It's Too Late?
BY: JAGABANDHU DAS
Nov 07, FORT WHITE, FLORIDA (SUN) — Without the good intelligence of real brahmanas to guide a varnashram society, the whole thing must fail. However, please simultaneously consider Srila Saraswati Thakur’s bold declaration that true Vaishnavas are to be esteemed above even brahmanas. Because of their extreme compassion and naturally inherent spirit of supreme self-sacrifice in complete harmony with the Divine Will, a real Vaishnava may perfectly serve Sri Guru and God (and subsequently all other living entities) in any capacity within the four varnas and ashrams.
The real problem in terms of any type of education process is getting people to actually think (reflect for themselves). Srila Bhaktivinode considers basic thoughtlessness and/or un-awakenedness to be the primary problem inhibiting either individual or collective social progress. For the more than quarter century since I first read Srila Bhaktivinode’s Bhagavat speech, I have contemplated how the singular principle of awakening the uniquely subjective thoughts of an individual student might effectively prove the basis of a new system of education wherein satellite-like students become truly reflective of their studies (in a Bhaktivinodian manner).
Unfortunately, many people spend entire lifetimes in vocations which they actually detest. Vocation is not the same as “avocation” (which implies a deeper affection for a unique individual’s natural life’s work). Varnashram means to have uniquely intuitive and astute avocational guidance into what specific innate skills each individual embodied soul might possess in their lifelong attempt to achieve sympathetic or harmonious dealings with the environment which comprises ‘their” world. When souls are actually engaged according to their true natural propensity (avocation) from among the four varnas they derive the natural fulfillment of being an intrinsically functional component working for the mutually beneficial, self-sufficient harmony of the Entirety.
However, as history demonstrates time and again, the emergency or crisis of any given moment may cause a brahmana to be forced to act as an administrator or farmer and simply “do the needful” for the real fundamental benefit of all the people. Nowadays, many apparently disdain the grueling sweat and grimy dirtiness which occurs when farming (or doing any hard work). This becomes an especially critical obstacle when considerable collective toil is immediately required to truly achieve successful harmonious self-sufficiency.
Is it really too late to prove the necessary maturity of realization and deep insight required to pragmatically promote Varnashrama dharma? Instead of settling for inherently unreliable systems of harmonious existence, why not take an uncompromising stand for Varnashrama dharma? Just how long must we tolerate multifarious abuses in the name of good governance and religion? And how is that being truly compassionate to the suffering masses?
Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada’s heart was filled with loving compassion for the suffering of all jivas, as was Srila Saraswati Thakur's before him. However, this did not mean abandoning reason or common sense when giving illumination on the basic cheating tendency of the spiritually rebellious. Their hearts were completely devoid of hatred, yet their perceptions remained scathingly uncompromising in their constructive critical observations about mundanity and illusion. Simultaneously, by objectifying their luminous perceptions they also gave no dishonor to anyone who might require personal refinement of subjective individual ideological misconception (while also allowing for hopeful progressive reformation of individual thoughts).
Compassion might be simply defined as when my own selfish concerns are eclipsed by a very real concern about the suffering of others which can cause my own ephemeral/illusory/temporal sense of self to become greatly diminished and eventually evaporated in the awakening luminosity of genuine desire for the true well-being of all others. Or in other words, when the suffering of others becomes more important than my own petty perceived misery and I cannot therefore bear to see the suffering of any other embodied being. Ever.
This subsequent abandonment of false ego will make it possible for me to be able to segregate the mind from bias and duality while simultaneously retaining luminous discernment of the actual brutality of mundane reality without acrimony. Otherwise the brilliant light of the Krishna sun will potentially be obscured by clouds of my false egotistical confusions, delusions and illusions: thereby causing my consequential perceptions to be proportionately diffused or impaired in varying degrees of obscurity depending on how thickly or darkly I've subjectively projected the storm cloud of my false ego against the Divine Light of true individual spiritual realization and inner awakenment.
