Rights, duties, Sattva-guna and Vedic culture

[Guest guest]

Dear devotees,

 

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

 

I remember reading a article by HH Hridayananda Maharaja on the advent of

Ramachandra in one of the BTG articles sometime back. There he had made a

very important point that previously people were concerned what was their

'dharma'. But nowadays people are concerned what is their 'right'.

 

A very significant point, because when one has more sattvik conditioning one

thinks in terms of God-given duties or dharma, whereas one whose

conditioning is predominantly in the lower modes thinks in terms of what I

can do or why can I NOT do, etc. YOu can see therefore that in modern India,

especially in the urban areas, where there is more rajas and tamas, people

are getting into this paradigm of rights.

 

But in the olden days when the country was following the Vedas, women (or

men) didn't get this idea in their brains at all: "why can't I...?" They

simply thought, "what is my God-given prescribed duty?" And since everyone

was following their duties and the kings were effectively concerned if

everyone is following their duties or not, society was peaceful. Prabhupada

also mentions that that is the duty of the kings in the SB commentary. You

don't find that leaders in Vedic times being concerned if everyone had their

"right" to do whatever. No. The paradigm was based on God-given prescribed

duty, because in the mode of goodness that's how your brain works. It brings

up the concept of duty.

 

All members of Varnashrama had different degrees of goodness because all

were following the Veda. Even the sudras who have more ignorance, etc.,

because they were following the Veda, had a tinge of sattva-guna still.

(Following Vedic dharma is a manifestation of goodness.) On the other hand,

a 'sudra' who is outside of the varnashrama didn't have that goodness that

was there in a true sudra who is within varnashrama.

 

I shall use the analogy of men-women attraction to explain further this

concept of God-given prescribed duty. In the lower modes, if a man or woman

are attracted to each other, they are just concerned how to satisfy each

other sexually. Each makes the other into a sense object for themselves. ONe

in the lower modes just wants to satisfy his urges straightforward, like

animals. He wants nothing to stop his attempts to satisfy his urges. He is a

"do what you can" man or creature. This is just pure gross materialistic

consciousness.

 

A little higher than this kind of gross materialistic consciousness is one

who cares for other life-forms. So here, a man and woman "care" for each

other's happiness. They are not satisfied or interested in just making each

other into sense objects. So here one has wants to satisfy his urges, but he

will also consider not to disturb other life-forms, other living entities.

 

But better than both of the above is one whose consciousness is conditioned

by goodness. In goodness, one is fixed (at least) in knowledge, objective,

factual knowlege of existence, meaning Vedic knowledge. Here one's mind is

filled with objective, factual *knowledge* of existence. One's experience of

this world is based on *knowledge*, not simply "care" of other living

entities or sense-object craving.

 

This platform is the platform where the Veda or books of objective knowledge

are followed. Even those in passion and ignorance are actually tinged with

goodness which inspires them to FOLLOW the Veda.

 

The mode of goodness is the platform of Veda-based duty consciousness or

prescribed-duty consciousness. So here, when one wants to satisfy his urges,

he will but *ONLY* AS TAUGHT IN VEDIC KNOWLEDGE WHICH COMES FROM GOD, the

source of objective knowledge. Here also the consciousness is contaminated

but the contamination is least.

 

In goodness, one is interested in what his Vedic prescribed duty is. He is

interested in what he "must" or "should" and not in what he "can". He is

interested in duties, not rights. His *very consciousness* is conditioned

like that. His very false ego, mind and intelligence, thoughts and outlook

are "covered" with this type or level of consciousness. This is his whole

outlook in life: is this Vedic (based on God-given knowledge) or not? Is

this what is prescribed in the Veda to be done or not? He wants to do each

and every thing the way God (through His VEDA) would want him to do.

 

So when a man in goodness feels attracted to women, he will first of all go

to his Guru, his Vedic teacher. And he will ask him, "What *SHOULD* I do?"

Not "What ALL THINGS CAN I do?" Not, "Is it alright for me to do this or

that?" Not, "Let me explore all possibilities to satisfy my sexual and

psychological urges." No, not like that. He is interested in "What SHOULD I

do?"

 

And if the teacher decides that the boy should marry, he will say, "Thou

Shalt Prepare to Marry. Thou Shalt Learn The Responsibilities And Duties For

Vedic (God-Given-Knowledge-based) Married Life And When Thou Art Ready, Thou

Wilt Accept The Hand Of A Suitable Girl And Carry Thy Duties, All As Set

Forth In the Eternal VEDA. This Will Lead To Thy Self-purification And Be Of

Immense Help In Thy Progressive God-realization. May God Bless Thee."

The student complies. Why? Because it is his Vedic prescribed DUTY, his

dharma. So he will do exactly that, because it is how it should be done.

That's all. He will go and fall at the feet of his father and mother who are

also followers of the Veda, get their blessings, and start earning money for

his future grhastha life, because that is what the Veda says. Also when he

is ready for marriage, (usually) his mother will search for a girl suitable

to her son's nature and arrange for their marriage. And they follow their

duties as husband and wife BECAUSE THAT IS THEIR DUTY GIVEN IN THE VEDA,

GIVEN BY GOD. (There is hardly any privacy in such a joint family anyway, as

explained nicely by KKD Pr.) So here the husband and wife live, doing their

duties within their family WHETHER THEY LIKE IT OR NOT because the topmost

priority for them is to do their God-given prescribed duty. Liking or

disliking is not as important. They adjust themselves to their duty, to

their Dharma. Dharma must be followed, at all costs.

 

And as practicing Vaishnavas, we are also conditioned by the modes but it is

easiest to practice Krishna consciousness when our conditioning is

predominantly in the mode of goodness.

 

So we know that our ISKCON social body is quite diseased in many ways. When

we try to diagnose the problems, we can do it in two ways. We can ask:

 

(1) What went wrong? Who is not given their 'rights'?

(2) Or, what went wrong? Who is not doing their Krishna-given Vedic

prescribed duties?

 

Both may be sincere attempts to come to solutions but the real thing that is

going to help solve the problems is the second approach, the duty-based

paradigm because that is based on sastra. And the Lord says that no one can

be happy in any way if they do not follow sastra.

 

Therefore I stress that the very concept of duties and responsibilities

(karma/ svadharma) be stressed throughout ISKCON.

 

Also I think that when our future generation boys and girls are born with

more of goodness, they will automatically start to ask, "Is this there in

the eternal Vedic tradition? Did the Vaishnava acharyas institute this like

that?" I think that only then VAD would actually come up in ISKCON because

only when a sizeable majority of its members WANT to follow VAD, it will

come up.

 

Therefore we want ISKCON parents (and grandparents) to take it up as their

vision to have their children (and grandchildren) trained more in goodness.

Also if those who are planning to marry take up a lifestyle more in the mode

of goodness, it is likely that after marriage and conception, their boys and

girls will be born with more sattva-guna. With more goodness, automatically

the mind will start thinking in terms of God-given prescribed duties.

 

yhs vgd