Your destiny is created daily, not in a day.

Whatever you do every day - that is what you will become.

Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go.

William Feather

It’s a fact.

Stefan Trellenkamp, a University of Kaiserslauten researcher, engraved a tiny soccer field on a tiny piece of acrylic glass using an electron beam. It took him an entire day to make it precise in every detail at 500 nanometers by 380 nanometers - meaning that it and 19,999 others just like it would fit on the tip of a human hair. Trellenkamp is “really, really proud” of his achievement.

But there is just one problem: Since no one can see it, there’s no point in putting it on display. So? “I guess,” he told reporters, “it’ll just stay in my drawer for the time being.”

20,000 on the tip of the hair makes it “half the size of the human soul”. The old preaching line of: “They can’t see the soul because it’s too small” is now out.

The Svetasvatara Upanishad (5.9) confirms (…):

balagra-sata-bhagasya
satadha kalpitasya ca
bhago jivah vijneyah
sa canantyaya kalpate

“When the upper point of a hair is divided into one hundred parts and again each of such parts is further divided into one hundred parts, each such part is the measurement of the dimension of the spirit soul.” Similarly the same version is stated:

kesagra-sata-bhagasya
satamsah sadrisatmakah
jivah sukshma-svarupo ‘yam
sankhyatito hi cit-kanah

[Cc. Madya 19.140]

“There are innumerable particles of spiritual atoms, which are measured as one ten-thousandth of the upper portion of the hair.”

Bhagavad-gita 2.17 purport

The essential idea is that the soul is “outside the range of sense perception”. It may be that size in one sense, but it’s also imperceptible in another sense. That means that even if they can see things of that magnitude, they still can’t (as yet) directly perceive it.

A lot of people (myself included) have patterns of self-sabotaging / self-destructive behaviour and dysfunctional interpersonal behaviour. They undermine themselves and others through their actions, and just can’t seem to help themselves.

Many people these days come to us with a complex history of relationship disasters, beginning from an early age. Dealing with a range of people requiring help, I have an observation that I’d like to share.

Both self-destructive / self-sabotaging behaviour and dysfunctional interpersonal behaviour many times arise from coping mechanisms that people have developed to deal with emotional trauma.

Hurting people hurt people.

Identifying and trying to disarm this behaviour directly can be disastrous as it threatens to leave the person defenseless in the face of their underlying trauma. Our attempts to help the person need to go to a deeper level to help give them awareness of the deeper issue and provide them with the supportive framework that they will need to deal with that deeper emotional issue. When this is done, and the deeper issue has been resolved, the need for that coping mechanism will be removed and that behaviour can be retired.

Trying to change people’s behaviour without taking this into account will be ineffective at best, disastrous at worst.

Here’s the analogy: If someone is limping because they have a thorn in their foot, don’t try to get them stand up and walk straight - help them to get the thorn out. Walking straight will come from that, and that only.

The processes of sadhana-bhakti are indispensable in this, as they help to give a person the strength they need to work through it. Dealing with deeper issues in this way is important as it helps to make the personal interactions between practicing aspirants to devotional service harmonious. Otherwise the community will be filled with strife, and practice will be difficult.

Especially in a volunteer organization, to get results, focus on relationships first.

It’s the only way.

Whether it’s a partnership, a family, or a larger organization - the principle is universal.

Whether it’s a question of preaching or leadership - the principle is universal.

I missed my yoga teachers training class this morning. I just couldn’t face it at 6 am. Today I work a split shift - 8 am - 12 pm, 5 pm -9 pm, so I’ll be pretty worn out by the end of the day.

Here are some thoughts from this morning:

We should never curse people, only bless them. We should never wish them ill, only well. We should never think bad of them, only good.

Results come from relationships, especially in a volunteer organization. If we want to increase results, we have to put our energy into strengthening relationships. If we try to increase results without doing that we will strain relationships, and our efforts will actually produce the opposite result to the one we wanted.

Tonight His Holiness Ramai Swami gave class and lead an ecstatic kirtan.

Some thoughts from tonight:

There was one lady disciple of Srila Prabhupada back in the day who would go into the bin after the Sunday Feast, and eat the prasadam that the guests had thrown out, and she would be crying at how they had wasted the Lord’s mercy (prasadam).

I take the dust from the lotus feet of that devotee on my head.

Every time that I go to the temple (infrequently at the moment) I test my Krishna Consciousness. When I go to the caranamrita, I watch my mind to see if there is any spontaneous attraction to take the water that has washed the hands of the devotees. So far that is not any sign of real Love of God within my heart.

Moving a few chairs around is nothing. Pastor Rick Warren spent 10 years leading the setup of 54 environments in the school that his church leased each Sunday morning, and then taking them down in the evening. A team would go in, draw a diagram of the room on the blackboard, then rearrange it. In the evening another team would come in and put everything back the way it was on the board.

One day Rick was carrying some toys for the childrens’ program from the trunk of his car across the school parking lot, and thinking to himself: “So many other pastors just have to show up and preach each Sunday - why do I have to go through all this every week?” As he thought this, he suddenly had a deep realization of what Jesus Christ had gone through for his sake, and he just stopped right there in the parking lot and broke down crying.

A devotee once asked Srila Prabhupada: “Srila Prabhupada, in your books you say that in order to take to the process of Krishna Consciousness one must have studied all the Vedic literatures, performed all Vedic sacrifices, and accumulated so many pious reactions - but while we’ve taken to Krishna Consciousness we have never done any of these things, so where do our pious reactions come from?”

Srila Prabhupada replied: “I have created them.”

