My closing thoughts on the "retirement" issue
Yesterday I posted a piece on the “retired sannyasi” idea. There was some GREAT discussion and that’s wonderful. I’m glad I can help provide such a forum.
I also think it’s great that there is a lot of support for Satsvarupa. Our first reaction when we hear about a devotee falling down should be to help them.
But overall, I’m fairly unthrilled about this “retired sannyasi” concept.
There are guidelines for being a sannyasi. These guidelines exist from the first day of sannyasa initiation until death (or until stepping down, I suppose). The guidelines are there in sastra and we have Srila Prabhupada’s example. Those guidelines are strict. They should be strict.
If a devotee thinks that those sastric guidelines are too strict for him to follow, that’s perfectly alright. I’ve got no problem with that. Simply don’t be a sannyasi. If you don’t think you can hack it, don’t become one. And if you do become one and find you can’t hack it, either become qualified or change ashramas.
This wishy washy in between stuff waters down the philosophy and makes us look silly. The obligatory cover-ups make us look cult-like. Actually, it flat out makes us a cult.
Our first priority with every devotee should be to cultivate their bhakti. That has zero to do with being in a certain ashrama. Actually, with the glorification that comes with being a sannyasi, maybe it would be better to be honest and leave that ashrama than to stay on presenting yourself as a self-realized soul fit to bring thousands back to Godhead.
This Satsvarupa ordeal is setting a dangerous precedence. There are now an official ISKCON positions called “retired sannyasi” and “retired diksa guru.” This is freaky and bizarre and ridiculously unnecessary. If ISKCON chooses to go down this road, it will find itself farther and farther away from how it was initially established by Srila Prabhupada.
Do we want this?
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In other news…
I’m taking off for a bit. Closing the store for a few days and heading to West Virginia. I’ll be there from Dec 31 to January 7ish.
I’ve always wanted to close the store to go on vacation. And since I’m soon rid of the store, I figure that I better hop to it, right?
There will be posts every day, including Ekadasi (Thursday) and Saturday’s tape. Needless to say, correspondence will be few and far between. Hope that’s ok.
So here I go!
