Varna first, then Asrama

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"COM: Sraddha (dd) HKS (Gothenburg - S)" wrote:

 

> [Text 2836442 from COM]

>

> < If there are no unmarried devotee men in the congregation then the ladies

> who obviously want devotee

> > husbands see the temple brahmacaries as their only hope. If the marriages

> > are fixed within the congregation itself then the brahmacaries are free to

> > concentrate on selling Prabhupada's books.

> >

> Selling books for how long? And then when they are not able to sell books

> anymore, what happens then? When they want to get married and all the women

> are married to the congregational members, and the temple managment tells

> them that they can't maintain them any longer, specificaly if they want to

> get married, what happens then? What happens when after 10 or 15 years of

> book distribution they can't do it anymore, they have no any income, all the

> money they collected went for maintaining the buildings (in which they can't

> live anymore, because now they have to pay if they want to use them) and

> some of the money went for the sannyasis who made their own houses and many

> of them meanwhile got married. The temple managers also got married, (they

> are not fools, they understood what is going on), despite of preaching to

> poor brahmacaris that perfection of life is pure renounciation and book

> distribution. And when TP's get married they don't get married to a

> congregational member, they choose the best one they can get.

> PRABHU YOU ARE GREEN! Lets see what you are going to tell us in 10 years.

>

> Ys. Sraddha dd

 

We have a mantra on the varnasrama.development conference: "Varna first, then

asrama." We heard it from Srila Prabhupada in the Varnasrama Walks in March

14,

1974:

 

***************************

Hrdayananda: So in this varnasrama college there would be two divisions, varna

and asr... Learning a materia...

Prabhupada: First of all varna. And asrama, then, when the varna is perfectly

in

order, then asrama. Asrama is specially meant for spiritual advancement, and

varna is general division. It must be there in the human society, or they’re on

the animals. If varna is not there, then this is a society of animal. And when

the varna is working perfectly, then we give them asrama. Varnasrama. That is

later on.

Hrdayananda: First they should be taught a skill.

Prabhupada: Yes. First of all, the whole society must be divided into four

varnas. Otherwise, there will be chaotic condition. That is what is the

position

now. What is he, what he has to do, one does not know. And there are so many

unemployment. But if you organize the society into varnas, there will be no

question of unemployment.

 

***********************

 

As we continue to neglect the extremely practical and psychologically realistic

instruction of our founder/acayra, we will forever experience pain,

disappointment and confusion as our new recruits don't all turn out to be

brahmanas -- even though we insist on training them that way.

 

Rather than force every young man to be a brahmana, a devotee's spiritual

master

should give him guidance as to which varna he will be most satisfied doing his

devotional service in. Srila Prabhupada also advised that the spiritual master

should designate the varna of of a disciple:

 

*****************************

Prabhupada: So apart from that metaphysical, from this worldly platform, there

must be divisions. Just like in your bank, if everyone is manager, that is not

possible. There must be clerks and other assistants. So that is required. The

society must be divided into four classes. That is brahmana, ksatriya, vaisya,

sudra.

Banker: My question is how does one determine into which part he goes?

Prabhupada: Yes. That is by tendency. Guna-karma-vibhagasah. By the tendency.

Therefore one has to approach the spiritual master. He will give direction that

“This boy is meant for becoming a brahmana.” Everyone has got some tendency.

>From the tendency it should be designated.

 

============ REF. Room Conversation with Banker -- September 21, 1973, Bombay

 

*****************************

 

Now -- just imagine -- how would this scenario play out, say if, just as an

experiment, we tried to follow Srila Prabhupada's instructions on this matter

for even one year.

 

A young man would come into the temple, attracted to Krsna consciousness. As

he

becomes inspired by the preaching of some more advanced devotee, he would ask

him to be his spiritual master. Then, as their discussions progressed, the

devotee would ask, "What do you think would be the best varna for me to try to

serve Krsna?" The spiritual master would ask different questions to discover

the background, propensities and areas of expertise of the devotee. He would

say, "I think you would be the happiest if you developed the skills in

such-and-such varna. Why don't you begin to get training in that area for

awhile, and we'll see how this works out for you."

 

Then the devotee would begin to be trained in a varna which is suitable for his

psycho-physical type. Maybe the first attempt would not be quite right. After

more consultation with his spiritual master, he would go into another area of

training. Then he would find an occupation at which he would be satisfied

serving Krsna. By learning to serve Krsna by his particular occupation --

under

the guidance of a bona-fide spiritual master -- he would move towards spiritual

perfection, exactly as described by Krsna:

 

******************

By following his qualities of work, every man can become perfect. Now please

hear from Me how this can be done. By worship of the Lord, who is the source

of

all beings and who is all-pervading, a man can attain perfection through

performing his own work.

 

Bg 18.45-46

******************

 

So now he is being trained in his occupational duty -- which will provide the

platform for his life-long work in devotional service. Then what?

 

Then, through further consultation with his spiritual master, he gets guidance

about which asrama he will be most satisfied in. His spiritual master may feel

that he will be most satisfied in the brahmacari asrama. So that's his asrama.

Or he may feel that his disciple will be most satisfied in the grhasta asrama.

So that's he finds a wife, and that's his asrama.

 

Now this is quite different from being trained up for 7 years as a book

distributor brahmacari and then "falling down" into marriage. First of all,

every thing he has done is with the encouragement of his spiritual master -- so

there is no feeling of defeat for not remaining a brahmacari.

 

Second of all, he already has good training in a viable occupational skill. He

actually has the means to support his wife, before he even gets married. This

is a way of implementing the complete, natural system advocated by Srila

Prabhupada.

 

Compare that with the typical sequence of events presently when the

book-distributor brahmacari "falls down" into the grhasta asrama -- with no

skills and no means of support. Why on earth are we so surprised that after

the

great pressure to find a job (with no skills) and support his wife, that so

many

couples find themselves unable to endure the stress and unable to maintain

their

marriage vows?

 

Srila Prabhupada's suggestion would work far, far better than our current

system.

 

****NOTE: Whenever I suggest that we follow Srila Prabhupada's system and have

the spiritual master provide varna guidance to his disciples, I am told "That

is

impossible. How can a guru with 3000 disciples know them well enough to give

them guidance in their occupational duty as suggested by Prabhupada?" My

response is, after we've gone through so much suffering by not following Srila

Prabhupada's suggestion, maybe we should think of what changes we need to make

so we *can* follow his suggestion.***

 

Just one last look at Srila Prabhupada's statement from above -- please note:

 

Prabhupada: Yes. First of all, the whole society must be divided into four

varnas. Otherwise, there will be chaotic condition. That is what is the

position

now.

 

Is Prabhupada right? Are we in a chaotic condition now?

 

your servant,

 

Hare Krsna dasi