The Other 50%

BY: BHAKTA JOHN

May 15, LYNCHBURG, TENNESSEE (SUN) — From the ISKCON Murari Sevaka April Newsletter.

When asked to write an article about self-sufficiency and rural communities, I wanted to point out Srila Prabhupada’s instruction that we should have simple living and high thinking. The best words describing Srila Prabhupada’s intention that we should be established in rural communities come from Srila Prabhupada himself and His Holiness Bhakti Raghava Swami Maharaja which follow:

From a morning walk, May 27, 1974, Rome:

Yogesvara: So then we should begin our rural communities like New Vrindavana, and then by training up people in the cities, we can send them gradually…
Prabhupada: There will be no city. We don’t want cities.
Bhagavan: What about our city temples?
Prabhupada: No, no. For the time it may go on. But as we make progress, there will be no necessity. City means… For the present we have got… Because the city is there, we are there. But suppose the city is closed. We shall be there? If the city is closed, you still will be there?
Yogesvara: But we can predict that the cities will go on for quite some time. Prabhupada: Yes, it will go on, but when they will see that your ideal community is better than city life, people will take to it. Param drstva nivartate. (From BG. 2.59): “…Ceasing such engagements by experiencing a higher taste, he is fixed in consciousness.”) When one gets a better standard of life, naturally he will give up the lower standard of life.

Conversation recorded Sunday, March 23, 2003 Puncak, Indonesia Interview conducted with His Holiness Bhakti Raghava Swami Maharaja By His Grace Hari Kirtan das (ISKCON-Andhra Pradesh- India)

Hari Kirtan: Hare Krishna
Maharaja: Hare Krishna
Hari Kirtan: Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. Maharaja, Prabhupada said that 50% of the preaching work is done; another 50% is still left. Would you please elaborate on this?
Maharaja: Yes, 50% of Srila Prabhupada's mission is yet to be done. There have been, actually, various interpretations about this. I would say that the majority of devotees, whom I know, understand that this 50% is, actually, the establishment of varnasrama. This includes, we could say, varnasrama development and, specifically, varnasrama rural development...what many devotees don't realize, don't know possibly also, is that Srila Prabhupada did not really want us to remain in the cities. There are direct quotes from Srila Prabhupada where he is, in the context of varnasrama, explaining to devotees, we need to establish these communities, rural communities, to give an example, to serve as an example, to people that actually this is the natural way of life we should be living because the cities are unnatural the way they are set up...I mean it's a direct order of Srila Prabhupada and you know... 50% of anything is quite substantial. Isn't it? Practically, very little do we hear of varnasrama in its practical application. There is a great need, and time is running out. Because the more we delay, the more difficult it will be for us to adjust, the more difficult it will be for our children and the upcoming generations to adjust. In one conversation Prabhupada is practically arguing with his disciples, who are giving him all kinds of reasons why we should develop this program and that program in the city. Then Prabhupada says: "We don't want cities". We don't want cities. Then he asks this devotee, and this devotee, even counter arguing with Prabhupada, saying that "But Prabhupada, you established all the temples in the cities". Then Prabhupada says: "for now O.K." Then he says "Are you still going to be in the cities when the cities crumble?"

“Yes, 50% of Srila Prabhupada’s mission is yet to be done.”