A Place from Which to Grow

 

Human life is meant for growth. Although physical growth stops before several decades, emotional, psychological, intellectual and spiritual growth can and should continue throughout every person’s life.  In order to grow properly however, we need a proper place. Place means not only a physical place such as household, but proper relationships with others and proper activity. All three of these are essential aspects for optimal growth. This paper addresses the question of people’s place in modern society and contrasts it with place in the varnashrama culture and the different results in society and people’s lives.

A potted plant offers a very good example of having a proper place. The pot is the physical place where the plant lives, but beyond the pot alone the plant also requires a proper environment in terms of soil conditions, atmosphere, temperature, water, and sunlight. When these conditions are minimally met the plant can live, but when they are optimal the plant can thrive.

Likewise we are meant to thrive, not just live. We need a properly clean house and environment where we can care for and give rest to our body, along with nourishing food. This alone will allow us to survive, but not thrive for as it is said, man does not live by bread alone. More than mere survival we all desire to have interesting and meaningful activity appropriate to our nature. In the modern world we generally call this “work.” Ideally that work will be a bit challenging so that we may make use of our faculties of understanding, ability, and reasoning. The challenge helps us to grow. If the work is too easy we will be bored and unengaged, and if the work is beyond our capacity or ability we will be overworked and stressed.

And we also need a place in relationship to others. These relationships must be appropriate to our respective stages of life and theirs. Thus we will have different relationships with those senior to us than we have with our peers or with our juniors. Having a proper place according these criteria will help us to be happy and balanced individuals. Like the potted plant without water, or sunshine, if any of these aspects of life are meager or missing, then life can run the gamut from drudgery to torture, conditions under which growth of any kind is difficult or impossible.

Place is so important in society that the war at Kurukshetra was fought to give the Pandavas a proper place. The war could have been avoided if Duryodhana would have allowed the Pandavas one village each, but he denied the Pandavas any land whatsoever, not enough for a single needle! The proper dharma of a ksatriya requires them to provide a place to others in his village or kingdom, and this is such a necessary and essential requirement that a ksatriya is forbidden any other engagement, even in times of emergency. The Supreme Lord Sri Krishna came to establish the principles of religion (paritranaya sadhunam) and to this end He admonished Arjuna to fight the battle to properly establish the .

Place in Ancient Cultures

Historically one’s place in society was both fixed and rigid. In both Western (Feudal society) and Eastern culture place was generally assigned according to one’s birth. Males generally did what their fathers did and females naturally became mothers and caretakers. You would become an aristocrat if your parents were aristocrats, and if they were peasants you would remain a peasant. The world was fairly well fixed at those times and there was no upward or even lateral mobility for the vast majority of people. In one sense this was bad and in another it was good. Bad in that if you had a different nature than your father you were unable to be fulfilled, but it was good in that a strong social contract existed. Every person had a definite place in society with well understood rules of behavior, knowing what they could expect of others and the expectations of themselves. In this sense nobody was alone in the world. Whatever their fate might have been, they were joined together with others of their kind with whom they would share their miseries and joys. For further insights into these types of culture and the differences before and after the introduction of Western influences read for example, Bhakti Vikasa Swami’s “Glimpses of Traditional Indian Life,” or Helena Norberg-Hodge’s “Ancient Futures: Learning from Ladakh.”

Finding Our Place in Today’s World

Modern society is just the opposite—we are not given a place in society—we have to find it, beginning even in childhood. Parents, pressed for time, find it much easier to do everything themselves rather than taking time to teach their children and guide them in building their skills, so that many have never washed a floor or even a dish by the time they leave home. Children lack a place even within their family. They are told to “go play,” or they entertain themselves with television and electronic games. Although they do not have an active role in life they are somehow suddenly expected to fit right into the adult world upon graduation from school. However they often cannot and it is taking increasing years for them to find their place in the adult world. Today most people do not marry until they are almost thirty years of age, indicating that this is when they are able to find their place in society; whereas just two generations back they would marry and begin their family lives just after high school.

