A paper presented at the Conference '30
Jahre ISKCON Deutschland', Köln, Germany, 29 January 1999.
Ravindra Svarupa Dasa (Dr William H. Deadwyler, III), an early
disciple of Srila Prabhupada, here looks at one of Prabhupada's
more controversial directives; the need to establish varnasrama-dharma
(the organisation of society according to the quality and work of
the members of the society). He looks at the internal logic of the
varnasrama system and then describes some of the understandings
of that system which have arisen in ISKCON. The question of how
to establish varnasrama-dharma in a modern context has been the
source of a longstanding debate within ISKCON, and in this paper
Ravindra Svarupa contributes to the debate with his analysis of
the situation. This analysis focuses on the need to encourage
a brahminical (intellectual) class within society - a brain for
the social body.
On the eleventh of July, 1966, in New York, Srila Prabhupada
incorporated the International Society for Krishna Consciousness.
By then, Prabhupada had already discovered an audience for his exposition
of Srimad Bhagavatam, an expositon he characterised as 'a
cultural presentation for the respiritualisation of the entire human
society' (Bhag. Canto 1, Preface). In a further step toward
the culture of 'respiritualisation', he established ISKCON. ISKCON
was to be an exemplary society, within which the culture of Srimad-Bhagavatam
would be realised and by which it would be spread to the rest of
the world.
While that much has always been bedrock truth to ISKCON's
members, it is a fact that over ISKCON's thirty-three years, their
ideas of what exactly ISKCON is, in terms of its internal articulation,
and of how it should relate itself to the surrounding society have
been fluid. The ideas of its members have undergone changes. It
seems that even Prabhupada's ideas changed.
The reason for this unsettled state has to do with the
accommodations that theory must make to reality. This is recognised
in Prabhupada's own tradition by the maxim that even Absolute Truth
must be fine-tuned to the relativities of desa-kala-patra -
'the circumstantial environments of place, object and time' (Bhag.1.6.26-30,
purport). The often hard-won expertise in doing this is what we
call 'wisdom' (in Sanskrit, vijnana). In the application
of principle to practice we frequently must have recourse to the
method of 'trial-and-error.' 'You learn from experience,' Prabhupada
is often quoted as saying. 'And experience means you make mistakes.'
I hope to acquaint the reader with part of the history
of our experience, of our mistakes. I hope you will also find exhibited
herein the beginnings of a little hard-won wisdom. I also hope you
will get a fair idea of some of the difficulties we are confronting.
To understand these matters, one needs to become acquainted
with two contrasting social ideals, or models, transmitted to us
by Srila Prabhupada. The first is that of a society of Vaisnavas,
of transcendental, liberated devotees who conduct themselves spontaneously
in accord with the principles called sanatana-dharma. The
second is that of a society of materially conditioned human beings
who strictly conduct themselves in obedience to the injunctions
of the Vedas under the system called varnasrama-dharma.
To understand both systems, we need to be clear about
what is meant when we say that someone is bound or conditioned,
on the one hand, and liberated or transcendental, on the other.
This is presented clearly in the Bhagavad-gita (the entire
fourteenth chapter is devoted to this exposition). To be a bound
or conditioned soul means to be bound or conditioned by the three
gunas, or 'modes' of material nature; they are termed sattva-guna,
the mode of goodness, or purity; rajo-guna, the mode
of passion; and tamo-guna, the mode of ignorance, or darkness.
The three modes are most readily recognisable in the
tripartite cycle of nature: We see that things come into being,
they endure for a while, and then they undergo destruction. Then
the products of destruction furnish the raw material for a new phase
of creation as the cycle begins again. In the Vedic understanding,
these three phases exemplify fundamental categories for understanding
the material world. When things are being created, nature is said
to be acting in the mode of passion, rajo-guna. When things
are being maintained, nature is acting in the mode of goodness,
sattva-guna. And when things are undergoing destruction,
nature is acting in the mode of ignorance, tamo-guna.
According to the Bhagavad-gita, these same modes
also function to determine, or condition, the human personality.
