On the communities, progress and democracy

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Vaikunthanath das (IDS)

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Oct 31, 2010, 6:02:42 AM10/31/10
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We are not at all supporters of totalitarianism and sectarian
fanaticism. Moreover, we are the dissidents among dissidents, just
because there is a lot of fanaticism everywhere – in wordly
authoritative societies, as much as in religious and democratic ones
also... Generally everywhere where there are humans. :-)

Little digression to the history (genuine one). Formerly there were no
communities of modern sense at all, neither with "positive"
experience, nor with "negative" one, with only exception of
monasteries, but they were just sects in good sense of this word (the
bad sense at this word does not exist at all!). Therefore any modern
community is some kind of the invention, that is the artificially
created phenomenon, official formation. In the times people liveв not
in communities, or communes as we represent them today, created on the
basis of ideological belief, but in generated naturally informal
public associations, based on a social status (classes), territorial
integrity (villages) and family relationship (families, clans). And
each person naturally found the place among "ours". And notice, each
person found certain happiness and satisfaction irrespectively of
heavy or easy conditions of life, fair or unfair power etc.

If the situation was heavy or absolutely bad, people struggled for
their lives, drawing happiness from patriotic feelings, in struggle
against tyrants etc. Frequently they suffered and died, and lost their
familes, but thus, strange enough, all the same remained more or less
happy. They have always been assured what is good and what is bad,
where is black and where is white, where is good and where is evil.
They always knew against whom and for what they fought. Besides they
knew the life and death price and their nature. Thus, they always were
in a harmony with themselves. And consequently they were always,
almost always, happy and joyful. They never developed any idea to
create a commune on an ideological basis. And the more so on
democratic (in modern understanding of this word) basis, despite the
tyranny often oppressing them. Why it was so? Because in those days
people still had knowledge, experience, examples of how the society
and the state should function for the common benefit. And this is
examples of completely not "democratic" society.

The matter is that for us, morally spoilt (purposefully spoilt) people
of an industrial epoch, the concepts of authoritativeness and
totalitarianism are psychologically perceived as not different from
each other. However even those who lived in the recent centuries, let
alone earlier generations, knew, that they are not the same.

On an extent of "observable history" all was turned over upside down.
And not suddenly, of course, but very slowly -- imperceptible, from
generation to generation. Any, sincere seeker and patient researcher
of history can be convinced of steady degradation of morals
throughout, at least, last five thousand years. It is just what I mean
saying that we are torn off from our roots. As a result -- we do not
know original history, especially the most ancient. Looking at many
ideals of the past we are perplexed: "How was it possible to consider
this as ideals? Definitely our ancestors were stupid and
underdeveloped!" We do not understand, that these "ideals of the
observable past" – are already perverted "ideals". So what should we
do? Certainly to concoct the new ones. The humans after all are such
beings, that for to live they should prove the necessity of their
lives (at least for themselves -- nowadays it frequently is enough to
solve a problem a remorse). And on the basis of what can we prove-
justify it, if we are torn off from the real experience which has been
produced by many generations? Certainly on the basis of that, if one
may say so, "material" which we absorb from "inhabitancy" created for
us. Here we also invented (not ourselves, again) communistic ideology,
democratic ideology and other "logies" and "isms". But it was earlier,
these "isms" existed for some time, we lived in these societies and
even found in them some satisfaction.

All is now much worse... We are divided into "atomic particles" -
"individuals", that are literally - the individual minds :-), everyone
with its own ideology. And again this our sentimentalistic- altruistic-
democratic and differently-differently -"tic" "erudition" tragically
prevents us from not only uniting in any generality, but from simply
finding common language with each other. And the most terrible is that
we name it GENUINE freedom, democracy, erudition, civilization,
progress, and piously in all of this we trust... Actually, if to look
at the world as a whole, the things are still much worse. :-) But
please don’t drag here one more "ism" with a prefix "pessim"! :-)
After all everybody knows, that in this age of dissociation we not
only cannot find common language with each other, but periodically,
and some of us constantly, we are in dissonance with ourselves. Which
results in all today's suicides, depressions and any psycho-emotional
frustrations. After all the human being, as low as he has fallen,
though unlike an animal, is by nature endowed with what is called as
"conscience", that is intuitive comprehension of what is “good” and
what is “bad”. If we have learnt to listen to this feeling, and always
lived on conscience, we would avoid the majority of our problems. And
only in this case we would have the right to speak about any progress
and altruism.

And so my opinion is that in the modern world, alone, we cannot learn
to live on conscience – we need for this purpose a community. In a
community we are always "very much in evidence", and it is not bad, as
they generally do think, but, on the contrary, it is the purpose.
After all if we are mistaken, always there will be the one who will
prompt and will help. And if there is no at us a natural community on
the basis of a family, with grandmothers, great-grandmothers,
grandfathers, great-grandfathers, uncles, aunts, brothers, sisters,
children of different age etc. if there is no a community on the basis
of native territory (as the majority of us lives in "starling houses"
in millions-populated cities) if we do not have a community on the
basis of a class association (as all of us "are equal and democratic")
then it is necessary to create this community. And for it would not be
absolutely artificial, we should create it with those who wants and
can live on conscience.