There are so many people out there who cannot do service. We have to do it on their behalf. Last night we did a couple of hours of kirtan before our meeting, and I dedicate all benefit for that chanting to Dianne Brimble, who died so ignomiously on a P&O cruise in 2002. No-one was there to chant the Holy Name for her when she left her body. No-one will perform the sraddha or pinda ceremonies for her, but I remember her and desire that the benefit of that chanting go to her.

May this body, which is otherwise fit to be eaten by jackals, be utilized for the benefit of others.

This very fallen and lowly servant of Krishna prays: May I remain in this material world for millions of births, giving up all desires for liberation and learning to selflessly serve the mission of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.

Before I shut down for the weekend; whatever realization I’ve developed in my service is the result of my Gurudeva expertly guiding me into different appropriate situations where I’ve been able to get the association of stalwart practitioners of Krishna Consciousness. By watching their expert dealings and trying to assist them I’ve been able to glean some small drops of mercy.

Further to my earlier post on How to deal with Criticism, here are the two disciplines that I personally strive to practice. Over the past week I have had the pleasure of discussing and sharing these, and it has made me more conscious of them, and the need to consciously apply them. If you mechanically practice these two disciplines, then you can appear like a highly emotionally intelligent, sensitive person. After some time of doing this, you start to get some realization, and the behaviour becomes more natural.

Inasmuch as I’ve been able to practice them, and increase in my practice of them, I’ve gotten better and better results. Of course we can always point out the instances where I haven’t followed them, but those failures also serve to illustrate the need and benefit of these disciplines. I apologise to those who read this and say: “Why couldn’t he have done that with me?” My realization and its application in my life is a work in progress.

Discipline #1: Always Listen, Never Defend

Scaled Composites is a company that recently won the long standing $10 million Ansari X-Prize by becoming the first privately owned civilian company to put a spacecraft outside the Earth’s atmosphere.

As part of their development in relation to safety they used a policy of “always question, never defend”. The idea was that through a rigorous process they would uncover any flaws in the design and implementation, and avoid the development of organizational “blindspots” based on assumptions or a silent conspiracy of avoiding the uncomfortable questions.

The first discipline is modelled on this idea, and it is called “Always Listen, Never Defend”.

Whenever anyone levels criticism against us, our first instinctive response is to defend. It’s natural. However, adopting a policy of “Always Listen, Never Defend” does a number of things:

1. If we have misinterpreted a cry for help or a show of love as an attack, we risk launching a counter-attack (from our perspective) that is actually a pre-emptive strike (from the perspective of the other person).
2. It stops the situation from escalating further by robbing the exchange of the energy it needs to do so.
3. It allows us to develop a sense of what is behind the criticism - what the person is experiencing internally, and what we can do to help that.
4. It validates the other person by allowing to feel that they have been listened to. Sometimes that’s all they need.
5. It enables us to hear valuable feedback that we might otherwise miss. Sometimes people do give us valuable feedback, even if it’s not always “valid”.

I’d like to expand a little on that last point.

In the Vaisnava tradition we talk about anarthas. The word anartha means “unwanted things”. Artha means value or valuable, and an-, as in Greek, is a negating prefix. These anarthas are conditioned behaviours that arise as reactions to previous experiences, or samskaras, that contribute to self-sabotage and dysfunctional ways of relating to others.

In the Christian tradition these are thought of as demons or evil spirits. I think the beauty of the Christian perspective, leaving aside the medieval implications and complications, is that it embues these anarthas with consciousness.

A synthesis of these two views is to think of anarthas like viruses - on a shadowy border between the living and non-living world. These things infiltrate cells and hijack them, and fight a rear guard action against the body’s immune system.

In the same way anarthas invade our consciousness and hijack our decision-making process in what could be interpreted as a conscious attempt to prevent us expelling them.

What we find is that these anarthas remain as patterns in our consciousness because we identify with them so strongly. We think that the anartha is us. We actually resist giving up unproductive behaviours and patterns of thinking because we mistakenly think that we will be giving up our very selves.

Oftentimes when someone tries to help us to see something that we need to work on it’s the anartha influencing our response - the devil sitting on the shoulder whispering in our ear: “How dare he say that!” “Who does she think she is!”

By adopting a blanket policy of “always listen, never defend”, aside from robbing the situation of emotional energy that will fuel its escalation we also rob our anarthas of the energy they need to defend themselves. Then in the dark of the early morning, when all others are sleeping, we can reflect and pray for guidance on the wisdom of the observations and how we should best deal with them.

I’d like also to expand a little on the second to last point, about validating the person.

We do not want to win on points. The other day someone approached me to arbitrate in a ongoing situation of conflict involving them and another person in our community. They had a list of points and a final score which showed them coming out ahead.

I gently made the point that actually we do not want the case to go to court. If it ever does, we have lost. In a community, and in a volunteer organization, everything is based on personal relationships. If we win the engagement, and destroy the relationship, what have we won?

Sun Tzu said: In the practical art of war, the best thing of all is to take the enemy’s country whole and intact; to shatter and destroy it is not so good. So, too, it is better to recapture an army entire than to destroy it, to capture a regiment, a detachment or a company entire than to destroy them.

Hence to fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting.

- Sun Tzu, The Art of War 3.1-2

The real Art of Peace is not to sacrifice a single one of your warriors to defeat an enemy. Vanquish your foes by always keeping yourself in a safe and unassailable position; then no-one will suffer any losses. The Way of a Warrior, the Art of Politics, is to stop trouble before it starts. It consists in defeating our adversaries spiritually by making them realize the folly of their actions. The Way of a Warrior is to establish harmony.

