HH BVPS Mahārāja: Yes. Well, Kṛṣṇa has given His system. Since it is Him, He is one, He is non-dual, so everything is connected with Him. He is pervading everything, everything is Him, it all works on Kṛṣṇa’s laws. Therefore, appreciating that it’s all Kṛṣṇa’s, all Kṛṣṇa’s laws and that we are servant, we try to please Kṛṣṇa, then we can make things start to function. So then, okay, so how do we know Kṛṣṇa? We know Kṛṣṇa through the vaiṣṇavas. Okay, and then which vaiṣṇavas? Then we see, we know Kṛṣṇa through serving as Lord Caitanya gives direction. How do we know of Lord Caitanya? Because that’s what Rūpa Gosvāmī says and the Six Gosvāmīs. And then like this it comes down paraṁparā. So all this direction and that is given to us, then that information is then put into a context by the Founder-Ācārya, so that we can understand how all this fits together and how all this can be used together to please Lord Caitanya and therefore Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa. So that is the first principle, is that has to work like that.
Then we have to see is that that being the whole point is to elevate ourselves from whatever position we are in up to the platform of developing pure love for Kṛṣṇa. Then we are going to see is that, ‘Okay, then, according to my position, what service can I do? What nature do I have that I can apply myself?’ And so then I am able to apply myself in a position according to my particular guṇa and karma. It’s not that I am that guṇa and karma, that’s what’s given by the material energy due to our previous works. But that, through that I can serve Kṛṣṇa. Because the point is is, being personal you have to serve Kṛṣṇa through your body, mind and words that you have. So if I only have the material body, mind and words, I use those in Kṛṣṇa’s service. If you have a spiritual body that you are able to function within, then you engage that nicely in Kṛṣṇa’s service in your meditation on Kṛṣṇa. But if you are taking part in the saṅkīrtana movement then you will use the form that you have here in the same way.
So you have to be able to appreciate that everybody has something different. There are those that see how the whole thing works, and that they see that this is how one should be involved in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and can inspire others in that way. So those are your preachers. And, as mentioned, the GBC are supposed to be functioning on that level like the sannyāsīs, like the preachers. And then you are going to have then those who are taking up particular projects within the movement, that therefore will attain to engaging themselves and others in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. And then within that project you have so many subdivisions. Then there is persons who are qualified to run a particular subdivision, and then they engage themselves in that particular subdivision. And so, there is a natural hierarchy. So that’s the whole point, that is the uniqueness of the Vedic system, is that they show how things actually work. Like you are saying it works, all these levels, because the people who are there is, like, say, professors and retired, let’s say, administrators or military or corporate leaders, all these, they are only giving advice. But they know how the whole thing holds together and how everyone cooperates. Then those who actually have offices, then they do those, and then where the particular individual, there is the top office and then there is offices below that. If you have the general then below that you have the other offices, below that you have your sergeants and below that you have your privates. So you have to know where you fit, and knowing that then everything works very nicely. The difficulty is, is when we say, ‘Oh, we are not this body, we just chant, so we don’t care about the rules,’ and at the same time we want a hierarchical structure – those two won’t work together. You have to be able to know what you can do. Otherwise, you have a hierarchy that’s filled with people that are not qualified to be in those positions. And, as we see, it is very specialized. Any living entity can understand the philosophy of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, so, therefore, technically, anybody who is mature enough in Kṛṣṇa consciousness can be a preacher.
Start my video… Okay. It is started that I know… Yeah? Okay.
So, therefore then anybody can preach. Anybody could come… Anybody can act on that platform of sannyāsa, where whatever you are doing is simply to please Kṛṣṇa, not for yourself. So that means, anybody can function actually on that topmost platform. Now, it takes particular material qualifications if you can be an administrator or a department head, or what kind of administration you are doing. Like somebody works great in the temple, someone on a farm, someone in the community, someone on traveling saṅkīrtana party, someone working with the BBT, someone working… Like this. So all these different, different things are there. And so, Prabhupāda, when he gave the Seven Purposes, it already encompasses all these various areas. Like that. And so, then we simply have to see according to our nature where we fit. Prabhupāda is constantly talking about that. It is not that we identify with it. I don’t say, ‘I am a temple president, so that’s my position,’ no. It’s that ‘I do the service of a temple president. I have the nature, so, therefore, I do it. That is my service to Kṛṣṇa.’ If you had him do something else, that wouldn’t be… It wouldn’t work, right? Unless he does something higher, it means, transcendental, he just does preaching or like that. That you can do. You can step from the material platform into the transcendental. But you can’t then claim that therefore anybody can do any material position. Otherwise, the dwarf always wants to touch the moon, right? And as we know, only cows can jump over the moon. So, therefore, we have to know, one has to know one’s particular qualification on that line.
