Varnasrama: serving the Lord by serving His devotees

[Guest guest]

Dandavad. Prabhupada kijaya!

 

I find this thread to be very important. I would like to support Hare Krsna

mataji's observations with a few points.

 

Janesvara prabhu has stressed the principle of performing prescribed duties

(regardless of the environment), whereas Hare Krsna mataji has stressed the

satisfaction of the Lord by serving devotees.

 

I suggest that one way to understand this is to appreciate that varnashrama

does not exist until there are all four varnas working together

harmoniously, just as a body is not complete without all of its parts.

 

Thus for varnashrama to manifest it is not enough for each individual to act

according to his or her prescribed duties if there is no connection to the

rest of the social body. However, it is possible to be perfectly situated as

a devotee if one performs these duties in pure Krishna consciousness. This,

I believe, is one of the differences between bhakti-yoga and varnashram.

Daivi - varnashram requires bhakti-yoga, but bhakti-yoga does not require

varnashram, although it is very difficult for most people to practice

without it.

 

Varnashram helps us perform bhakti-yoga especially thrfough the

inter-connections of the varnas and ashrams. It facilitates our performance

of sankirtan which we must do as a group.

 

Ideally the relationships between the varnas is established through intimate

connections in the context of rural, agrarian communities. HOwever, as

pointed out by Madhava Ghosh prabhu, it is possible to establish these

connections in other ways, through trust funds for cow protection, guilds

for crafts and trades, purchasing of goods made by devotees, establishing

care and protection funds for devotees in distress, etc. Gradually as these

links are developed, they can lead to actual communities.

 

In my opinion, the effort needed to establish these connections cannot be

managed by the ISKCON institution as it is constituted today. ISKCON should

provide encouragement, spiritual guidance, and whatever facility it has, but

the work is too big for ISKCON's Temple and GBC dominated framework.

 

What ISKCON can do is to establish varnashram college to train people to

carry out this work independently of ISKCON. At the same time, ISKCON must

continue to provide facility for sankirtan yajna, Deity worship, and

spiritual counselling, i.e. all the objects enshrined in ISKCON's charter.

 

Here in Mayapur, a group of us are trying to pursue both the establishment

of a full varnashrama college and the development of varnashram in the

broader community. It is not an ISKCON only effort, but a partnership

between ISKCON and other entities we have established to give it broader

scope. We hope this will be a model for other efforts.

 

Your servant,

Pancaratna das