Leadership (Lectures)
Lectures
Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures
Kṛṣṇa therefore said, sarva-dharmān parityajya [Bg. 18.66]. "You give up all nonsense leadership. Simply come unto Me, surrender unto Me. I'll give you protection." That is wanted. Yes. Therefore we are following leader. There is no doubt about it. But there is misleader. Andhā yathāndhair upanīyamānāḥ [SB 7.5.31].
Just like a blind man is leading other blind men. What is the use of such following leaders? He is blind and I am blind. So if he leads me to cross the road, what [is] my life? My life is in danger. So don't follow these misleaders. Kṛṣṇa is approved leader. All leaders of the society, any part of the world, has accepted Kṛṣṇa as the supreme leader. Follow Him. Then you'll be happy.Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures
Pradyumna: With a future of Kṛṣṇa consciousness there wouldn't be any more political maneuvering, because the leaders would be willing to accept advice from the learned sages and brāhmaṇas and devotees. There wouldn't be any politics, and there would be understanding from the scriptures.
Prabhupāda: This is social improvement, ah, political improvement. What is the social improvement?
Revatī-nandana: The social improvement would be that when the people become Kṛṣṇa conscious under good leadership, then they would be satisfied. Then they would simplify the lives of the people, everyone would become happy, and...
Prabhupāda: The basic principle is that yenātmā suprasīdati. Social... Yat kṛtaḥ kṛṣṇa-sampraśno yenātmā suprasīdati. Every householder... Everyone is dissatisfied. There is no peaceful atmosphere between the husband and the wife, the son and the father. We remain, of course, together. But everyone is of different opinion. In your country it is very practically experienced. Nobody agrees with nobody. Everyone has got his own opinions. So if Kṛṣṇa's center... Even in Kṛṣṇa's center, we are having different opinions, because we are accustomed to live like that. But actually, if we are serious about serving Kṛṣṇa, then there cannot be two opinions. One opinion, how to serve Kṛṣṇa.Therefore, if you want real happiness, you must take the leadership of a man who has got eyes to see. Then it will be all right. So whose eyes are open? And that is in the Vedic literature said,
- ajñāna-timirāndhasya
- jñānāñjana-śalākayā
- cakṣur unmīlitaṁ yena
- tasmai śrī-gurave namaḥ
Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures
Initiation Lectures
General Lectures
Devotee: Should we chant?
Prabhupāda: Yes. Now you can. What is that? Take it. Chant. Authority, it is accepted like that. Because other authorities whom we are accepting, they have accepted... Mahājano yena gataḥ sa panthāḥ [Cc. Madhya 17.186]. We have to follow the footprints of other authorities. Leadership. In every society they are accepting leadership. So in that way you have to accept authority. There is no other process.
Man (8): No. Change is good wherever it's necessary, but according to...
Prabhupāda: Authority, everywhere authority is there. You have to accept authority. Without authority there is no, I mean to say, advancement. That is impossible. Now you have to select your authority. That is a different thing. But you have to accept the authority. In every society there is leadership, there is authority. So people accept it, and that is the way. Mahājano yena gataḥ sa panthāḥ [Cc. Madhya 17.186]. That is stated, that "We have to follow the footprints of the authorities." Now the next question will be whether you will accept this man as authority or that man as authority. That is a different question. But if you want to advance, you have to... Just like even in the crossing, you ask the police authority, "Whether I shall go this way or that way?" Authority is to be accepted because we are not independent. So you may select a different kind of authority. That is your selection. But authority you accepted, even if he is wrong. Without that, you cannot make progress.Philosophy Discussions
Śyāmasundara: He thinks in this philosophy, Marxist philosophy, that that is the truth so that he can present slogans to the people in such a way that they become controlled by that truth.
Prabhupāda: What is the value of your slogan if you are yourself controlled? Our point is that if you are yourself blind, how you can lead other blind men?
Śyāmasundara: Well, he's convinced that that is the truth. So he...
Prabhupāda: He is convinced, but where is the proof that his leadership should be accepted?
Śyāmasundara: That it works socially. That people are becoming happy under this philosophy.
Prabhupāda: But shall not be happy. If I am given under the control of Communist government, I shall not be happy. We were there for a week in Moscow. We were not at all happy. That boy who came to us, he is not happy. So where is your perfection? You make everyone happy; then it is all right. If you think that "I am happy, my brother is happy. That's all right. Let others go to hell," that is another thing.Hayagrīva: He says, "Our knowledge of God arises from the enactment of our duty."
Prabhupāda: So what is your duty? That God must be giving you the duty, "You do this," then you understand God; you know your duty. But if you have no conception of God, then where is your duty?
Hayagrīva: Well duty, one's duty...
Prabhupāda: These are vague philosophy.