- Morihei Ueshiba, The Art of Peace

In order to avoid things coming to this situation, of direct conflict, we often need to remove our consciousness to operate on a different level. However, we wouldn’t be in the situation of conflict in the first place if our consciousness were at a different level. Therefore I strive to adopt the second discipline which I have a found a useful tool for creating this situation.

Discipline #2: Zero Complaints

My first job in the tech industry was working on an assembly line putting 486 PCs together. One day a company sent in a couple of old 386s to be upgraded. I replaced the motherboards with new 486 ones and we shipped the machines back to the customer. The 386 motherboards, obsolete a few months after they were purchased sat unwanted on one of the benches in our work area.

A few days later, out one night with a few people from work, I played devil’s advocate with the head of the service department (I was in production). I told him about the motherboards, and said that I had taken them home as no-one wanted them. He argued that they were company property and I could not remove them. I countered that no-one knew they were there, or cared about them, or would do anything except throw them out if they did know they were there.

We argued back and forth in this way (this was back in my pandit arguing for arguing’s sake phase), and then I went home. The next morning an irate Megan appeared in the assembly area. Megan was our highly strung red headed twenty-something sales rep. She started yelling at me about the motherboards, demanding that I produce them. I pulled one out immediately, and was hunting around for the other one when my manager walked in on Megan throwing a hissy fit.

“What’s going on here?” he demanded. Megan started carrying on in a highly excited manner about the motherboards. My boss looked at me and said: “Where are the motherboards?” I showed him the one I had and said: “The other one is around here somewhere.”

He immediately sized up the situation and launched his counterattack. “How dare you come in here and talk to my people like this! If you have an issue then you bring it to me! Now get out.”

After this we stepped outside to have a chat. I explained to him how the situation had come about. He looked at me and said: “Listen, you’re a really intelligent guy, but you’re a loose cannon.”

The import of this is: “You’re good, but you’re not that good - you’re more trouble than you’re worth.”

Our value to an organization or a community decreases as we cause more disturbance to others in that organization or community. Regardless of our individual contribution, it is the combined operation and contribution of the overall system that is more important.

It doesn’t matter if you are “right”. You should be right and not get any complaints.

In South America a lot of people complained about me. They even complained to me: “You’re not pleasing the devotees”. Of course, one of the reasons I was sent there was because the BBT operation was not being carried out properly, something that was not pleasing to senior management outside South America. I managed to contribute to fixing up that situation, however I wasn’t expert enough to do it in a way that didn’t ruffle people’s feathers. I may have been “right”, but I wasn’t right in the right way.

Since I’ve come back I’ve adopted a policy of aiming for Zero Complaints.

We don’t want to defeat people, we want to defuse them. We want to disarm them. We want to seek out the path of harmony, the win-win situation in the language of Stephen Covey. That can only be achieved by undergoing a paradigm shift. By adopting the discipline of Zero Complaints it forces you to do the hard work involved in shifting paradigms.

Complaints are a form of criticism. Unable to modify your behaviour by influencing you personally, the customers try to exert force on you through an authority structure. By aiming for Zero Complaints you start to work at the level of disarming the situation before it can develop. It forces you to go deeper into the context of what is going on.

It doesn’t matter what you think, it doesn’t matter how you feel - what matters is that the goal is to get Zero Complaints. Swallow your pride and do the needful. You’ll be surprised at what can happen when you adopt this discipline.

First of all - don’t react to it, act based on what is behind it.

Srila Bhakti Tirtha Swami explained that all transactions are motivated by one of two things: a desire to show love, and a cry for help.

I find this to be an excellent model to use.

In the case where it is a cry for help, someone may be acting out of pain. Inside they are frustrated, unhappy, or hurting in some way, and this is how it comes out. This person needs help.

In the case where it is a show of love, then we have to be careful to not misinterpret this and reflexively strike out.

If a person feels frustrated because they are unable to influence us, they may resort to trying to force us to react through a stinging criticism. They manage to capture the initiative and control our behaviour if we respond to that. The energy of the criticism will dissipate if we refrain from responding, and then we can deal in a more dispassionate way with the wider context of the situation.

If your heart is large enough to envelop your adversaries, you can see right through them and avoid their attacks. And once you envelop them, you will be able to guide them along a path indicated to you by heaven and earth.

Opponents confront us continually, but actually there is no opponent there. Enter deeply into an attack and neutralize it as you draw that misdirected force into your own sphere.

- Morihei Ueshiba, Art of Peace

I’m going to relate two shining examples from Sri Caitanya-caritamrita, taking the dust from the lotus feet of my learned and devoted Godbrother Vidyapati das before I do so, and then share two powerful disciplines that I strive to practice to develop this behaviour.

There are two events in Sri Caitanya caritamrita that I personally meditate on as examples of dealing with criticism. The first is the occasion that Nityananda prabhu and Haridas Thakura encountered the two brothers Jagai and Madhai. These two fallen sons of a high class family were drunkards, womanizers and robbers.

When Sri Nityananda and Haridas approached them to beg them to chant the Hare Krishna mantra, the two brothers responded by first of all attacking them with words. Haridas wanted to leave, which is obviously what the two brothers wanted, and tried to persuade Lord Nityananda to accompany him. Lord Nityananda persisted, and the two brothers escalated from words to physical violence, throwing a jug at Lord Nityananda and cutting his head. Still Lord Nityananda refused to respond on the same level, and continued to beg them, saying: “I don’t mind what you have done to me. Please chant the Holy Name of Sri Hari.”

