Even on the Royal Road

Regarding the noble adherence to one's prescribed duties, Bhagavad gita 3.34 purport by HDG A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada warns: "One has to follow those rules and regulations, unattached to them, because practice of sense gratification under regulations may also lead one to go astray- as much as there is always the chance of an accident, even on the royal roads. Although they may be very carefully maintained, no one can guarantee that there will be no danger even on the safest road."

The biggest danger is so much material happiness can result that it can give rise to false pride, which in turn usually leads to offenses and the risk of rebirth. And then there's the danger of complacency, as described in Bhagavad gita 14.6 and purport:

 "The living entities conditioned by material nature are of various types. One is happy, another is very active, and another is helpless. All these types of psychological manifestations are causes of the entities' conditioned status in nature. How they are differently conditioned is explained in ... Bhagavad-gītā. The mode of goodness is first considered. The effect of developing the mode of goodness in the material world is that one becomes wiser than those otherwise conditioned. A man in the mode of goodness is not so much affected by material miseries, and he has a sense of advancement...Actually, in the Vedic literature it is said that the mode of goodness means greater knowledge and a greater sense of happiness.

 "The difficulty here is that when a living entity is situated in the mode of goodness, he becomes conditioned to feel that he is advanced in knowledge and is better than others. In this way he becomes conditioned. The best examples are the scientist and philosopher: each is very proud of his knowledge, and because they generally improve their living conditions, they feel a sort of material happiness. This sense of advanced happiness in conditioned life makes them bound by the mode of goodness of material nature. As such, they are attracted toward working in the mode of goodness, and, as long as they have an attraction for working in that way, they have to take some type of body in the modes of nature. Thus there is no likelihood of liberation, or of being transferred to the spiritual world. Repeatedly, one may become a philosopher, a scientist, or a poet, and, repeatedly, become entangled in the same disadvantages of birth and death. But, due to the illusion of the material energy, one thinks that that sort of life is pleasant."

Repeatedly, for example, one may become a champion for Vedic dharma out of "familial, social and national affections" (Bg 15.5-6p) and miss out on absorption in Sri Sri Radha Krishna's divine pastimes in the all merciful land of Vrndavana.

In other words, if there is no sense of urgency to counteract the repetition of birth and death, we can safely guess we're in trouble. A very comfortable life may be every materialist's dream come true, but the reality is how Prahlad Maharja described in Srimad Bhagavatam 7.6.11-13:

"How can a person who is most affectionate to his family, the core of his heart being always filled with their pictures, give up their association? Specifically, a wife is always very kind and sympathetic and always pleases her husband in a solitary place. Who could give up the association of such a dear and affectionate wife? Small children talk in broken language, very pleasing to hear, and their affectionate father always thinks of their sweet words. How could he give up their association? One’s elderly parents and one’s sons and daughters are also very dear. A daughter is especially dear to her father, and while living at her husband’s house she is always in his mind. Who could give up that association? Aside from this, in household affairs there are many decorated items of household furniture, and there are also animals and servants. Who could give up such comforts? The attached householder is like a silkworm, which weaves a cocoon in which it becomes imprisoned, unable to get out. Simply for the satisfaction of two important senses—the genitals and the tongue—one is bound by material conditions. How can one escape?"

Another problem is that although we may follow our dharma most carefully, there's no guarantee for only good results. In the material world, a place of calamities and reactions for past sinful activities, we can expect that disasters must strike. Just look at what happened to King Nrga (SB 10.64) or King Anga (SB .13). Similarly, a wife and mother may have been most attentive performing her domestic duties, but some abuses or other misfortunes may have befallen her beloved children, or her good husband may have lost their life savings in the course of a bad business deal, or he may have drifted into the world of sense gratification once again.

Such adversity can be expected, but if a woman is fortunate to have followed her Krsna conscious sadhana very carefully in the mean time, she can then blessedly think about how so-called bad things can actually be very good because Krishna is all-good and only wants us to come back to Him. As the Supersoul within, He helps us see how these things happen for our purification from the bodily identity so much ingrained in us, so much so that we'll swear off even a farthing of a desire for material sense gratification. Queen Kunti aptly said to let the disasters strike because:

 "My Lord, Your Lordship can easily be approached, but only by those who are materially exhausted. One who is on the path of [material] progress, trying to improve himself with respectable parentage, great opulence, high education, and bodily beauty, cannot approach You with sincere feeling."
(Srimad Bhagavatam 1.8.26)

So hopefully, after all our hard work in the course of household life, we should become aware of Krishna's causeless mercy upon us, rather than surprised or lose faith when things don't go the way we expected them to. We should be able to look back and see how the bhakti yoga process of regular hearing and chanting about the all glorious Supreme Personality of Godhead Lord Sri Krishna has given us not only the ability to perform the austerities of following our varnasrama duties and the strength to transcend the resultant happiness and distress, but also we can feel, as Srila Prabhupada stated, "unattached" to those duties that once were our life path, forgetting them in lieu of more direct devotional service. Thus the cultivation of our spiritual practices will prove to be the utmost important insurance while traversing the road of human life.

                             

Prabhu and Vaishnavi, a Double Standard

ISKCON's Women's Ministry (now known as the Vaisnavi Ministry) says that all women in ISKCON should be addressed as"Prabhu" instead of "Mataji" (Mother). "Prabhu" means "Master", and is therefore an equivalent to calling a woman "Mister",  a title that over time has been derived from earlier forms of the title "Master". At the same time, please note how the female "Prabhu" advocates like being called "Vaisnavi". Vasnavi is a feminine form of "Vaisnava".

