Devotee can have opposing opinions on current political issues. But they should be in line with indisputable Vedic Truths.
\nWe should always be aware of the nature of existence. Material activities are motivated by nothing other than the jivas desire to control and enjoy. However, because the jiva is a servant by nature, the occupations we perform are a service to society.
\nFor example, if the majority of people were not willing to get up each morning and go to work, there couldn’t be any semblance of a civilized society. We also need business leaders, politicians, and teachers. Members of society should fulfill their obligations to other members- who they recieve service from. This is piety; however, it is just another part of the effort to enjoy and control. In other words, even pious politicians are simply self motivated. Beyond that, most politicians today are devoid of piety.
\nIf we are going to form opinions on politics, I feel the article found in Renunciation Through Wisdom 1.3 ” The Godless Demons” is a must read. Srila Prabhupada describes impious modern leaders.They are driven by insatiable desires for wealth and power, yet they are so arrogant they think the plans they make to achieve it are benificial for society. They are master manipulators. They convince the electorate their plans are sacrosanct. Even after their big plans fail they continue to fool the electorate.
\nSrila Prabhupada wants to save us from being fooled by such people. He advices us to calmly consider the facts. We should never place too much faith in the plans of politicians. We should avoid jumping to a conclusion when a scheme appears to contain elements consistent with Srila Prabhupada’s teachings.
\nFor example, in order to prohibit intersex people from participating in female sports, Trump signed an executive order asserting that only two sexes exist. Srila Prabhupada emphatically condemned attempts of modern societies to blur the distinction between male and female. Therefore one might conclude that Trumps declaration is a conservative measure bringing society closer to Srila Prabhupada’s positition. But that is not the case.
\nDevotees are free to form their own opinion on fairness in sports. But the assertion that only two sexes exist is against objective medical facts and also repudiated by Srila Prabhupada. Below is part of a transcipt of a recording from 4\/15\/1967. Srila Prabhupada is creating a skit on the appearence of Lord Caitanya:
\nPrabhup\u0101da: Fifth scene, Lord Caitanya’s mother, \u015aac\u012bdev\u012b, is sitting underneath a tree, a n\u012bm tree. It is called n\u012bm tree. And the little child on her lap, and the visitors, so many visitors are coming, and they are offering some presentation. Somebody is offering gold necklace, somebody offering some bangles, some cloth, some money, and His father, he…, what is called?
\nJagann\u0101tha Mi\u015bra. Jagann\u0101tha Mi\u015bra is there? Yes. Jagann\u0101tha Mi\u015bra, His father. He was, whatever money and clothes and gold and silver they were coming, he was also distributing to poor men, some dancers. In India there is a system… What do you call? The eunuchs? Those who are neither male or female. What do you call? What is their name?
\nHayagr\u012bva: A combination of both, male and female?
\nPrabhup\u0101da: Yes.
\nHayagr\u012bva: A hermaphrodite. A hermaphrodite.
\nPrabhup\u0101da: Eunuchs, what is that eunuch?
\nHayagr\u012bva: A eunuch is…
\nPrabhup\u0101da: Feminine.
\nHayagr\u012bva: Impotent, an impotent… Someone who’s been castrated.
\nPrabhup\u0101da: Oh, that is called eunuch. By nature, neither man, neither woman.
\nHayagr\u012bva: Oh, this is also called asexual, that is to say no sex.
\nPrabhup\u0101da: No sex.
\nHayagr\u012bva: Hermaphroditic means they have the physical features of both man and woman.
\nPrabhup\u0101da: Oh. At the same time?
\nHayagr\u012bva: At the same time.
\nPrabhup\u0101da: I do not exactly… But such people, they have their own society, and their means of living is that whenever there is some good occasion, a marriage or childbirth, like that, so they go there and pray to God that “This child may be very long living.” In this way they make some prayer and get some…
\nHayagr\u012bva: These people… Now I don’t understand… This takes place at…, the sixth scene…?
\nPrabhup\u0101da: At Jagann\u0101tha Mi\u015bra’s house.
\nHayagr\u012bva: Jagann\u0101tha Mi\u015bra’s house. And his wife is who?
\nPrabhup\u0101da: This scene should be mentioned as Jagann\u0101tha Mi\u015bra’s courtyard.
\nHayagr\u012bva: And who is his wife, again?
\nPrabhup\u0101da: \u015aac\u012bdev\u012b.
\nHayagr\u012bva: \u015aac\u012bdev\u012b, yes.
\nPrabhup\u0101da: \u015aac\u012bdev\u012b is the mother of Lord Caitanya. She is sitting with the child, and everyone is visiting, visiting, presenting, or all…, everyone’s saying, “Oh, how nice child He is.”
\nHayagr\u012bva: And these asexual people…
\nPrabhup\u0101da: They are dancing.
\nHayagr\u012bva: They are dancing.
\nPrabhup\u0101da: Yes. They are dancing, “Hare K\u1e5b\u1e63\u1e47a.” Yes, like that. So Hare K\u1e5b\u1e63\u1e47a dancing is going there.
\nHayagr\u012bva: Yes.
\nPrabhup\u0101da: And visitors coming and presenting. That is a very nice scene. Yes. (End Citation).
\nhttps:\/\/vedabase.io\/en\/library\/transcripts\/670405lc-san-francisco\/#bb519837
\nThe communities Srila Prabhupada is describing are called hirja. They make a living by appearing at weddings and birth ceremonies, where they recieve gifts in exchange for blessings. They also beg and perform other sevices. I am not saying there are no controversy in India regarding some of their practices, or that they live utopian lives. But denying they exist is countefactual. (Interestingly, the British previously tried to make them disappear with the ” Criminal Tribes Act of 1871″).
\n Regardless of what one thinks is good and fair in women sports, President Trump fits Srila Prabhupada’s description in RTW 1.3. We should evaluate him in that light. He posseses billions of dollars, yet as president he is trying to push the power of the executive branch to the maximum. And he feels he can deny objective facts by signing an executive order. That is reaching for an extraordinary level of imaginary power.
\nIn general, because it is a foundational truth of Vaisnava ontology that the activities of all mundane politicians are are motivated only by selfish desires, we should also be careful to avoid the trap of having too much faith in agenda of politicians who are opposed to Trump(if that is where our sentiments try to pull us).
\n In conclusion: we can think what we want about fairness in sports, but we should avoid slipping into the trap of over appreciating plans made by those who are motivated by inordinately high levels of material desires.
\nParamadayala Nityananda Dasa<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Devotee can have opposing opinions on current political issues. But they should be in line with indisputable Vedic Truths. We should always be aware of the nature of existence. Material activities are motivated by nothing other than the jivas desire to control and enjoy. However, because the jiva is a servant by nature, the occupations<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-114474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-testing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=114474"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114474\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":114475,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114474\/revisions\/114475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=114474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=114474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=114474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}