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sri-bhagavan uvaca
varam vrinidhvam bhadram vo yuyam me nripa-nandanah
sauhardenaprithag-dharmas tushto 'ham sauhridena vah

Translation: The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: My dear sons of the King, I am very much pleased by the friendly relationships among you. All of you are engaged in one occupation -- devotional service. I am so pleased with your mutual friendship that I wish you all good fortune. Now you may ask a benediction of Me.

Purport: Since the sons of King Pracinabarhishat were all united in Krishna consciousness, the Lord was very pleased with them. Each and every one of the sons of King Pracinabarhishat was an individual soul, but they were united in offering transcendental service to the Lord. The unity of the individual souls attempting to satisfy the Supreme Lord or rendering service to the Lord is real unity. In the material world such unity is not possible. Even though people may officially unite, they all have different interests. In the United Nations, for instance, all the nations have their particular national ambitions, and consequently they cannot be united. Disunity between individual souls is so strong within this material world that even in a society of Krishna consciousness, members sometimes appear disunited due to their having different opinions and leaning toward material things. Actually, in Krishna consciousness there cannot be two opinions. There is only one goal: to serve Krishna to one's best ability. If there is some disagreement over service, such disagreement is to be taken as spiritual. Those who are actually engaged in the service of the Supreme Personality of Godhead cannot be disunited in any circumstance. This makes the Supreme Personality of Godhead very happy and willing to award all kinds of benediction to His devotees, as indicated in this verse. We can see that the Lord is immediately prepared to award all benedictions to the sons of King Pracinabarhishat. (end)

Bhakti Vaibhava Swami: I have to apologize little bit the voice is not so good. But I hope that we'll make it. So in this particular verse the 'yuyam' means all of you plural and aprthak means non-different, non-different or united. And of course the opposite prthak, means disunited, far apart, differently, singly and sauhridena means by friendship and by love. So this was the specific quality of the sons of the king. They were aprthak non-different, although of course individual souls personalities, they were united in devotional service. And this as mentioned in this verse is very pleasing to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. And if Krishna is pleased then He is willing to give all sorts of benediction as mentioned in this verse.

But my theme is, for today's class today is cooperation, I would like to talk little bit about cooperation. Cooperation means working or acting together for a common purpose for common goal, a joint action. Srila Prabhupada once told a story of a family man who returned home from work. After a whole day of hard work he felt very exhausted and asked the sons to give him a nice massage. But unfortunately his sons were not very united. They had a tendency to quarrel, fight with each other. So while giving massage to the various limbs of the body of father they began to quarrel. Fighting with each other, calling each other bad names and even slapping each other and while fighting with in this way one of his sons was pulling the leg this way, the other one the other leg in a different direction, the arm this way, sometimes slapping the father also while quarrelling and fighting.

At one point the father was screaming, "Stop this! Stop this! You are killing me. You are killing me." Because they were not united they were not successful in giving a soothing massage, a pleasing massage to father. Instead father was very disturbed.

So Srila Prabhupada himself told this story and commented by making the point that if disciples of guru quarrel among each other to the point of displeasing him, then that is not good, that is not wanted.

Sometimes you look a little bit into the past while Srila Prabhupada was present amongst us. Sometimes we hear about the good old days, of course related to Srila Prabhupada it cannot be more true, but not everything was good. Unfortunately even his leading disciples they had this tendency to quarrel. I remember all the way back 1975-76-77 the GBC meetings I still remember because I was a little bit curious what was going on in these meetings. Chanting japa a little bit away from the entrance door and I remember on a regular basis the door just burst open and one of the GBC members came out shouting, screaming, slamming the door, so much.

So I thought wow! Heavy leaders! I believe at that time we thought to be heavy is equivalent to being a strong leader, to be heavy, to shout, to scream. But actually that was not very pleasing and in various letters and even purports in classes Srila Prabhupada pointed to his satisfaction, he was not pleased, he was not satisfied when his leading disciples were quarreling with each other, this is not pleasing. This is why he told that story.