But is this not a double standard? And what is wrong with being called "mother" in the first place?

Motherhood is a life changer. There are so many lessons to be had that a woman is no longer just a woman when she becomes a mother. And not only is nurturing children an important service, it appears to be a necessity for the quality of life for women.

Childless women, for example, often become teachers or nurses or at least adopt a pet to enable that nurturing sense to unfold. In women's magazines like Better Homes and Gardens they have huge, regular adverts referring to the pet being featured as one's child. Or a neighbor may be seen pushing her cat around in a stroller she bought at Petco.

In other words, it's a part of a woman's life difficult to get around, And there is mounting evidence how this need can result in physical and mental health problems if not addressed. Canakya pandita wrote that "a lack of sexual contact with her husband brings old age upon a woman". 

Sadly for many of us, such irreverence for motherhood has ruined being addressed as a "Vaisnavi". And the result has been confusion for many people. Or embarrassment. Such as when young men call an elderly mataji by her first name to avoid the titles altogether. But can you fault them for this?

In our Vaisnava culture we honor our spiritual fathers by addressing them as such. So why not our spiritual mothers, from whom we may learn the highest standards of sacrifice in devotion to Krsna?

"Never mind whether she is younger or older. It doesn't matter. Woman has to be addressed as 'Mother.'" - A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Bg 4.16 lecture, Bombay 4/5/74

Accommodation, the Threat to Gurukula Development

A strong division has been emerging in ISKCON between liberals and traditionalists, otherwise known as two ancient oppositions- the working class and the noble class. Working class in varnasrama are the sudras and sudranis. Nobles are the brahmanas and kstriyas and their women. And vaisyas and their wives are somewhere in between. Perhaps it was Krishna's plan all along, since the brahmana class especially is what Prabhupada worked so hard to produce, from which naturally the other classes will follow.

For the sudra class, the liberal mentality is naturally present.  ISKCON historian E. Burke Rochford calls them "accomodationists" in the article "The Future of ISKCON" . Because of sentiments based upon the disposable human body rather than the more important soul, they are the most accommodating and flexible. In a sense, this must be because they are needed to work within all sections of society in the service of all other classes and able to adapt to almost any situation, which also makes their services no less important to keep things moving in all areas of a society.

"Traditional" devotees, on the other hand, match more of the description of what a ksatriya and brahmana should be- upholding the highest examples of religious principles and fighting for them.  Rochford calls them "purists", and they are just as important if not more so, as long as they can recognize that not everyone may be able to follow their same strict standards immediately nor even in this lifetime. Traditionalists or nobles are meant to set the best examples, to lead while protecting religious principles and to see that everyone is engaged properly to reach the ultimate perfection.

Since time immemorial, sudra and vaisyas have been the most numerous; in every society they do all the hard work and providing, but they have always needed ksatriyas and brahmanas to look up to. Purity then, and such things like vow keeping, including the marriage vow, is an important criteria for recognizing the nobler classes. Srila Prabhupada desired to reinstate the nobler classes to lead people, and Lord Krishna speaks Bhagavad gita especially to them.

Rochford continued: "You know, taken within the context of earlier Vedic tradition, this could all be seen as the unfolding of the varnashrama system. Initially, Prabhupada wanted to create brahmanas, an intellectual class, to guide society and, clearly, a lot of the early devotees did see themselves in this way, even if many of them lacked the necessary qualifications. Then, again, many were qualified, and have shown it over the years. The point I want to make, though, is that this was a natural place for Prabhupada to start: his first and foremost concern was to create a society that had God in the centre. This necessitated the making of brahmanas - people who see spirituality as the most prominent part of their lives. In Prabhupada's wisdom, he emphasised this as the paramount thing, knowing that once he had a class of brahmanas the movement would be established on a strong foundation, and the other classes would grow out of that....

Otherwise, Rochford continued, "if devotees assimilate too well they will, in a sense, minimize the urgency of establishing the varnashrama system. There will be virtually no need for it, at least as a formal institution. If devotees take advantage of the already existing infrastructure of the material world, in terms of work etc., they will not find the need to establish modes of employment within the confines of the movement, which will remain a small, economically inefficient society. So that's one potential problem. Related to this is the problem of gurukula. If devotees make use of outside schools, they will never feel the urgency to develop the gurukula system."

Now, in Kali yuga everything is topsy turvy because not much reformation of character is going on in the form of gurukula training. Instead, most people are trained to be sudras via non devotee schools. Unfortunately, in ISKCON today, western education and culture is all the rage. Even in Mayapur, one of the few and most important institutions, the Mayapur gurukula, which actually has male teachers and actually cares about training good men, men who will see women as servants of God rather than objects for their senses, is being overshadowed by the western accommodating institution, the Mayapur International School. And until this changes, putting gurukula as priority, our society will become more and more mainstream, feminized and useless.

The problem is that sudra have much power in numbers and,  for positions of leadership in a democracy, the tendency is to appoint the same- leaders who appeal to their senses rather than doing what sastra says, to establish gurukula training.

The solution? Let the "traditional devotees", who by nature not only value such training but also most easily can follow and be examples of, be recognized to take the seats of ministering and managing ISKCON!