When we begin an interaction with someone we do so on a particular level. When they respond to us it may be on a different level. The natural tendency is for our reciprocation to then approach their level, either going up, or down. In this way the exchange is negotiated. In this example, although Lord Nityananda approached the two brothers in good faith and good will, they reciprocated with very negative emotions. However, Lord Nityananda continued to give uplifting energy to them, even as they continued to escalate their negative response.

The result of the exchange is that the two brothers finally fell at the feet of Lord Nityananda and begged for his forgiveness, understanding Him to be a transcendental personality in a completely different category of consciousness from themselves. He wasn’t playing the same game they were.

You can see this in a microcosm on Harinam, if you ever go out chanting on the street. Look at people and smile. You will see some of them dismiss you with their glance, or scowl. Continue to smile and look at them, and you will see their heart melt.

Your spirit is the true shield.

- Morihei Ueshiba, Art of Peace

The second example takes place when Sri Ramacandra Puri criticises Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu for supposedly eating too much. Rather than responding to the unjust accusation Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu instead absorbs the energy of the criticism by humbly accepting it. The result is that Sri Ramacandra Puri ruins his own reputation with the devotees.

To injure an opponent is to injure yourself.

- Morihei Ueshiba, Art of Peace

Let me give one other example, which serves as a counter point. In the huge Vedic sacrifice organized by Daksa an argument begins between Daksa and his Aryan brahmanas on one side, and the followers of Lord Shiva on the other. First of all Daksa and the Aryan brahmanas begin to run Lord Shiva down. The followers of Lord Shiva respond on the same level. The situation escalates. Finally it ends up in violence and everyone is ruined.

I will share the two disciplines that I personally strive to practice in a further post, as this one is already long, and the further information is non-trivial.

Criticism arises out of frustration that we are unable to influence someone.

When people do not do what we want them to do, when they do not respond to our attempts to influence them, if we are not detached from the situation, our desire to modify their behaviour will manifest as criticism.

In the Art of Peace we never attack. An attack is proof that one is out of control.

- Morihei Ueshiba (founder of Aikido), Art of Peace

When we find ourselves criticizing someone else, we need to stop and look at what is going on.

First of all we need to admit: “I am criticizing this person because I want to change their behaviour, but I am unable to do so.”

We need to them objectively and dispassionately examine the situation: “Should I modify their behaviour? Or do I need to adjust my perception of the situation?”

“Is there something else in the situation I can change that means I no longer feel the need to change their behaviour?”

If we decide that we do indeed need to modify their behaviour, then we need to influence them. We cannot force anyone to do anything. People will do what they want.

Here is a secret. If people respect and appreciate you, then they will allow themselves to be influenced, modified, by you. People will respect and appreciate you if you respect and appreciate them.

Especially in a volunteer organization, influence is exerted across personal relationships. In a corporate environment influence may be exerted across a formal authority structure, but even there, if that’s all that is going on then the organization will not be very effective, and there will be low morale, customer dissatisfaction, and high staff turnover.

In order to exert influence across a personal relationship there needs to first of all be a personal relationship. Relationships are built on trust. Trust is preceded by trustworthiness. Trustworthiness takes time to demonstrate.

In volunteer organizations especially, but in all organizations in reality, personal relationships are the basis of the network. Influence is exerted over these relationships in a reciprocal manner, not in one direction. The strength of the relationship determines the amount of influence that can be exerted.

We have to touch people’s hearts before we ask for their hand.

Nityananda-kari devi dasi wrote to share her realization of the three essential elements of Authentic Community:

• Sadhana
• Seva
• Sanga

Here are my further comments on these points:

Sadhana refers to essential spiritual practice. Sadhana is the external gateway to a substantial “inner experience” of transcendence. Krishna Consciousness means consciousness or internal reality. The outer practices begin as forms, but through dutiful practice they reveal hidden reality within. Srila B.V. Tripurari Swami wrote a nice poem about this:

O rite and ritual
the light to reality,
What is your heart?
the river runs freely
I bathe with regularity;
the bell rings, all rise,
for whom doth thou toll?
then rhyme and rhythm,
the drum beats and
we are driven to dance
and song in abandon,
what merry have you made,
and why do I ask on?
O rite and ritual
your performance habitual,
when will we part-
the door between reality
to see your heart of spontaneity.

Mechanical practice alone won’t cut it, but neither will neglect of practice. It’s the middle path.

Social recognition didn’t make the cut for the necessary and essential three S’s. Having other people around us consider us to be a model devotee is no substitute for our inner cultivation. The praise of others around us, while alluring and so much easier than actual application to the process, rings hollow if we are internally empty, and the falsity of the charade cannot be maintained for long.

Our external sensual orientation since time immemorial, enflamed by present-day consumer culture and drawn to enjoyment of the objects of senses, takes us out of touch with our internal reality. We tend to gravitate to the externals of the tradition that our practice comes in and social standing easily and naturally replaces Sadhana and its internally transformative effects as our measuring stick for our progress.

Seva means “service”. It refers to actual engagement in activity, again mechanically in the beginning. The conscious engagement in service cultivates an internal service mentality, transforming our identity, and allowing us to understand our real relationship with reality. Service should be performed under guidance, and it is an eternal function of the living entity.

Before enlightenment - chop wood, carry water.
After enlightenment - chop wood, carry water

Without the service mentality there is no question of Krishna Consciousness. If you don’t have a service mentality, then do service - you’ll get one.