And in a letter to Madhumangala Srila Prabhupada wrote, "We must exist on cooperation. Otherwise the whole thing is doomed if we simply go on fighting over some small things." Of course we thought these are not small things. But actually if you consider Srila Prabhupada's vision, the projects he initiated for us, the future of ISKCON, these were very very insignificant small things, the kindergarten stuff. So Prabhupada wrote in his letter if we continue fighting over these small ridiculous things, in this way everything will be doomed.

So such an important point, cooperation. There are many reasons, just recently I checked little bit, researched on the internet why organizations, religious organizations or any ordinary organizations projects, why they fail! I took little bit interest in that. And I give you the main reasons for it. Of course the reasons can be infinite but they analyzed eight of the most important reasons.

They are undefined objectives and goals, poorly defined roles and responsibilities, poor management, team weaknesses, lack of management commitment, poor communication, insufficient resources that relates to funding and personnel and ignoring project warning signs.

These are the eight main reasons why any project or societies or organizations fail to function. And out of these eight the five reasons are related to interaction, collaboration, cooperation. The five of eight are related to that.

Srila Prabhupada gave us objectives and goals which are contained in the seven purposes of ISKCON. Srila Prabhupada gave them, the entire outline, he gave us everything. Of course we have to further unfold these projects, objectives. Very important to maintain them and to further develop them, to expand them. This is our task. And he gave us roles and responsibilities. Of course they increase more and more. And he gave us management principles. It's not that we have to start from scratch. Prabhupada gave us everything and our task, specific task is in cooperation to develop what Prabhupada gave us, more and more, expand it more and more.

But one thing we have to work on, this is our individual task. In Srila Prabhupada's teachings, just like in this verse and specifically Srila Prabhupada's purport again the importance is being emphasized 'to cooperate' but we have to do it! We have to learn how to do it. And it is so exciting that I think it is for the first time in history of ISKCON that leading senior members of this movement, GBC members, gurus, sannyasis, senior devotees they all came together. They sat together, they talked about issues, they talked about perhaps even differences of opinion but they sorted these differences out in some way. There was a general agreement and so inspiring to be actually able to sit down and associate with each other without jumping on each other's throat and neck. That willingness, that ability to sit down, associate, listen to each other, the hairs is standing on end.

If you compare with the past, this is such a tremendous progress our movement made. Sometimes I feel we should really apologize to Srila Prabhupada about the past, how we behaved. Gave so much pain to Prabhupada! But nonetheless it is never too late. And now it has been possible and hopefully in 2014 again we have the ILS meeting and hopefully more and more of our leaders will come to share their visions, their understanding of how Srila Prabhupada wanted, the work he wanted from us, the future of this movement, we can share our visions and opinions, realizations and of course inspire each other about all various services. It's such a wonderful event.

So we have to work on this sauhrida. Sauhrida - affection, friendship and love. We have to sincerely work on that. And one verse of the Bhagavad gita the different kinds of friends have been described beginning with this 'suhrd'. Suhrd that's the most intimate and close friend that anyone can have. That such a friend he only thinks about the welfare and good of the other friend. He doesn't have any other issues. Only concern, are you happy? Is everything all right with you? How can I serve you? How can I assist you? That's a suhrd.

Surhrdam sarva bhutanam Lord Krishna uses that root suhrdam suhrd, He is the benefactor and the well wisher of all the living entities. So that particular word we find in this today's verse. This is what is being expected from us. That all the members of this Krishna consciousness movement become suhrd, only concerned about the welfare of others. Of course not only ISKCON members, entire world! Because that is Lord Krishna's position and that is Lord Krishna's desire - to benefit everybody. Then an ordinary friend is described as 'mitra'. And 'udasina' is neutral. And then the mediator is 'madhyastha'. Maybe you cannot cooperate with someone, you are at loggerheads with someone, then the mediators come in- what's the problem, lets try to mediate. That is 'madhyastha'.

