Introduction

         Welcome to the high seas of the ocean of faults that wise men call the kali yuga. None of us is immune to the influence of this demoniac age of darkness unless we are completely the servant of Sri Sri Guru and Gauranga with no tinge of selfish motivation. As such it will represent quite a challenge to us to complete this temple building project without many upheavals since we ourselves are issuing a substantial challenge horse to Maya Devi. Yet by so doing we will learn what we require if we are to become the loving servants of our precious Lordships. Maya Devi will not permit our acts of surrender to the order of Sri Guru without imposing considerable opposition to our plans. We cannot expect this temple building project to be without obstacles, and the best obstacle, the most insurmountable obstacle is to divide our ranks, thus turning friend against friend, and weakening us to the point of standstill.
         We can be abundantly optomistic about our future progress as long as we remain under the umbrella of shelter delineated by sadhu, guru and sastra; and to be truly within the shelter of our sampradaya, we need to accept a fair level of surrender to the structure of said sampradaya. Otherwise we are enlisted as pawns in the ranks of the battalions of Maha Maya and the best assistance that we can give to Maya Devi is to form teams, each in opposition to the other(s). This way we will waste our time quarrelling and achieve nothing.
         Yet forearmed with knowledge of the tactics of our common enemy and instructed as we are by Sadhu, Guru and Sastra; we are aware that these attacks will eventuate, thus if we act according to the instructions of our well wishers who are arranging for our escape from the prison house of Durga, we can rest assured that nothing will stop us from pleasing Srila Gurudeva despite the enormity of the task wherein a handful of relatively impoverished, somewhat unskilled, ordinary persons are charged with building and maintaining a beautuful Vaisnava temple.
         By the will of Sri Sri Guru and Gauranga anything is possible:
         mukham karoti vacalam pangum langhayate girim
        yat-krpa tam aham vande sri gurum dina tarine.

   "I offer my respectful obesiances to my Spiritual Master, the deliverer of the fallen souls, whose mercy turns the dumb into eloquent speakers and enables the lame to cross mountains". Srila Narayana Maharaja

  So nothing shall dishearten us thus keeping us from fulfilling the will of Guru and Krsna as long as we remember to always act as perfect gentlemen. And since we already understand how to interact with others we are at a distinct advantage.
         We should treat all persons with respect according to each one's qualification. To persons below our station (persons requiring assistance to serve the Lord), we offer kindness together with instruction and example so that they may become inspired to reach towards a higher level. To persons who are on a similar level of consciousness to ourselves, we offer our best of friendship and acceptance, whilst if one is above our level of consciousness, we humbly offer our service.
   Everybody with whom we have any dealings at all fits into one of the above catergories and as Sriman Mahaprabhu Himself has stated in Siksakstaka 3, tolerance, humility, the giving of respect to others and not demanding respect for oneself are of paramount importance to sadhakas, travellers as we are upon the bhakti-margha.

         Service to our Gurudeva is our only wealth. As long as we take his instructions seriously, we will make progress and he will bless us with peacefulness and enlivenment.

Furthermore: His Divine Grace Srila A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada has said in his purport to Bhagavad Gita, verse 4:34 " Satisfaction of the self-realized spiritual master is the secret of advancement in spirital life."

Thus, the way I see things is that we must realise our dependence upon Sri Sri Guru and Gauranga and understand that if we are to achieve the pleasure of Sri Sri Sri Radha Govinda Mahaprabhu and Srila Gurudeva, then we must do everything Their way. Doing things according to the normal material world modus operandi will lead us to the usual material world dysfunction, politics and discontent.
Vedic social structure summarised below:-

Advisory comittee headed by a local senior brahminical vaisnava, who is joined by mature and dedicated devotees who can offer level headed, intelligent and pertinent direction tempered with wisdom. A clear understanding of and dedication to the wishes of Srila Gurudeva would be a distinct advantage to consolidate any devotees within this social strata.

Administrative group of devotees with both a powerful comittment and demonstrated basket of managerial skills commensurate with our level of activity as a yatra to head functional and dynamic leadership team. We need devotees with a proven record in the critical ability to work together and get things accomplished. This means those who have previously displayed actual ksatriya tendencies not merely sudras who like to believe that they are ksatriyas.

                           Acquisition team of fund raisers with the ability to serve our Srila Gurudeva by collecting the large amounts of funds required to permit a yatra to function as a front line battalion in the war against maya, without testing our supply lines and to initiate, maintain and expand sustainable strategies for cow protection programmes. Here we can only be referring to those who have demonstrated a passionate commitment to making money, farming/agriculture/living from the land and practical cow protection.
   Whilst not everyone can fulfil this duty, I'm sure that there are more than one or two devotees who have definitely exhibited the required vaisya talents necessary for such an esteemed and important position.
   Of course, this team would hardly stand in the way of any group or groups of devotees who have a special fund raising venture such as prasadam distribution at fairs etc.
   We also need an affordable but regular monetary committment from every person coming to the temple.
A regular and inspired committment from all the rest of the yatra as cleaners, cooks, bottleswashers, garland makers, bookkeepers, musicians, designers and producers of Deities' outfits, gardeners, etc. which can only be achieved when the yatra is happily governed in a vedic fashion, all under the guidance of Srila Gurudeva liasing as required with our most distinguished devotee as our local Chief of Operations, spearheading the battle against Maya Devi.

Introduction: Democracy is Asampradaya. An Editorial.

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