Varnasrama-Dharma An Absolute Necessity

(HH Bhakti Charu Swami. “Ocean of Mercy,” p. 198-199)

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[Bhakti Charu Maharaja said to Srila Prabhupada:]
“What you have done is inconceivable. No one has ever achieved what you have. You should not think that there is anything left that you must do. Now you should just relax.”

“What I have done is fifty percent,” he said. “The other fifty percent is to establish varnasrama-dharma [the Vedic organization of society into four social and four spiritual orders].”

I did not know what to say, so I remained silent.

“ISKCON is for the devotees,” he said, “but not everyone will become a devotee; not everyone will be able to surrender to Krsna. For those who will not, who will continue to act according to the modes of material nature – in order to situate them in the proper human culture, we need varnasrama-dharma.”

He spoke like this for quite a while. I understood some of what he said, but much of it flew over my head. Clearly, establishing varnasrama-dharma was not going to be easy or simple. But neither had what Srila Prabhupada had already accomplished. No one had ever achieved what he had. Even Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, who had predicted that the holy name would be spread around the world, to every town and village, had not done it Himself; He had left that for one of His very special devotees – Srila Prabhupada. And now, to expand his achievement, we had to spread varnasrama-dharma all over the world, to every town and village, thus completing the other fifty percent of his mission. The rest of the world’s population still had to be brought under the umbrella of Vedic culture.

For that to happen, governments would also have to become Krsna conscious. First, materialistic democracy would have to go. It was, as Prabhupada had said, an arrangement for sudras to rule. Since most people were sudras, wherever a government was established by the vote of the majority, it was a government of sudras. In contrast, in varnasrama-dharma the brahmanas would be the head of society and give advice; the ksatriyas, the arms, would rule according to the guidance of the brahmanas;  the vaisyas would cater to society’s needs; and the working class, the sudras, rather than being exploited in a moneymaking racket, would work under the direction – and protection – of the other three classes. The brahmanas would guide, and the ksatriyas would execute; possessed of natural charisma and commanding military power, they would take care of administration. Heroes of noble character, sitting at the feet of the brahmanas, they would rule the kingdom – the Vedic way of governance. When all that happened, the rest would come easily.

Unfortunately, when the brahmanas became degraded due to the influence of the Age of Kali, the ksatriyas refused to accept their guidance and became independent, cruel despots, debauchees, and sense gratifiers. Either they fought among themselves and destroyed one another, or the masses rose up and deposed them in a revolution, bringing democracy – not the worst but clearly not the best way for human society to prosper.

Fortunately, we had ISKCON to establish pure devotional service. Not everyone would be able to reach a high spiritual standard or follow the four regulative principles and chant sixteen rounds of the maha-mantra. They
would opt instead for a life of fruitive work and sense gratification. For them, the structure of varnasrama-dharma was an absolute necessity.