Thus we have a three-fold psychological typology. The mode of goodness
is manifest by an attitude that is detached, dispassionate and interested
in knowledge for its own sake. The mode of passion is evident in
the hankering and longings that impel strenuous efforts to obtain
objects of desire. The mode of ignorance is manifest in apathy,
indifference, obliviousness and bewilderment. When, for example,
consciousness is conditioned by sattva-guna, it will be alert
and attentive (toward nearly any subject presented) and, at the
same time, detached and disinterested. Consciousness conditioned
by rajo-guna is excited and narrowly focused upon the object
of desire. Consciousness conditioned by tamo-guna is unaware,
inattentive, easily distracted and disposed toward chronic misperception.
I suspect that most of us can recognise these three
psychological states from our own experience. We have probably spent
some time in each of the modes. All three modes are present in each
person, and among them there is always 'a competition for supremacy,'
as the Bhagavad-gita (14.10) says. Nevertheless, there is
a tendency for a particular mode or combination of modes to predominate
in a given individual, conducting him in its own programmatic manner
to its characteristic end. Thus, the Bhagavad-gita says that
the mode of goodness conditions a person to happiness or satisfaction,
and it results in knowledge. The mode of passion conditions one
to selfishly motivated activity, and it results in misery (because
passionate desires never cease multiplying and goading us into action,
never producing satisfaction). The mode of ignorance binds one to
delusion, and it results in systematic delusion or madness.
Prabhupada characterised the three 'pure types' of the
modes like this: 'One is happy, another is very active, and another
is helpless' (Bg. 14.6, purport).
We have all encountered various organised structures
of thought - whether cultural, philosophical, religious, scientific
or ideological - which present systems of abstract categories by
means of which we can apprehend and understand the world. When we
school ourselves in such a system - often trying to get inside of
it by the method of sympathetic projection or Hineinfühlung
- we sometimes find that the system illuminates or makes intelligible
certain areas of experience that we had not before particularly
noticed or considered relevant. If we then apply that system to
our practical endeavours and find ourselves newly enabled to deal
with the world in a manner that seems consistently fruitful and
productive, we award the system that highest of accolades, we call
it truth.
Thus it was for me - and many devotees - with the Bhagavad-gita,
as Prabhupada presented it. I looked at society - and at myself
- through the lenses of the Bhagavad-gita, and once the gunas
had been pointed out, I could see them plainly. While these
categories might not be fruitful to the endeavours of an atomic
scientist or an agronomist, say, they were indeed germane to the
goal of most who were attracted to ISKCON: We were seeking liberation,
transcendence. And transcendence meant, concretely, to transcend
the modes of material nature. This was possible, Prabhupada said,
for anyone:
... if one wants, he can develop, by practice, the mode of goodness
and thus defeat the modes of ignorance and passion ... . Although
there are these three modes of material nature, if one is determined
he can be blessed by the mode of goodness, and by transcending
the mode of goodness he can be situated in pure goodness, which
is called the vasudeva state, a state in which one can
understand the science of God.
The initial result of the proper culture of Krsna consciousness
should be the disappearance in the practitioner of the symptoms
of the modes of ignorance and passion. Lust, greed, anger, and the
like should vanish from the heart. In this way, one becomes established
in the mode of goodness. The mode of goodness is the existential
condition necessary for a person to be able to understand and experience
spiritual reality. Thus the mode of goodness is the material platform,
the launching pad, as it were, from which one can make the final
voyage into transcendence, where there is neither creation nor destruction,
but everlasting existence, or, in other words, pure, unalloyed sattva.
In this way, the theory of the modes provided devotees a road map
of the material world, with the way out clearly marked.
The theory of the modes also provided the basis for
another set of categories, that of the four varnas. Just
as the human body is equipped by nature with head, arms, belly,
and legs, so the social body is constituted by the four occupational
groups: the brahmanas, who comprise the thinkers and teachers
(head); the ksatriyas - the governors and protectors (arms);
the vaisyas - the producers and traders (belly); and the
sudras - the workers and general assistants (legs). Every
society requires the specific contribution of these specialists
in thinking, governing, producing and working. Krsna states in the
Bhagavad-gita (4.13) that this ordering is generated by God,
in such a way that each person is naturally disposed toward a particular
category by virtue of guna (the controlling mode of nature)
and karma (specialised activity and means of livelihood).
