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- Srila Prabhupada's Nectarean Instructions for Social Change, Varnasrama

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Without change- the necessary qualification.....

How necessary for the progress of our movement of spreading of love of God,

that

Srila Prabhupada's instructions for the farms be studied and practically

carried out?

Absolutely necessary, because they are a part of his total instructions, and

hearing and

carrying out the guru's instructions is the only qualification that is

required- to be a

pure devotee...even to be guru, as Lord Chaitanya advised...

Bg lecture, 68-11-25, LA

Prabhupada: Yes, they're also pure devotees because they're following my

instruction.

Just like a technician, he is expert, but somebody is assisting him. So the

assistants,

because they are following the instruction of the expert, therefore their

work is also

complete. So it is not necessarily that one has to become pure devotee

immediately.

Just like we are also following the instruction of our spiritual master. I

don't claim that

I am pure devotee or perfect, but my only qualification is that I am trying

to follow the

instruction of the perfect. Similarly... This is called disciplic

succession. Just like here it

is stated that Krsna is the original spiritual master and Arjuna is the

original student. So

Arjuna said that sarvam etam rtam manye yad vadasi kesava. "My dear Krsna,

whatever You are saying, I accept in toto,"

...

However, the objection is often raised, "that was only his conversations. He

said

everything is in his books." Actually, the exact quote by Srila Prabhupada

is that

"everything I wanted to say I said in my books", which certainly can not be

interpreted

to mean that we are to ignore all his other instructions, many that were

given aurally,

for that would be the third offense, guru-avajna... especially when Srila

Prabhupada

stressed so much the value of aural reception

..

letter to Kirtananda, 75-05-06

"... if it is any credit for me, that is what you have written, that I tried

to give AURAL

reception to the words of my Spiritual Master, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati

Goswami

Maharaja, and thus I tried to engage my TONGUE in repeating the same words

without any change

Bg lecture, 74-04-04, Bombay

Very simple thing. It doesn't require education. You can hear from your

spiritual

master what has Krsna said. It doesn't require even literacy. There are many

great

personalities, saintly persons. My Guru Maharaja's Guru Maharaja, he was

illiterate,

Gaura Kisora dasa Babaji Maharaja. He could not sign even his name. But my

Guru

Maharaja was the best scholar of his time. He accepted him as guru. So this

is the

process,

 

SB lecture, 74-09-29, Mayapur

We have to hear. My guru maharaja was very kind upon me because I was very

much

interested to hear him. That you know. I hear him. I did not understand him,

actually.

In the beginning I could not understand him. He was speaking in so high

philosophical

way that it was not... Still, I wanted to hear him. That was my only

qualification.

 

And after hearing? Endeavouring with firm faith, to follow

BA lecture, 69-02-07, LA

I am not very expert or educated or nothing extraordinary, but only thing is

that I

believed in his word. That is... You can say that is my qualification. I

believed cent

percent in his word. So whatever success is there, it is just due to my firm

faith in his

instruction. So I am trying to follow. And by his grace, you are helping me.

So

actually, the responsibility will now depend on you.

 

This is one point. Another point is that many of Srila Prabhupadas words in

his books

have been changed to obliterate the meaning. Phrases obliterated include

exactly these

instructions that he gave for devotees on the farms, e.g. "a devotee must

practise

simple living" has been changed to "a devotee must be simple and

straightforward in

his dealings"!!!. There are many such examples of this, and they number in

the

hundreds. So how do we know exactly what Srila Prabhupada words in his books

were??? Because of this unfortunate situation, it behooves every devotee to

not follow

blindly, but SEE what Srila Prabhupada wanted us to do- seeing through the

medium

of the ear, as is recommended...

Prabhupada's Lectures Srimad-Bhagavatam 1969 691222SB.BOS

..Don't try to see by these eyes." These are, what is the value of this

eye? They are

conditioned in so many ways. You don't believe the eyes. See through the

sastra,

through the spiritual master, through the sastra. Try to see through this.

That is

perfect seeing

 

Nowhere does Srila Prabhupada recommend blind following. One must find the

actual

order of the predecessor acarya and execute it. Then he becomes qualified as

a

bonafide spiritual master, fit to liberate the living entities from the

ocean of birth and

death. By changing the words of his guru, he does a great disservice to both

his guru

and to the living entities, who continue to remain entangled. This can be

remedied,

only by returning to the ORIGINAL orders and endeavouring to execute them

with

firm faith, or if one is a leader or spiritual master in our movement,

making sure those

original orders are known and that they are executed by all devotees, as far

as

possible...

Bg lecture, 73-08-03, London.

So how everyone can become a spiritual master? A spiritual master must have

sufficient knowledge, so many other qualifications. No. Even without any

qualifications, one can become a spiritual master. How? Now the process is,

Caitanya

Mahaprabhu says, amara ajnaya: "On My order." That is the crucial point. One

does

not become spiritual master by his own whims. That is not spiritual master.

He must be

ordered by superior authority. Then he's spiritual master. Amara ajnaya.

Just like in our

case. Our superior authority, our spiritual master, he ordered me that "You

just try to

preach this gospel, whatever you have learned from me, in English." So we

have tried

it. That's all. It is not that I am very much qualified.* The only

qualification is that I

have tried to execute the order of superior authority. That's all. This is

the secret of

success.*

How much success Srila Prabhupada had! It cannot be compared with anything!

How

was it possible? We should not minimize his words! It is only possible, as

he stressed,

by finding out and executing the orders of the "superior authority", in our

case, Srila

Prabhupada himself, without change.

