By Dhanesvara Das
Money, that ubiquitous substance that everyone the world over pursues to fulfill their desires, is rather young in the history of the worldâa mere 2,600 years or so old. Prior to that there was no such thing as we now understand it anywhere on this planet. The earliest form of money found in India was that of the Greeks, and is estimated to have arrived there certainly no sooner than the fifth century BCE.[1] Prior to that time all trade was done by barter exchange. There was no notion of âthe economy,â and such a thing was certainly not the focus of everyone as it is today.
Often when I make this point someone will cite the fact that Balarama wagered gold coins in His chess gambling match with Rukmi, and that this is therefore âproofâ that money was in India at that time. While coins may well have been crafted as a convenient way to handle gold, those coins did not serve as a medium of exchange as money does today. Indeed, in the KRSNA Book (Chapter 11) Srila Prabhupada explains that in those days trade was done by exchange: âUpon hearing the vendor call, âIf anyone wants fruits, please come and take them from me!â child Krishna immediately took some grains in His palms and went to get fruits in exchange. In those days exchange was by barter; therefore Krishna might have seen His parents acquire fruits and other things by bartering grain, and so He imitated.â
Understanding this point is essential for our correct understanding of how the varnashrama culture operated, because we often hear devotees assuming it to be the case that money was a feature of Vedic society. It was not, and there are important reasons for that. We will come back to money and varnashrama culture below, but letâs first look at how varnashrama culture functioned.
Varnashrama culture functioned by the cooperative effort of all segments of society. From the Bhagavad-gita we learn that people are divided into categories known as varnas, and that each group would work according to their guna and karma, or their own nature. Many people have experience of the great satisfaction achieved by doing work that they genuinely like to do, which is another way of saying that it is according to their guna and karma. Each varna had their âduties,â which are explained in the dharma shastras. In the varnashrama culture members would voluntarily do this duty understanding that doing so would lead them to a heavenly reward and a higher birth in their next incarnation. Further, the ksatriya was tasked with seeing that everyone had proper engagement. This protected both the individual as well as the group. Their duties were typically performed in cooperation with others, each person reciprocating the service of others with his own service.
We can get some insights into the social dynamics of the varnashrama culture from Bhakti Vikasa Maharajaâs description of Bangladeshi culture in his book Glimpses of Traditional Indian Village Life. There he writes:
âBangladeshi culture does not promote individual dynamism, competitiveness, or the type of efficiency required for technological advancement. Rather, although not uninterested in economic development, a Bangladeshi is more concerned to preserve the indigenous group culture that fosters the sharing and cooperativeness necessary for a traditional labor-intensive agrarian society… Necessity also dictates maintaining good relationships with neighbors. Most people arenât well situated economically, so those who have more are expected to help those with less. Itâs a culture of sharing and responsibility toward others… Bangladeshis emphasize dependence on others and a sense of group identity. They usually say âour houseâ and âour countryâ rather than âmy houseâ or âmy country.â… The group lends support when a member is in difficulty, whether moral, social, or economic. Reciprocally, members have obligation to the group, one of which is conformity. In fact, the pressure to maintain fellowship with the group is extremely strong. In this way the group regulates the behavior of its members, keeping them within the bounds of acceptable conduct.â
I want to underscore that efforts that were made to maintain the group dependency, because individual members falling away from the group would threaten the survival of the entire group. Although I do not know that varnashrama culture is intact amongst these Bangladeshis it is not unreasonable to extrapolate their experience to varnashrama culture, since it must also have been a labor-intensive culture that depended on the support of the group. Varnashrama culture also functions on the basis of such mutual dependence. The varnashrama culture is often compared to a social machine, and if important parts are removed from the machine it cannot function. We learn from the Bhagavatam how the varnashrama culture began to disintegrate with the fall of the brahminical class, then later the ksatriya class, and now it is the vaisya class that is wreaking havoc all over the world.