So, that’s the whole point, is those 5,000 people there, they were most likely people that were the most successful in their areas and they came together. And that being successful in the area – that is the commonness between them all, even though the areas they are effective in is different. But they all understand success by knowing who you are, following your abilities in the position that you do, in that hierarchy, and there has to be an ultimate goal. And so then that way then tens, hundreds, thousands can all get together and have no problem. But if we are contaminated by these ideas that, ‘Oh, no, but it’s whatever someone feels like doing and whatever they want,’ then the whole thing falls apart. Why? Because anna-maya platform will not make anything other than your personal benefit work. You have to minimum come to prāṇa-maya to kind-of start to make it work. But then how do you define what are the social and economic rules, unless you have dharma, which Kṛṣṇa gave? Kṛṣṇa gives dharma, we don’t. We didn’t make economics. We didn’t make families and communities. Kṛṣṇa made that. So then we have to follow what Kṛṣṇa has given – that’s the dharma. But for what? Because we are devotees. So, we are not the body, therefore the dharma-artha-kāma, we follow that according to our particular nature on the platform of ‘I am the devotee, I am the soul, I am a sādhaka, I am practicing sādhana-bhakti.’ And what is the ultimate goal? Is not dharma, artha, kāma or mokṣa, but is pure love for Kṛṣṇa. In other words, situated on the platform of vijñāna-maya I use the lower three platforms in service with that intelligence or the consciousness of that fourth platform, for the purpose of pleasing Kṛṣṇa on the fifth platform. And that’s how devotees can make it all work. Means, devotees already have this, they have heard these points. They may not have put them together nicely in a structured way, that they understand how they practically work both spiritually and materially. Because when we are talking about the strategic planning, it works for the individual’s life spiritually, it works for the individual life how they are maintaining themselves in the social, it works in their individual life how they function within the context of the institution. So it does everything. And the institution, how it functions in context of the strategy that’s there and working with the individuals, it has everything in it, it’s perfect, it’s a perfect system that is given by the ācāryas. So using anything less won’t work. That’s why Varṇāśrama holds the whole thing together. While if you use democracy, that only deals with anna-maya and prāṇa-maya, right? If you use capitalism, it only works within democracy just for the economic community. If you use some other, autocratic system, that works good for the government, but it doesn’t work for anybody else. If you use anarchy, it doesn’t work for anybody, as we said. If you use socialism, it is good for śūdras, but even they don’t work, it doesn’t work out very good because who makes the money? You want to provide for the śūdras, who makes the money, since there is no vaiśyas? So the whole thing is, you have to have all eight positions, all four social and all four spiritual, to make the system work, and you know where you fit. So if the karmīs can do that well, and they are not even using the full system, imagine how good it is if you use the full system! Then you have Rāma-rājya, then you have like Yudhiṣṭhira, right? Then you have like Lord Caitanya’s saṅkīrtana mission with all His great generals. You know, Rūpa and Sanātana Gosvāmī and Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya, and all these personalities, and how great it was working, and how it was nicely expanding. But you have to have everything there and you yourself, on an individual level understand how all these levels of consciousness work and how you are engaging them. Then that’s leadership. And if you don’t understand it, you follow someone who is engaged or does understand. Then it works and with time, as you become purified, you will understand because it is the nature of the soul to understand these things. It’s not necessarily the nature of the soul to understand management or economics, or art. But it is the soul’s nature to understand who they are, who Kṛṣṇa is in that relationship, that they can do. Yeah? Does that make sense?
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