Submitted by: Damagosha Dasa
Hare Krsna–
Below Srila Prabhupada nicely explains how this Hare Krsna Movement ran on in the beginning days.
Nobody had a “job”-literally nobody– because Krsna supplied everything we needed. He explains this
is the business of the brahmanas-to preach, and then depend upon the Lord for whatever
we need. Brahmana by definition should be independent from all money making schemes or employments,
but there are some exceptions in times of emergency, which is exactly what we have in this kali yuga. And
one nice way to avoid the Kali yuga “rat race” is to grow ones own food, which typically brahmanas did at
their cottages/ashrams . Below we have some pictures of just such a scenario here at Sri Sri Gaura
Nitai Mandir
damaghosa das
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Melbourne May 20 1975
Prabhupāda: No. I am brāhmaṇa yes. Yes. But we are not… We do not recognize brāhmaṇa by birth. Brāhmaṇa by these qualities. Anyone who has got… This is the shastric injunction, that if the qualities are found somewhere else—that means one who is not born in a brāhmaṇa family but he has the qualities of the brāhmaṇa—then he should be accepted as a brāhmaṇa. That is shastric injunction. Yasya hi yal lakṣaṇaṁ proktaṁ varṇābhivyañjakam, yad anyatrāpi. Anyatra means elsewhere. Tat tenaiva vinirdiśet [SB 7.11.35]. “He should be accepted as such.” Similarly, if a man, born in brāhmaṇa family but he has the qualities of the śūdras… Paricaryātmakaṁ kāryaṁ śūdra-karma svabhāva-jam [Bg. 18.44]. Paricarya means service. To accept… [break] So therefore, according to Bhagavad-gītā, nobody is brāhmaṇa. A brāhmaṇa should remain independent. He should live by his qualities. People will honor him. Just like we are training. We do not serve anyone, but we are maintaining big establishment.
This is brāhmaṇa. We do not serve anyone, any merchant, officer, any… No. We chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. That’s all. If Kṛṣṇa wants, He will give us food, or we shall starve. We are not going to serve.(others) This is the proof. We are spending not less than twenty lakhs of rupees for maintaining our establishment throughout the whole world, but we do not know what is our next moment’s income. We do not know… We have eaten today. We do not know whether we shall have any eatable next day. This is our position. If it is available, we shall eat; otherwise we shall starve.
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