Management Lessons from Srila Prabhupada

Giriraj Swami: I would request, as far as possible, the devotees to put on their cameras so we can see their moonlike faces and it is more personal. So, shall I begin?

Devotee: Yes, Maharaja, please.

Giriraj Swami: All right. I will begin by singing the maṅgalācaraṇa prayers and leading a short kirtan, and then we will speak about Srila Prabhupada and management.

[Prayers and kirtan]

Hare Krishna my dear devotees. Now I will speak about lessons from Srila Prabhupada’s style of management.

Srila Prabhupada emphasized that management and preaching go together. “Good management follows preaching like a shadow,” he wrote, “and the best thing is that the managers should always be preaching.”

At a certain stage in India during Srila Prabhupada’s presence, Tamal Krishna Goswami, who was the GBC for India, wanted to leave and go to the West to preach. At first Srila Prabhupada was reluctant, because he depended on Tamal Krishna Goswami to manage activities in India, but eventually Prabhupada concluded that a brief change might be beneficial, and said, “Yes, we can always pay a manager, but preaching is a matter of realization.” He stressed how important preaching was to the movement. “Without it,” he said, “ISKCON will become rubbish. The management will be at our fingertips if the devotees simply follow the rules, chant, and take prasāda.”

In his purport to Bhagavad-gītā (12.10), Srila Prabhupada writes, “Every endeavor requires land, capital, organization, and labor. Just as in business one requires a place to stay, some capital to use, some labor, and some organization to expand, so the same is required in the service of Krsna.” And Srila Prabhupada said that although we do not want to waste any of those elements, the one element we cannot afford to waste is the labor or the manpower. In other words, we have to take very good care of the devotees and make sure they are engaged.

Srila Prabhupada often said that the first duty of a manager—or the government—is to see that everyone is engaged in service, even if dealing with some of the devotees is difficult. Once, when Srila Prabhupada wanted his disciple Nara Narayana to take charge of the garden in Juhu, he wrote me, “You can have the gardeners decorate the whole land with flowers and if possible some fruits also.” And a week later he added that he wanted Nara Narayana to take charge of the gardening. “Sometimes he may be difficult to live with,” Prabhupada acknowledged, “but good manager means he is able to satisfy everyone and live in cooperative manner with all the devotees, and if you manage things nicely he can do tremendous work. Practically no one has more energy than Vishwakarma” [the demigod architect and master builder after whom Prabhupada had nicknamed Nara Narayana].” So, yes, Prabhupada often said that the first duty of the leader, or manager, or government, was to see that everyone was engaged (and Nara Narayana was one example).

Three days after his directions to me about the gardening, Srila Prabhupada wrote again, chiding me and instructing me how to manage and engage the devotees. He knew our natures, and he was simultaneously engaging and training us all. “I have received reports from Mahamsa and Cyavana,” he wrote, “and it appears they are doing nicely. Some of the men, however, are complaining that they have no sufficient engagement. Two girls have already left Bombay, and their complaint was that they had no sufficient engagement. Similarly, I have received letters from Puranjana, Vardhana, and Atmarama, and either they are not willing to work according to direction or, otherwise, how do they complain there is no sufficient engagement? I think that there is more than sufficient engagement for everyone. We have got so much to do.”

Srila Prabhupada, in his letter, is simultaneously instructing me and instructing the devotees. To the devotees he is saying, “I think there is more than sufficient engagement for everyone. We have so much to do.” And then to me, he is saying, “We have to deal with so many men with different personalities. So kindly utilize their energies and at the same time keep them satisfied. That is leadership.” So, he is instructing me, guiding me, with this very important instruction. And he addresses the devotees: “If one man is appointed as leader, all must follow him and be obedient. ‘Obedience is the first law of discipline.’ They are pointing out irregularities, but they themselves are not doing their duty, so they are pointing out the irregularities in others. They came to serve; now they don’t want to serve, so there is some excuse. Oh, irregularity, let me go away. The workers should not suggest irregularities.”