The system in which guna and karma thus
determine varna is called daiva-varnasrama-dharma,
the divinely established system. Prabhupada explicitly contrasts
this godly system with the standard Hindu caste system, in which
birth is the sole determinant of membership; Prabhupada calls that
asura-varnasrama-dharma, or the diabolically created system
(see, e.g., the purport to Cc. Madhya 3.6). Prabhupada and
his predecessor teachers condemned this hereditary system as a corruption
of the authentic system, viewing it as the major source of social
injustice and turmoil in India. In several lectures Prabhupada even
traces the cause of the partitioning of India back to the injustices
spawned by the degraded principle of 'hereditary brahmanism' (see,
e.g., lecture on Bhag. 1.2.2: Rome, 26 May 1974).
A brahmana must factually be in the mode of goodness,
for varna is determined by guna. A good way to think
of the system is to imagine the gunas distributed along
a continuum, with goodness at one end, ignorance at the other, and
passion in the middle. At a somewhat arbitrary line when goodness
becomes sufficiently mixed with passion the demarcation between
brahmana and ksatriya occurs. Similarly, when passion
becomes sufficiently mixed with ignorance, there is a demarcation
between ksatriya and vaisya. When ignorance sufficiently
predominates over passion there is a division between vaisya
and sudra. The individuals situated in the boundary regions
could, in principle, be occupationally engaged on one side or the
other, according to variables such as education, training or aptitude.
The categories of the gunas and of the varnas
are important in understanding what Prabhupada conceived as a primary
social mission of ISKCON. Once in the early 1970s I was present
when the press interviewed Prabhupada after his arrival at a New
York airport. A reporter asked, 'Why have you come to the West?'
'I have come', Prabhupada replied, 'to give you a brain. Your society',
he continued, 'is headless.' Using the analogy of the human body,
he explained the articulation of human society into four varnas.
He then asserted that modern Western society was malformed. 'There
are a few vaisyas and everyone else is sudra.' In
other words, those now engaged in research and education, in government
and defence, are, knowingly or unknowingly, in the employ of a handful
of vaisyas. (Prabhupada's perception is perhaps supported
by the report that in America, five percent of the families now
control ninety percent of the wealth.) There are no proper brahmanas
or ksatriyas.
Prabhupada's intention was to re-create a class of genuine
brahmanas. This would help rectify the deformities of modern
society and ameliorate the spiritual, psychological, social, political
and ecological problems spawned by a hypertrophy of economic development
and other outgrowths of unrestrained rajo-guna. Prabhupada
notes: 'Modern civilization is considered to be advanced in the
standard of the mode of passion. Formerly, the advanced condition
was considered to be in the mode of goodness' (Bg. 14.7,
purport). Genuine brahmanas, he hoped, would help reset
the priorities of advanced civilisation.
Yet Prabhupada's mission of creating brahmanas
was in a sense derivative, a kind of automatic by-product of the
primary mission of producing Vaisnavas. The word vaisnava in
the strictest sense denotes a pure devotee of God, one who is accordingly
transcendental to all the modes of nature. Brahmanas, however,
are conditioned by the mode of goodness, and Prabhupada wanted to
produce liberated souls. Such liberated Vaisnavas are more advanced
than even brahmanas. Nevertheless, in society his Vaisnavas
would function primarily as brahmanas.
It should be recognised that historically speaking the
Vaisnava traditions in India have all propagated a socially
and spiritually radical teaching. Vaisnavism fostered the spiritual
enfranchisement of previously disenfranchised groups, and, in so
doing, undercut the spiritual (and social) prerogatives of the hereditary
brahminical caste. Hence in the Bhagavad-gita (9.32) Krsna
cites groups traditionally considered unqualified for spiritual
advancement - he mentions women, vaisyas and sudras
- and says that by practising devotion to Him they can 'attain the
supreme destination.' In the Bhagavatam (3.33.6) it is stated
that even an outcaste (svadah - a dog-eater), if engaging
in devotional practices, becomes immediately qualified to perform
Vedic sacrifice (traditionally, of course, the monopoly of brahmana
males).