Going back to the years when society was more formally structured and there was a subsistence economy children had a part in adult society and could take responsibility at much younger ages. For example, David Farragut (later Admiral Farragut) was a mere 12 years old during the War of 1812 when he was given his first command. Those who have visited India have undoubtedly witnessed children of very young ages taking responsibility to manage the shop of their father, the care of their siblings and even carry on entrepreneurial activities without any adult supervision. When I see such things I try to imagine any American boy or girl of the same age doing similar things. I cannot. Anthropologist Joseph Campbell also observed that many young men have great difficulty finding their place in modern society, to which he attributed the attraction of gang membership, and later involvement in the mafia, whose “codes of honor” do provide a place along with attendant duties and relationships. He suggested that until adult society finds some way to provide a place for young men they will naturally continue their involvement in gangs.

For most people their work provides their place and their orientation to the world—a way to think of themselves and their relationships with others. It provides the income with which they pay for their home, another aspect of place. Work is therefore an essential element of finding one’s place. Although we now have the freedom to choose our work, to be and achieve anything to the limit of our ability, this is a challenge that many people struggle with. Despite the many books to help people find the right job or occupation, despite the many career counselors and job placement companies, some 80 percent of workers are still unsatisfied with the work they do. This indicates that their work is not according to their nature, their guna and karma. Being improperly situated they can make a mess of things, especially in positions of leadership or management, and it is almost certain that in such situations they cannot grow.

The Consequences of Loss of Place

The sense of place, the psychological support that comes from it, and the result of losing it was studied by the pioneer sociologist, Emile Durkheim. Observing the rapid changes in the social and economic conditions of society during the industrialization of the late 19^th century, he found that in rapidly changing environments people became unsure of what was expected of them, and what they could or should expect from others. These expectations, known as social norms, are the basic rules of the culture. Durkheim observed that without having a place where they know the norms to guide them, people become dissatisfied, purposeless and alienated which leads to conflicts, crime, suicide and other social deviancies. He called this condition anomie, and wrote about it in his books “The Division of Labor in Society” and “Suicide.”

One of the great tragedies of the modern era is the lack of place for the hundreds of millions, even billions, of “unnecessary” and “unwanted” people—the unemployed, the homeless, street urchins, and slum-dwellers. Modern society affords them little if any place to give them even the simple honor of living. Who gets a place in modern society? Increasingly only those who can earn a profit for others, or provide money for others, that is, those who have employable skills for which there is a market. However, the need for employable people is diminishing with a diminishing economy. In the1930s some 60 percent of Americans lived on farms and could provide for themselves. Over the next 50 years 2,000 farms every week went under or were sold, their occupants moving to the cities. Today those remaining on farms number less than 5 percent of the population, and the other 95 percent require jobs that produce money in order to get their food. Because of the loss of manufacturing jobs to southeast Asia and service jobs to India and elsewhere there are simply not enough jobs available. The official unemployment figures are in double digits, but the real figure counting all people who would like to work if they could is more than 20% in America. That figure is similar throughout the world.

Worldwide more than 50 percent of the people now live in cities and the prediction is that by the year 2020, 90 percent of the people in large metropolitan areas will be slum-dwellers. This is almost half of the entire global population! By definition slum dwellers do not have sufficient earnings with which to properly maintain themselves. Either they are wage slaves that are forced to work long hours at wages insufficient to live on, or they have no regular job. In either case they have no place that allows them to grow. Wage slaves generally have no money and no time for anything else that might contribute to their growth. And no job means no place, no place means anomie, which means increased theft, crime, drug use, prostitution and suicide. This is what is meant by nirvishesha and sunnyavadi, the voidism and impersonalism of the Kali-yuga. What can we expect when half of humanity has no place? It is a house of horror. This is seen as such a problem that there is serious discussion at high levels of “culling” the human race to what is “needed,” and eliminating the “useless eaters.” (This is actually not new. The ideas of Thomas Malthus and eugenics have been around for several hundred years). These problems could and should be fixed by society’s leader but the policies of government only seem to make them worse.