Hayagrīva: Yes.
Prabhupāda: Not philosophy. It is simply ambiguous speculation, that's all.
Hayagrīva: He was also ambiguous when it came to a personal Deity, but he seemed to lean toward impersonalism.
Prabhupāda: We shall see impersonalism. First of all impersonalism, if you stick to impersonal, then there is no specific understanding of the master who is giving you duty.
Hayagrīva: He looks on the attribution of personality to God as simply a multiplication of one's self in his thoughts.
Prabhupāda: That's all right, but where is the leadership of impersonal understanding? Is there any leadership, impersonal understanding?
Hayagrīva: Well he feels that if you attribute personality to God, you're simply...
Prabhupāda: I am not attributing. God cannot be attributed! That is a false concept. I cannot manufacture God by giving my imaginary attributes. That is not God.Devotee: "Definitive English edition of Bhagavad-gītā. By bringing us a new and living interpretation of the text already known to many, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda has increased our own understanding manyfold."
Prabhupāda: That is a definite, not vague, speculative. That is the difference between my translation and others. Therefore I have given the name "As It Is." So we will be no spoke or speculation. As soon as you speculate, you are rejected. Therefore others are seeing some danger that "This Bhaktivedanta's..., this Bhagavad-gītā As It Is accepted, then where we are?"
Hayagrīva: Everybody wants to speculate.
Prabhupāda: That's all. We are, I have stopped it. They cannot speculate on the words of Bhagavad-gītā. That is our mission. Won't allow you to speculate. You are finite, imperfect. How you can by speculation give the unlimited, infinite? How it is possible? That is reasonable. Waste of time, misleading others. Aṇḍhā yathāndair upanīyamānāḥ. You are blind; how you can show others, blind men? They are already blind. You open your eyes, then take the leadership of the blind. Ajñāna-timirāndhasya jñānāñjana-śalākayā. That is our process.Hayagrīva: He felt... Marx writes, "The alien being to whom labor and the produce of labor belong, and whose service labor is done, and for whose benefit the produce of labor is provided can only be man himself." And he felt that throughout history that the working man has labored so hard for the construction of temples to God, and this should be changed, that man should work not to build temples to God but for the benefit of man.
Prabhupāda: So unless one understands that abide by the orders of God is the benefit of man... If there is any, any organization... Even in communistic country there are many men working, but there is one director. In the state also there is one dictator, either Stalin or Lenin. A leader is wanted. So the supreme leader is called God. So the Communist cannot do without leader. Even Karl Marx, he is giving leadership. So, so leadership is wanted. There you cannot change. A person, a society is working under the leadership of God or Kṛṣṇa, and a society is working under the leadership of Marx... What is this? Marx?
Hayagrīva: Marx and Engels and Lenin, they were...
Prabhupāda: And Lenin. So that leadership wanted. Now the question is who will be the leader—Kṛṣṇa or Lenin? That is to be understood. Without leader, either the Communist or the theist cannot work. So, so far accepting leadership, the philosophy is one. Now the question will remain, "Whose leadership is perfect?" That is to be decided. But the Communist cannot avoid leadership.
Hayagrīva: Like Comte, Marx believed that atheism was unnecessary because it was negative denial. He felt that socialism is positive assertion. He says, "Atheism no longer has any meaning, for atheism is a negation of God and postulates the existence of man through this negation. But socialism as socialism no longer stands in any need of such a mediation. It proceeds from the practically and theoretically sensuous consciousness of man and of nature the essence. Socialism is man's positive self-consciousness no longer mediated throught the annulment of religion, just as real life is man's positive reality through Communism." So that Communism really has nothing whatsoever to do with religion.
Prabhupāda: No. Our point is that religion is not sentiment. Leadership has to be accepted, either by the Communist or the theist or atheist. There is leadership. So when the leadership is selected and the direction given by the leader, you can take it as some "ism." So religion is the same thing. When we accept the leadership of God and His direction, that is religion. I don't think on principle the Communist can change this idea. The same leader is Lenin or Stalin, and he is giving his direction, and people must follow it. So where is the difference of philosophy? Similarly, Kṛṣṇa is there, His instruction is there, and we are following. So where is the difference in fact?
Hayagrīva: In either case there is authority.
Prabhupāda: Authority. So where is the difference in principle? There is no difference, but everyone will say that "I am the best leader." But who will select the best leader? What is the criterion of best leader?Hayagrīva: Lately he's turned into a Marxist.
Prabhupāda: Whatever it may be, there is government. In the Marxist, Communist country, there is government, so how you can avoid the government and leadership? That is not possible. Then the society is in chaotic condition.Hayagrīva: He gave the following criticism of Sigmund Freud. He says, "Sexuality evidently meant more to Freud than to other people. For him it was something to be religiously observed."
