Preaching is more important than managing

Expressions researched:
"preaching is more important than management" |"preaching is more important than managing"

1971 Correspondence

Yes, preaching is more important than managing. Just because you are preaching nicely and distributing so much prasadam, the management will follow like a shadow and Krishna will send you no end of help.

Letter to Satsvarupa -- Delhi 21 November, 1971:

I am very much encouraged that the school building may be purchased in the near future. But one thing, how the $30,000 is to be paid and wherefrom you have got so much money? 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.

Yes, preaching is more important than managing. Just because you are preaching nicely and distributing so much prasadam, the management will follow like a shadow and Krishna will send you no end of help.

I am glad that you are writing essays, and that all of our students are contributing their work. I think that if we simply improve the contents of our BTG magazine that so many changes are not required. I have written to Karandhara on this point, so you may write him for my opinion. What is the use of instituting many changes?

Preaching is like the head of our KC Society—if the head is removed, the whole body dies. Managing is the hands, which work nicely if the head is healthy. If the hands are removed, the body will not die, but it will be crippled. So preaching is more important than management, but both must be there if the whole body is to operate nicely.

Letter to Patita Uddharana -- Delhi 8 December, 1971:

I am pleased to see that routine work is going on nicely in Columbus center under your supervision. This routine work, such as chanting, speaking, rising early, cleaning, cooking and offering prasadam, arati, reading books—these activities are the backbone of our Society, and if we practice them nicely in a regulative manner, then our whole program will be successful. If we become slack or neglect these things, then everything else we may try will fail. So it is very important that you keep your standards very high in these activities, then your preaching will be strong. Preaching is our real business, preaching and distributing books. If your preaching work is strong, then your management of temple affairs will also become automatically very strong. Just like if the head wills it, the hand will move. Preaching is like the head of our KC Society—if the head is removed, the whole body dies. Managing is the hands, which work nicely if the head is healthy. If the hands are removed, the body will not die, but it will be crippled. So preaching is more important than management, but both must be there if the whole body is to operate nicely.

I am encouraged that you are improving your temple quarters by decorating them nicely. This will help to attract guests and interested people. I want that a high standard should be maintained, but unnecessarily changing and redecorating is also not good. So once you have established a very nice standard, avoid too much changing it again and again. That is wasting Krishna's money unnecessarily.