So this is, I'm reading excerpts from the'Śrī Bhakti Siddha Vaibhava' that Bhakti Vikāsa Mahārāj put together. The first excerpt I'm reading is from a lecture of 1932, where Śrīla Sarasvatī Ṭhākura stated how some disciples considered that by his spending profusely on preaching programs and printing, he was embezzling their hard-earned collections. He mentioned by name a particular leading devotee as one of several who thought it better to keep those funds in the bank. But he continued, "My aim is not to make provisions and lay bricks for rascals who will come in the future. Possibly the structures already made will one day become dens of ganja and vice."
He further commented that some of his men had voiced the opinion that now there were enough books and magazines, so all printing activities should be scrapped. There was no need for further hard work, for by showing the deity and receiving collections, the bosses could live happily.
So what particularly caught my attention was this: the tenor of this statement, which we perceived in our Śrīla Prabhupāda when he started the saṅkīrtana movement. He writes that, "I didn't come to establish temples, but I came to preach Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Of course, establishing temples and all kinds of structure and management is necessary, but it's necessary to manage the results of preaching, and not independently. If you try to establish a management system or even lay bricks without having a forward thrust into the world to establish Kṛṣṇa consciousness through going door to door, town to town, doing Hari-nāma, Hari-kathā, and profusely distributing books, then you have nothing to manage except for a bunch of problems and you're managing on a plateau. There's no real reason to manage."
Plenty of other companies are worried about management and are struggling hard with all the problems that come along with managing people and projects, and ultimately, they're of little or no avail because they don't do anything to advance the human spirit. So Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta's mood again was, "My aim is not to make provisions and lay bricks for rascals who will come in the future."
That mood can always creep into an individual's life or into the life of an organization, and that is: let's get comfortable. As soon as I want to get comfortable at the expense of the saṅkīrtana movement or by living a life in the mode of goodness, then my advancement stops. Having the stimulation of fresh challenges to meet in expanding the saṅkīrtana movement, especially in bringing new people who are wholly unacquainted with Kṛṣṇa consciousness into the fold, is vitally important.
We've been seeing it recently with new people coming into our bhakti community rooms. The freshness is palpable; it changes the atmosphere entirely. When a new person who just walked in out of the rain of the material world comes in and feels the warm environment inside the Zoom Room where devotees are gathered to speak about Kṛṣṇa and the philosophy of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, it has to be at the forefront of the minds of those who are in the saṅkīrtana movement. It is a movement meant to save the conditioned souls in the material world, not for finding comfort or becoming well-established in any material way.
(excerpt from the talk 19:34)
To connect with His Grace Vaiśeṣika Dāsa, please visit https://www.fanthespark.com/next-steps/ask-vaisesika-dasa/
Add to your wisdom literature collection:
https://www.bbtacademic.com/books/ (USA only)
https://thefourquestionsbook.com/
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