Why did Bhaktivinoda Thākura leave with half of his work unfinished?
When Śrila Bhaktivinoda Thākura was leaving the planet, he famously said that he was leaving with half of his work unfinished. How to understand this famous statement?
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When Śrila Bhaktivinoda Thākura was leaving the planet, he famously said that he was leaving with half of his work unfinished; because he was not able to establish varnāśrama. Similarly, when Śrila Prabhupāda was leaving, he said he only completed 50% of his mission, with the other half being the establishment of varnāśrama, which he tried but didn’t have time to complete.
If we take these statements seriously, they point to a deeper strategy: our ācāryas delivered the essence, pure devotional service, yet they also wanted a sustainable social foundation that would allow ordinary people to gradually rise toward that essence. In every generation, there are a finite number of sincere devotees who will be able to rise to the standard of pure devotional service. The question is how to elevate the rest.
Both Śrila Bhaktivinoda Thākura and Śrila Prabhupāda were able to successfully teach the path of nivṛtti-mārga, or the direct path of renunciation in full surrender, which is the shortest and ultimate path for obtaining love for Godhead. Prabhupāda spoke about it extensively in his books, and that’s what most devotees were trying to practice in the early days of our movement.
The difficulty is that this is a very difficult path, usually feasible only under the direct guidance of a pure devotee. Therefore, while it was possible when Śrila Prabhupāda was present, it became harder after he left. We can practically see that in the early days of our movement, practically all devotees were living in temples, waking up every day to attend morning programs, distributing books, performing saṅkīrtana most of the day, etc. Things we often don’t consider even trying nowadays.
When he was preparing to leave his body, Śrila Prabhupāda instructed devotees to keep following what he taught without change. In other words, he wanted a core of devotees to continue following the direct path of nivṛtti-mārga, being thus an example for others. At the same time, he envisioned a model that would allow devotees who are still struggling in a material platform to practice and progress gradually. In other words, he left for his disciples and spiritual descendants the mission of also figuring out and implementing the process of pravṛtti-mārga, the path of regulated life and gradual elevation according to the varnāśrama system. Although an indirect path, this is the path that most of us can follow and thus be gradually elevated to the path of nivṛtti-mārga. Just like it’s not possible to reach a tall platform without the help of a ladder, it’s very difficult for anyone on a materialistic platform to directly ascend to a platform of full renunciation without first passing through the path of a pious and regulated life.
The implementation of this indirect path is of fundamental importance for the continuation of our movement, since without it, only a few will be able to attain the level of qualification necessary for practicing the direct path. That’s why both Śrila Prabhupāda and Śrila Bhaktivinoda Thākura put such a great emphasis on the cultivation of varnāśrama-dharma. Without this secondary option, most will end up failing in their spiritual attempts. Only when both paths are available will our movement be able to spread in a sustainable way.
It’s thus not about discussing which path is better. Both paths are good in the sense they support different individuals. Ideally, both must be available simultaneously.
Often we imagine varnāśrama as an inflexible system of rules or some form of caste system where everyone has to be labeled either as a brāhmana or kṣatriya or as a vaiśya or śūdra. However, the basis of varnāśrama is simply people living pious lives, working according to their natures, and being trained to perform their duties. In other words, the basic conception of varnāśrama is a set of social and spiritual tools that allow us to build prosperous spiritual communities and live in a spiritually conducive way. Anyone who is not living a life of complete renunciation can benefit from it.
Varnāśrama is thus not just a hobby, but a set of spiritual technologies that is essential for the establishment of our movement, allowing it to progress from just a confederation of temples to a real alternative to the materialistic lifestyle, with prosperous communities where people can live happily and be properly engaged. It is the cultural fabric that can allow our spiritual communities to flourish.
Krsna explains in the Bhagavad-gītā that out of many thousands of people, one may endeavor for perfection. When we offer people only the option of leading a renounced life, we can reach these rare birds, but other people will be largely not interested or may even try, but not be able to follow it. On the other hand, when we offer people a formula for living a pious and happy life, being prosperous in their lives and relationships, but at the same time progressing in the spiritual path, our audience suddenly becomes much broader.
A useful analogy is a ladder. If someone is already on a high platform, a ladder may seem unnecessary. But if someone is still on the ground, insisting they just jump to the roof is unrealistic. Similarly, asking people who are deeply conditioned to immediately live like fully renounced saints often produces two outcomes:
a) Hypocrisy (external show without purification of the heart).
b) Collapse (burnout, discouragement, giving up).
Varṇāśrama is meant to function like a ladder: it offers a structure in which people can live piously, stabilize their lives, and gradually become qualified for deeper spiritual practice and renunciation.
If a spiritual movement offers only the fast track, it will certainly benefit a small number of highly qualified souls. But it may fail to nurture the majority, especially householders, people with jobs, children, aging parents, those with weak health, or those with difficult minds.
When both tracks exist side-by-side, the culture becomes sustainable. We have then a core of devotees seriously practicing nivṛtti-mārga and serving as living inspiration, and simultaneously we have a broad base gradually rising by practicing pravṛtti-mārga in the form of stable devotional life within regulated duties.
Without this secondary option, many sincere people may repeatedly fail, feel unfit, and drift away, not because they are not sincere, but because the cultural support system is missing. The question is thus not to argue about what is better, but to offer the right medicine to the right patient.
Kṛṣṇa explains that the social divisions are created according to guṇa and karma (quality and work), and that the system exists to elevate human beings toward spiritual realization. The system is thus not based on labels but on training, engagement, and purification.
Śrila Bhaktivinoda Thākura mentions that all organized societies have a certain resemblance to varnāśrama since, without it, no society can work. Śrila Prabhupāda mentions how even the USSR had people acting as intellectuals, merchants, and so on, despite the attempts of the communists to make everyone a menial worker. In fact, we will find that the natural division explained in the varnāśrama system can be found even in aboriginal societies. In every case, someone is teaching and offering spiritual and moral guidance, someone is fighting, someone is producing food, and someone is working. The question is that different societies display only parts of the varnāśrama system, applied more or less accidentally. Our goal in our spiritual society would be to better understand the real system and apply it in a functional way.
Currently, we are still on the level of most ordinary societies, randomly applying some aspects of the varnāśrama system in a more or less accidental way, and just like most societies, we have all kinds of problems in our communities.
It’s very difficult to understand all the intricacies of the varnāśrama system since there are currently no examples of societies applying it fully. There is no place where one can go and learn about it, seeing a functional example of a group where it’s being applied. All we have are instructions from our previous ācāryas and a few descriptions and examples from the scriptures that are frequently misunderstood.
How to get there? My realization is that the first step is to gradually elevate ourselves to the mode of goodness, following the instructions Krsna gives in the Bhagavad-gītā. As long as we are in passion and ignorance, it’s not possible to properly understand the scriptures, just like someone using red or blue lenses will never be able to properly see colors. We can observe this phenomenon in all kinds of religions: Muslims in passion and ignorance want to make Jihad, and Christians inquisition. Similarly, devotees influenced by passion and ignorance often try to implement adulterated and restrictive models of varnāśrama. Only in goodness can we start understanding and being able to implement it properly.
The ladder, for most of us, is to first practice sādhana, combined with the study of the scriptures, cultivation of good habits, and so on, gradually elevating ourselves to the mode of goodness. From the mode of goodness, we can develop character (including qualities such as honesty, honoring our word, etc.) that makes cooperation with other devotees in a similar stage possible. When a certain number of such enlightened devotees come together, a functional culture may take shape. Such an evolved social culture can facilitate and support spiritual practice, leading to stable practice, deep renunciation, and eventually pure devotional service.
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