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A few thoughts based on some discussions I’ve been having recently with Jagadatma Prabhu. 

 

Once there was an expert carpenter who had spent his entire life building houses for other people. When he informed his boss that he planned on retiring, he was requested to complete just one last home. The carpenter reluctantly agreed. Eager to finish the job, he worked quickly and did not put his heart into the work. Consequently the quality of the construction was very poor.

 

When he informed his boss that the house was finished, to his surprise he was told, "Actually, this house is a gift for you. You have worked hard for so many years, I wanted to give this to you."

 

The purport is that whatever we do, we should do it to the best standard.

 

Poor quality work is the symptom of this age. Here in India almost as soon as a house is finished it is falling apart. The workers don’t seem to care. They are only interested in getting their money.

 

Prior to mechanization and the industrial revolution, people took pride in their work. Someone might spend several weeks carving intricate designs on a wooden knife handle. Today, no one bothers. Most of the knife handles today are made out plastic and manufactured in factories. The goal is to produce items as quickly as possible. Quality is no longer an issue. In fact, the standard today is for companies to purposely manufacture items so that they will quickly wear out and be discarded so that people will buy a new one. 

 

Consumers accept this as if it is normal. If someone is traveling and they need to cook they might purchase a cheap barbeque grill that was made in China. They can see that it is made out of inferior materials, but they buy it with the attitude that they will soon throw it away. The same can be said of cell-phones, cars, clothing, computers, and virtually everything mass produced today.

 

There is no concept or desire for quality. We live in a culture where the single largest item produced is garbage.

 

It is a garbage culture.

 

We purchase a new cell-phone thinking it may last for three years. A computer may last four or five, a car for eight or nine, and a wife, … 

 

well, it’s a garbage culture. 

 

We don’t put value on anything except our personal, selfish, and immediate enjoyment.

 

Some say that the solution to this problem is love. As George Harrison famously sang, "All you need is love..." I often hear it said today that we need communities where the members have genuine care about each other and thereby the quality of work they do — communities where the focus is not just on money and quick physical pleasures.

 

Nice. But, the problem is we don’t know what is love.

 

It’s not enough just to tell someone, "I love you." ... "Now, where is your money?"

 

We need to know what love is. There needs to be a change of heart from selfishness to compassion, from self-centeredness to holistic concern for everyone. Accomplishing that requires more than token expressions of affection from our lips. It needs to be genuine.

 

This also applies to vaiṣṇavas. It's not enough to try to mechanically practice devotee care, even in a community. There has to be some factual change of consciousness.

 

In his purport to Bhagavatam 10.13.53, given a few days before he left his world, while giving his last instructions about varnasrama dharma, Srila Prabhupada gave the only viable solution:

 

"We should gradually come to the sattva-guṇa, so that we may avoid the two lower guṇas. This can be done if we regularly discuss srimad-Bhagavatam and hear about Kṛṣṇa’s activities. Naṣṭa-prayeṣv abhadreṣu nityam bhagavata-sevaya (SB 1.2.18). All the activities of Kṛṣṇa described in srimad-Bhagavatam, beginning even with the pastimes concerning Pūtana, are transcendental. Therefore, by hearing and discussing srimad-Bhagavatam, the rajo-guṇa and tamo-guṇa are subdued, so that only sattva-guṇa remains. Then rajo-guṇa and tamo-guṇa cannot do us any harm.

 

"Varṇasrama-dharma, therefore, is essential, for it can bring people to sattva-guṇa. Tada rajas-tamo-bhavah kama-lobhadayas ca ye (SB 1.2.19). Tamo-guṇa and rajo-guṇa increase lust and greed, which implicate a living entity in such a way that he must exist in this material world in many, many forms. That is very dangerous. One should therefore be brought to sattva-guṇa by the establishment of varṇasrama-dharma and should develop the brahminical qualifications of being very neat and clean, rising early in the morning and seeing maṅgala-aratrika, and so on. In this way, one should stay in sattva-guṇa, and then one cannot be influenced by tamo-guṇa and rajo-guṇa."

 

 

 

"One should learn how to associate with the devotees of the Lord by gathering with them to chant the glories of the Lord. This process is most purifying. As devotees thus develop their loving friendship, they feel mutual happiness and satisfaction. And by thus encouraging one another they are able to give up material sense gratification, which is the cause of all suffering."

 

A similar point is made in the Sattvata-tantra (text 96):

 

 

"You should always love they who are devoted to hearing Lord Hari’s pastimes. In that way your devotion to Lord Hari will never perish."

 

For people to produce quality work, for communities to be successful, genuine loving relationships are required. The heart of those relationships is pure hearing and chanting about Krishna in association with devotees. 

 

This is the yoga of construction and community.