Such a community doesn’t need any "democratic" theories, because the
head of such a community (and he always should be there, for a
community, as well as the person, without hands or feet is the
cripple, and without a head - the corpse) carries the heaviest duty --
to take care of all members of the community. He receives this
responsibility not on elections, but naturally - through the trust of
the joined people, as he possesses qualification obvious to all, in
personal, moral, perhaps, spiritual area -- not by a rank, but
factually. People are naturally attracted by him. He cannot have even
a tinge of a desire to live at the expense of others, for the very
sense of his life is to live for others (he just cannot survive
without such a possibility, because living for others is his
vocation). Such leader is not the top manager who simply rationalizes
as much as possible the activities of the organization for the
obtaining of best result, as it happens at factories or in offices. He
is the father-patron who incurs responsibility for destiny of the
wards and gives real protection. I know, that you now think: "It is
Utopia. Such leader is not present and cannot be present nowadays. All
of us have heard it and we also saw consequences". But without such a
leader all our attempts to creat so-called "community" of any sense
are doomed to a failure. Because given to itself, any system comes to
the disorder and stops to be as that. Te history give us the whole set
of such examples. When it is necessary to seize power and enslave the
population, the head of the society is destroyed first. Because the
body without a head is a corpse.

Certainly, to find such leader is a godsend. The best is when such a
leader show himself naturally among the people united at the first
stage by the general ideals. The general ideals can and should unite
people, but after all it is impossible to be fenced off from all world
by these ideals, as high as they may be. The world around escaping
from which we try to take shelter in a community, will not stop its
influence on us only because we have decided to begin a new life. It
will strike blows to each of us and on a community as a whole,
therefore the order in a community should be there, and it should be
reliably protected the leader, the person who has voluntary took on
his shoulders the burden of living for others. It is like any
festival: there are people who prepare a festival, and there are those
who enjoy it. And the organizers not always have a possibility to
enjoy all its delights, and the enjoyers practically never remember
the ones who and has organized that festival. It is a reality :-)

Each member of a community should find and take the place according to
his or her natural qualities, inclinations and abilities. I will not
describe here in detail the structure and everyday life of such a
community for it is separate topic. I will mention only my full
conviction, that this is most natural and viable public formation of
all possible, though it is also not easy and not quickly achievable.
And, of course, some risk cannot cancel some risk. But what can be
done? Hard time fell upon us to live, friends. Damning somebody, the
Chinese in the Middle Ages were used to say: "May you live in an epoch
of changes..." Probably once all of us were damned by ancient
Chinese... :-(

niscala dasi

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Oct 31, 2010, 7:24:22 AM10/31/10
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Its true that we have lost a lot of the community spirit and trust in
authority that existed in past ages. We feel that we have advanced,
but never before was there so many people feeling isolated and
discoonected from the each other. What is true in world history, is
true in ISKCON also. When the authorities in ISKCON, the gurus, showed
themselves to be fallible, the fragile trust in authority gleaned from
page after page of Srila Prabhupada's books- was broken. Without a
leader to hold together the spirit of cooperation, the communities
fell apart, and devotees sought financial, social, and to a large
part, spiritual independence.. To form a community again, trust in
authority must be established, not on the basis of infallibility, but
humanity- that here is someone who really cares for my welfare- let me
try to reciprocate.

Yes, we are either cursed or blessed with the burden of change. Change
is integral to growth, and growth is painful. Breaking free from the
mothers womb is painful, but necessary to grow. One does not fall
over, skin one's knees, or stub one's toes in the mother's womb. But
one does not learn to walk either. As we broke away, in the past, from
authoritarianism into democracy- power to the people- due to the
tyranny of the autocrats- we need again to break from the current
paradigm of "every man for himself" the spoiled-brat descendent of
democracy- and seek the best of both worlds- freedom to be oneself, to
live according to one's realizations, to strive according to one's
nature and values, yet also be obligated to serve submissively and
cooperatively. VA allows for this junction of unique personality and
social cooperation by recognizing guna- rather than suppressing it, as
was required in ISKCON- and utilizing the unique and very different
qualities of each soul -for the benefit of the whole community.

In other words, one does not need to be rebellious to find oneself, as
in VA, one is encouraged to find oneself for the purpose of
cooperation. In the Ramayana, Ramachandra, the hero, was utterly
submissive to his fathers order, yet how he followed that order
required all of His heroism, valour, resourcefullness, etc- such
qualities were discovered in submission, not rebellion. In submitting
oneself to a person qualified to be Protector, the only thing lost is
selfishness, which is a burden for the soul. It is certainly maya
whispering in the ear when we think that we can only be happy by
becoming free from obligation to others, as the opposite proves to be
true, again and again, in real life. Obligation to others not only
makes us feel vital and alive and necessary, but such obligation
requires that we bring to the fore our best qualities. We then feel
good about ourselves. On the other hand, the modern life of chasing
the "American Dream"- which is worldwide now, so let's called it just
The Dream- has resulted in a society of people who periodically need
distractions to chase away their misery and isolation- intoxication,
TV, etc. True freedom is only possible where there is loving
obligation, for it is the freedom to be oneself, as one is- actually
dependent on others. When one dreams to be independent- then one
bceomes enslaved by an illusion- and bitterly disapponted and
hopelsss, when inevitably it does not eventualize.