Such statements reflect the conviction that bhakti-yoga,
devotional service to Krsna, is so spiritually powerful that
it can quickly uplift even the most morally and spiritually debased
people. Thus facilitated, one does not need to spend many lifetimes
transmigrating up the caste hierarchy to reach the brahminical platform.
Bhakti-yoga can take sudras, and those even less qualified,
and transform them into Vaisnavas and brahmanas. Prabhupada's
own Bengali Vaisnava tradition, as reformed by Caitanya at the beginning
of the sixteenth century, paid great respect to this spiritual egalitarianism.
So schooled, Prabhupada came to try out this principle in the West
- in the United States in the 1960s. It was, of necessity, a kind
of experiment.
Prabhupada discovered, rather to his surprise, that
the main audience for his teachings tended to be drawn from the
counterculture, and Prabhupada was not impressed by the counterculture.
He described hippies in various places as 'morose' (Bhag.
4.25.11, purport), 'distressed', 'wretched', 'unclean', 'without
shelter or food' (Bhag. 4.25.5, purport), 'irresponsible
and unregulated' (Bhag. 5.6.10, purport) 'lying idle, without
any production' (Bg. lecture, 1976), and so on. We should
recognise this as a precise catalogue of the characteristics of
tamo-guna, the mode of ignorance. When, in 1971, Prabhupada
remarked to Kenneth Keating, the then American ambassador to India,
that his service to America was 'turning hippies into happies' (Letter
to Damodara: 3 December, 1971), Prabhupada was, in a witticism,
stating that he was taking people in the mode of ignorance and elevating
them to the mode of goodness.
Early after his arrival in America, Prabhupada wrote
of his mission in these terms:
Though a person be even the most sinful man, he can at once be
purified by sys-tematic contact with a pure Vaisnava.
A Vaisnava, therefore, can accept a bona fide disciple from any
part of the world without any consideration of caste and creed
and promote him by regulative principles to the status of a pure
Vaisnava who is transcendental to brahminical culture. The system
of caste, or varnasrama-dharma, is no longer regular even
amongst the so-called followers of the system. Nor is it now possible
to re-establish the institutional function in the present context
of social, political and economic revolution. Without any reference
to the particular custom of a country, one can be accepted to
the Vaisnava cult spiritually, and there is no hindrance in the
transcendental process.
Here, Prabhupada expresses his doubts about the feasibility
of a varnasrama system. Yet even without it, he thought he
could produce Vaisnavas who could perform the brahminical function
of spiritual guide to the people. He makes the same points emphatically
in an early Bhagavad-gita lecture:
So at the present moment, there is no possibility
of persons following the principles of varnasrama-dharma,
either here or anywhere ... . Therefore this is the panacea, to
engage everyone in Krsna consciousness, chanting Hare
Krsna. He comes above the highest principle of brahmanism. This
is the greatest gift to the humanity, that even [if] he is in
... the most degraded position, he can be raised to the highest
position simply by chanting. This is the only remedy. Now you
cannot again introduce this system of varnasrama. It is
not possible. But if one takes to Krsna consciousness, automatically
he becomes immediately a brahmana and above the brahmanas.
A Vaisnava is above the brahmanas.
(Lecture on Bg. 3.18-30: Los
Angeles, 30 December 1968)
It is also clear that by 1974, Prabhupada had changed
his mind about instituting the varnasrama-system. One major
reason for his doing so is clearly disclosed in this 1977 conversation
concerning a sannyasi who had fallen down from his celibacy
vows:
Prabhupada: Just like our [name withheld].
He was not fit for sannyasa but he was given sannyasa.
And five women he was attached, and he disclosed. Therefore varnasrama-dharma
is required. Simply show-bottle will not do. So the varnas-rama-dharma
should be introduced all over the world, and -
Satsvarupa: Introduced starting with ISKCON
community?
Prabhupada: Yes. Yes. Brahmanas,
ksatriyas. There must be regular education.
Hari-sauri: But in our community, if ... we're
training up as Vaisnavas ...
