Thank God the GBC has not attempted varnasrama

[Guest guest]

Janesvara prabhu,

 

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

 

And all glories to your love of Prabhupada's vision of varnasrama. I certainly

sympathize with your frustration that varnasrama is taking so long. But from

another perspective, the more time goes by, the more thankful I am that the GBC

has not tried to implement varnasrama. At this stage of the game it would be

dangerously premature.

 

We really need to straighten out the guru question first. And we really need

to

straighten out the woman question first. -- Just to name two big problems.

 

1. Women. The recent situation with women reveals that though we are heading

in

the right direction, we do not know how to properly respect and genuinely

protect

(that goes for children and cows, as well as women) those who take a dependent

position in our society. We are told "women must never be given dependence,

they

must always be protected." Prabhupada made similar statements about sudras,

but

when devotees see how poorly women (and children, and cows) are treated, who

will

consent to take the position of sudra?

 

Before we can go very far on the road to varnasrama, we must learn and practice

the principle of respecting, encouraging and genuinely appreciating those who

assume a dependent position in our society.

 

2. Gurus. We are still tangled up in our vision of what a guru is. We are

going

in the right direction, but we still have a long way to go before the gurus

will

be able to fulfill their critical mission as described by Srila Prabhupada in

SB

5.19.19 and other places. That is: It is the duty of the guru to guide his or

her disciple to select the appropriate varna, and to find appropriate varna

training. And it is the duty of the ksatriyas to provide the appropriate varna

training (by facilitating the brahmanas and arranging for necessary resources)

and

to guarantee productive livelihood for the disciple.

 

But the gurus will not be able to fulfill their obligation in varnasrama as

long

as we insist on hanging on to our vision of centralized guru. I just cannot

believe that a guru with 1000 disciples can soberly guide each of his nor her

disciples to their most appropriate varna and help them get appropriate

training.

Don't miss the point: this is not to say that our gurus are dishonest, we

simply

have not yet reached the awareness that this is what Prabhupada intended.

 

Conditions will be much more favorable for varnasrama when a guru realizes that

it

is his/her duty to the disciple to guide that person to the appropriate

occupational duty -- to realize that by our occupational duty, we will worship

Krsna. Right now, we are mostly stuck on the karma-kanda understanding of

occupational duty: that is, I'll do my occupational duty, and with the money I

get

(fruits of my labor), I will worship Krsna. This is not exactly bhakti-yoga.

With bhakti-yoga, you can worship Krsna directly by your occupational duty --

whether you get any fruits or not. Jatayu's occupational duty of defending

Sita

was a failure in the material sense, he had nothing to offer Lord Ramacandra.

But

he did his occupational duty in the spirit of complete devotion. The goal of

varnasrama is that occupational duty should be actual prayer: bhakti-yoga --

with

no need for any intermediate steps.

 

All this is an important message for gurus in Prabhupada's line to instill in

their disciples. But I just don't think this is going to be done with our

current

position of instititutional guru. It's going to happen when ISKCON actually

trains bhaktas in how to select their own guru, based on someone who is

available

to them for on-going personal instruction, who inspires them personally in

Krsna

consciousness -- not some distant personality who is worshipped too often in

the

mode of personality cult, but who actually has little direct input in the

person

devotional life of his or her disciples.

 

But at this stage, we just are not ready for that yet.

 

So, I'm really glad that the GBC has restrained itself from attempting to

establish varnasrama until they have a better understanding of what it is, and

until the social atmosphere of ISKCON has advanced to a slightly higher level

of

respectful dealings between devotees of different classes. Those in higher

position need to respect, facilitate and appreciate devotees in lower social

positions. At the same time, those in lower positions need to convey their

genuine respect and appreciation to those in higher positions. It's an awful

tough job up there. I'd be plenty discouraged to be someone like Badrinarayana

prabhu, trying my best to serve Prabhupada, and all people can do is just

criticize you all the time. It's a two-way street which needs improvement on

both

ends before varnasrama can be implemented.

 

So, I know you are impatient. Sometimes, I'm impatient, too. But, all things

considered, I think it's the healthiest thing to wait until we are a little

more

advanced, a little more educated, and a little more mature. In the meantime,

we

have to keep working on becoming more qualified to fulfill Prabhupada's

expecations for us.

 

your servant,

 

Hare Krsna dasi

 

 

 

WWW: Janesvara (Dasa) ACBSP (Syracuse - USA) wrote:

 

> [Text 2170204 from COM]

>

> I found the recent article entitled "Message from the GBC to the Devotees of

> ISKCON" as a small step in the right direction towards correcting some of the

> past mistakes made by the "leaders" of ISKCON and the GBC. The apologetic

> attitude expressed therein actually seemed genuine regarding the Zonal Acarya

> System. Such apologies are always welcome and help soothe many deep-rooted

> feelings of betrayal and abandonment by some of our Godbrothers.

>

> Unfortunately, the apparent majority of GBC-member opinions is to move

forward

> in a direction which does not promise much practical change or success in

> solving the root problems of the society. As I first started to read the text

> I had hopes of reading the all important words - varnasrama-dharma. But alas,

> once again, the GBC has found in their infinite wisdom a way of putting

> hundreds of nice words together about social and spiritual reforms within the

> society without mentioning the Lord's and Srila Prabhupada's advice on how to

> achieve these nice goals.

>

> When Srila Prabhupada left this world he told us what he felt remained

> "unfinished" in his movement - to establish varnasrama-dharma. How can such a

> clear and bold statement by our Guru Maharaja go unheeded for almost 25

years?

> We are continuing to belabor at so many things which by Srila Prabhupada's

> statement are "finished". Certainly it doesn't mean we stop all of the things

> which he started and encouraged for preaching, but more certainly it would

> seem logical that the majority of our efforts would be put toward fulfilling

> that which was left "unfinished".

>

> How many times has Srila Prabhupada prescribed varnasrama-dharma as the

social

> cure for the ills of the human race? (The BBT is publishing a book of more

> than a thousand of Srila Prabhupada's quotes regarding this.) We are the

human

> race aren't we? I do not believe any of us has transcended that yet,

> especially in light of the recent realizations of the GBC and the many

> mistakes made which leads them to the sincere desire for reforms.

>

> Honestly, for the first time in more than 20 years I felt a little confidence

> in wanting to participate in the activities of ISKCON when I read my email of

> the recent Project Status report from the Mayapura project wherein Abhirama

> Prabhu discussed the revised plans and goals for the project. Within that

> report Abhirama Prabhu, whom I regard and I presume the GBC also regards as a

> very competent and sincere disciple of Srila Prabhupada, having placed him in

> such an important position, mentioned the words varnasrama-dharma many times

> and with great import as to varnasrama-dharma's role in the planning,

> development and goals of ISKCON's most important project.

>

> Why didn't the GBC also include many mentions of varnasrama-dharma in their

> letter to the devotees? Do they not believe that Srila Prabhupada recommended

> its implementation within the society of devotees? If so, are the sannyasis

> going to discard their dandas and sannyasa garb, too?

>

> What positive reforms of management can be expected if the GBC is going to

> rely upon social management systems not recommended by the Lord and Guru? If

> they are not going to manage according to varnasrama-dharma what management

> plan are they going to utilize to cure the ills of this society? Is there a

> system which the Lord forgot to mention in the Bhagavad-gita which they are

> aware of and we are not? This should be interesting.