Finding One’s Place in ISKCON

In the early days of Srila Prabhupada’s movement it was easy to find one’s place in the society. Indeed, this was one of the features that made ISKCON so attractive. Expansion was rapid and young people, or anybody actually, could easily find a place to make their contribution, whatever that was. Having a place and the opportunity to contribute to the effort gave the devotees great joy that happiness was expressed on their faces in kirtan, on harinam and in their service.

However, in ensuing years the social structure of the movement changed. As the devotees married and began families there was no longer suitable facility within the temples, and they were forced to live outside. To pay for that, most, but not all, had to find their work outside the movement as well. This generally resulted in not having close proximity to the temples, which meant less association and less service. The result was predictable—unable to maintain their active involvement in the movement these devotees no longer had a place. They became the congregation: attending the Sunday program, kirtan and taking prasadam, but that is not enough to have a place and a feeling of contributing to the mission, and a feeling of belonging. This trend continued through the 80s and ISKCON became like any other church, with majority of devotees participating as the congregation. In the process ISKCON ceased to be a counter-culture and had gone mainstream where life was compartmentalized—work in this arena, social life here, family life there, and spiritual life over there...

Today the vast majority of devotees have never lived in a temple, and never had the opportunity to engage cent per cent in temple service, harinam and book distribution. This means that many of them have never had the privilege to experience what it means to find their place exclusively in Krishna consciousness. It is my experience, having been both part of the congregation and on the inside, that spiritual progress is much easier and life is much happier on the inside. We also observe that the devotees who are the steadiest and strongest in their devotional service are those who have full-time devotional service that provides for their maintenance, giving them a place in all respects: the sannyasis, the leaders, the temple presidents, pujaris, cooks, those working with translation and book production and distribution, brahmacaris, etc. And even among these only a few are fortunate enough to have a place inside the movement their entire lives. Unfortunately there is limited engagement in the temple activities and many are forced to find a place in the dominant culture. For them Krishna consciousness becomes another of several other aspects of their life and may not be the most influential.

Place in Varnashrama Culture

The Vedic culture is created and arranged by what may be called “higher authority.” That is, the Supreme Lord has not only given us this world for our activities, but has also given instruction how we can live here happily, having meaningful work, and growing throughout our lives. Through the hierarchy of this world He has given these principles of living in the Codes of Dharma, or dharma shastra. The codes of dharma divide society into four working classes called varnas, and four stages of life for spiritual purposes called ashrama. Each of these has their specific obligations as well as defined relationships with the other sections. This scientifically arranged society is designed to provide everyone a place that will facilitate lifelong growth in all spheres of life.

In the varnashrama culture occupation is not simply a means of obtaining as much money as possible, nor is it merely a haphazard job taken simply for survival. The entire concept of varna is that work must be appropriate to one’s nature, or guna and karma. Lord Krishna emphatically states in the Bhagavad-gita that one must work according to their own nature and that it is dangerous to do the work of others. (3.35, 18.47) Why dangerous? Because by doing inappropriate work and being improperly situated we cannot fulfill the purpose of human life, which is to grow.

There are four varnas—brahmana, ksatriya, vaisya and sudra, or the priests and intellectuals, the political leaders, the organizers and producers and the workers. All occupations in every human culture can be broadly classified into one of these four. In the modern culture the relationship between these four is determined by money almost exclusively, with corresponding neglect of dharma, but in the varnashrama culture those relationships are prescribed by the codes of dharma.

In regard to place the ksatriya has a very important role—he is tasked with giving everyone a proper place in society—both in terms of housing and work. For his exercise in caring for the citizens as if they were his own children the ksatriya is considered the representative of the Lord. Not only is it his duty to see that there is no unemployment in the varnashrama culture, but everyone must also have work according to their nature. Hence besides no unemployment there is not even any underemployment. In such a system job dissatisfaction would approach zero percent.

Neither is there any homelessness in the varnashrama culture. Everyone has a place to live, a place to work, and proper relationships with others. This not only includes all human beings, but all species of life, especially including the bulls and cows, domesticated animals who provide for the needs of sustainable power and good nutrition.

