle wrong with that. So, the important point is, not institutional standards over here, it is individual application that is being talked about.
And that individual application will vary. So, the issues that you have raised, they are major issues and they will have to be decided by time, place, circumstance. And Srila Prabhupada, from what I have read, has never made a statement that he has put an absolute cap on adjustment according to time, place, circumstance.
Srila Prabhupada said, preach as I have preached. And when he has said that preach as I have preached, now Prabhupada himself did different things at different times. Sometimes, when he was preaching, he would encourage devotees to practice Krishna Consciousness by, say, becoming brahmacharis.
Other times he told them, you can stay grahasthas. In some cases, Srila Prabhupada said that in America he encouraged doing Harinam Sankirtan accompanied with Krishna Consciousness, even on the streets. But in India, he said that there is no need to do so much Harinam Sankirtan because people started mistaking his convict.
Other organizations which had beautiful mandalis and they started throwing coins at devotees thinking that they were beggars. Prabhupada did not want that public perception. So, Prabhupada in 1966-67 said that there is no need for Varanashram.
Just we can chant Hare Krishna and transcend. And then, 1976-77, Prabhupada said 50% of my work is Varanashram. So, things are not so simplistic.
And that means, Srila Prabhupada was a warrior. And as a warrior, it’s not frozen which weapons a warrior will have to use. The warrior will, depending on the war situation, may use one weapon at a particular time and another weapon at another time.
The purpose is to win the war. But how that war is to be won, that will vary depending on time, place and circumstance. So, when somebody is fighting an enemy who is equipped in a particular way, then an appropriate weapon has to be chosen.
So, Srila Prabhupada is like an acharya who is like a commander of army. And he has shown us the example of flexibility. Srila Prabhupada himself allowed women to do deity worship.
He had women giving, he had women preaching also. He had women doing distribution of books. So, Srila Prabhupada was flexible.
And did Srila Prabhupada say that what he has done is the absolute cap? That after that there is no more adjustment to be done? Actually, the word dilution is wrong. Because what Srila Prabhupada did was not dilution, it was adjustment. It is adjustment according to time, place, circumstance.
And the adjustment that Srila Prabhupada has done, that even his followers will keep doing according to time, place, circumstance. So, now, we don’t have to have an alarmist perspective. Alarmist means that, you know, some devotees, when Prabhupada would cook sabji, he would put one spoon salt in it.
So, if you put 1.5 spoon salt, you are deviating. If that sort of things we start calling deviation, then we are having an alarmist perspective. Alarmist means we are always fearful of worst case scenarios.
So, we will become, if we don’t understand that tradition is always a living tradition and that those who have internalized Srila Prabhupada’s mood and understood Krishna’s message, then they will be able to do the necessary by which they can be sharing Krishna consciousness. So, I am not going to comment on any specific issue that you have raised. Those are all major issues.
And basically, we need to be aware of where we may end up if we indiscriminately start using time, place, circumstance as a license for doing anything and everything. But not taking into consideration time, place, circumstance can lead to the other extremes. Srila Prabhupada says in several places when Vishwakitama is not able to offer obeisances physically and he offers obeisances in the mind, Prabhupada says, Deshkala Patra.
And Prabhupada doesn’t say this is only for me. Prabhupada doesn’t say that nobody else can do it after me. He says that yes, this is Deshkala Patra.
And similarly, there are many other places where Srila Prabhupada does talk about Deshkala Patra. So, if Deshkala Patra is a principle, it is not that Srila Prabhupada has, with Srila Prabhupada that principle has become frozen and it’s only till Srila Prabhupada and nobody else can use it after that. No.
Then why not stop it at Bhakti Siddhanta Sri Thakur? Srila Prabhupada, Bhakti Siddhanta Sri Thakur would be your shirt and pant for preaching. Prabhupada did not do that. So, we mean to say that Prabhupada was not a faithful follower of Bhakti Siddhanta Sri Thakur? No, we can’t have simplistic ideas of what following is and what deviating is.
We have to recognize that tradition is always a living tradition. And unless we recognize that according to time, place, circumstance, the message has to be presented, then we will become irrelevant. There is flexibility and there is fidelity.
Fidelity is what keeps us faithfully fixed to the core of the tradition. And flexibility is what enables us to adapt to the surroundings and present ourselves in a way that people become attracted to Krishna consciousness. So, to summarize, firstly, the Gita Daily articles are for individual application.
They are not talking about the institutional standards. And as far as institutional standards are concerned, the core principles of hearing and chanting and similar principles, they will be always going on. But apart from that, just as Prabhupada adjusted on time, place, circumstance, and that is a scriptural principle that time, place, circumstances have to be taken into consideration.
So, for other issues also they will have to be taken into consideration. But the specific issues, they are alarmist issues. And nobody is going to make that kind of adjustment where Prabhupada has categorically spoken that certain things should not be done.
So, that will never be done in the name of flexibility. But the adjustments will always have to be done if Krishna consciousness is to remain a living, relevant tradition that helps people at where they are and enables them to develop love for Krishna. So, by adjusting according to time, place, circumstance, we are following in the footsteps of Srila Prabhupada.
And by refusing to adjust according to time, place, circumstances, we are deviating from Prabhupada’s example of adjusting according to time, place, circumstances. Thank you.