Over the past few days we’ve discussed cutting off our sikhas. We’re not going to do it because everyone will freak out and start saying that we’re deviating. It will also cause some disturbance in our public profile - community needs continuity. The important thing to understand here is that “Sikha” is not one of the essential three. Get rid of your social standing and your sikha, and you can still be Krishna conscious. Get rid of Sadhana and Seva, on the other hand, and it doesn’t matter how big your sikha is or how popular you are at pizza parties.

As new people come to restock the Red Hill ashram the last thing I want is for them to start thinking: “Hey, these guys have a funny haircut. I’ll get a hair cut like them, and then I’ll be one of the boys.” Being one of the boys means Sadhana, Seva, and Sanga, not Sikha. Let me tell you a story that really brings this out:

In Peru I had many adventures and met many con men. One such personality was a guy named Willy who showed up at the temple with a proposal. He wanted to utilize an unused space in the downtown temple during the day to give a course. The course was to be a certified course on “Inyectables”, which where you learn to give injections (South America is… different). His proposal was that he would charge these people money, and give me a cut.

In discussions it became apparent to him (maybe it was when I told him point blank) that I wasn’t interested in money. It should have been obvious from the start - you don’t go from Australasia to an inner-city South American temple for the economic benefits. Anyway, he started trying to figure out what made me tick. I helped him out by telling him: “I’m a missionary. I came here to preach”.

I was not at all swayed by his attempts to exploit my self-interest, but I considered that his coming was an arrangement of the Supreme, and went along with him to see what would happen.

With zero start up capital he secured an inner city space. Next he put up a sign on the street outside: “Employment: Chicas wanted - Apply within”. He soon had a steady stream of young ladies looking for work, and a stack of CVs on his desk. The terms of employment were simple. The girls would be trained for two weeks, with no pay, then they would go out and canvass in universities and schools for the course, and as students started coming and enrolling, money would be generated. The girls would be paid, and we would get a cut from the whole thing.

It was impressive to see him at work, hustling like anything. Meanwhile I was quietly running background checks on him and insulating the operation from the temple.

After one interview he called me over. “Hey, Sita-pati. This chica, she wants to ask you something. She’s interested in your religion”. The girl stood there, embarassed. “Go on,” he prodded her, “Ask.”

She stared at the floor and blushed. “I was just wondering what you do here….” she blurted out.

I explained briefly what our temple operational concept was. “Okay,” said Willie, giving her a push toward me and motioning in the direction of our small temple gift shop. “Now you can take her over there and get her one of those tunics that you guys wear.”

That’s what you call an extremely superficial external conception of what this is all about, and we do not want that.

Willy didn’t last.

Sanga means community. We “find ourselves” in community, not in isolation. We are part of something much bigger than any one of us. None of us is the complete whole, self-sufficient. Our identity is integral to the identity of everyone around us. Relationship, or rasa in Sanskrit, is fundamental and eternal. Community starts with realizing that we are not the center of the universe, and it goes from there.

“Sanga” without sadhana and seva, however, simply becomes social standing. It’s apparent community, not authentic community. At the moment of death we stand alone, and the condition of our heart is tested. All the fallible soldiers that surround us cannot save us at that moment.

What’s another S that we can disqualify from the three S’s? How about “sari”. The previous example showed that how you dress is not an essential characteristic. We need to be careful about relying too much on the external show - the sikha, the social standing, the sari, and allowing that to make us feel like we are “devotees”, when what we need to do is focus on Sadhana, Seva, and Sanga, in order to become transformed. Let’s be aspiring devotees forever, striving to do something, anything, to become a devotee, and never feeling that we have “made it”.

Here is an interesting article about Atma Yoga from 2003 that includes a brief excerpt from Prema Pradipa by Bhaktivinode Thakura where he mentions internal indifference to external formalities, along with external acceptance of them.

It is also mentioned in his Sri Krishna Samhita. Shukavak N. Dasa describes this in his book “Hindu Encounter with Modernity” when he analyzes the Sri Krishna Samhita in the fifth chapter:

Bhaktivinoda begins the Sri-krishna-samhita with a description of two types of men, one he calls Bharabahis, meaning literally one who carries a burden and the other Saragrahis or one who searches for the essence. The Bharabahis are the masses of men who are attached to religious externals (lingas), which he classifies as customs, ritual and doctrine. He points out that sectarian fighting and religious discrimination are the result of the Bharabahi’s over attachment to religious externals.

In contrast to the Bharabahis are the Saragrahis, or the great souls, who are unattached to religious externals and spend their time seeking the essence of truth. The Saragrahis are few in number and do not organize themselves into religious sects. They recognize the Bharabahi’s need for religious externals and so they participate in the use of these externals to a certain extent.

Anyway, we’re not going to shave off our sikhas, because I know that will disturb everyone’s minds, but we should be ready to do it at a moment’s notice, for example, if we have to go to Singapore to preach, where you can’t have a sikha. Being attached to sikha, sari, and social standing is not the goal. Being attached to Sadhana, Seva, and Sanga is. And then there is Lord Rsabhadeva’s instruction to not be attached to the process… but we’ll leave that consideration for the mahatmas. I’ll settle for attachment to the real process, as distinguished from the apparent one.

• The more helpless we become, the more empowered we can become.
• We should always act from a desire to help others, and never on the basis of relieving our own discomfort.
• Anything done in separated ego consciousness is material. Anything employed in relation to Krishna and His service is spiritual.
• I may be born as Arab, Jew, White, Black, Male, or Female. That is my temporary identity - the particular station I have been tasked with stewarding in this life. However, no matter what external circumstance I am born in I am always a servant of Krishna - that is my eternal, persistent identity.
• On the basis of the material body there is division. On the basis of spiritual identity there is harmony.
• The purpose of speech is to empower others to act in such a way that they elevate their consciousness. Words that are spoken for purposes other than this are a misuse of the power of speaking.