Prabhupada: Yes.
Hari-sauri: ... Then how will we be able
to make divisions in our society?
Prabhupada: Vaisnava is not so easy. The
varnasrama-dharma should be established to become a Vaisnava.
It is not so easy to become Vaisnava.
Hari-sauri: No, it's not a cheap thing.
Prabhupada: Yes. Therefore this should be made.
Vaisnava, to become Vaisnava, is not so easy. If Vaisnava, to
become Vaisnava is so easy, why so many fall down? It is not easy.
And later in the same conversation:
Hari-sauri: Where will we introduce the varnasrama
system, then?
Prabhupada: In our society, amongst our members.
Hari-sauri: But then if everybody's being raised
to the brahminical platform...
Prabhupada: Not everybody. Why you are misunderstanding?
Varnasrama, not everybody brahmana.
Hari-sauri: No, but in our society practically
everyone is being raised to that platform. So then one might ask
what is ...
Prabhupada: That is - Everybody is being raised,
but they're falling down.
(Room Conversation: Mayapura, 14 February
1977)
It had become clear to Prabhupada, after some years
of experience in the West, that the elevation of his followers to
the brahminical platform of goodness, what to speak of the Vaisnava
transcendental platform, was not going to happen universally or
swiftly. His earliest hopes were unfulfilled.
Since the time Prabhupada began speaking extensively
about implementing varnasrama dharma, there has been much
discussion in ISCKON on the way to go about it. I can report that
there is still little, if any, consensus. In 1981 one leader, convinced
that 'after ten years of rigorous thought' he had it figured out,
published what he considered an authoritative 215-page book to persuade
'the intelligent leaders and thinkers of modern society' to embrace
the varnasrama revolution. The Varnasrama Manifesto for
Social Sanity by Harikesa Swami is, I find, spectacularly unpersuasive,
and I can best characterise it by borrowing Alan Greenspan's phrase
'irrational exuberance.' This now famous expression was used by
the American Federal Reserve Chairman to describe market investors
in the grip of a foolish and dangerous over-confidence. The phrase
aptly fits this so-called Manifesto. It should be noted that
the work was so controversial within ISKCON that ISKCON's Governing
Body Commission - of which Harikesa Swami was a member - passed
a resolution in 1982 disowning the work, stating that it 'represents
the realisation of the author and does not represent the official
view or policies of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness.'
And in 1996, the author himself issued an apologetic statement that
concluded, 'I have grown and matured in my conceptions and also
become more realistic and less idealistic in my viewpoint. Therefore
even I do not stand anymore behind some of the concepts mentioned
in the book and I feel sorry that I wrote some of the things that
I wrote.'
I also have my own views on the application of varnasrama-dharma,
for I too have thought about the subject, but I assure you, that
whatever I speak or write will not go uncontested by someone else
in ISKCON.
Nevertheless, I will venture here to propose the
major reasons why ISKCON is hav-
ing such a difficult time coming to grips with this matter. The
first and foremost is that ISKCON - I put it starkly - has no brain.
Or, at least the brain it has is underdeveloped.
You will recall that Prabhupada originally
thought that ISKCON would perform the brahminical function for the
rest of society - 'I have come to give you a brain.' Prabhupada
based this effort on books. By books he could transmit the Vedic
heritage, and through books he could instruct and train large numbers
of followers, who, by studying his writings systematically and practising
their teachings, could advance to the mode of goodness and beyond.
At the same time, by having those same followers distribute the
books to others, Prabhupada would engage them in preaching to the
general public. Book distribution is one type of sankirtana,
congregational glorification of God, and sankirtana is described
in scripture as the particular form of sacrifice authorised for
this age. Moreover, devotees would be able to maintain themselves
and their activities by donations received through book distribution.
In this way, ISKCON members would perform the six engagements enjoined
upon a brahmana: yajana, yajana, pathana, pathana, dana
and pratigraha. A brahmana performs sacrifice
and engages others in sacrifice, studies the Vedas and teaches the
Vedas, gives in charity and receives in charity.
