By Yogesvara Dasa
If you’re a bottom-line kind of person, here are the takeaways from this article, pointing toward a practical path for expanding Srila Prabhupada’s mission in the world: Embrace fresh ideas and challenge your assumptions about devotional service; create a competent, reliable team and identify exciting new projects; establish meaningful connections and build dynamic relationships.
Why are these criteria for the future important? Because those of us in the first generation failed to give them adequate attention, the movement is still paying the price today. Want to know what we had back then? A desire to change the world. Srila Prabhupada was present; he set an example of bold initiative, and we followed with the enthusiasm of our youth. What we didn’t have was the maturity to pull it off in a sustainable way. Yes, seeds were planted, books printed and distributed, temples built. But along the way, enough havoc took place that a tragic percentage of time and money was spent on lawsuits and settlements, and many of the properties had to be forfeited.
Here’s the good news. This is Sri Chaitanya’s movement, and he said it would spread. The question he left unanswered was how to define “spread.” He mentioned nothing about massive book distribution. He mentioned nothing about purchasing properties around the world, building farms, opening restaurants—all that was to be determined by future generations of followers.
That’s us, and the examples we can emulate—Srila Bhaktivinode Thakur, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati, Srila Prabhupada, and other stalwarts of Gaudiya Vaishnavism—all demonstrated the same qualities. They embraced fresh ideas. They challenged assumptions about devotional service. They created competent, reliable teams. They identified exciting new projects. And they established meaningful connections and built dynamic relationships.
They also never said, “This is all you should do. Don’t get creative. Just do what we have done and that’s all.”
Be bold. Take risks. Push the envelope. Srila Prabhupada did.
Read more: https://iskconnews.org/how-to-thrive-spiritually-in-a-world-of-constant-change/
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