What we are all about is Authentic Community. That is the real product or service that we are peddling at Atma Yoga – that is the unique contribution that we have to make to humanity – our “value proposition”.

All the other things we have are to support and supplement that – but Authentic Community is the secret herbs and spices – it’s the secret ingredient in our special sauce.

First of all, Authentic Community means “bringing people together with Krishna in the center”.

This is the primary necessity for Authentic Community. We must have something in common. And what will that common point be? It must be the most inclusive, universal point. It must be a lasting point. That point can only be Krishna. If we put some other limited proposition or personality in the center of our community then we will have a temporary community, we will have a community which includes some and excludes others. Only by putting Vishnu, or Krishna, who is the source of all living entities and is all-pervading, in the center can we create Authentic Community. That is our real common interest - our common source of being.

Next, Authentic Community has other characteristics that distinguish it from the apparent community that characterizes our present day existence, and frustrates our search for satisfaction and a fulfilling and meaningful existence.

Authentic community is not created or experienced through passive consumption - it can only be created through contribution and participation. Today we frequently experience community through consumption. We sit back and passively consume goods, services, and even experiences, in order to experience community. We live vicariously through reality TV shows and read the meta-reality experience on news websites, and in this way experience community with the others around us. We sit on couches and stare at televisions. We buy from the same stores, go to the same shows, and in this way construct our identity and our common identity through consumption.

Authentic Community on the other hand is based on participation and contribution - “be yourself and make a contribution”. It’s not about being exploited in the name of being served - it’s about actively serving one another. Authentic Community is based on a spirit of service, one to another.

Even in a community where supposedly Krishna is at the center, without the spirit of active service, without participation and contribution, there can be no Authentic Community, only apparent community. While lip service is paid to the ideal of putting Krishna in the center, secretly, subtly everyone tries to put themselves in the center. Everyone will sit down and wait to be served, and no-one will stand up to serve. Rather, everyone should stand up to serve, and no-one should sit down to be served. If we find ourselves in that situation, with everyone standing up to serve, and no-one sitting down to serve, then we can turn outwards and see the millions of people who surround us, waiting to be served. Waiting to experience Authentic Community.

We need to give people the opportunity to engage in Authentic Community. They cannot engage if they are relegated to the position of “consumers”. We cannot be “consumers of Authentic Community”, we must be contributors, we must be co-creators, we must be active servants in order to experience Authentic Community.

We have to create opportunities for everyone to engage in Authentic Community. That is what it is all about.

The basis of human community is looking at the faces of other persons as you eat. That is the basic human experience of community. We have to give people the opportunity to do this, and to serve each other. By giving them the opportunity to take sanctified foodstuffs, to serve one another, and to sit in a comfortable environment where they can look at each other and converse, the first taste of Authentic Community can be had.

In the Atma Yoga side of things we have to strive for high quality, professionalism, depth of knowledge. On the Atma Lounge side of things we have to strive for Authentic Community - personalism, service, inclusion. If these things can be done along with high quality and professionalism, then all well and good. Otherwise high quality and professionalism must be sacrificed, because they are secondary considerations! People have to feel that they have some ownership of the space, that they have the opportunity to contribute and influence, that they have the opportunity to serve. Let them taste the nectar!

This week I haven’t made it to any of my yoga teacher training classes so far. I’m living a “triple life” at the moment. Before I was leading a double life - now it’s a triple life. Any small thing that comes up right now is a major issue. I can’t sustain this pace for much longer. It’s challenging, and it’s calling me to rise to another level, and I hope it ends soon.

I have a 40 hour a week job. We have 14 people in the ashram, each requiring time to listen to, time to consider their needs and how to serve them, and time to counsel and advise. We have Atma Yoga, and I have the yoga teacher training course with 14 hours a week of classes. At present I’m unable to create excellence in any of these areas - I simply stumble along faultily, begging for forgiveness on all fronts, and praying to be released soon.

In the meantime, I have been getting some small realizations from the activities that I’m engaged in. I know that there are many people out there for whom these will be no revelation, especially those persons who go out each day to talk to people on the streets and go door to door to share Krishna Consciousness, but it represents what I’ve been made conscious of recently.

Knowing is not a substitute for doing, or being.

What we know is only as valuable as it informs our actions, which are the real testimony of our character.

Study of the Vedic philosophy, explained Srila Prabhupada, is not meant for “armchair speculation”, but for formation of character.

It’s easy to fall into the trap of knowing instead of doing, knowing instead of being, especially when we’re surrounded by other people who are doing the same. However, we have to vigorously resist this.

John Maxwell said that “people don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care”.

It’s a fact - mere undigested knowledge that hasn’t been assimilated into something that contributes to our character is useless. People do not care so much about what we know, as they do about what we are. People judge us on what we are. What we know is only useful as much as it contributes to that. The process of bhakti yoga is not an informational one, it’s a transformational one. Philosophy and knowledge are abstract constructs that should serve to provide us with a framework for our practice, and that practice should change our heart.

You get a very real sense of this when you move among people who do not share your values or your world view. They do not appreciate how many slokas you have memorized. They don’t care about your Bhakti Sastri degree. They don’t care about all the things that raise your social status amongst other adherents of your faith.