On Oct 31, 8:02 pm, "Vaikunthanath das (IDS)"

niscala dasi

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Nov 7, 2010, 12:08:14 AM11/7/10
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>>I know, that you now think: "It is
Utopia. Such leader is not present and cannot be present nowadays.
All
of us have heard it and we also saw consequences". But without such a
leader all our attempts to creat so-called "community" of any sense
are doomed to a failure

One has to work with what one has, and one may not have an ideal
leader, who is completely selfless, but one has to see who comes
closest to the mark.

In the beginning of a community, there is a huge amount of physical
work to be done, and so everyone starts off doing that... but over
time, some will show themselves to be more responsible, more caring,
or more spiritual and philosophical. So, after buildings are built,
and gardens dug, and it goes from creation mode, to maintenance mode,
there will be more time for devotee counselling, and by that time,
hopefully, some leaders will emerge by their natural qualities. I
don't think that this is utopia. We have never seen "consequences" of
such a thing, because we have only known bureaucracy, and dis-
empowerment of everyone not holding a title. In the wider society, we
have only known positions getting taken by personal selfish ambition.
There is another thing- made possible in our communities by their
smallness of size and by their focus on guna- i.e. qualification by
guna.

It does not take a genius to work out who, among the workers, is
showing some signs of genuine leadership (caring, concerned, involved,
thoughtful, and wise)- as opposed to false leadership, (symptomized by
ambition and the desire to "get ahead" or even to "take responsibility
for Prabhupada" which has often been a rationalization for personal
ambition). So, at the beginning of "maintenance mode", a vote can be
taken among the devotees about whom they consider the best candidate
for the office of ksatriya- who has shown them the most concern for
their welfare? Then gently that person should be pushed to do more
than just physical work- working on the devotees' hearts and minds,
keeping them motivated, fresh and enthusiastic. It may also be
consulted, after some time, as to who will occupy the brahmana varna-
it should not be someone who is just tired of picking veggies- but
someone who, over the course of time, has shown great honesty and
detachment from favours- even detachment from popularity- to speak the
plain truth for the benfit of all- and also has much philosophical
wisdom (vijnana). When such varnas are determined, it is not that
there need be great change- everyone can go on with their work as
before, but those workers who are designated ksatriyas will be
required to drop everything if someone is in need of help. Primarily,
his duty is to protect from harm- harm from the body and the mind- but
in a small comunity, that may not be a full-time job, and if that is
the case, he should not sit back in his office, pretending to be busy,
while the workers sweat out in the sun. I know this is a radical
diversion from how most devotees think of VA, but the fact is, they
think of it as something like the caste system of India, without
birthright. It is not lack of birthright that distinguishes VA from
the caste syste, but LACK OF EXPLOITATION. If this is not stressed,
then two things will happen. The first is that no one, or very few,
devotees will be attracted- they will find excuses in the sastra to
avoid VA- as they do so now. The second thing is that- if any VA
community is established- it could be far worse than ISKCON. The
labels could be used to exploit or to denigrate. So it is dangerous,
in my opinion, to get too much distracted by details, such as the
giving of names according to the Manu Samhita, and lose track of the
very important essence of VA that distinguishes it from its evil
cousin- in it, there is no exploitration, only cooperation to benefit
each other. It is like the spiritual world, descended, where the gopis
do not want to be seen by Krsna personally, but to help others be seen
by Him. According to how our devotees develop that mood of the gopis,
devoid of ambition and only want to elevate others, then they are
qualified to be leaders.

Utopia? Indeed! Our communities are supposed to be utopias- free from
anxiety- and based around devotional service. Otherwise, we may as
well just forget the whole thing. It is better to have nothing, then
to have a bad thing, advertised as "a positive alternative"- the first
choice is, at least, honest. It is not utopia, however, in that people
do not have to be perfect. But perfection- at least of attitude-
should be stressed and worked upon. We are not just about weeding
gardens, but also our hearts.
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Vaikunthanath das (IDS)

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Nov 13, 2010, 10:58:25 AM11/13/10
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Jaya! Thanks a lot for sharing your thoughts so in detail. Fine
development of a theme. I’m ready to sign each word. It is obvious,
that what you speak is not a theory, but realization. It is not for
the first time in my experience I face the similar paradigm coming
from women. And it surprises me a little and pleases simultaneously.
But when the men will start to reason and to work in the same way?
Unfortunately, I have no possibility to write much to this conference
and to comment each post, but from what I have already heard from you,
I have understood, that You are really our adherent. May Lord bless
you to find what you aspire.

your servant
Vaikunthanath das
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