Krsna Capitalists

[Guest guest]

So, some thoughts from the Devil's Advocate.

 

He says he would like to be the first

farm-animal-protection millionaire this side of Kali

Yuga. Anything wrong with that?

 

It may not be pure devotional service, indeed he may

not even be following all the regulations of the Kama

Kanda, a fair bit more ignorance and passion there!

 

Yet, if it were to pass that millions of farm animals

were living under a business arrangement, where their

livelihood is assured for life, and the business

magnate were to accumulate large amounts of wealth

from exploiting this market, then what is wrong with

that?

 

Ultimately, what is wrong is that all the resources of

that person are not engaged in the complete devotion

of the Lord, it is tinged with material desires.

Yet, if this person were to say "in my lifetime I

could not worship God, dieties, sanyasis or devotees,

I could only think of this business, knowing that it

would please the Lord to care for His land, His

animals, His people, so I put my efforts to that, and

enjoyed some of the fruits that came of it."

Well, sounds like karma yoga to me with a bit of

devotion behind it.

 

The reason for this is that I find devotees on this

conference have a moral prejudice against profit. I do

not find that in Prabhupada.

He was prejudiced against profiting from the Lord, as

anything that was not fully engaged in the Lord's

service was seen as profiting for material means. Yet

profit for Krsna, he did a lot of that, how is it that

there are so many temples and farms in so few years -

from the accumulation of wealth derived by selling

people Krsna.

 

Now don't get upset because words, semantics and the

inability to convey meaning clearly can often fail in

what I want to convey.

 

If Krsna said to Arjuna on the battlefield of Wall

Street - "go thee and crush this present farming

system with the enlightened knowledge gained from the

Protection Farming System. By the accumulation of

capital one must expand into all lands until your

business plan becomes The Business Plan of the modern

age."

 

Now, obviously these are not his words, and

Prabhupada's words were "not with the intention of

profit - for self sufficiency, and if surplus then

trade and accumulate the wealth that comes."

 

But here there is a paradox - if vaisyas are meant to

increase the quantity of farm animals, especially

cows, and that doing this will inevitably lead to

surplus, inevitably leading to profit and the

accumulation of wealth, then does not working without

the intention of profit relate to the mentality behind

it.

 

If it is the vaisyas and ksyatrias duty to have wealth

to give in charity to the brahmanas, then it must be

the mentality behind wealth accumulation that

Prabhupada was talking about, as it would be

impossible for varnasrama to function without the

accumulation of wealth in the arms and belly.

 

And for those people who can not yet reach the

platform of lack of material (falseself-profit-based)

desires, does that mean non-action. I think not, I

have read not. It is said that person must act as well

performing the same duty, but understanding that as

ones desires are selfish (profiting over material

nature) then one must live in the laws of nature and

accept the responsiblity for the results from such

actions. Either way the duty is to protect farm

animals, and if there is no profit then there is loss.

Profit leads to a stable market, loss to bankruptcy

and slaughter of the animals (if not assured by other

means).

 

And how can self sufficiency (as commonly understood)

be good. Self sufficiency must be seen in the light of

interconnections with other centres of population, for

a truly isolated system can be instable due to natural

or man-made hazards. If a drought were to strike and

ones natural wealth of animals and crops were lost,

there must be physical wealth to aid in the process of

survival. Or social capital, from past interactions,

must be accumulated for people to come to help against

the drought or the barbarian hoardes.

 

At all times capital must be accumulated to assure the

sustainability of the system.

 

And how can one talk about profit when ones net assets

are less than ones net liabilities. If you have a

half-million dollar mortgage and owned-assets of

$100,000, with an annual profit of $50,000, what sort

of profit is this? There can be no real profit unless

assets are greater than liabilities. The financing

structures we live within only relate to profit from

revenue, which upon failing to pay the financial

instalments can lead to bankruptcy, therefore this is

not real profit.

 

 

So why not become True Capitalist for Krsna,

accumulate wealth - cows, land and people working in

working communities - villages, towns, small cities?

 

I put this forward as I find it dificult to try to

create a business plan with people on this conference

when the underlying business principle behind my work

is completely undermined by the devotees lack of

desire to make a profit from a very important

business. Breaking even and making a loss do not seem

to be beneficial for the cows nor devotees.

 

All arguments here are meant in the best of tastes and

to offend no-one, I would love to hear your responses.

 

 

Mark

 

 

 

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