{"id":3494,"date":"2019-06-12T04:51:10","date_gmt":"2019-06-12T02:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=3494"},"modified":"2019-06-12T04:52:06","modified_gmt":"2019-06-12T02:52:06","slug":"why-is-it-so-diffucult-to-find-people-who-will-take-responsibility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=3494","title":{"rendered":"Why is it so difficult to find people who will take responsibility?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Answer by Niranjana Swami<\/strong><\/p>\n[Question]: Managers have to deal with some unpleasant things like problems and financial crisis or whatever, and then if they get more in to spiritual life, they are generally losing inspiration for dealing with these things. Why is it happening? It\u2019s one way or the other way\u2014why is it happening like that? Devotees in general, they don\u2019t feel inspired to take up responsibility to be involved in all these external engagements. Why is it so diffucult to find people who will take responsibility?<\/em><\/p>\n[Niranjana Swami]: Management is a headache. It can be a very big headache. But I\u2019ll tell you why I\u2019ve taken up such a responsibility for so many years. It\u2019s because I see it in relationship to serving Srila Prabhupada\u2019s mission; because, I\u2019m one hundred percent convinced that Srila Prabhupada wanted an institution. Institution means headaches. There\u2019s just no way around it. I saw Prabhupada take those headaches. And I saw many other leaders, under Srila Prabhupada, taking those headaches. And, although it\u2019s more than twenty-five years after Srila Prabhupada\u2019s departure, I still see many of my godbrothers who take those headaches for one reason only\u2014it\u2019s a burden of love. That\u2019s the only thing. It\u2019s a burden of love for the spiritual master. <\/p>\n

As we spoke about he other day, Srila Prabhupada\u2019s vision for spreading Krsna Consciousness was through an institution. Where did he get that vision? From Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura. And although Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura had given the instructions to form a GBC\u2014to organize an institution\u2014Srila Prabhupada made it clear in his books what happens after his departure. <\/p>\n

There are some many elevated followers of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta, but they neglected something\u2014something that Srila Prabhupada didn\u2019t neglect. We hear it all the time; but if we really want to appreciate it and realize the full glory of what Srila Prahbupada did, we have to take that burden of love. You\u2019ve got nectar. That\u2019s one thing that you have to appreciate. You\u2019ve got nectar. Other devotees may never be able to appreciate that. <\/p>\n

They may appreciate so many other gifts that Srila Prabhupada has given us. Srila Prabhupada has given us the holy name. He\u2019s given us the association of Vaisnavas. He\u2019s given many wonderful things. But Srila Prabhupada\u2019s gift to this world is that he\u2019s left behind an institution; and he asked his followers to please at least maintain it after he\u2019s gone. Srila Prabhupada left behind this burden of love. Any devotee who has the great fortune of sharing that burden will get some sweet nectar. They will get Srila Prabhupada\u2019s mercy. <\/p>\n

Therefore, we have to make devotees realize that. Prabhupada wasn\u2019t so inspired to see devotees going off chanting in the forest; simply wanting to go off to some secluded place to chant Hare Krsna all day. He spoke about that some many times. <\/p>\n

There are many examples; like the famous bhakta who went to Radha Kunda. He went there, following the babajis, simply chanting 64 rounds a day. His name was Bhakta Richard. Srila Prabhupada said, \u201cSome day, when Bhakta Richard becomes advanced enough, he\u2019ll leave Radha kunda and come back and preach in our movement.\u201d He said, \u201cWhen he becomes advanced enough.\u201d [Maharaja laughs]\n

So, devotees need to hear this. They need to be inspired. If a devotee really wants Prabhupada\u2019s mercy, they\u2019ll take up some responsibility in his mission. <\/p>\n

I\u2019ll never forget the time, when I was a book distributor for many years. I used to do traveling sankirtana. Srila Prabhupada made a statement; he said, \u201cDevotees who travel in vans and distribute books, they get my extra special mercy.\u201d And, I was already traveling and distributing books, and sometimes when we were distributing\u2014in those days we were distributing for ten hours a day. When I heard that Srila Prabhupada said that he\u2019s ready to give extra special mercy, I was thinking, \u201cI\u2019m getting so much mercy now, and Srila Prabhupada wants to give some extra special mercy!\u201d He drove us literally crazy. [Maharaja laughs] <\/p>\n

The devotees were just thinking: \u201cWhere\u2019s that extra special mercy?! We want it!\u201d Ten hours wasn\u2019t enough. We wanted that extra special mercy. And Srila Prabhupada\u2019s going to give mercy. To hear about it was just like, \u201cWow! I want some of that mercy!\u201d <\/p>\n

So, Srila Prabhupada taught by his example. He took the headaches. He took the big headaches. He was managing this whole movement. For any problems that were going on, they went to Prabhupada. Srila Prabhupada would deal with it. He would translate Bhagavatam, he would give class everyday, and he would deal with all the problems that would come. And then when everyone would see how much Srila Prabhupada was doing for them, they wanted: \u201cSrila Prabhupada, can I do something to relieve your burden?\u201d It\u2019s just natural. When somebody takes up a burden of love and shows through that burden of love how he\u2019s caring for others, then others want to help him. So, maybe devotees don\u2019t want to help. But, they\u2019re missing out on the mercy. <\/p>\n

But still, he shouldn\u2019t take on all that responsibility and sacrifice your sadhana. Srila Prabhupada didn\u2019t want that. So certain things won\u2019t get done. You have to be convinced that \u201cIf I\u2019m krsna conscious, somehow, it will get done. Somehow.\u201d And it will get done better than if\u2014like the expression\u2014if I run around like a chicken with my head cut off.\u201d [Maharaja and devotees laughs] It just doesn\u2019t work that way. We think \u201cYeah, I\u2019m getting so much done, so much done, so much done. And there\u2019s so much more to do, so much more to do, so much more to do.\u201d There will always be something for a manager to do. There will always be some problem. Don\u2019t worry. <\/p>\n

So, you may think, \u201cWell, I have to get this done.\u201d Srila Prabhupada wanted us to take up this burden of love, but he didn\u2019t want us to sacrifice our spiritual life. And he was always right there, like a loving father. Whenever he saw any of his spiritual sons or daughters over-burdened, he was like a loving father. He understood. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"HareBy Niranjana Swami<\/strong><\/p>\n

Management is a headache. It can be a very big headache. But I\u2019ll tell you why I\u2019ve taken up such a responsibility for so many years. It\u2019s because I see it in relationship to serving Srila Prabhupada\u2019s mission; because, I\u2019m one hundred percent convinced that Srila Prabhupada wanted an institution. Institution means headaches. There\u2019s just no way around it. I saw Prabhupada take those headaches. And I saw many other leaders, under Srila Prabhupada, taking those headaches. And, although it\u2019s more than twenty-five years after Srila Prabhupada\u2019s departure, I still see many of my godbrothers who take those headaches for one reason only\u2014it\u2019s a burden of love. That\u2019s the only thing. It\u2019s a burden of love for the spiritual master. Managers have to deal with some unpleasant things like problems and financial crisis or whatever, and then if they get more in to spiritual life, they are generally losing inspiration for dealing with these things. Why is it happening?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3494","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=3494"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3494\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64221,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3494\/revisions\/64221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}