Can We Practice Varnasrama in Cities?
A common question arises among spiritual practitioners: Can we truly practice the principles of varnasrama dharma and simple living while residing in modern cities? This question deserves careful consideration, as it touches on the very foundation of how we structure our lives in pursuit of spiritual advancement.
In Srimad-Bhagavatam 2.2.37, Sukadeva Goswami explains that those who drink through oral reception, fully filled with the nectarine message of Lord Krishna, purify the polluted aim of life known as material enjoyment, and thus go back to Godhead.
The sufferings of human society are due to a polluted aim of life, namely lording it over material resources. The more human society engages in the exploitation of undeveloped material resources for sense gratification, the more it becomes entrapped by the illusory material energy of the Lord. Instead of diminishing, the distress of the world intensifies.
Srila Prabhupada makes a profound observation in his purport: the human necessities of life are fully supplied by the Lord in the shape of food grains, milk, fruit, wood, stone, sugar, silk, jewels, cotton, salt, water, vegetables, and so on, in sufficient quantity to feed and care for the human race of the world.
There is no food crisis. There is a crisis in the management of food. The earth can produce ten times the food required for the current world population if things are properly managed. The supply source is complete, and only a little energy by human beings is required to get necessities into the proper channel.
There is no need for machines, huge steel plants, or artificially created comforts of life. Consider someone living on the 24th floor of a high-rise apartment, thinking it very comfortable. But one day the electricity fails—suddenly they cannot reach their apartment by walking, water stops coming up, and their comfortable life becomes impossible. Such arrangements are artificial.
Life is never made comfortable by artificial means, but by plain living and high thinking. The highest perfectional thinking for human society, as suggested by Sukadeva Goswami, is sufficiently hearing Srimad-Bhagavatam. For men in this age of Kali who have lost the perfect vision of life, this is the torchlight by which to see the real path.
Two Types of Technology
When people hear these teachings, they sometimes think Krishna consciousness or Vedic culture is against technology. This is a misunderstanding. There are two kinds of technology: demoniac technology and divine technology.
Demoniac technology, also known as “hard technology,” involves big machines that exploit natural resources and create pollution. Over one-third of the natural resources contained within Mother Earth have been taken out, used, and misused due to our modern so-called advancement. This creates severe imbalances on multiple levels.
Divine technology, on the other hand, operates through mantra, through the development of psychic powers, through sound vibration. The sages traveled by air all the time through such means. The demigods travel using systems that do not pollute. In the battle of Kurukshetra and in the Ramayana, we read of very advanced sciences operating through mantra—technologies that are unknown today but far more sophisticated than anything we currently possess.
Plain Living and Varnasrama Dharma
Plain living is directly connected with the lifestyle demonstrated by the residents of Vrindavan, a village lifestyle. Plain living means meeting our necessities of life without all the industries and machines that are extremely destructive to the planet and to people.
This plain living is very much connected with the concept of varnasrama dharma. When we agree to accept the principles of varna and ashrama, this leads us more easily, more directly, and more quickly to simple living and high thinking. Varnasrama dharma is there to actually facilitate these two essential aspects.
Our model is Vrindavan, where both aspects were simultaneously present. The residents were living a very simple life, depending on the land, meeting all of their necessities. Yet they were much more opulent than the average person today. The ladies wore silk sarees and real golden jewelry. All their material needs were met simply because they were completely synchronized and harmonized with the natural system that Krishna has given to humanity.
As Prabhupada often reminded us, if people have some land and cows, and if qualified brahmanas are there to properly guide and direct them, they can meet all of their necessities of life. The Bhagavatam confirms that sarva-kama—all material necessities of life—can be met easily by having some land.
The Challenge of City Life
Can we apply this concept of simple living and high thinking in the city? The honest answer is that while we should endeavor as much as possible to live simply and develop higher consciousness, in the city atmosphere it is extremely difficult, practically an over-endeavor.
People have to travel long distances to work. They fight through traffic. How can one develop high thinking in this way? The majority of devotees in cities are constantly associating with persons of demoniac mentality, people totally absorbed in sense gratification, caught up in the rat race.
Village life is described as life more in the mode of goodness, compared to city life. Modern city life is hellish because it is deeply influenced by tamo-guna and rajo-guna, the modes of ignorance and passion. When we are properly guided by qualified brahmanas in village life, we don't unnecessarily accumulate. We learn to be satisfied with the minimum, with what Krishna and material nature arrange. We don't engage in over-endeavor.
There is a direct link between our lifestyle and the development of higher consciousness. When we agree to live in a simplified lifestyle, we automatically get more time for hearing about, and therefore speaking about, subject matters of a higher nature.
When we fail to balance simple living with high thinking, we become disconnected from the natural, simple village lifestyle. The whole modern development, based on ever-increasing material comforts of life, has caused this major disconnection.
By taking different precautions, city dwellers can minimize the damages, but the damages will still be there because of the situation itself. The best approach is to understand what Srila Prabhupada actually wanted: our primary purpose in cities is to preach. If we're just living in cities and working there without actively engaging in the mission of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, we miss the point entirely.
While we can and should try to apply the principles of varnasrama wherever we are, the full realization of simple living and high thinking finds its natural expression in agrarian communities centered on land and cows. Cities may serve as preaching bases, but the sustainable, spiritually nourishing lifestyle that varnasrama dharma offers flourishes best in village settings where we can truly be synchronized with Krishna's natural arrangement for human society.
Article based on lecture by Bhakti Raghava Swami: Can we practice Varnasrama in Cities? | SB 2.2.37