Creating a Place for Everyone

We often repeat what one astrologer said of Srila Prabhupada, that he created a house in which the whole world can live. This is another way of saying that Srila Prabhupada arranged for everyone to have a place from which they can grow. Everyone means not only the devotees of his Movement, but all people of the world.

In his last days Srila Prabhupada spoke to Kuladri about this:

Kuladri das:  “I was the temple president at New Vrindavan for so many years, and Prabhupada had a vision for a pilgrimage site in North America and a farm community. So he never emphasized book distribution to us. He explained to me, especially at the end when I was with him in Bombay and in Vrindavan just before he left, that the second half of his movement would be dramatically different than the first half. The emergency tactics that he used to distribute books and give young people sannyasa and open as many temples as possible would end. He wanted places like New Vrindavan to establish the culture of Krishna consciousness with colleges, grihastha lifestyle, all of the things to demonstrate the philosophy that he was so careful to present in his books. So he right up to the end he was telling me that the farm communities were so important for the second half and the vision would be very different than when his movement got started in the Western world.”

In my way of understanding this statement, Srila Prabhupada was preparing us to lead a great social movement based on his teachings to give a place to the millions of people that modern society discards like so much rubbish. This is where I see the varnashrama culture playing a significant role. If the world’s unfortunate people are to be saved it cannot be that we simply help them find a place again in the same culture that spit them out. There must be something different that will give them hope to have a meaningful life, and a place from which to grow. That something different is the sustainable village life where every person has a proper place to live, proper engagement, and proper relationships.

On various occasions Srila Prabhupada instructed that the householders should all live on the farms. Why? Because the village can provide a proper place for everyone to live in the context of Krishna consciousness. This is due to the fact that agriculture can provide an economic alternative to the city job in an environment that supports Krishna consciousness, frees the devotee from having to associate with non-devotees, and helps them to become free from rajas and tamo-guna and established in goodness—an important step to rising to suddha-sattva, the transcendental plane of existence. Moreover, the village offers many different types of engagement and it is much easier to find work that is according to one’s guna and karma. Although this instruction of Srila Prabhupada has been neglected, the advantages of the village life remain. Devotees who are struggling in the cities both with earning sufficient money and in their spiritual lives may find it helpful to find a place in the village.

The Result of Giving the Bulls a Place

Not only does the village provide the devotee with the necessities of life, but also provides the bull with much needed engagement. The bull also is given a place in the spiritual culture, but he has also been rejected from the atheistic, materialistic, dominant culture, and replaced by oil-consuming machines that wreak havoc on the environment and our sanity. At our Gitagrad community in Lithuania, New Gaudadesha, Bhakta Petras has taken up the care and engagement of the bulls. I asked him what he had learned while he was training them. His reply was profound, indicating that all of human society will benefit greatly by again giving the bull a place in society. Bhakta Petras replied that from the bull he has learned:

1. They do not learn quickly; one must go slow as they learn slowly day-by-day
2. Therefore great patience is required. A local man told Petras early on that he would have to be patient, but that man himself did not even know how patient one must be. Researching Srila Prabhupada’s book Petras found that that patience is the most important quality and the mother of all other virtues.
3. As you are training them, they are also teaching you.
4. Because they are very regulated in their actions, they force you to be regulated in yours.
5. The bull teaches you sattva; he is an animal of a sattva nature, and he will not go to rajas—you cannot make him get passionate. Instead, you yourself must come to sattva if you want to work with him—he will thus force you to come to sattva.
6. Working with the bull may be compared to working with children or women, in that, if you get angry with them they will refuse to cooperate with you. If you are calm and reasonable they will work with you.
7. Rajo-guna (increasing speed) and tamo-guna (negative reinforcement—hitting them) does not work with these animals.
8. Petras recently read from very old records how if a person had been drinking and the bulls smell that they will refuse to work with the man. Indeed, they will even try to gore him. They don’t want to associate with such people in the lower modes of nature.
9. The bulls and man are a team; they work together. Unlike driving a car or tractor, where the driver simply controls the machine. With the bulls one must learn to cooperate and work as a team.
10. There is mutual dependency between the bulls and the teamster; the bulls depend on the man to feed and care for them, and the man depends on the bulls to provide necessary power for accomplishing things.

