everyone has their place in society

[the following is an answer to the question of a college student]

I have started to feel that all of these people, who hold the greatest accomplishments in this field of materialism, they are miserable, their lives are empty. Many of them are destroying all of whole society due to the exploitative methods that they are accepting in their pursuit. If I would have had someone to teach me, I would have probably been a very, very successful, God conscious businessman. But I could not find anybody who could answer the philosophical questions that I had in life, especially in the college I was going to.

So, I decided to travel around the world and study the various religions of the world, the different philosophies of the world and the different values that people live by. After some years I found myself traveling as a sadhu in India, and then I met my spiritual master. My spiritual master taught me the essence of what is in all of the great religions of the world: how to love God in whatever we do. He told me, “Yes you can go back and be a businessman, that’s very good, but there is also a need for people who dedicate their lives exclusively to educate others in this subject matter. That is also a need of this world.”

Some people say to me, "What if everyone would become a sadhu like you, then what would happen to the world?" Right? That’s probably what you are thinking. this is a business school, so what if I asked, “What if everyone would become a businessman?” The world couldn't function that way. There have to be doctors, too! There have to be lawyers. And if there were no farmers to grow food, everyone would die. There have to be politicians. Sometimes we wish there didn’t have to be politicians. [laugh] There have to be politicians organizing the affairs of the state. There have to be warriors defending the state. There have to be businessmen, marketers, bankers. 

So similarly, for the spiritual progress of society, there has to be a class of men who dedicate their entire life's energy to educate others in this spiritual science. It doesn’t mean that everyone must be like that. But there is a need for these class of men. So my guru maharaj convinced me, that although 90% of our congregation are businessmen, housewives, farmers, doctors, lawyers, musicians, architects, and engineers, there has to be a small percentage of people who are simply dedicating their lives to hearing the problems of all of these people and giving them spiritual counseling and giving spiritual direction to society. 

So my taking this dress was not to run from the problems of this world, but according to need of the world. There is a need of people to take to this life also, this occupation also; to face the problems of this world, to fight the crisis of the world and strive to improve the quality of the world.

the world is a battlefield

The Bhagavad Gita didn’t teach Arjuna to be a lazy mendicant. Rather, Arjuna was the most determined and effective fighter in the whole battlefield. Why? Because he had the highest purpose in which he fought. He was fighting for Krishna; he was not fighting for his own vices. When you graduate from college, you will find out very quickly (or you may have already found out) that this world is a battlefield. This is fact. No matter what field of activity you take, it is a battlefield. Even if you take the occupation of a simple sadhu like myself, it is a constant battle, what to speak if you go into the field of business where the competition is so fierce at every step there are people are out there to cut each others' throats for money. 

And what to speak if you are just trying to be ethical and moral! The propaganda of de-morality is just bombarding you, bombarding your family, bombarding your children from all sides. This world is a battlefield. And Bhagavad Gita does not teach us how to run from the problems, does not teach us how to run from crisis, it teaches us how to stand up and fight in divine consciousness with all power and strength of God behind us, with the purest motivation, and in a state of real peace, in the light of all opposition. 

If you can learn that type of self-management, you will be perfectly successful in life, materially, spiritually.

the universal scripture

Someone may say that this self-realization business is for the yogis and sadhus. What does it have to do with a practical person of this world with a family and a job? 

The Bhagavad Gita is a scripture specifically meant for the people who live within this world. The Bhagavad Gita is not a sectarian scripture. It is a universal scripture, which explains how to live in an artful and beautiful manner, every moment of our life.

Arjuna was the recipient of the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita. He was a warrior. He was a politician. He had to manage the affairs of the state, and he had to defend the laws of the state. This is very, very practical service. He was by no means a sadhu or a sannyasi (renunciate). 

And when then he was faced with a very difficult crisis - talk about crisis management. He was standing between two armies and he realized that his friends, well-wishers, and relatives were on both sides. He didn’t want to fight; he wanted to run from the problem. He told Krishna, “I’m not going to fight, I’m going to run away to be a yogi or a sadhu or a sannyasi, but Krishna, I’m not going to stay here and fight.” 

Some people say that people like me [a sannyasi] are the people who have escaped from the world, that I couldn’t face the problems of the world, that I couldn’t face practical life so I ran off to become a sadhu. Arjuna wanted to become like that. The whole reason for scripture of the Bhagavad Gita was to convince Arjuna that he had no right to run away from the problems that he was facing in his occupation. Krishna said, "You must face your problems and you must solve them. You must fight because you are a fighter. You must work; work hard. 

'But you must do it in divine consciousness, in consciousness of self realization."

the holy name is a worshipable deity

The Holy Name is a worshipable murti (deity). In fact, in this age of Kali Yuga, it is the most important murti, or form, of the Lord. Srila Prabhupada explained the difference between many other temples where everything is just centered around worshipping the deity. But in this age of Kali Yuga, that simply does not work. We make our life centered around the deity in the temple because that helps to facilitate us to actually approaching Him through His name. 

Everything we do in deity worship is connected with the name of Krishna. You cannot make a single offering without the name of Krishna. And when the devotees come before the deities, they practice the yuga dharma, the eternal service and religion of the soul, which gives the greatest pleasure to the deities. And that is coming together to dance gracefully, to chant the Holy Names: Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare/Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.

without love there is no question of happiness

When I was in America, I gave lectures almost every day at various universities. I have given lectures at Harvard and MIT a few times, but I would regularly give lectures in the Midwest, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Illinois, etc. And what I found in the atmosphere of colleges in America is so corrupt and so degraded, even though they are factually teaching the highest systems of knowledge in the fields of science, technology, business, computer operations and so on. But as soon as the students leave their classes, there are drugs, there is illicit sex, there is alcohol. There is absolutely no management or control over their senses. 

Students become completely selfish: intoxication and illicit sex makes them completely self-centered and selfish. They get the qualities of lust, greed, envy and pride, and then those same students attain tremendous amounts of immense power by the knowledge they are acquiring. And when they come out of school, what do you expect they are going to do with the powerful knowledge that they have simultaneously acquired with greed, pride, envy, lust, anger and illusion? They are going to take that power, and with greed in mind, with no sense of compassion, mercy, or self discipline, they are going to create havoc and chaos in the world. 

And if you doubt what I am saying; read in the newspapers, look at the world, it’s the educated class of men that are causing these big problems. Where is man’s love and concern for his fellow man? 

Without love there is no question of happiness. And you may be turning your heads and saying, “What is this guy talking about, it’s useless!” But believe me, I have been in your position. I lived in a country which is far more materially progressive than you can imagine, and I have lived within that society, everything at my hands, and I have had every opportunity to take over big companies. 

And so you may be saying, "Oh! What’s this religion, it’s not practical.” But I am speaking of  practicality to you. Consider that some of the wealthiest people in the world, the upper-class income society of America, has the highest rate of suicide in the world. They are more prone to suicide, sleeping pills, and psychiatrists than any other class of men on planet Earth. This is a statistic. 

Do you think that by becoming powerful and wealthy that you are going to find happiness in this life? You will not. At the same time, it does not mean that you can’t be a multi-billionaire, big chairman or president of a board, or a successful businessman. If you find integrity within your own self consciousness, and you find knowledge and happiness and love within, then in any situation you can prosper.