Growing up and correcting the excesses of the past

In the past, we used to tell young men who would become attracted to spiritual life to abandon everything, surrender to Krsna, avoid Māyā (the ladies), and remain as brahmacārīs.

In the past, we used to tell young men who would become attracted to spiritual life to abandon everything, surrender to Krsna, avoid Māyā (the ladies), and remain as brahmacārīs. Some would succeed and indeed become lifelong brahmacārīs, and some of them became very elevated devotees. The problem was that the success rate was not very great, and most of the devotees would leave the temples after a few years. They would then often find themselves in a difficult situation because they had just spent the years they were supposed to finish their material education and become settled in life, living in the temple, without any intention of ever going back to secular life.

Now, without any savings, without a profession, and often with spoiled relationships with parents and other relatives, they would find themselves in quite a disadvantaged position, having to maintain not only themselves but often also a wife and small children. Many of these devotees had to contend with just living day to day, working in low-paid jobs, without much time or peace of mind for properly practicing spiritual life, much less to actively contribute to our movement. Many of them became quite bitter seeing god-brothers and god-cousins who remained in the temples becoming leaders and living comfortable lives while they were battling to just make ends meet. This situation also affected the perception that their family members had of our movement, creating further problems.

This was done on a large scale in the eighties and early nineties (in some places it may still be done even today), but later this approach was contested when the negative results became clear.

Some imply that this was what Prabhupada wanted, but that’s not exactly the case. Prabhupada gave ideals for the practice of Krsna consciousness while leaving the practical implementation to his disciples. His approach would be to allow his disciples to take risks and try new approaches to spread Krsna Consciousness, and later try to gradually correct excesses. While he alerted us not to make changes in the essential parts of the message and process, we are supposed to continue this process of correcting and adjusting our approach when things are not working properly.

There is also a great difference in the way it was done in the early years of our movement (while Prabhupada was personally present and his disciples had a direct connection with him, being nourished by the strong spiritual atmosphere he created) and the way it was done later, in the more toxic atmosphere of the 1980s, where temple devotees would often not be properly nourished spiritually.

Apart from the material problems, there were also often psychological problems, coming from years of unhealthy relationships with the opposite sex, which again would be the product of excesses. This would, again, be the product of excesses, trying to implement ideals Prabhupada set for people in renounced life to young men who would not have the necessary spiritual baggage. A brahmacārī who was trained in a fanatical way, learning to be averse and inimical to ladies, would understandably have difficulties in later adjusting to family life. This would also create problems for the wife and children.

On the one side, it is indeed said in the scriptures that sex life is the most formidable rope that ties us to this material world, and in this context, women are considered māyā for a man, just like men are considered māyā for a woman. However, at the same time, married life is the way to properly use sexual life in the service of Krsna, and thus learn to control it. As He explains in the Bhagavad-Gita (7.11): “I am sex life which is not contrary to religious principles.” A few devotees who bring experience from their past lives may be successful as lifelong celibates, but the general path is for one to first become successful in family life and then become renounced in one’s later years.

Our movement now exists for almost 60 years. During this time, many devotees had the opportunity of observing the results of what was done in the past, and gradually fix many mistakes. Nowadays are still a few temples and groups where the old approach is still prevalent, but mostly things are changing.

Nowadays, we are not told that everyone should live in the temple. It’s understood that not everyone has this tendency. Some devotees go to live in the temple and are trained as brahmacārīs or brahmacāriṇīs, but others just remain at home and practice Krsna Consciousness while studying and working.

There is also an understanding that most of the devotees who go to live in the temples are going to later enter into family life, and thus there is more emphasis on preparing them for it. There is much less of the “family is māyā” style. The few devotees who show a tendency for being lifelong celibates are encouraged in this direction, while the others are encouraged to enter into family life. This is one example of practical application of varnāśrama, which Prabhupāda expected us to develop.

In some yātrās in India, devotees organize dormitories near universities, where students can live while studying and at the same time receive spiritual training and association with devotees. These dormitories are normally self-sufficient in the sense that the expenditures are shared between the residents, but they are usually cheaper for the students than other options. The rules are typically relaxed in comparison with temples, but the students are supposed to follow the four principles and attend spiritual programs. After concluding their studies, some opt for joining the temple and receive additional training as brahmacārīs, while others just continue practicing outside.

Some temples, like Chowpatty, don’t accept boys as brahmacārīs before they conclude their studies. This has two advantages: the first is that only the most qualified end up in the temple, avoiding those who want to use spiritual life as a way to escape responsibility. The second is that it guarantees that the boys will later have the means to maintain a family. One may think that by setting such a high standard, the temple has few brahmacārīs, but it’s exactly the precise opposite: the temple is full to capacity. The reason there are so many candidates is precisely because the temple has high standards. This gives us a valuable lesson: often, we lower standards in a big way to bring more people to the temples and be able to maintain the services, but it can be very negative in the long term, as the progressively lower standards will guarantee that sincere people will remain outside.

Srila Prabhupada described universities as “slaughterhouses of the soul”, due to the many mistaken concepts taught there, and the general degradation of the teachers and students. The problem is that technical education is necessary for devotees to have professions and be able to maintain their families. As long as we don’t have Krsna Conscious universities or functional rural communities where devotees can learn how to maintain themselves, universities are still a necessary evil. In the past, there were many cases of leaders who would tell devotees not to study, but this would later create many problems, as devotees would later find themselves without means of maintaining themselves.

Different temples may have different approaches, but the general tendency is that now there is a much greater emphasis on training, instead of just using temple devotees as cheap labor, as was done at certain points in the past. We are growing up, so to speak.

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