{"id":135,"date":"2007-05-18T22:48:44","date_gmt":"2007-05-18T22:48:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/?p=135"},"modified":"2013-10-06T22:49:10","modified_gmt":"2013-10-06T22:49:10","slug":"blaming-others","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/blaming-others\/","title":{"rendered":"Blaming Others"},"content":{"rendered":"

May 18, 2007<\/span><\/p>\n

Yesterday at the meeting one devotee was commenting that on each level of
\nISKCON management we find devotees blaming the persons on the level just
\nabove them for their problems. That is if one is a cook in the temple for
\nexample, one will blame the temple commander, if one is the temple commander
\none will blame the vice president, the VP will blame the President, and the
\npresident will blame the GBC or guru.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Granted, training is needed for persons in responsible positions to perform
\neffectively. No one will argue with that.<\/span><\/p>\n

My opinion (I almost wrote humble opinion and then I realized I was not
\nhumble) is that this blaming others on all levels indicates more than just a
\nlack of training. It indicates a culture of disempowerment in which we are
\nlooking to others in an overly dependent fashion. As I mentioned previously
\nPrabhupada wanted devotees to be independently thoughtful and resourceful.<\/span><\/p>\n

Prabhupada would often talk about the Brahman Canakya:<\/span><\/p>\n

“This is India’s heritage. Canakya Pandita was the greatest scholar and
\npolitician. He was the prime minister of Maharaja Emperor Candragupta.
\nChanakya Puri in New Delhi is named after Canakya Pandita. He was living in
\na cottage, not accepting any salary. And as soon as Maharaja Candragupta
\nwanted some explanation for an instruction Canakya had given him, Canakya
\nresigned. Such detachment is the standard of persons born in India.”<\/span><\/p>\n

A true Brahman should not be controlled by money, position, power, perks,
\nthreats, rewards, blame, guilt, etc. He\/she should be interested in the
\nabsolute truth and spiritual advancement.<\/span><\/p>\n

Srila Prabhupada presented Krishna consciousness in a pure, loving way. When
\nwe become influenced by the modes of nature we present it either in a
\npassionate, ignorant or material mode of goodness way.<\/span><\/p>\n

Passionate Krishna consciousness is described by Lord Kapila in the
\nBhagavat: “The worship of Deities in the temple by a separatist, with a
\nmotive for material enjoyment, fame and opulence, is devotion in the mode of
\npassion.”-SB3.29.9<\/span><\/p>\n

Ignorant Krishna consciousness is described by Lord Kapila: “Devotional
\nservice executed by a person who is envious, proud, violent and angry, and
\nwho is a separatist, is considered to be in the mode of darkness.” SB 3.29.8<\/span><\/p>\n

Material mode of goodness KC is described also by Lord Kapila: “When a
\ndevotee worships the Supreme Personality of Godhead and offers the results
\nof his activities in order to free himself from the inebrieties of fruitive
\nactivities, his devotion is in the mode of goodness.” SB3.29.10<\/span><\/p>\n

Finally Transcendental KC is described by Lord Kapila: “The manifestation of
\nunadulterated devotional service is exhibited when one’s mind is at once
\nattracted to hearing the transcendental name and qualities of the Supreme
\nPersonality of Godhead, who is residing in everyone’s heart. Just as the
\nwater of the Ganges flows naturally down towards the ocean, such devotional
\necstasy, uninterrupted by any material condition, flows towards the Supreme
\nLord.” SB3.29.11<\/span><\/p>\n

So, the devotees of the Krishna consciousness movement should always be
\nguiding others towards transcendental devotional service. When we use guilt,
\nrewards, threats, punishments, etc we are encouraging devotional service in
\nthe modes of material nature. Pure devotional service is just motivated by
\nlove-service.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sometimes our authority tells us unless we listen to them and follow them we
\nare going to hell. Apart from question of the veracity of that statement,
\nwe should see that motivating people with the threat of hell automatically
\nputs people into the mode of ignorance or passion.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

So, we have to be very careful to facilitate the voluntary spirit of love in
\nhearts of others.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here is an interesting quote from Prabhupada about the voluntary spirit of
\ndevotion and the duty of leaders to encourage it:<\/span><\/p>\n

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

So, how do we motivate others and even more important how do we motivate
\nourselves?<\/span><\/p>\n

With the spirit of volunteering to please Krishna and His reps. The
\nvoluntary spirit is much more encouraging than the domination spirit.<\/span><\/p>\n

Someone asked me how do we perform our activities joyfully, even those
\nactivities that are not our favorite. My response is that we should always
\nthink that we are choosing to do those activities, not that we *have* to do
\nthem. Actually there is nothing that we *have* to do. We can choose in every
\ncase.<\/span><\/p>\n

Let us take our chanting for example. If we think we *have* to chant, the
\nchanting becomes a drudgery. When we think we choose to chant, the chanting
\nbecomes much easier.<\/span><\/p>\n

So internally we should be motivating ourselves with the *choose* word.<\/span><\/p>\n

And with others we can encourage them by making requests rather than demands
\nof them.<\/span><\/p>\n

For example, yesterday I was at the GBC meeting. We work as a team in those
\nmeetings but sometimes we forget the magic words, please and thank you (that
\nmy mother taught me)!<\/span><\/p>\n

So, one devotee said to me “You have to do this.” My mind immediately
\nrebelled at the thought of doing what he was asking although the task was a
\nreasonable one. Still I did what he asked even though my mind was screaming
\nno, no no!<\/span><\/p>\n

Had he said: “Would you be willing to do this, because we need \u2026” I would
\nhave jumped at the opportunity.<\/span><\/p>\n

Also, I can count the number of times on my fingers that I have received a
\nthank you from others in our management meetings.<\/span><\/p>\n

Please and thank you are our most important messages.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 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":[10,9,21],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135"}],"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=135"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":136,"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135\/revisions\/136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}