Prabhu: If the junior is out there doing service, and by doing the service they get more realisation than the senior person administrating, who might just see money, the PR, stuff is moving around where it’s supposed to be... But then you got a problem because you have people who are so-called neophytes but they are getting great realisation and great taste and they see things in a different perspective. And you have people who are senior, maybe by age or by status, but their level of realisation might not necessarily be the same. And then you run into conflicts.
H.H. Bhaktividyā Pūrṇa Mahārāja: You run into conflicts in one sense, but not in another sense. Why you don’t run into conflicts is because that junior person, because of that realisation follows the etiquette and therefore socially there is no conflict.
Prabhu: As long as he feels taken care of and sheltered, and he can actually do his service.
HH BVPS Mahārāja: Even if he isn’t sheltered and taken care of properly, if he has realisation then he can act. If the shelter is not there then he can find a shelter where he can. If he doesn’t have that much realisation then he will be in the same boat as the other person, and then it is not that much of a problem. There will be social problem, but he doesn’t have a problem of applying his spiritual position because he doesn’t actually know it, he doesn’t have that realisation. In other words, if that realisation is there then he will be able to understand what to do, he will be able to behave properly and to make adjustments in his life to continue on that way. If he doesn’t, means that he may have something here and there, then that is nice but then also the senior man gets that point. The point is, if one follows one’s occupation, whatever it is, that is where you make your advancement. The main point is that if someone is a manager, he is only going to develop by managing. Like we see, Śrīla Prabhupāda, if someone was a manager and he had a problem in his life, as long as that problem was his own problem and it didn’t bother others, then the remedy is that he should continue as a manager, otherwise, how will he purify himself? Someone is a cook and that is what he can do for Krishna, so by saying, 'Oh, he is in Māyā and he shouldn’t cook,' that is not going to purify him. If he is in a state where he can understand that there is Māyā then he should purify himself, and the method to do that is through cooking. If he thinks that Māyā is great and perfect and all that, then you may decide that he shouldn’t cook because he himself feels that he is already well-situated. So there is this fine point there that the senior person is going to make advancement by that, if he has arranged that the junior person has done an activity and that junior person gets spiritual benefit from it, that senior person will also make advancement, so they nourish each other. That is why it is so important that the etiquette is there and the understanding of the culture, so that everybody is comfortable. It is a very unique process that all these different levels can all function at once despite each other.
From lecture on Śrī Īśopaniṣad, Bhaktivedānta Academy, Śrīdhāma Māyāpura
