VE30

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*** VAISNAVA EXCELLENCE ***

 

Journal for Spiritual Leadership

No.30 March 2000

 

 

* Quote of the Week *

 

"Our leaders shall be careful not to kill the spirit of enthusiastic

service, which is individual and spontaneous and voluntary. They should try

always to generate some atmosphere of fresh challenge to the devotees, so

that they will agree enthusiastically to rise and meet it. That is the art

of management: to draw out spontaneous loving spirit of sacrificing some

energy for Krishna. All of us should become expert managers and preachers."

 

-Srila Prabhupada, Letter to Karandhara, December 22 1972

 

 

 

! ! ! T O D A Y ! ! !

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- Srila Prabhupada's Principles

- How to read Srimad Bhagavatam

- Pillars of Success-Ravindra Svarupa Dasa

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SRILA PRABHUPADA'S PRINCIPLES

_____________________________

 

Preaching is the essence

Books are the basis

Utility is the principle

Purity is the force

 

Do the needful

First deserve than desire

Work now samadhi later

Love and trust

 

Acar-Pracar

Vaisnava is a perfect gentlemen.

First dress then adress.

 

 

 

HOW TO READ SRIMAD BHAGAVATAM

-Srila Prabhupada

_____________________________

 

The only qualification one needs to study this great book of transcendental

knowledge is to proceed step by step cautiously and not jump forward

haphazardly like with an ordinary book. It should be gone through chapter by

chapter, one after another. The reading matter is so arranged with its

original Sanskrit text, its English transliteration, synonyms, translation

and purports so that one is sure to become a God-realized soul at the end of

finishing the first nine cantos.

[From Preface to Srimad-Bhagavatam]

 

 

 

PILLARS OF SUCCESS-PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES OF REFORM IN ISKCON

-Ravindra Svarupa Dasa

_____________

 

A society of devotees in which proper Vaisnava relations are not yet the

norm is called a kanistha-adhikari society. Its distinguishing

characteristic is contentiousness arising from envy. Envy is a product of

false ego. Because of false ego, the members are unable to establish

spiritual friendship among themselves. Instead, they view with each other

for prestige, power, and perquisites. Intensely desiring the honour and

respect of others, the contentious neophyte pretends to be more advanced

than he actually is. He tries to conceal his shortcomings and falldowns, and

in so doing he develops a secretive mentality and holds himself back from

entering into open and honest relations with his Godbrothers. Because he

cannot reveal his mind in confidence, he remains aloof from real fellowship.

 

He strays from the path of devotional service, but his peers do not help

him. For he thinks that if he allows someone to preach to him, he implicitly

admits his own subordination. Therefore he cuts himself off from hearing and

becomes impervious to instruction or good advice. Because he has many secret

misgivings about himself, he becomes eager to find the faults of others;

that way he reassures himself of his own superiority in spite of his many

unacknowledged weaknesses.

 

Spiritual immaturity often leads a kanistha-adhikari to identify spiritual

advancement with organisational advancement. He thinks that attaining

prestige, power, and the perquisites of office is evidence of spiritual

advancement. Lacking the assets for real spiritual achievement, he

substitutes organisational elevation, which he can attain through his

cunning or political prowess. He therefore competes intensely with others

for high office, and he comes to believe implicitly that one achieves a

spiritually elevated state only by becoming victorious over others. In this

way material competition becomes institutionalised in kanistha-adhikari

societies.

 

***

 

Fortunately, however, the kanistha stage is followed by the madhyama stage.

A kanistha-adhikari advances to the madhyama platform by means of

sadhana-bhakti. Sadhana-bhakti, pursued diligently and attentively, destroys

false ego, and as long as the neophyte devotees attend to their sadhana they

can be sure of elevation to the higher stages. There is, however, no other

assured means of advancement, and habitual negligence in sadhana is

therefore fatal to progressive spiritual life. Furthermore, when a neophyte

devotee has risen to the madhyama platform, sadhana is absolutely necessary

to maintain him in that position. If he becomes slack in sadhana, he rapidly

reverts to the neophyte condition. Therefore, the essential prerequisite for

both creating and sustaining a madhyama society is intense common commitment

to sadhana.

[From "The next step in the Expansion of ISKCON: Ending the Fratricidal

War" as quoted in ISKCON Communications Journal Vol.7 No.2 - December 1999]

 

 

 

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