BY: ROCANA DASA
Sep 20, CANADA (SUN) — Studying Srila Prabhupada's conversations with ISKCON leaders.
Today's Talks is inspired by Srila Prabhupada's Morning Walk of January 7, 1974 in Los Angeles. You can listen to the audio or read the transcript for this conversation here.
I find this particular Morning Walk interesting because the two main characters talking with Srila Prabhupada are Bali Mardana and Karandhara. At the time, Bali Mardana was in charge in New York, while Karandhara was in charge in Los Angeles. They shared various duties related to the BBT and printing which, of course, was Srila Prabhupada’s main focus. It was well known that these two were not only rivals, they also strongly disliked each other.
There’s an interesting letter that Srila Prabhupada sent to Bali Mardana on March 5, 1972, where he wrote:
“We had got some indication from Karandhara Prabhu that there was some misunderstanding and things were not going too well between you both big leaders, that is why I was little concerned because such things should never be allowed to fructify within our Society, that will spoil everything. But I am glad to hear from you that because there was some misinformation that we had got the wrong impression, and actually that everything is progressing in a spirit of mutual cooperation in all respects. This is Krishna Consciousness. Working together to please the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Practically now it is in the hands of you big guns to manage everything so that there may never be internal difficulties amongst us, and so that we may always go on increasing more and more the influence of Lord Caitanya's philosophy of Sankirtana process upon all the world.”
This Morning Walk was a year and a half later. You can definitely pick-up the tension between the two of them when listening to the audio.
The Morning Walk starts off quite normally, with Bali Mardana bringing up the fact that the Christians are foolish because they don’t accept that the animals have souls. Srila Prabhupada agrees, saying they take up that concept just to support their sinful activities of meat eating. He goes on to talk about how they also rationalize abortion, and he points out that it’s because they have no philosophy, they’re simply rascals, and this kind of preaching is going on by the priestly class, or by those heads of religious orders.
The devotees say it’s just because they don’t want to raise the child. Then Guru Kripa says its like the rabbits, they don’t have enough food for children, so they kill the weaker ones. Bali Mardana points out that this is a very good time to push our philosophy forward. He says he’s thinking of taking out a full-page ad in the New York Times, but Srila Prabhupada says ‘No’, why don’t they publish the poster? Karandhara questions him about which poster, and Bali Mardana says “We have a poster? … “I have not seen it.”
Srila Prabhupada ignores what’s going on between these two and says they should get contributions from the public to publish this poster. Srila Prabhupada has designed the poster and he wants it as an advertisement. You can tell by the conversation that Karandhara is not particularly interested in the poster. He hasn’t seen it, and perhaps doesn’t think this is a good way to spend their time or money.
As the conversation goes on, Karandhara reveals that he knows about the poster, and says it’s about “real leaders of human society”. He indicates that it’s being worked on. I’ve never seen this poster, but would be interested to hear from readers who know if it was ever published or not.
Srila Prabhupada is really enthusiastic about this particular poster, and says:
“That will be very nice propaganda, to select real leaders of the society. The... We are misled by rascal leaders. That is the difficulty, all rascals. If the society is led by real, learned scholars, then it will be nice. Qualified leaders. That is wanted. Leader means better qualified man to lead others. That is leader. Leader does not mean he is himself a fool and leading other fools.”
There’s also a letter to Damodar on January 16, 1974 in which Srila Prabhupada wrote
“Your political preaching is encouraging to me. We should expose before the public eye that the lowest class of men are now taking the posts of leaders, and therefore there can be no peace or happiness. I have given the idea for a poster which shall be entitled: "Select Real Leaders--Don't Spoil Life", and it will depict devotees as leaders, illustrating that real leaders have to be free of meat-eating and animal slaughter, illicit sex, intoxication and gambling. This poster is being prepared in L.A. and I want it distributed all over the world, and you can use it widely in your campaign for Mayor of Washington D.C.”
Srila Prabhupada was obviously very enthusiastic about this project. We would assume that his surrendered disciples would follow through on this order from the Spiritual Master, but having never seen this poster, I wonder if that's the case.
