Guest guest Posted September 24, 2000 Report Share Posted September 24, 2000 Samba Prabhu wrote: > Having not read the proposal I am not sure how the GBC's themselves are > balanced. The idea that a ksatria has to be allowed to take shelter of > whomever he is inspired by is absolutely crucial, but how does one make > sure that the Ksatrias we have in control are actually taking shelter? The householders are naturally inclined to take inspiration from the detached sannyasis. No matter how hard you try to get the best devotees onto the GBC you cannot avoid some mistakes sometimes. That is why Srila Prabhupada set up a large body rather than a single acarya. We have to hope that as a whole they stay on course. Actually, no system any of us could possibly propose here will be foolproof. Everything will have to depend on the quality of the devotees who get the top posts, whether it be a GBC, IBC, HBC, or some combination thereof. Just to introduce a systemic check and balance does not preclude that the newly created body meant to do the checking might also go off track together with the GBC. That is, unless someone is advocating something which boils down to a democracy. Democracy does have some value in checking the abuse of power. But it has its own set of even worse problems. Your servant, Bhaktarupa Das Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted November 7, 2000 Report Share Posted November 7, 2000 Very good analogy. Each governing body interacts with the others independently but with over sight. Sadhu, Sanga, and Shastra must be in accord. That is why His Divine Grace would throw out a great many of the GBC's directives. Your servant, Bijaya Kumara das "Bhaktarupa (das) ACBSP (Bhubaneswara - IN)" wrote: > > Krishna Kirtan Mataji wrote: > > > That is, > > > unless someone is advocating something which boils down to a democracy. > > > Democracy does have some value in checking the abuse of power. But it > > > has its own set of even worse problems. > > > Your servant, Bhaktarupa Das > > > > Here is an interesting excerpt from a conversation with Srila Prabhupada > > in New-Vrndavana in 1969, showing clearly that it was some devotees who > > were against democracy and not Srila Prabhupada: > > Srila Prabhupada here is talking about committee system. This is not true > democracy, although they are using the term here. Committee means a limited, > selected group which acts by majority vote. Democracy usually means on a > large scale everyone votes. > > Your servant, Bhaktarupa Das > > > Hayagriva: ...According to you...If the president is in charge, then if he > > says to cut it (the tree) down, it gets cut down. > > > > Prabhupada: No. The committee. The majority decision will be... > > > > Hayagriva: That's democracy. That's democracy. that's no good. > > > > Prabhupada: Democracy? This is the age of... > > > > Hayagriva: I thought you said we should have enlightened monarchy. > > > > Prabhupada: No. Monarchy is out of date now. when you form a committee... > > But what can I say? If you disagree in that way, then...if you have to > > live together, you have to work together; if you disagree in that way, it > > will be a difficult job... > > Kali-yuga, everything should be managed by society. In bhagavat also. Yes. > > > > Hayagriva: Oh, democracy. in Kali-yuga, democracy. > > > > Prabhupada: Yes. Society. Body. > > > > Hayagriva: This is not best. This is not best. You mention that in the > > books,that this is not very good. > > > > Prabhupada: This is not very good in this sense...But at that time one man > > was so advanced that his order was perfect. Actually these kings like > > Maharaj Pariksit and others, they were consulting learned brahmanas, not > > that they were actually autocrat. No. They used to consult how the > > government should be conducted. > > > > Kirtanananda: They had a council of brahmanas. > > > > Prabhupada: Yes, council of brahmanas. Yes. The brahmanas, they are not > > politicians, but they would give from sastra direction, "You are a king. > > You do like this." > > > > Kirtanananda: There were instances when the king wouldn't follow the > > brahmanas, so they were thrown out, weren't they? > > > > Prabhupada: Yes. There were such instances also. Just like prthu Maharaj. > > His father was dethroned. I think same thing was in England also... > > > > All glories to Srila Prabhupada! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.