There has been much discussion on the "guru issue", and after many

falldowns, and

we're left wondering who to trust with implicit faith. Here is a criteria

which is clearly

observable, and as Srila Prabhupada himself said, "the only necessary

qualification" of

being a guru. Is this person endeavouring to study and execute the orders of

his own

guru? There are SO many orders that are being ignored in ISKCON despite the

presence of so many gurus!...address the guru issue on Srila Prabhupada's

terms,...

who is struggling against the apathy regarding the execution of Srila

Prabhupada's

instructions? Such a person is a real guru, even if he has no title, because

he carries full

faith in the words of his spiritual master and is therefore fit to liberate

the conditioned

souls from the cycle of birth and death. With even one such bonafide guru,

the whole

world can become Krsna Conscious- something that was in the process of

happening

when Srila Prabhupada was here.

Another objection, which has become somewhat of a cliche in ISKCON to avoid

the

responsibility to carry out his order, is the "time place and circumstance"

one.

That the instructions for farms that Srila Prabhupada gave, were for a

particular time

place and circumstance, and do not apply to the present. However let us make

particular note of the fact that Srila Prabhupada did not give these

instructions

SPECIFICALLY for one farm only, but they were repeated on every farm that he

visited, and even very often when he was nowhere near a farm! Or near a

farming

devotee! They were very clearly a part of his GENERAL instructions as even a

very

brief purusal of the conversations books will reveal, and therefore the

quote of "time,

place and circumstance" does not apply. The responsibility to carry them

out.is still

ours.

Those instructions are for all of us, whether we be disciples,

grand-disciples,

great-grand -disciples etc. we are actually all disciples of Srila

Prabhupada, in a

SIKSYA sense, as are all the souls of this world who take shelter in the

Krsna

Consciousness movement, and this will continue, as is predicted, for the

next 10,000

years. We have deviated SO much even in the first 20 years after Srila

Prabhupada's

departure, with the disastrous consequence of losing many souls to maya. How

many

devotees know of this connection?-that the answer Srila Prabhupada gave, to

the

problem of people joining up, and being unable to follow strictly, and thus

going away

discouraged, never to be seen again,- a problem our society is rife with,-

his suggestion was to place such struggling souls in an ideal rural

varnasrama

environment....

 

Ramesvara: In America there is a very big emphasis on getting people to join

us by

moving into our temples. The temple presidents are very eager to get as many

people

to move in as possible, but in the long run most people cannot come up to

the

standard.

Prabhupada: Therefore I am... Farms.

Ramesvara: So they have to be encouraged to have a little bit of Krsna

consciousness

in their own home, make their home a temple.

Prabhupada: No, let them go to the farm, New Vrindaban.

Ramesvara: Many people... Most people in the world, they are grhamedhis, and

they

cannot give it up so easily.

Prabhupada: "No, you remain... Come here with your wife, children. You

remain

grhamedhi."

Jagadisa:

 

 

Because he knew this would make them happy and satisfied. Not everyone is a

brahmana. Not everyone can be a full-time preacher. Still such people are

often

sincere. Everyone can preach by example, living according to the varna and

asrama he

is ideally suited to, and thus be happy and thus be able to REMAIN in that

position,

and then by this method, automatically, the PURPOSE of preaching is

achieved- that

people are attracted to follow. People will follow, not for a brief time,

then to fall back

into maya, as has been experienced by propagating only the first half of

Srila

Prabhupada's mission, book distribution, at the expense of the second half,

varnasrama,

but they will come, they will be attracted, they will learn a way of life

that is very

satisfying, and thus they will stay. Its not guaranteed, of course, there is

always maya

and the independence of the living entity to turn away from Krsna if he so

desires, but

by doing this, we make the situation favourable. That is all we can do, and

we must,

because it is Srila Prabhupada's order.

Room Conversation Vrindaban, October 8, 1977 771008

.. Give them chance and make situation favorable. Is that clear?

 

Or continuing to neglect such orders, only 22 years down the track and with

barely a

shadow of the movement we had, where will we end up by the year 11,977AD? We

are the pioneers of this movement, with a great burden of responsibility to

keep it on

track. As Srila Prabhupada said in above quote:

..... So I am trying to follow. And by his grace, you are helping me. So

actually, the

responsibility will now depend on you...

 

 

 

 

 

 

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>

> Another objection, which has become somewhat of a cliche in ISKCON to avoid

> the

> responsibility to carry out his order, is the "time place and circumstance"

> one.

> That the instructions for farms that Srila Prabhupada gave, were for a

> particular time

> place and circumstance, and do not apply to the present. However let us make

> particular note of the fact that Srila Prabhupada did not give these

> instructions

> SPECIFICALLY for one farm only, but they were repeated on every farm that he

> visited, and even very often when he was nowhere near a farm! Or near a

> farming

> devotee! They were very clearly a part of his GENERAL instructions as even a

> very

> brief purusal of the conversations books will reveal, and therefore the

> quote of "time,

> place and circumstance" does not apply. The responsibility to carry them

> out.is still

> ours.

 

Srimad-Bhagavatam Canto 8: Chapter Twenty-four, Text 5 :PURPORT

 

Without protection of cows, brahminical culture cannot be maintained;

and without brahminical culture, the aim of life cannot be fulfilled.

 

 

Srimad-Bhagavatam Canto 1: Chapter Nineteen, Text ; :PURPORT

 

Cow protection means feeding the brahminical culture, which leads towards

God consciousness, and thus perfection of human civilization is achieved.