Srila Prabhupada reminded us of our greater mission, our higher responsibility: to reclaim the fallen souls on behalf of Krishna. We were always inspired to try to work cooperatively to please Srila Prabhupada, because he had given us such an important mission. In his letter he wrote, “So actually we have taken a very responsible task on behalf of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. At the present moment, to speak the truth, the whole population of the world are demons and animals. It may be a very strong aspersion on the people of the world, but that is the fact. But still, because they are part and parcel of the Supreme Lord, so originally they were pure, and therefore it is the mission of Krishna to get back His parts and parcels to home, exactly like a father likes to get back his son at home because this son had gone out of home for false happiness. But the people are so mad, they are talking so many nonsense things—nonsense philosophy, nonsense science—and our task is to meet all of them and at the same time pacify them in their lunatic condition. So I am sure you are a very good soul to act on behalf of Krishna, and do it nicely. Krishna will give you the proper intelligence. He is sitting in your heart. Simply, He wants to see us working sincerely.”

Srila Prabhupada put everything in the light of Krishna consciousness, that whatever service we were doing was meant to further the mission of Krishna, to get all the fallen conditioned souls back home, back to Godhead. To fulfill that mission, we should be prepared to go beyond our expected limitations, and Srila Prabhupada inspired us to do so.

So, I was affected by the criticism of the devotees, and there was also criticism from Prabhupada in relation to some neglect of the Deities. In his letter to me, he wrote, “This is a most abominable affair.” He was so angry. And it really affected me, and I tried to summon all my courage and strength and write a proper reply, but I had to mention that I was struggling, and Prabhupada wrote back a very nice letter in which he explained his criticism, and his letter pacified me. Understanding my heart, in his next letter Prabhupada explained his service in such a way that I could appreciate his criticism, which was clearly meant for my benefit. “Actually,” he wrote, “it is the duty of the spiritual master to find fault with his students so that they may make progress, not that he should always be praising them. So if you find some criticism, kindly accept it in that spirit. I am only interested in that you along with all my other students should become Krishna conscious.”

Prabhupada’s words and sincere desire acted upon my heart and influenced me to improve my efforts, and I reported to him about some of the progress I—we—had made. In his next letter he expressed his appreciation for my efforts and reinforced his earlier statements about management, encouraging me to continue in the same spirit: “I am glad to hear your explanation of how the men are being engaged there in Bombay. That will be the test of your management, how well the men are satisfied by their engagements. I am very glad to hear that Nara Narayana is doing so much work and that Puranjana has decided to remain there. He has decided rightly.”

Seeing things from the perspective of shastra and reminding us of our higher goals and the means to attain them, through paramparā, in his next letter Prabhupada wrote, “Yes, by Krishna’s grace we have a very responsible task before us, so combinedly we should do it nicely so that everything goes on systematically. Rupa Gosvami says that the things are enthusiasm, patience, conviction, acting according to the sastra and guru, and always keeping oneself in the society of devotees, and this makes our devotional service successful. So our serious students should follow Rupa Gosvami’s advice.”

Srila Prabhupada hadn’t yet translated Rupa Gosvami’s Upadeśāmṛta, and here he was basically repeating what Rupa Gosvami says in Upadeśāmṛta: utsāhān niścayād dhairyāt tat-tat-karma-pravartanāt. So, you could say that part of Prabhupada’s management was to keep us Krishna conscious, and so, at the same time that he was giving us instructions on management, he was also giving us instructions on how to maintain our Krishna consciousness, because everything in ISKCON pretty much depends on Krishna consciousness.

Srila Prabhupada knew my mind. This incident goes back to maybe 1974 in Juhu. I was very attracted to the Six Gosvamis of Vrindavan, and I imagined that one day I would be like them, roaming the forests of Vrindavan, chanting “Krishna! Krishna!” But Prabhupada was concerned that his property be managed properly, and one evening he spoke to me about it. “Raghunatha dasa managed his father’s estate just like an expert businessman,” he told me. “Similarly, you should also manage your father’s estate”—meaning his, my spiritual father’s, estate. “Raghunatha dasa managed his father’s estate just like an expert businessman,” he told me. “Similarly, you should also manage your father’s estate. Then you go to Vrindavan and become a Gosvami.”

