Varna: bit by bit

[Guest guest]

On 04 Jun 1999, Janesvara Dasa wrote:

 

>

>

> I seem to remember many, many instances of Srila Prabhupada referring to

many of his disciples as "brahmanas" and to do their prescribed duties

accordingly. Isn't "brahmana" a varna anymore?

>

 

Right you are, Prabhupada encouraged brahminical qualities as he saw them as

what was most sorely lacking within modern day society. But I still don't

recall stories of Prabhupada saying: So and So dasa, you are now a lifelong

ksatriya -- and chant 16 rounds and follow four regs.

 

Probably just a curious observation on my part, but as a Vaisnava guru,

Prabhupada didn't seem to indulge in this form of devotional practice.

 

 

>

>

> VAD "NOW"??? After 25 years, 2 months, 20 days and 6 or 7 hours? Hardly

"NOW".

>

 

It has been, oh, maybe a couple of milleniums since we could claim VAD had

been functioning with healthy regularity. It is my own suspicion that

re-establishing VAD, and not just a VAD fan club, will take more than a decade

of youthful enthusiasm.

 

 

 

> There are a few very respected senior disciples who want VAD a lot more than

me and they have a better understanding than I. They are brahmanas who are

capable and willing to teach the principles of VAD. There efforts to do so

have not been met with much enthusiasm from the GBC for obvious reasons.

>

 

Yes, if VAD is to be properly established, it will be done primarily by a

healthy and mature brahminical community, not by an administrative edict. As

of this posting, I don't know of any GBC/guru proclamations banning the

teaching of VAD principles by ISKCON brahmanas.

 

To the contrary, I believe it has been pointed out that one such school has

been established in Mayapur. It is not so simple getting qualified brahmana

teachers these days, epecially when they don't have a working model to study

or teach from.

 

 

>

> That doesn't mean they will magically take up VAD. After studying the

> conversations again a few years ago I asked Hari-sauri Prabhu if the entire

GBC had read the conversations and, if they had, how could they NOT commence

immediate steps to implement VAD in ISKCON. He replied that he wasn't certain

that all GBC members had read the conversations, but he was sure that all, or

almost all, KNEW the content of the conversations. As to why they don't

implement those instructions of the pure devotee he offered, "They, like (name

deleted), just don't get it, I guess."

>

>

 

 

I am just as reluctant to defend the GBC as the next guy, but along with the

many important VAD quotes, Srila Prabhupada left volumes of a variety of

significant and relevant instructions. To take our own favority quote and then

righteously claim all who do not find focus as we do may suggest a possible

lack of appreciation for Srila Prabhupada's preaching as a whole.

 

That is not to say there are no problems -- there are. And I would suggest

there always will be. Still, problems can also be seen as Krsna providing us

with something to feel challenged by, and not simply another excuse for

disgruntlementhood.

 

 

> Don't take Janesvara dasa's word for it...read the instructions yourself,

again and again and again. If you don't have the texts I will send them to

anyone desiring them and they will be posted shortly on my web page for

varnasrama-dharma at: http://www.stsi.net/~jdf1/index.html.

>

 

I hope you are not slipping out of your adopted varna and are now attempting

to become a teacher of VAD. That could be considered by some as more

controversial than a gender change debacle.

 

 

 

>

> Srila Prabhupada was NOT this vague, Prabhu, believe me. Do you have the

conversations I spoke of earlier? Or the complete VAD morning walks?

> He gave crystal clear instructions that there was to be dividing and

training into varnas for the entire ISKCON society. If the gurus are not doing

this they are doing a disservice to their followers.

>

 

 

But if the gurus are encouraging their disciples to chant, dance, take prasada

and serve within the association of Prabhupada's society, well, that's gotta

be bhogus because, after all, they're nuthin but a bunch of ISKCON gurus. Real

gurus will do as I say -- and if they don't, I'll find a quote to bash them

with.

 

 

>

> The "labels" can be translated to any nomenclature one needs (intellectuals,

high court judges, administrators, etc.). Besides, devotees are devotees. But

devotees divide for management. It has to be there.

>

 

Certainly these categories are ever present within human society -- what I am

concerned with is an over emphasis on play acting dependent on getting an

official name tag from one of those 'bhogus' ISKCON gurus. If there is at

least one thing history has proven to some of us -- anything introduced by an

ISKCON guru will never work according to our expectations.

 

 

>

>

> Srila Prabhupada was not a "Little Caesar" Prabhu. He gave an order that VAD

was to be implemented in ISKCON - it has not been followed to date.

>

 

Certainly it has not been established by a royal edict proclaiming everyone to

officially divide up or bloop. As you must also agree, VAD is much more

soffisticated than that.

 

 

> Had IT been followed instead of spending years and years on a totally bogus

zonal acarya-guru system we would have been along ways toward that "entire

culture" you speak of.

>

 

 

Forunately, the old bhoogi-man zonal system lasted maybe 8 years, and has

since been dismantalled as official ISKCON policy almost 15 years ago. But it

still comes in handy for blaming everything that ails us.

 

 

> Srila Prabhupada left the planet saying that he had fulfilled HALF of his

mission and that the other half was to implement varnasrama-dharma.

>

 

He also said something along the lines that he left us a structure, as in a

super-structure for a skyscraper builing, and that it was for his followers to

fill it in. That appears to be an important part of our 'mission' for the next

10K years. So we must certainly take up our task seriously, but I am not about

to whine endlessly that absolutely nothing has been accomplished since 1977.

 

The possibility excists that might suggest Srila Prbhupada was incompetant to

train competant disciples, or at least competant godbrothers and godsisters --

as the case may be.

 

 

> He fulfilled his half in 13 years - we have hardly even started our part in

twice as many years. And we are still questioning dividing into varnas?

>

 

According to this math, establishing something that many appear to practically

expect to be something on par to the quality of life in satya-yuga should only

take us 13 years -- if our leaders are sincere. No wonder some of us are

feeling frustrated.

 

 

 

>

>

> "It was the duty of the spiritual master or teacher to observe the

> psychological movement of a particular boy and thus train him in a

particular occupational duty. Dhruva Maharaja, having already been trained in

the ksatriya spirit, would not accept the brahminical philosophy." Purport SB

4.8.36

>

 

 

It appears that M. Gunamani feels such things are currently being done within

her own guru/disicple relationship with one of Srila Prabhupada's disciples.

But as I attempted to scold her, that must be bhogus because she hasn't yet

been rubber stamped either a true Prabhupada disciple, or at least a brahman,

ksatriya, etc and so on.