Adding Money to Varnashrama Culture
What would happen if money is added to a mutually-dependent group such as the Bangladeshis or varnashrama culture? Letâs consider the influence of money. Typically money makes us feel independent of others because money allows us to purchase our necessities in the market. This gives us a sense of freedom which we have come to value in modern society. The result is that when a person has money, they donât need others and donât have to conform to the group standard. They are free to act independently. If I have money I donât need you. And if you have money you donât need me.[2] It should not be too difficult to see that the effect of money is to destroy the group solidarity of the mutually-dependent cultures, which in turn destroys the culture itself. We have a recent example of this from the formerly isolated area of Ladakh.
Anthropologist Helena Norberg-Hodge, was the first foreigner accepted to make her home in Ladakh (Kashmir). She had the privilege of living there over the course of three decades, coming to know life in the traditional villages before the intrusion of Western culture. She documented what it was like both before and after the influx of the West, and how the Ladakhi culture was destroyed. She writes:
âA Western tourist can spend more [money] in a day than what a Ladakhi family might in one year. Seeing this, Ladakhis suddenly felt poor. The new comparison created a gap that never existed before because in traditional Ladakh, people didnât need money in order to lead rich and fulfilling lives. Ladakhi society was based on mutual aid and cooperation; no one needed money for labor, food, clothing, or shelter…In the traditional economy, Ladakhis knew that they had to depend on other people, and that others in turn depend on them. In the new economic system, local interdependence disintegrates along with traditional levels of tolerance. In place of cooperative systems meeting needs, competition and scarcity become determinants for survival.â [3]
Another important aspect is place: in mutually-dependent societies everyone has a place from which to relate to others. they may wish to have a higher status, but in any case they have some status. Having a place gives a person a sense of belonging and a sense of security. With the introduction of money we can be free, but our place can only be had when we have a job. Without a job we have no place in society and thereby become alienated. This increases the sense of voidism and impersonalism that has so alienated the masses of people in the modern day.
What we learn from these cultural lessons is that we cannot successfully mix these two cultures: the modern culture with its artifacts such as money, and the traditional of mutually-dependent relationships. Indeed if we want to have a close and supportive community we have to combine our interests, and particularly our economic interests. This will do much to bring us closer together and give us a real sense of security.
Unfortunately in our efforts to understand and establish rural communities we have not understood the necessity of village economics, and thus we have not been able to achieve the successful results that we so desired. In our future efforts to establish the varnashrama culture we must be careful to understand the proper functioning of the varnas, the positive results of mutual-dependency, and what is necessary to protect the budding culture from undesirable cultural influences.
[1] Studies in Indian Coins, D. C. Sircar, Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 2008, pgs. 4, 8, 349 [2] Of course this is illusory since without the help of many others our money is useless. [3] Helena Norberg-Hodge, The Pressure to Modernize and Globalize, from CaseAgainst the Global Economy, Jerry Mander, and Edward Goldsmith, editors, Sierra Club Books, 1997
Check out my blog about the solution to sustainability: http://gitagrad.blogspot.com. And checkout my blog about the solution to the economic crisis: www.spiritual-econ.blogspot.com.
Dear devotees
Here is some more information about barter, referred to by our friend Dhanesvar Prabhu:
âContrary to popular conception, there is no evidence of a society or economy that relied primarily on barter. Instead, non-monetary societies operated largely along the principles of gift economics. When barter did in fact occur, it was usually between either complete strangers or would-be enemies.
While one-to-one bartering is practiced between individuals and businesses on an informal basis, organized barter exchanges have developed to conduct third party bartering. The barter exchange operates as a broker and bank and each participating member has an account which is debited when purchases are made, and credited when sales are made. With the removal of one-to-one bartering, concerns over unequal exchanges are reduced.
A trade or barter exchange is a commercial organization that provides a trading platform and bookkeeping system for its members or clients. The member companies buy and sell products and services to each other using an internal currency known as barter or trade dollars. Modern barter and trade has evolved considerably to become an effective method of increasing sales, conserving cash, moving inventory, and making use of excess production capacity for businesses around the world. Businesses in a barter earn trade credits (instead of cash) that are deposited into their account. They then have the ability to purchase goods and services from other members utilizing their trade credits â they are not obligated to purchase from who they sold to, and vice-versa. The exchange plays an important role because they provide the record-keeping, brokering expertise and monthly statements to each member. Commercial exchanges make money by charging a commission on each transaction either all on the buy side, all on the sell side, or a combination of both. Transaction fees typically run between 8 and 15%.
