varnasrama - as leaning on a stick...

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> Kadamba Kanana Swami on "how to avoid daivi varnasrama dharma" if at all

> posible...

> I found it interesting, any feedback about this from our maharathis...

>

>

> >VARNASRAMA

>

> >I was contemplating a little further about our relation to varnasrama

> >because many devotees stress the point that we need varnasrama. They are

> >really strong about this that varnasrama is high time. I am not against

> >varnasrama, I think it's fine. But what we are going to do with

> >varnasrama, what is the value of it?

>

> >Then I got this kind of analogy in my mind when I thought, actually a

> >devotee stands on the legs of hearing and chanting. Those are his legs.

> >But because in the beginning he is not able to get full satisfaction in

> >hearing and chanting, he has to lean on a stick - and that's varnasrama.

> >So he uses this stick for his support. Of course some people can't walk

> >at all and they sit in a wheelchair, so they are right in the middle of

> >it. They completely identify with varnasrama.

 

This anology is not very accurate though. Hearing and chanting are for

developing Krsna consciousness, NOT for maintaining the body and soul

together. To use worship of Krsna as a source of income is actually

considered offensive (there is another analogy comparing Deity worship for

generating an income to using the sila as a nut cracker)

 

Srila Prabhupada mentions that it is better to be an honest sweeper in the

street than a charlatan meditator.

 

And varnasrama is that, a system to set up honest means for the devotees to

LIVE

 

Yes, for a handful of temple brahmacaris and sannyasis, it IS honest to live

a renounced life, depending on donations from the world around them, so they

can use their time in spreading Krsna consciousness in society without

having to worry about bodily maintainance.

 

But to advocate that sort of life style for the majority of devotees, and

not attempting to understand how to set up a functional varnasrama dharma

culture in society is at best naive and at worst exactly the kind of

charlatan meditator mentality that Srila Prabhupada is rejecting

 

>