Srila Prabhupada emphasizes that it’s due to bad leadership that people are being misled. In this morning walk conversation, he’s making this point to two of his big leaders. History tells us that both these leaders disappeared, i.e., ‘fell down’, not too long after this morning walk. I’m not sure exactly when they both disappeared from the scene, but it was long before Srila Prabhupada departed.
Srila Prabhupada goes on to talk about leaders then he says:
“So we may not create any disruption amongst our solidarity. Then things will not make progress. In a big machine, even one screw is slack, the machine stops. You know that? So we should not commit such mistake. "Don't care. It is a small screw." No. Even that small screw can stop the whole machine. [break] ...that we are on the platform of deathlessness. Then we can be careful about falling down. And this is a fact.”
This passage is the real nugget in the discussion. Srila Prabhupada is very concerned about the movement being hampered by bad leadership, and he’s having the conversation with two bad leaders who have been quarreling with one another.
Srila Prabhupada also explains that you have to be careful about falling down, and Bali Mardana actually says “we will not want to fall down”. This conversation is like a preview of the fact that both devotees would fall down shortly thereafter.
Srila Prabhupada is also concerned that the bad leadership will cause a lot of screws to leave the machine, which is exactly what I think has happened to the movement. Srila Prabhupada is essentially predicting that this will take place. While it's only speculation on my part, I think the whole emphasis on the posters was not just about getting a message to the general public, but also to impress the message upon members of our own society, reminding the leaders that they needed to be good leaders, very scholarly and brahminical.
In other conversations, Srila Prabhupada uses the analogy of the screw being separated from the machine, and how the screw is worthless if it’s lying on the floor. In other words, you can buy it for a few cents, but once it’s screwed into the machine and is serving its function, then the whole machine works very nicely and is valuable. A quick search of the Vedabase shows the many instances Srila Prabhupada used this analogy.
In reference to big leaders, Srila Prabhupada has also stressed that the real problems of life that are not being resolved by the leaders are birth, death, old age and disease. These are the real problems the leaders should focus on. If a leader doesn’t understand them to be the real problems, then they shouldn’t be leaders.
Given the many recent discussions about the gurukula system and the conversation on this morning walk, it’s also interesting to consider a letter Srila Prabhupada wrote to Satsvarupa on November 21, 1971:
“I am very much anxious to open schools for educating children of responsible leaders in our Krishna Consciousness way of life, especially also in India. If these leaders simply become a little convinced about the real purpose of human life, there is tremendous potency for improving the world. Last night the topic of my lecture at our Delhi pandal was the necessity for teaching Krishna Consciousness in all our schools and colleges. This is a revolutionary thought. But we have seen that the practical outcome of so much hippies, one after another. What is the use of their skyscraper buildings if their sons will not maintain them? The old system of gurukula should be revived as the perfect example of a system designed to produce great men, sober and responsible leaders, who know what is the real welfare of the citizens. Just as in former days, all big big personalities were trained in this way. Now you have got the responsibility to inject this idea in your country. Please do it with a cool head, and very soon we shall see the practical benefit for your countrymen.”
Srila Prabhupada ends the Morning Walk with a further warning to Bali Mardana and Karandhara, saying: “Suppose you are going on a plane to Vaikuntha. So your business should be that you may not fall down. The plane may not stop.”
Karandhara and Bali Mardana were just the beginning of what would be many serious fall downs amongst the big leaders. Guru Kripa and Satsvarupa were also on this walk. Guru Kripa is gone, and Satsvarupa has essentially been sidelined for many years. So many others left the movement altogether. In fact, many of the personalities present on these Morning Walks fell down in one way or another. You won’t find many of them still active in ISKCON as GBCs, or even sannyasis or gurus.
Our big problem in ISKCON has been, and continues to be, a lack of good leadership. Our existing leaders don’t publicly discuss the fact that their bad leadership has caused most of the roadblocks that have stifled the momentum and potential of the Sankirtana movement Srila Prabhupada brought us. But until this is discussed openly and honestly, we cannot reverse the trend.