We have already noted Prabhupada's disappointment when
many devotees turned out to have great difficulty in steadily following
the strict principles of Krsna consciousness. Another related difficulty,
was also noted by Prabhupada. For example, this exchange took place
during a 1972 lecture:
Prabhupada: Similarly, the GBC member means
they will see that in every temple these books are very thoroughly
being read and discussed and understood and applied in practical
life. That is wanted, not to see the vouchers only, 'How many
books you have sold, and how many books are in the stock?' That
is secondary. ... Now, suppose you go to sell some book and if
somebody says, 'You have read this book? Can you explain this
verse?' then what you will say? You will say, 'No. It is for you.
It is not for me. I have to take money from you. That's all.'
Is that very nice answer?
Devotee: No, Srila Prabhupada.
Prabhupada: Then? 'We have written this book
for your reading, not for our reading. We are simply collect money.'
That's all.
(Lecture on Bhag. 2.9.2: Melbourne,
5 April 1972)
Prabhupada often brought up the point when a devotee
seemed ignorant of a verse:
Do you remember, any one of you, this verse from the
Bhagavad-gita? Eh? But you don't read. So I am writing
all these books simply for selling, not for reading. This is not
good. And if somebody asks you, 'You are so much eager to sell
your books. Do you read your books?' Then what you will say? 'No,
sir, we don't read. We sell only. Our Guru Maharaja writes, and
we sell.' That is not good business. You must read. Why I am writing
so many books?
(Lecture on Bhag. 1.16.24: Hawaii,
20 January 1974)
And, in an exchange in which Prabhupada implicitly links
karma and guna in his student:
Prabhupada: You do not read Bhagavad-gita,
you are publishing for selling. It will be read by others. We
are simply to make money? These [the qualities of a brahmana]
are in the Bhagavad-gita. Don't you read it?
Devotee: Yes, I read it. The qualities of a
brahmana is given, along with the qualities of all the
other varnas.
Prabhupada: We have [in ISKCON] - taking sacred
thread [who] has qualities less than sudra. Camaras,
cobblers. Camara means expert in skin. I am white, I am
black, I am this, I am that. That is camara . Expert in
skin.
(Morning Walk: Vrndavana, 16 March 1974)
I know from my own experience how sankirtana in
America tended to become less and less of a brahminical preaching
activity and more and more of a vaisya commercial activity,
with books eventually being replaced by secular paraphernalia. This
shift from preaching
to fund-raising after Srila Prabhupada's demise has been well documented
by E. Burke Rochford in Hare Krishna in America (New Brunswick:
Rutgers University Press, 1986). While the movement prospered financially,
it declined spiritually. Prabhupada's misgivings proved sound.
In 1987 ISKCON in America fortunately changed course.
The North American leaders resolved to stop all sales of secular
items by the temples and to return them to what was, in effect,
a brahminical mode of maintenance, depending mainly upon donations
from the congregation and working residents. All the temples in
North America quickly went broke. However, there has been since
then a slow but steady recovery, both spiritual and financial. Both
depend, in my view, on turning the temples into exemplary brahminical
institutions. The brief history I have recounted illustrates the
truth - and the prescience - of Prabhupada's perception.
Let me note another important indication of ISKCON's
failure to organise brahminical training. In 1976 Prabhupada ordered
a gradated system of examinations to be instituted in ISKCON. To
this day this order is unfulfilled.
From a letter Prabhupada had his secretary send out
to the GBC to convey his directions:
Re: Examinations for awarding titles of Bhakti-sastri,
Bhakti-vaibhava, Bhakti-vedanta and Bhakti-sarvabhauma.
... Srila Prabhupada has requested me to write you
in regard to the above examinations which he wishes to institute.
Here in India many persons often criticise our sannyasis
and brahmanas as being unqualified due to insufficient
knowledge of the scriptures. Factually, there are numerous instances
when our sannyasis and brahmanas have fallen down
often due to insufficient understanding of the philosophy. This
should not be a point of criticism nor a reason for falldown,
since Srila Prabhupada has mercifully made the most essential
scriptures available to us in his books. The problem is that not
all the devotees are carefully studying the books, the result
being a fall down or at least unsteadiness.
