namahatta.org - Congregational Development Ministry

I circulated the following around the New Vrindaban community and was, unfortunately, not surprised by this response from someone who makes sure to always keep himself in what he brands as a "leadership" position.

1. To turn the whole NV complex over to the dream of Balakrishna / Prabhupada is not realistic.

Okay, Prabhupada's "dream" (though he himself termed it a vision) is not realistic, in the view of one of our "esteemed" leaders. You can see what we are up against.

A Field Trip

by Bala Krishna das

I would like to take you on a journey, and am asking you to please fasten your seat belts. We are going to time-travel a few years into the future, to a small village, to take a little tour.

HH Bhakti Raghava Maharaja sent a Position Paper on varnasrama development, passed by the Regional Governing Body (RGB) for India, to several PAMHO conferences:

"For everyone's information, this is the Position Paper passed by the Regional Governing Body (RGB) for India on varnasrama development. This came about as the result of recommendations presented by the Varnasrama Development Committee for India (of which I am a member) established in September, 2007 by the RGB India body. I believe this document is of relevance to all devotees around the world."

In the different yugas different conditions prevail.

In Satya yuga, the "age of truth", conditions are such that the balance of power lies with the brahmanas. Everyone is a paramhamsa in this age and there is no varnashram, so everyone is a brahmana. In this age the process of self-realization is meditation.

In Dvapara-yuga, the "second age", which usually follows Satya-yuga, the process of self-realization is Deity Worship. In this age the balance of power lies with the Ksatriyas.

First the brahmanas

Srila Prabhupada's idea was to first implement the brahmacari ashram to train up young men as brahmanas. He stressed that the first step was to create a brahminical class. The brahmanas are leaders of society. They lead with purified intelligence on the basis of scripture by advising the ksatriyas, or managers. The idea was to find, attract, and train up the first class element in society. These brahmanas were then to assist in the next phase of the implementation. The next step was to secure farms where an alternative system of society could be implemented. It was to be agrarian based. The motto was "Simple living, high thinking".

...

Q: Varnasrama-dharma is a luxury, something we should worry about in the future. Right now we should just all preach and distribute books.

A: And get people to join our movement, and then preach themselves and get more people to join our movement, who then get more people to join our movement, and so on, until the whole thing collapses due to lack of infrastructure and socio-economic support, and everyone goes away again? Sounds like what we've been doing. There is nothing wrong with distributing books. In fact there is everything right with it, but we cannot accept only half the hen.

"ISKCON clears one level of confusion from the living entity, but introduces another, which can sometimes be harder to clear."

- Swami B.V. Tripurari

You may have heard the analogy of ISKCON as a hospital. It's frequently explained when someone starts freaking out because everything isn't perfect in the organization, and neither are the people in it. "Who do you expect to find in a hospital?" goes the preaching. "Sick people, of course."

It's a fact. ISKCON is a "medical mission" for the hrd-roga, the diseased condition of the heart and mind.

Women as a class are merciless and cunning. They cannot tolerate even a slight offense. For their own pleasure they can do anything irreligious, and therefore they do not fear killing even a faithful husband or brother.

- Srimad Bhagavatam 9.14.37

Further to a previous posting on the word "Passion":

Last night we read the introduction to Srila Bhaktivinode Thakura's Jaiva Dharma, written by Kesi-damana dasa. Twice the word ardent was used. Here's the dictionary definition of ardent, which I think communicates the positive sense of passion in relation to devotional service:

Recently Gauranga Kishore wrote:

The other day Malati (not the famous Prabhupada disciple,I presume it is the blogger Malati) wrote in a comment to one of my posts, "You have an amazing passion in your blog site."

The comment took me by surprise. Passion is a very strong word. There are not many things that I am passionate about. As devotees generally we supposed to be dis-passionate, but I guess it is true, I can't deny that I am passionate about writing.

I gave class at the local temple on this subject the other morning. Srimad Bhagavatam 9.14 contains the story of Soma's kidnapping the wife of Brhaspati and impregnating her.

I discussed the difference between the treatment of this issue in the Bhagavatam and the Manu-samhita. There wasn't really enough time to develop that theme, but we introduced it at least. Prahlad made a couple of comments, and we closed on a good note.

Here's the class if you'd like to hear it:

Here's the Gita verse that corresponds to what I was talking about in my previous post:

vimrisyaitad aseshena
yathecchasi tatha kuru

"Deliberate on this fully, and then do what you wish to do."

- Bhagavad-gita 18.63

Yeah baby, it's up to you.