Limitations of a barter economy
⢠Need for presence of double coincidence of wants:
⢠For barter to occur between two people, both would need to have what the other wants.
⢠Absence of common measure of value:
⢠In a monetary economy, money plays the role of a measure of value of all goods, so their values can be measured against each other; this role may be absent in a barter economy.
⢠Indivisibility of certain goods:
⢠If a person wants to buy a certain amount of another’s goods, but only has for payment one indivisible unit of another good which is worth more than what the person wants to obtain, a barter transaction cannot occur.
⢠Lack of standards for deferred payments:
⢠This is related to the absence of a common measure of value, although if the debt is denominated in units of the good that will eventually be used in payment, it is not a problem.
⢠Difficulty in storing wealth:
⢠If a society relies exclusively on perishable goods, storing wealth for the future may be impractical. However, some barter economies rely on durable goods like pigs or cattle for this purpose.â
Of course, we could go on further and explore other concepts such as those of ânatural economyâ or âgift economyâ, as well as those of âsimple livingâ, âintentional livingâ and âethical livingââŚ
There is a lot of brain trust to be done, within our society of devotees, with the help of experts of all spheres, to come about with an appropriate model.
Besides, reality is often more complex than it appears to be.
For instance, the example of Bangladesh mentioned in the article, doesnât state whether Hindus or Muslim communities are referred to (or both), neither does it assert having to face climatic calamities in Bangladesh as a factor increasing togetherness. Interestingly enough, it is in Bangladesh that a recent Nobel Price laureate, Muhammad Yunus and his Grameen Bank, introduced the concept of micro credit and micro finance, lending small amounts of money to poor entrepreneurs and entrusting women in particular, with the responsibility of paying back the loans.
Besides, aborigine cultures all over the word, from the American Indians to Amazonian or Australian tribal cultures, ignored the use of money to facilitate exchanges as they had none with the outside world⌠but I doubt their model of society be attractive to most of our present fellow citizens on the planet.
Therefore, my personal suggestion is that we have to be progressive and practical in our approach.
In this way, we should not scare away people and appear as if we wish to dismantle 3000 years or more of civilization developed on the basis of travel, which generated trade and thereby a useful tool both for trade and travel, i.e. the invention of currencies or of what we currently call money:
âMoney is any object that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts in a given country or socio-economic context. The main functions of money are distinguished as: a medium of exchange; a unit of account; a store of value; and, occasionally, a standard of deferred paymentâ.
Srila Prabhupada printed his âBack to Godheadâ and Srimad Bhagavatam, with the money he earned selling medicines. Srila Bhaktivinoda acted as a judge and certainly received a wage for that, i.e. some money in exchange of his services, via what would nowadays be called a paycheck.
Srila Bhaktisiddantha Sarasvati Thakur expressed that the only thing missing in this world was Krishna consciousnessâŚ
So, before wishing to drastically change the functioning of society in all aspects, while neglecting modern aspects of solidarity expressed within our contemporary mutually-dependent groups or societies (expressed via social security, medical care, welfare, unemployment subsidies, retirement pensions, etc.), and wishing to eradicate the use of currencies, I guess we may have more urgent priorities, such as assisting people in becoming Krishna consciousâŚ
Moreover, to this menial servant of yours, the Varnashrama system is exemplified by the divine couple and their personal entourage, be it by Themselves directly as Sita Rama, Radha Krishna or Gour Gadhadara, or through their dear associates such as Maharaja Bharata, the Pandavas, who acted as ksatriyas, Rupa and Sanatana who became ministers to the Muslim ruler, Ramananda Raya who acted as the Governor of Madras, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur who acted as judge, Srila Prabhupada who acted as a vaishya, etc., before they dedicated themselves to purely spiritual activities full timeâŚ
So, even though it may be good to theorize about what was the ideal model in Vedic times, it would all the more useful and practical to brainstorm about what should be the progressive implementation of varnashrama within ISKCON and especially within society at large, as most devotees live outside ISKCON grounds and are members of society.
