{"id":132,"date":"2007-05-16T21:26:51","date_gmt":"2007-05-16T21:26:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/?p=132"},"modified":"2013-10-01T21:28:20","modified_gmt":"2013-10-01T21:28:20","slug":"desire-for-independence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/desire-for-independence\/","title":{"rendered":"Desire for Independence"},"content":{"rendered":"

May 16, 2007<\/span><\/p>\n

Yesterday I mentioned the desire for independence and that I still had this.
\nI think it is important that I clarify what I meant by independence. I was
\nnot indicating independence from Krishna. No one is independent from Krishna
\nand the thought that one is or can be is Maya.<\/span><\/p>\n

However as personalists we recognize that each and everyone of us is an
\nindependent person. That is we are not all one but eternal individuals that
\nare part and parcel of Krishna. Now that is our ontological position.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is interesting though how independence plays out both in the eternal rasa
\nsense and the context of Bhakti rendered in this world.<\/span><\/p>\n

We can not be forced or cajoled to render service to Krishna. It is a purely
\nvoluntary act of the heart that is the essential aspect of Bhakti.<\/span><\/p>\n

Too often in an institutional setting we lose this understanding of the
\nsoul’s free will and we try to push people into Krishna consciousness using
\nexpressions such as “you must”, “you have to”, “you are supposed to”, “don’t
\nbe in maya Prabhu”, “I am your authority and you have to listen to me”,
\n“shut up and act properly”, “if you don’t do this Krishna will punish you”,
\n“you are going to get a heavy reaction for this or for not doing this”,
\n“I’ll give you a the mahasweets if you do this”, “if you don’t do this, I
\nwill be very disappointed in you”, “you are causing me pain”, etc\u2026.<\/span><\/p>\n

These are manipulative techniques that actually separate the person from
\nreal bhakti, and may ultimately give someone a distaste for devotional
\nservice.<\/span><\/p>\n

Krishna says in the Gita (9:2):
\nThis knowledge is the king of education, the most secret of all secrets. It
\nis the purest knowledge, and because it gives direct perception of the self
\nby realization, it is the perfection of religion. It is everlasting, and it
\nis joyfully performed.<\/span><\/p>\n

For something to be done joyfully, it must be done voluntarily. The person
\nmust retain his sense of individuality and freedom of choice-his autonomy,
\nor else there is no love. There can be no love without a lover and a
\nbeloved, and when we function on the platform of blind obedience we do away
\nwith one of the two.<\/span><\/p>\n

I have found that as individuals we do have individual needs even in
\nspiritual life and even in the spiritual realm. The need for autonomy is one
\nof the needs that must be met both in the stage of devotional practice and
\ndevotional perfection.<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course our autonomy is never absolute, it is always relative. The only
\nperson who has absolute autonomy is Krishna (He is Svarat), and I am not
\neven sure about Him-He is controlled by Radharani!<\/span><\/p>\n

So, ISKCON has to be very careful of attempting to kill the voluntary
\nserving mood of the individual by imposing too much authority. Srila
\nPrabhupada was very very much against centralization.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here is an interesting quote from Srila Prabhupada in this regard:
\n=============================
\n“Regarding your points about taxation, corporate status, etc., I have heard
\nfrom Jayatirtha you want to make big plan for centralization of management,
\ntaxes, monies, corporate status, bookkeeping, credit, like that. I do not at
\nall approve of such plan. Do not centralize anything. Each temple must
\nremain independent and self-sufficient. That was my plan from the very
\nbeginning, why you are thinking otherwise? Once before you wanted to do
\nsomething centralizing with your GBC meeting, and if I did not interfere the
\nwhole thing would have been killed. Do not think in this way of big
\ncorporation, big credits, centralization — these are all nonsense
\nproposals. Only thing I wanted was that books printing and distribution
\nshould be centralized, therefore I appointed you and Bali Mardan to do it.
\nOtherwise, management, everything, should be done locally by local men.
\nAccounts must be kept, things must be in order and lawfully done, but that
\nshould be each temple’s concern, not yours. Krishna Consciousness Movement
\nis for training men to be independently thoughtful and competent in all
\ntypes of departments of knowledge and action, not for making bureaucracy.
\nOnce there is bureaucracy the whole thing will be spoiled. There must be
\nalways individual striving and work and responsibility, competitive spirit,
\nnot that one shall dominate and distribute benefits to the others and they
\ndo nothing but beg from you and you provide. No. Never mind there may be
\nbotheration to register each centre, take tax certificate each, become
\nseparate corporations in each state. That will train men how to do these
\nthings, and they shall develop reliability and responsibility, that is the
\npoint.”
\nLetter to: Karandhara — Bombay 22 December, 1972<\/span><\/p>\n

It is my firm belief that Srila Prabhupada not only wanted the temple
\npresidents to be autonomous but he wanted the same principles applied on an
\nindividual basis to the members;
\n======
\n“Krishna Consciousness Movement is for training men to be independently
\nthoughtful and competent in all types of departments of knowledge and
\naction, not for making bureaucracy. Once there is bureaucracy the whole
\nthing will be spoiled. There must be always individual striving and work and
\nresponsibility, competitive spirit, not that one shall dominate and
\ndistribute benefits to the others and they do nothing but beg from you and
\nyou provide.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, the business of the leaders is to facilitate the individual expressions
\nof Bhakti in the members and to guide people to Krishna’s lotus feet. By
\nguide I don’t mean push (by threats, guilt, etc), I mean pull by attraction.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

May 16, 2007 Yesterday I mentioned the desire for independence and that I still had this. I think it is important that I clarify what I meant by independence. I was not indicating independence from Krishna. No one is independent from Krishna and the thought that one is or can be is Maya. However as read more>><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[15,10,14],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":133,"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132\/revisions\/133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}