So these are different types of friends and that is the challenge. We have been challenged to come up to develop our relationship to that level of only thinking about the benefit and welfare of the others, of the other devotees, of our peers and of course the entire world.

So this will be the basis, this kind of relationship that's the basis for good management, for teamwork, good communication, sufficient personnel because such a society will attract so many people. When we came to Krishna consciousness this is what we noticed. There is a very very tight relationship because we were all doing the same thing, we have the same goal, we are going through the ups and downs in our spiritual life. The bondage was very very strong. But even that we have to develop further and further and further. And begin to feel and manifest in practical terms this kind of close relations, friendly relationship.

So in order to serve these seven purposes Srila Prabhupada has given us successfully we need to cooperate. Otherwise it will not be possible. And the first purpose of these seven purposes is related to spreading Krishna consciousness, preaching. Preaching for Srila Prabhupada meant to educate people in spiritual knowledge and spiritual life all over the world. In order to fulfill that first purpose of the seven purposes we need to cooperate.

I am always thinking, over the time I am thinking more and more how little we factually spread Krishna consciousness. I mean, I don't want to, from that angle, perspective. Once I was riding on an airplane flying to New York from Europe. And there were two people sitting next to me, left side right side, one business woman and one business man. So naturally they asked, what are you doing? Are you a monk? I said, yeah I am from the Hare Krishna movement. You don't know? (they replied) No! They are from New York! Never heard about Krishna consciousness movement. So I thought wow!

I explained little bit, did some preaching and they took interest. Fortunately I had a couple of books. I told them I mean they are second hand and I am reading. They said, no it doesn't matter!! So I could give them some books but I was amazed. They were from New York, living in New York, never heard about us.

It's not that just because we meet a few people here and there on the street, we do a public program here and there, that doesn't mean that everybody knows about Krishna consciousness. In the early days I remember we did, we tended to do much more preaching. And so many articles about Krishna consciousness in newspapers, magazines, tv, on a regular basis. Some news, some report about us. That tends to deteriorate, not so much any longer.

So that's a tall task to educate everyone in this world the entire population, spiritually educate, inform them about Krishna consciousness, train them. It is impossible to do it in an isolated way. I might think I know about what Srila Prabhupada wants, I know his teachings, you don't have to tell me anything. But what about all these objectives and projects Srila Prabhupada gave us, what a vision! What about that? Can you put this and move this into the world of action? Can you do that?

I am giving a practical example. How to practice Krishna consciousness, just look at my sadhana, I chant my rounds very nicely every day, I know the philosophy, I am preaching, that's of course necessary for everyone - to give a good example. But what about the other things? What about all the projects Srila Prabhupada wanted. Just like the Vedic Planetarium, the temple or TOVP. What about that? It was just unmanifest in front of our eyes. What a project! Can anybody do this single handedly? I will do it! I will take careiNo! No way! Such a amazing project, 360 feet high, its about a 110mtrs right? So much funds are being required, fund raising all over the world.

In our meetings we talked about "Square Foot Campaign". This is one of the possibilities to realize the completion of that project. Otherwise it will not be possible. Funds of course have been generated, everybody knows HG Ambarisa Prabhu, he is just amazing. But still so much more is required. That is only possible by cooperation, world wide, every single devotee has to participate. Doesn't matter to what extent but everybody must participate. And there are so many other international projects we have. This is only one example in front of our eyes which requires the cooperation of each and every devotee. We have so many other important projects. They are crying for support for help. We must cooperate.

Like Ambarisa Prabhu mentioned when he made a few days ago the presentation about the temple project, he mentioned now it is too late we cannot return, at this point we cannot just tell that its ok it doesn't work out forget about it, we don't even have the funds to dismantle the whole thing, there is no return, we have to go on, we have to continue. And Krishna will help, but we have to endeavor, we have to try, we have to sincerely endeavor, we have to go on, move to the front. We have to cooperate and that requires humility. Its always easy to do your own thing. So many conflicts, so many problems, I will just do my own thing. You don't require any special skills for that. But to sit down, listen to perhaps critics of us, different opinions. Leaders they always tend to be very strong headed, that's why they are leaders. They have a strong voice but then again to sit together associate in practical terms.