To give you an example, I have been contacted by one of our devotees who is an advisor to a ruling royal family of the Middle East, for some business opportunitiesâŚ
This gives us an idea of what the world will be like, when businessmen, politicians, doctors and barristers, workers and housewives will be devotees, when âjudges in the high court will bear tilak on their foreheadâ, which Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur envisioned, as the landmark to measure our success in spreading Krishna consciousnessâŚ
For this global task to meet some success, we require everyoneâs good will, to share their experience and intelligence, as this is not one or two menâs job to master mind such a universal projectâŚ
Your servant in the service of Srila Prabhupada
Das dasanudasa
Puskaraksa das
Dear Puskaraksa,
Hare Krishna. Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. Thank you for the reply to my article, and if I may, I would like to offer a reply to your statements. I will try to do this very gently so that you do not have the impression that I am flagellating you. No doubt you are a sincere devotee, but you appear to either miss the point of this article, or are simply using the forum for your own purpose. I wonât try to guess which.
The focus of this article was relationships: the relationships in a labor-intensive culture and the influence of money on those relationships. You respond with some information about barter and then extol the virtues of money, but say nothing about the central thesis of relationships. We can debate the history of economic exchange, and the pros and cons of money, gold, etc. in another place if you like, but those are quite off the point as they are not the focus of this article.
Another point of this article is exactly what you have suggested: to consider how to progressively implement varnashrama within ISKCON and society at large in modern society. I apologize if I did not make that clear. If money destroys the relationships so necessary to varnashrama culture, then how shall we approach the establishment of the varnashrama culture today? Shall we do away with money? Or is there some other alternative? My thesis is that mutually-dependent relationships are necessary for proper varnashrama culture and that money is an anathema to them. Further, I present the idea that we have collectively missed this point in our âfarmâ projects (if they were ever âvarnashramaâ projects is another question), and because of this we have not seen the success that we so desire.
If you have some comments on the actual thesis of this article I would be happy to respond further.
Wishing you well in your devotional service.
Your servant,
Dhanesvara Das
Dear Dhanesvara Prabhu
Please accept my humble obeissances.
All glories to Srila Prabhupada. All glories to Sri Guru & Sri Gauranga.
In the line of Sri Jagannath Sen, Srila Gour Govinda Maharaja told me in 1986 in Bhubaneswar, as a pure devotee, and a Vaishnava sannyasi, holding his beads bag in his hand, in the then-under-construction Krishna-Balarama mandir:
âWhen I heard that Krishna is Dina-bandhu, the friend of the fallen, naturally I ran and came.
But, now that I hear that He is Bhakta-vatsala, that the devotees are dear to Him, I cry, I cryâŚ
For I am not a devotee, I have no devotionâŚ!â
So, reading your answer, I first rejoiced for you mentioned that you had no doubt I was a sincere devotee⌠So, this gave me hope⌠But, then, right after, you mentioned that I was either foolish or self-motivated, which shattered my hopes and led me into griefâŚ
Therefore, I wonder, when will I ever be worthy of the association of such an exalted devotee as your good selfâŚ
This being said, if I may I would just like to state that whatever my answer was to your article titled âMoney and Varnashrama cultureâ, it was done in a constructive spirit so that we may avoid falling in the trap of indulging ourselves in the criticism of present society at large and its members in particular, what to speak of other ISKCON members who try to bring their humble contribution to the debate⌠(unless one prefers that there be no debate).
Over criticizing contemporary society and not seeing its plus points, as well as trying to find faults with others, will neither make us popular, nor the thesis we try to promote, be it in the name of a such an exalted Vaishnava Acarya as Srila Prabhupada!
Therefore, we have to beware that our little fund of recently acquired knowledge, be it in the field of economy or any other field, may not inflate our ego and prevent us from becoming a swanlike person, seeing both the good in others and the positive side of everythingâŚ
Besides, we should not loose sight of the fact, that âutility is the principleâ as Srila Prabhupada instructed usâŚ
Hence, what is the use of spending hours criticizing the use of money as the source of all evil, when devotees are selling books and collecting money to promote our projects.
Thereby, I humbly suggest that we focus on attainable goals and do not waste precious time in lesser productive debatesâŚ
Your servant in the service of Srila Prabhupada
Puskaraksa das