Welcome to the Purely Prabhupada channel. This video series is called “Reality distinguished from illusion for the welfare of all.” My name is Kamra devi dasi, and I am a disciple of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada.
This is number seventeen of the series. It is called “Community development- learning from past mistakes.”
I can only speak from my experiences and observations in the development of Krishna Conscious, God Conscious, communities that were formed under the direction of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. Of course, as I have explained in several of my previous presentations, I work independently of that organization by mutual agreement, and it is for the best as far as my outreach endeavor goes.
Sustainable, God Conscious communities are essential. This means cooperation, this means mutual respect, this means that people need to be situated according to their natures, both physical and psychological. Then, there can be individual and collective strength, and everyone can advance in the goal of life, learning to love God.
In the past, even though there were farm communities, the management system did not support empowering the individual devotees in their service to God, Krishna. Empowered, independent devotees were actually seen as a threat to the management, and those who expressed their concerns and insights were often banned and shunned. There was the appointment of a “leader,” often a heavy handed one, and everyone was expected to fit into a pre-conceived (and generally ill conceived) managerial structure. This was disempowering to everyone. People gave up careers and incomes at the behest of such leaders who eventually proved to have been incompetent to demand such loyalty, and the devotees were left with nothing. This system hardly left room for creative inspiration and expression in the service of the Lord, for real development of the individual and the community, and for proper responsibility to the family.
Even today, when devotees of God think of developing self-sustaining community, they still think first of how to develop the managerial scheme and then how to find people who will fit into that scheme. Community does not mean commune where we get “plugged into” some role or duty and where there is no ownership of resources that will inspire productivity. Srila Prabhupada told us that “ownership turns sand into gold,” and we see practically that when everyone takes responsibility for their own homes and land, that there is peaceful progress on the spiritual path and generally harmonious devotional interaction.
Sustainable community development means to first find devotees who naturally are inclined to work with each other according to their innate talents and abilities, their priorities and focus as a group, and let them manage themselves according to their needs and natures.
A system that is based contrary to that is disempowering to everyone and stifles enthusiasm. It actually emasculates the men and makes the women unchaste to the husband. It works like this- If the men are subservient to a heavy-handed, unnatural management system, they cannot express and execute their natural masculine traits, and the women see their husbands as weak and take the authority of the community managers over that of the husband. It’s not just theoretical. I saw it over and over.
In my own case, when I was married at the ISKCON farm in Pennsylvania in 1975, just after the ceremony, the temple manager said to my new husband that even though we were now husband and wife, that he, the manager, still had the say over my service and schedule, and not the spouse. I watched my beautiful, 6’4” husband shrivel inside. By the ongoing haranguing and criticism from management, coupled with his own spiritual weaknesses, he eventually left the association of devotees, and our family was split up. This was not the way it was meant to be regarding spiritual community development, although I cannot argue what was likely my own destiny and the destiny of my sons in this specific regard.
But devotional, God centered communities are essential. His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada wanted the establishment of such communities, he stressed their importance, but he was not able to personally coach us in the time he had with us. He hinted at different things and gave direct instruction about some other things. He said that the communities should be based on cow protection and agricultural pursuits, he told us to at least grow our own food, he taught us about the different natures and qualities of people, he wanted us to become “independently intelligent,” he wanted “simple living and high thinking,” and he emphasized that the most important thing was to reawaken our dormant love for the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Sri Krishna.
We need to live in this world, and sustainable community is the most supportive atmosphere for our development of Krishna Consciousness. We can share duties as we like, childcare, education, cooking, group chanting and studying, and even devotional entertainment. Cooperation is voluntary, and we can thrive in our expression of service to God, under the guidance of those who are more advanced in spiritual realization and the studying and application of Srila Prabhupada’s books. (These books are available at PurelyPrabhupada.com.)
I can only share from my own experiences, but maybe some of these insights are valuable to others as they work to develop intentional communities. But no community will work over the long term if there is not the shared intention to reawaken our natural love of God, however that expresses according to local and cultural preferences.