Petras’ comments gave me many realizations. The first is that Petras himself is not just training the bulls, but they are also training him. By his effort he is receiving valuable personal training in sattvic qualities, conditioning him to sattva-guna. Such training is difficult to come by in a world that is driven by passion and ignorance. Srila Prabhupada has taught us that we must come to the platform of sattva before we can progress to suddha-sattva, or the transcendental plane. How valuable are the cow and the bull to help us stay fixed in sattva-guna.

I also realized how our dependence on the cow and the bull teaches the entire human society sattva, and keeps them in sattva. Having abandoned the bull we have lost our tether to sattva and are the entire human race is drifting inexorably to rajas and tamo-guna, with the attendant terrible consequences that we are now beginning to reap, economically, socially, politically, etc.

Next I realized that the reason that Petras has had so many wonderful realizations because he made room for, and a commitment to Dharma (the bulls) in his life. He gave the bulls a place in his world. Giving them a place means giving them a duty, and that is the birth of yajna (yajna is born of prescribed duties). Only interested in what they can take from others, modern man does not realize what the cow and bull have to give to us. Neither does modern man understand sattva-guna or the tremendous benefits that accrue to society as a whole by giving these animals their place in human society. Indeed, that is the case with all living beings in this world since, Om purnam ada purnam idam, this world is perfectly equipped as a complete whole and every thing and every living thing has its place.

Modern man instead thinks he can do better by killing the bull and exploiting the cow for milk and the earth for oil. There is a very old bull at New Gaudadesh, Nandi. The neighbors ask why we bother to keep an old bull. They tell us we should kill him. Such an impoverished mentality of selfishness denying this living entity his place does not allow them to recognize the value of the bull, dharma, or reap the benefits of associating with these wonderful animals.

We Are Missing Parts of the Social Machine

All devotees, but the brahmanas and ksatriyas in particular are meant to be the leaders of society meaning that they are concerned with the welfare of others, particularly those who are suffering:

çiväya lokasya bhaväya bhütaye ya uttama-çloka-paräyaëä janäù

jivanti nätmärtham asau paräçrayaà mumoca nirvidya kutaù kalevaram

Those who are devoted to the cause of the Personality of Godhead live only for the welfare, development and happiness of others. They do not live for any selfish interest. (S.B. 1.4.12)

To this end Srila Prabhupada had wanted his followers, engaging what he taught them, to correct the defects of modern civilization by establishing daiva-varnashrama, or the divine culture of Krishna consciousness. This daiva-varnashrama culture can give everyone a place to grow and so doing cure all of the ills of today’s society.

What is greatly needed now are men of ksatriya and vaisya natures to take their proper place in the spiritual society, for they are essential to make the whole scheme work. The ksatriyas and vaisyas must perform their dharma as given by Sri Krishna in the Gita and dharma shastra. For the ksatriya this means they must establish and take care of a village and provide a place for the praja and insure that they have work according to their nature. And the vaisyas are needed to organize the practical activity of day-to-day life to see that people have food to eat, clothes to wear and the other necessities of life. This is their dharma. Where are they? Why are they not doing their duty? Unless and until these qualified men take up their dharma this Krishna consciousness movement will not be able to show the way out of the darkness of the modern materialistic way of living. People today are becoming increasingly confused by the economic and political changes and are looking for leadership. The needed concepts are given in Srila Prabhupada’s teachings, but unless we put them to practice they remain nothing more than the study of an earlier grand culture that has seen its day and remains lost in a bygone era, and this Krishna Consciousness movement will have missed its calling of showing the way out of the darkness of nescience in this time of great adversity.

I hope that this has helped you appreciate what place means in the life of any person and the necessity of establishing the divine varnashrama culture to once again provide a place for everyone. I encourage all devotees to cooperate together to create healing communities for the benefit of all the devotees, as well as all the people of this world.