May 18, 2007

Yesterday at the meeting one devotee was commenting that on each level of
ISKCON management we find devotees blaming the persons on the level just
above them for their problems. That is if one is a cook in the temple for
example, one will blame the temple commander, if one is the temple commander
one will blame the vice president, the VP will blame the President, and the
president will blame the GBC or guru.

The standard way of dealing with this blaming situation (the one which
leaders use now) is to say this indicates that we need more training for
those in leadership positions-therefore they will do their service nicely
and there will not be a cause for those under them to feel dissatisfied.

Granted, training is needed for persons in responsible positions to perform
effectively. No one will argue with that.

My opinion (I almost wrote humble opinion and then I realized I was not
humble) is that this blaming others on all levels indicates more than just a
lack of training. It indicates a culture of disempowerment in which we are
looking to others in an overly dependent fashion. As I mentioned previously
Prabhupada wanted devotees to be independently thoughtful and resourceful.

Prabhupada would often talk about the Brahman Canakya:

“This is India’s heritage. Canakya Pandita was the greatest scholar and
politician. He was the prime minister of Maharaja Emperor Candragupta.
Chanakya Puri in New Delhi is named after Canakya Pandita. He was living in
a cottage, not accepting any salary. And as soon as Maharaja Candragupta
wanted some explanation for an instruction Canakya had given him, Canakya
resigned. Such detachment is the standard of persons born in India.”

A true Brahman should not be controlled by money, position, power, perks,
threats, rewards, blame, guilt, etc. He/she should be interested in the
absolute truth and spiritual advancement.

Srila Prabhupada presented Krishna consciousness in a pure, loving way. When
we become influenced by the modes of nature we present it either in a
passionate, ignorant or material mode of goodness way.

Passionate Krishna consciousness is described by Lord Kapila in the
Bhagavat: “The worship of Deities in the temple by a separatist, with a
motive for material enjoyment, fame and opulence, is devotion in the mode of
passion.”-SB3.29.9

Ignorant Krishna consciousness is described by Lord Kapila: “Devotional
service executed by a person who is envious, proud, violent and angry, and
who is a separatist, is considered to be in the mode of darkness.” SB 3.29.8

Material mode of goodness KC is described also by Lord Kapila: “When a
devotee worships the Supreme Personality of Godhead and offers the results
of his activities in order to free himself from the inebrieties of fruitive
activities, his devotion is in the mode of goodness.” SB3.29.10

Finally Transcendental KC is described by Lord Kapila: “The manifestation of
unadulterated devotional service is exhibited when one’s mind is at once
attracted to hearing the transcendental name and qualities of the Supreme
Personality of Godhead, who is residing in everyone’s heart. Just as the
water of the Ganges flows naturally down towards the ocean, such devotional
ecstasy, uninterrupted by any material condition, flows towards the Supreme
Lord.” SB3.29.11

So, the devotees of the Krishna consciousness movement should always be
guiding others towards transcendental devotional service. When we use guilt,
rewards, threats, punishments, etc we are encouraging devotional service in
the modes of material nature. Pure devotional service is just motivated by
love-service.

Sometimes our authority tells us unless we listen to them and follow them we
are going to hell. Apart from question of the veracity of that statement,
we should see that motivating people with the threat of hell automatically
puts people into the mode of ignorance or passion.

Other religious groups regularly do this. I can’t count how many times I
have been told that unless I surrendered to a particular religious group I
was going to hell. Of course I would always retort with something like:
“That’s wonderful. Then I can serve God and preach in Hell. People will be
very receptive there.” Usually after hearing this the person who was
attempting to scare me would go away. Thank God!!!

So, we have to be very careful to facilitate the voluntary spirit of love in
hearts of others.

Here is an interesting quote from Prabhupada about the voluntary spirit of
devotion and the duty of leaders to encourage it:

“So the future of this Krishna Consciousness movement is very bright, so
long the managers remain vigilant that 16 rounds are being chanted by
everyone without fail, that they are all rising before four morning,
attending mangal arati — our leaders shall be careful not to kill the
spirit of enthusiastic service, which is individual and spontaneous and
voluntary. They should try always to generate some atmosphere of fresh
challenge to the devotees, so that they will agree enthusiastically to rise
and meet it. That is the art of management: to draw out spontaneous loving
spirit of sacrificing some energy for Krishna. But where are so many expert
managers? All of us should become expert managers and preachers. We should
not be very much after comforts and become complacent or self-contented.
There must be always some tapasya, strictly observing the regulative
principles — Krishna Consciousness movement must be always a challenge, a
great achievement to be gained by voluntary desire to do it, and that will
keep it healthy. So you big managers now try to train up more and more some
competent preachers and managers like yourselves”. Letter to: Karandhara
— Bombay 22 December, 1972

So, how do we motivate others and even more important how do we motivate
ourselves?

With the spirit of volunteering to please Krishna and His reps. The
voluntary spirit is much more encouraging than the domination spirit.

Someone asked me how do we perform our activities joyfully, even those
activities that are not our favorite. My response is that we should always
think that we are choosing to do those activities, not that we *have* to do
them. Actually there is nothing that we *have* to do. We can choose in every
case.

Let us take our chanting for example. If we think we *have* to chant, the
chanting becomes a drudgery. When we think we choose to chant, the chanting
becomes much easier.

So internally we should be motivating ourselves with the *choose* word.

And with others we can encourage them by making requests rather than demands
of them.

For example, yesterday I was at the GBC meeting. We work as a team in those
meetings but sometimes we forget the magic words, please and thank you (that
my mother taught me)!

So, one devotee said to me “You have to do this.” My mind immediately
rebelled at the thought of doing what he was asking although the task was a
reasonable one. Still I did what he asked even though my mind was screaming
no, no no!

Had he said: “Would you be willing to do this, because we need …” I would
have jumped at the opportunity.

Also, I can count the number of times on my fingers that I have received a
thank you from others in our management meetings.

Please and thank you are our most important messages.