His Divine Grace therefore wishes to institute examinations
to be given to all prospective candidates for sannyasa and
brahmana initiation. In addition he wishes that all present
sannyasis and brahmanas also pass the examination.
Awarding of these titles will be based upon the following books:
Bhakti-sastri - Bhagavad-gita , Nectar of
Devotion, Nectar of Instruction, Isopanisad,
Easy Journey To Other Planets, and all other small paperbacks,
as well as Arcana-paddhati (a book to be compiled by Nitai
Prabhu based on Hari-bhakti-vilasa on Deity worship)
Bhakti-vaibhava - All of the above plus the first
six cantos of Srimad-Bhagavatam.
Bhakti-vedanta - All of the above
plus cantos seven through twelve of Srimad-Bhagavatam.
Bhakti-sarvabhauma - All the above plus the entire
Caitanya-caritamrta.
Anyone wishing to be initiated as a brahmana
will have to pass the Bhakti-sastri exam and anyone wishing to
take sannyasa will have to pass the Bhakti-vaibhava examination
as well. This will prevent our Society from degrading to the level
of so many other institutions where, in order to maintain the
Temple, they accept all third class men as brahmanas. Any
sannyasis or brahmanas already initiated who fail
to pass the exams will be considered low class or less qualified.
Anyone wishing to be second initiated will sit for examination
once a year at Mayapura. Answers will be in essay form and authoritative
quotations will be given a bigger score. During the exams books
may not be consulted.
Srila Prabhupada wishes to begin this program at this
year's Mayapura meeting. He requests that you all send your opinions
and comments here immediately so that everything may be prepared
in time.
Letter to 'All Governing Body Commissioners'
( Nellore, South India, 6 January 1976)
A Bhakti-sastri examination was held in Mayapura in
1977 (a year late), but after Prabhupada's demise later that same
year, the examinations soon disappeared. Only within in the last
five years or so have Bhakti-sastri courses and examinations been
regularised in some places in ISKCON. To this day neither curricula
nor examinations exist for the other three degrees.
Finally, let me briefly note a second major reason ISKCON
has had difficulty understanding and instituting varnasrama-dharma.
This is the fact that the system can neither be understood nor practised
within the material and conceptual framework of an industrial society.
Prabhupada taught that the modern industrial economy was artificial,
unnatural, and harmful to the human and non-human world. In one
way or another it would one day have to be sized-down and scaled
back. Humanity would have to develop a new economy, in which the
family would be restored as a unit of production and in which local
self-sufficiency - most importantly in the matter of food supply
- would become a major value. Therefore, from the very beginning
Prabhupada wanted ISKCON to establish self-sufficient, rural communities,
not only to construct the material basis necessary for varnasrama-dharma,
but also to provide working examples of an alternative when the
inevitable transition to a neo-agrarian economy began to impose
itself upon the industrialised world.
ISKCON has established a number of these rural communities
in advanced industrial countries. Many devotees have moved to them
to 'learn to live off the land' and practise 'plain living and high
thinking.' Yet over the course of time these projects have evolved
largely into suburban-style Hare Krsna communities. We still await
the self-sufficient agrarian community in practice. Although there
are social and economic reasons why this ideal has failed in practice,
I suspect a necessary condition for its future success will be the
contribution of genuine brahmanas, whose creation is still
ISKCON's unfulfilled mission.
My proposal, therefore, for establishing varnasrama-dharma
in ISKCON, and even in the society at large, is first of all
to take the first step and do everything needed to form a proper
community of brahmanas. According to Bhagavad-gita
(18.42), two of the traits evinced by brahmanas are jnana
and vijnana, that is, they have genuine knowledge of
the Absolute Truth and they posses the wisdom to apply that knowledge
appropriately. If this first step is taken, and ISKCON is thus given
a brain, then I am sure we shall be in a better position to know
where to go further.
I am happy to report that a movement is gaining strength
among the leaders to make ISKCON an organisation primarily dedicated
to education and training. If we continue in this way, I am sure
we will become eligible to receive Prabhupada's legacy and empowered
to convey it to the rest of humankind.
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