These people will measure you on more basic things. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been a devotee, how many slokas you know, how much you’ve read, how well you play harmonium or mrdanga, whether you know all the secret handshakes and the lingo. If you haven’t developed humility, tolerance, compassion, empathy, sensitivity, generosity, patience, selflessness, and all the other good qualities that should be developing from the practice of bhakti-yoga, then you can’t bluff it - because your character is all they can judge you on.

Staying within the walls of a small association of persons who share the same worldview it can be easy to “find your place” and once again restructure on the basis of unspoken social norms. “I won’t rock your boat, if you don’t rock mine”. We fall into an uneasy truce. The outer trappings of the tradition begin to eclipse the inner products of the practice.

In a situation where people do not accept your history, your scriptural arguments or anything else that you might proffer, the only testimony left is your personal character.

What you are speaks so loudly because I can’t understand anything that you’re saying.

When Srila Prabhupada came to the West no-one knew who he was. No-one knew what a Bhaktivedanta was, or what a spiritual master was. People interacted with him one-on-one as a person and took him at face value, and they were attracted to him, attracted by what he was, by his personality.

Now with an institution and a building and a structure of social norms and traditions it can be easier to hide behind “things”. Knowing instead of doing. Knowing instead of being.

Can we recognise the truth when it is spoken to us in different words? Is it truth that we recognise, or simply the words used to describe it? Do we possess truth, are we connected with truth - or simply with words? Have we accepted knowing over doing, knowing over being? Are we satisfied to “possess the highest truth”, to have the answers and know them theoretically, or at least as much as they can be known theoretically, rather than actually put them into practice and know the highest truth in a deeply experiential way that transcends description - the pratyakshavagamam dharmyam, the principle of religion understood through direct experience described by Krishna as the perfection of religion?

Can we communicate truth to people in their language, or do they have to learn ours? Can we meet them where they are at, or must they come to where we are? Is the truth portable - does it come with us when we move, or must we be close to the forms?

When our theoretical knowledge greatly exceeds our practical application we end up in a dangerous situation. Knowing instead of doing, knowing instead of being. We accept lip service to doctrine as a sign of actual progress, and can even fall to valuing doctrinal purity over personal purity. “What you believe” is more important than what you do (which is a product of what you are).

Knowing can never be a substitute for doing, and thence for becoming, and ultimately for being. We have to internalize the knowledge - practice as we preach, learn everything, then forget it as we become it, and come back to it with a renewed vision.

Getting out with the people is good, because it helps to test this. They don’t care what you know - they care what you are.

I’ve been meditating more and more on the realization shared with me by a friend recently:

As I was reflecting on how easy it is to become in a “victim” mentality I thought how your “lead, follow, or step aside” is also relevant there in a similar way. You can either lead your life, follow your life as it drags you around, or you can step aside. Goodness-passion-ignorance.

Here is what I think about this:

The outcomes of the decisions we make are partially dependent on the paradigms and methodologies we employ when we make them. The outcomes are also dependent on the will of Providence and our previous karma. In that calculus the only thing we can change are the paradigms that we employ to make our decisions. The only way we can help others is by helping them progressively improve the paradigms and methodologies they have at their disposal and utilize in their decision-making.

We own the responsibility for the paradigms and methodologies we employ. The rest we should accept as the will of the Lord. No-one else can be blamed for what happens to us.

The best methodology to employ is to get good guidance, to be open to transformation, knowing that transformation is the only advancement and is the goal of all activities, and to make a conscious decision to not be a “victim of circumstances”, but rather a “servant of the situation”.

We are where we are as a result of our own choices and the will of the Lord. We can’t choose what happens to us, but we can choose how we respond. In every moment we should accept the situation as just, and ask ourselves the question: “Now, how can I serve?”

In relation to the “professional kirtaniya” idea in the previous post - I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again:

We need to have a professional attitude without having a professional mentality, and we should be careful to not confuse the two.

Yat karosi tat kurusva mad arpanam: “Whatever you do, do it as an offering to Me” means that we need to strive in all endeavours for the highest quality. Everything is Deity seva. Everything is Deity paraphenalia. Everything is Krishna’s and should be used for His service.

Everything should be done to the highest standard - a professional standard - but without the professional’s profiteering mentality.

A friend writes:

As I was reflecting on how easy it is to become in a “victim” mentality I thought how your “lead, follow, or step aside” is also relevant there in a similar way. You can either lead your life, follow your life as it drags you around, or you can step aside. Goodness-passion-ignorance.

Here is a good discussion about the use of “technology in worship“. The comments are especially insightful and illustrative. It’s the old “harmonium in the kirtan” conundrum again. I spoke about this last time we were at New Varshan (Tri Yuga, do you still have the recording?).

It’s a tension between the Holy Name and the carrier wave of musical sound vibration. We know that the active ingredient is the Holy Name of the Lord, but we want to deliver that to the public with a nice sound vibration so that they will sit still and listen to it. At the same time, we don’t want to forget what the essence is. So therefore Srila Prabhupada said: “No harmonium in arati kirtan”, and at the same time spent so much time personally training the missionaries he sent to England in music, and wrote so many letters to Hamsadutta casting the vision of the “World Sankirtan Party”.

At the Sunday Feast here we are developing the first part of the program as something like a musical performance, more akin to a spectator event (no one came and participated anyway, so it’s no loss) and retaining the second final kirtan as interactive dancing and singing with a major emphasis on the participative congregational chanting of the Holy Name.

It’s really important to have that, because that’s what changes people’s hearts. Having the musical aspect helps to get them to come. It’s not a question of one of the other, but both. We need to get people to come, and we need to give them access to the technologies that they need to cleanse the heart.