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Hayagrīva: "One thing was clear. Freud, who had always made much of his irreligiosity, had now constructed a dogma, or rather in the place of God, whom he had lost, he had substituted another compelling image, that of sexuality."
Prabhupāda: Yes, that's a fact. He has taken sexuality as God. But our position is that we must accept a leader. That is our natural tendency. So he gave up the leadership of God and took the leadership of sex. That is his position. Leadership we must have. That is..., this question also I asked to Professor Kotovsky, that "Where is the difference between your philosophy and our philosophy? You accept leader, Lenin. We accept leader, Kṛṣṇa. So where is the difference in the process?" So this is the nature of human being, to accept a leader. But this man, unfortunately, he lost the leadership of God and he took leadership of sex. That is his position.
Hayagrīva: Jung concluded, concerning Freud, he said, "Freud never asked himself why he was compelled to talk continually of sex, why this idea had taken such possession of him. He remained unaware that his monotony of interpretation expressed a flight from himself, or from that other side of him which might perhaps be called mystical. So long as he refused to acknowledge that side," that is the mystical side, "he could never be reconciled with himself."
Prabhupāda: (aside:) You are feeling sleepy. So then sleep. Feeling disturbed. [break]
Hayagrīva: He said that Freud's absorption with sexuality expressed a flight from himself, a fleeing from himself, from the side of himself which might be called mystical. As long as he refused to acknowledge that side, that is the mystical side, he could never be reconciled with himself, could never be at one with himself. So...
Prabhupāda: Yes. He was under the leadership of sexuality. That's a fact. Everyone is under the leadership. Just like sometimes we say, "The material scientists say like this, they say like this." He accepts the leadership. So we have to accept the leadership, but if we accept the leadership of Kṛṣṇa, then our life is perfect. Other leadership is māyā, māyā's leadership. But we have to accept leadership. There is no doubt of it. So he accepted the leadership of sex, but he did not admit it, but going on speaking on sex. And those who have taken the leadership of God, they will speak only of God, nothing else. Jīvera svarūpa haya nitya kṛṣṇa dāsa [Cc. Madhya 20.108-109], that is Caitanya Mahāprabhu's philosophy, that we are eternal servant of God. So as soon as we give up the service of Lord, then we have to accept the service of māyā. So all these different atheists, scientists, they are all servants of māyā instead of becoming servant of God. He is servant, but he is servant of māyā. That is the difference between devotee and the materialistic person.Hayagrīva: He feels that Walden II should be a community without a leader, that uh...
Prabhupāda: He wants to become leader.
Hayagrīva: Yes.
Prabhupāda: That is the idea.
Hayagrīva: The man who's setting up the community.
Prabhupāda: That's all right. He is suggesting that "You make me leader." That is the...
Hayagrīva: This sounds very familiar.
Prabhupāda: Everyone says, "Don't accept leader. Accept me as leader, that's all." But our proposal is that the, without leader nothing can be done. And the supreme leader is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and His representative should become leader. Then the society will be perfect. The supreme leader is God. So He gives instruction, and real leader takes the instruction by disciplic succession, and for the benefit of the total human society they spread the message of God. That is our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. Without leader nothing can be done. Even if he says that without leader, he is, that preaching is also leadership. So why people should accept his leadership if there is no need of leader?Prabhupāda: Oh, he is advocate of drugs.
Hayagrīva: Any emotional state you wish to be in, you can put yourself in that emotional state by simply taking a pill.
Prabhupāda: And put the society in chaotic condition then.
Hayagrīva: In this way society can be controlled, through the use of drugs.
Prabhupāda: Who will control?
Hayagrīva: Well he doesn't believe in any leaders.
Prabhupāda: Then who will control? Society controlled without any controller? What is the meaning?
Rāmeśvara: It's a type of communism, where the people work together in a communal way.
Prabhupāda: How they will work together? They require Lenin, Stalin, or something like that, to force them to work. Still, in Communist country there are manager class. Not only worker class, the manager class. So this is all utopian theory. It has no practical value.
Hayagrīva: In the United States all of the successful utopian communities have had a strong religious leader.
Prabhupāda: Leader must be there, religious or not religious. Everyone has leader. The Communist has got leader, and the spiritualists, Kṛṣṇa consciousness, we have also leader. So without leader nothing can be done. They may defy leadership, they may defy authority, but one who defies authority, he wants to become authority. So this is natural. Without leader nothing can be done.Page Title: | Leadership (Lectures) |
Compiler: | Visnu Murti |
Created: | 18 of jan, 2008 |
No. of Quotes: | 52 |
Totals by Section: | BG=0, SB=0, CC=0, OB=0, Lec=52, Con=0, Let=0 |