Now we have heard so many times the importance of cooperation. But I talk about the practical application of it. That we sit, whether I like your nose or you don't like my nose, it doesn't matter we have to sit together, associate face to face and talk and listen. Not just talk at a devotee, talk to a devotee and then listen what he has to say. Respond to that, not again push down the throat your opinion. No! You can make your point but the association, some relationship must be there. That's cooperation and that's what we did this year. It's such an important event in our movement that all the leaders were factually sitting and listening and associating. So inspiring. Hare Krishna! Srila Prabhupada ki jai! Gaur Premanande Hari Hari Bol!

We have a couple of minutes for questions or comments. Do we have any comments?

Devotee: Thank you Maharaj. Would you be so kind as to list the eight reasons why the religious organizations fail - a little slowly so that I can write it down please.

Bhakti Vaibhava Swami Maharaj: I am at your service. See practical example, first something else went on in my mind but we have to learn to associate, to respect each other. See yourself as a servant. Okay, I give you, not just religious organization, any organization, any project, these are the main reasons why they fail. Are you ready? First one - undefined objectives goals, second - poorly defined roles and responsibilities, poor management, team weaknesses, lack of management commitment, poor communication, insufficient resources funding and personnel and ignoring project warning signs.

So that's from the mundane world, we can definitely learn from that. Of course our main reason why any project in Krishna consciousness fails is related to many things. Foremost of course spiritually we don't follow sadhana properly, don't chant our rounds, if we don't keep Srila Prabhupada in the center. There are so many reasons why, but that's from the mundane side and we can definitely learn from that because it is so much related to relationship.

Devotee: Maharaj, thank you very much for a wonderful class. I was just wondering when we are cooperating there are so many different view points as to which way we should go. What is the proper spiritual way to figure out which way we go? And go there without alienating people who have different opinions of where we should go

Bhakti Vaibhava Swami Maharaj: See when everything is based on affection, friendship and affection, then Krishna will help. But if we place ourselves, our ego too much in the center then very difficult. But when the relationship is proper then Krishna will help, Krishna will empower such a relationship and he will give direction if needed. Krishna will definitely help but provided that relationship is very very Krishna conscious.

Vedavyasapriya Swami Maharaj: (comment) It is very nice to hear that the GBC and the leaders are imbibing the mood of Srila Prabhupada as "your ever well-wisher." He would always make himself in front of. So his mood and mission is the topmost priority to recapture the vitality of the movement and it will go a long way.

Bhakti Vaibhava Swami Maharaj: That's your comment. Thank you Maharaj. Yes it will go a long way!

Jagannath Dasa: When devotees are living together how can they balance strong commitment to personal sadhana and making time for relationships with those devotees with whom they are living?

Bhakti Vaibhava Swami Maharaj: That relationship begins of course with the practicing together, that's also relationship that we chant our japa together. Unless there might be some health reasons or whatever but as much as possible we must practice together, that's a relationship chanting together, taking prasadam together of course. Outside these programs we should always endeavor to work on these relationships. So that can be done in so many different ways, doing service together, managing together, preaching together, or just sitting together talking, revealing one's mind.

Also depends on different categories of Vaisnavas, someone might be more advanced than you so that's a different relationship, some are more or less on your level so it's a different relationship, some are less advanced different relationship. In one purport Srila Prabhupada writes if we figure out how to behave in our Krishna Consciousness according to the relationships, categories of devotees, then we will become happy in Krishna consciousness.

So thank you very much for your attention and patience. Hare Krishna!

Listen Srimad Bhagavatam Audio Lecture of Bhakti Vaibhava Swami

- Transcribed by Sheela Ravishankar Mataji, Singapore.