It’s the same thing with everything that we do. Overemphasizing on one side or the other reduces the effectiveness of our preaching. Overemphasizing “telling it like it is” and “giving it to people straight” helps us end up with an empty room, or at least to miss a lot of our potential audience. Overemphasizing “meeting people where they are at” and “considering their needs and their comfort zone” helps us end up with a room full of people going nowhere.

The art of preaching is to get the balance right. For every story of Srila Prabhupada giving a thunderous denunciation there is another of him taking time to talk about racing cars or some other trivial subject that his audience was interested in.

Adaptive in the field. Conservative at home.
Innovative on the edge, Traditional at the core.

We need both.

-Srila Prabhodananda Sarasvati

The Glories of Melbourne Mahaprabhu Mandir

Word - Vraj, Prahlad and I are back from kickin’ it old school at the Melbourne Mahaprabhu Mandir during a lightning 24 hour visit.

Our god brother Gopal Guru and his good wife Krishna Murari are now happily married and moved into their little cottage next to the temple. It was a wonderfully lavish ceremony followed by a delightful reception where soma rasa du jour - Bundaberg Ginger Beer - flowed like water (there were mystical bottomless jugs of it on each table).

Let me get some photos up later today.

It was great to visit Melbourne Mahaprabhu Mandir, although briefly this time round. Now that I know where it is and how to get there, I’ll be back.

I got to see (ever so briefly) so many old associates from NZ-preaching days there, as well as meeting a lot of new friends such as Bhagavat-katha, Krishna Graja, Kotesvara, Vikash, Vijay, Divya-jnana, and a lot of others.

I would say that in terms of temples Mahaprabhu Mandir is currently the leading light of ISKCON in Australia. Actually the temple reminded me so much of ISKCON’s Western Headquarters, New Dwaraka in Los Angeles. It is a fully functioning old school model temple, an extreme rarity today.

In the Contemporary Urban Preaching Seminars His Holiness Devamrita Swami makes the comment: “Today if a temple manager can pay the bills and minimally serve an expatriate Indian congregation, they are considered to be successful.”

I would like to add my purport to that: ‘sa mahatma sudurlabhah” - “Such a great soul is very rare”.

I’d also like to add that the congregation in Melbourne is being more than minimally served. The facility afforded for developing Krishna Consciousness to those persons who are fortunate enough to understand its value there in Melbourne is significant, with sastric (scriptural) education, retreats, festivals, and a solid temple program.

Here are a few of the highlights of the opulence of this temple:

• Six pujaris on the altar in the morning - three at 4.30 am, a different three at 7.00 am
• 30 + people in mangal-arati
• Silver arati paraphenalia
• Intercom system connecting the entire complex
• Wireless SM58 mic in use everywhere
• K&M mic stand
• Fully stocked temple shop with reasonable pricing structure
• Massive community
• Support for all ashrams - places for unmarried young people to stay, for married couples engaged in service, and for sannyasis
• Financial maintenance based on distribution of prasadam

The temple costs around $15,000 per week to maintain, and this money is collected through the two restaurants that the temple operates in the city. That’s a very pure, upright, and honest economic arrrangement.

The K&M mic stand is a high quality German manufactured microphone stand. That detail communicates a lot.

I’ve been to a number of temples in nine different countries, and in that sampling I’ve only seen three temples based on this model that are actually functioning. Those are New Dwaraka in Los Angeles (TP: Svavasa dasa), ISKCON Santiago in Chile (TP: Adi-kesava dasa), and Mahaprabhu Mandir in Melbourne (TP: Aniruddha dasa).

If you haven’t seen so many temples it might be difficult to appreciate the situation there, but to do service in an environment with so much community and social support is something rarely obtained in today’s world, and something that should be highly valued.

It’s a great testament to both His Grace Aniruddha prabhu and his hard-working wife Her Grace Acintya Rupa devi dasi the rock solid stability that they have been able to create there to give shelter to so many people.

This was the second wedding where our paths have intersected, as people that we have previously cultivated through our urban outreach programs have gone on to serve at Mahaprabhu Mandir, and then gone on to make the transition to married life in Krishna Consciousness. I’m sure there will be many more.

Everywhere I go I’m always looking for inspiration. Anyone who saw me there would realize that Atma Yoga in Brisbane owes a lot to the opening of the Lotus Room in Sydney in December of this year. I also picked up a lot of inspiration while in Melbourne, even though it was only for 24 hours. Here’s one thing immediately:

Aniruddha and Acintya Rupa have been married for 25 years. Param Satya and I have been married for 8 years this month. In the past year I’ve been to two of my god brothers’ weddings, both of them with Aniruddha and Acintya Rupa present. Getting married is one of life’s transitions, and I now realize that we are going to have to track people through these transitions as we “do life” together. It’s part of taking responsibility for contributing to people’s experience of life and building authentic community.

Both of these marriages have caught us on the back foot, not because they weren’t communicated with sufficient notice, but because of the way we’ve structured our program. We haven’t allocated time or resources to tracking people through these life changes - being there to provide support. Now I’ve gotten the realization of how important this is. For every person that we accept in our house, we have to make allowances for being there through these changes in the future. The commitment doesn’t end after a few years. It goes all the way.

Anyway, I’m pretty thick, but after seeing it twice I get the idea, and for the next one we’ll be properly situated.

Melbourne Mahaprabhu Mandir ki jaya!

All glories to the devotees doing service there. Your austerity and sacrifice is creating a shining example for Australia and for the world. Keep up the good work. We’re relying on you.