So, maybe a year or two later, we applied for permission to build the temple in Juhu and the police commissioner wrote a letter refusing permission on the grounds that “The bhajana singing, which had been complained about in the past, is likely to be a nuisance in the future as well.” So, this drew fire from Srila Prabhupada. He was so upset and angry.

In Vrindavan during the Mayapur-Vrindavan festival, Srila Prabhupada received this news and asked all the devotees in Vrindavan for the festival to come to Bombay to protest the refusal. So we began to organize preaching programs, but most of the devotees who came from Vrindavan would be back at the temple during the day. And Prabhupada was concerned about how the devotees would be engaged. Again, the first duty of the manager, or the leader, is to see that devotees are engaged. Prabhupada was concerned about how the devotees would be engaged, and he asked his managers what the devotees would do. We replied that we would have a program in the temple all day long, alternating readings, kirtans, and discussions about Krishna consciousness. “Very good,” he approved.

After a few days, Prabhupada asked how the program in the temple was going, whether the devotees were enjoying chanting and reading and hearing.

“Well, frankly, Srila Prabhupada,” Tamal Krishna had to inform him, “most of the devotees aren’t coming, and the ones who do come—most of them fall asleep.”

“All right,” Prabhupada replied, “if they are all sudras, let them work in the garden—but everyone must be engaged. You tell the devotees that if they are actually brahmans, they should sit in the temple and be engaged in kirtan and kṛṣṇa-kathā, and if they are not brahmans, if they are sudras, they can work in the garden. But nobody can remain idle; nobody can sleep.”

Vishnujana was in charge of the temple program, and he was a very charismatic figure and led beautiful kirtans. Still, and in spite of Prabhupada’s words, the devotees didn’t come—or work in the garden. One day Vishnujana told them, “Prabhupada is not pleased that we are all so lazy. We should be doing something. He says that if you just sit around, you will get sick.”

After two weeks, the Australian devotees became restless and asked me to approach Prabhupada on their behalf. There was little engagement for them in Bombay, they said, and they would have a lot of work to prepare for Prabhupada’s imminent visit to their country.

When I passed along their request to leave, Prabhupada had me deliver them a stern reply: “What is the question of ‘no engagement’? There are so many opportunities to read and chant. Don’t be impatient wanting to go here and there.” So, there is always engagement. We can always chant and hear. And do other service as well.

Now, I wish to address the important point of cooperation that Srila Prabhupada emphasized, especially toward the end. In Vrindavan Prabhupada told the devotees, as Tamal Krishna recorded in his diary, “Your love for me will be tested how after my departure you maintain this institution. We have glamor, and people are feeling our weight. This should be maintained. Not like Gaudiya Matha: After guru Maharaja’s departure, so many ‘acharyas’ came up.” Later, Tamal Krishna told Satsvarupa that Prabhupada had said, “Your love for me will be shown by how much you cooperate to keep this institution together after I am gone’’—the same message.

And Bhakti Charu Swami recalled, “When Srila Prabhupada was in Vrindavan during his last days, Tamal Krishna would read him the letters that devotees wrote to Srila Prabhupada, and His Divine Grace would dictate his replies, and sometimes he would also make comments. One devotee had written that he wanted to offer his longevity to Srila Prabhupada so that Prabhupada could continue to be with us on the planet. It was a very sweet letter, steeped with emotion. However, Srila Prabhupada reacted in what seemed to me a rather unusual way and commented that our real love for him would be shown by how we cooperate with each other to maintain his mission. . . That incident left a very deep impression in my heart, and I became aware that the best way to show my love for Srila Prabhupada is through my cooperation with the devotees of ISKCON who are serving His Divine Grace so sincerely to continue his mission.”

Prabhupada had made the same point in a letter in 1973: “The test of our actual dedication and sincerity to serve the spiritual master will be in this mutual cooperative spirit to push on this movement and not make factions and deviate.”

This reminds me of a very beautiful purport in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (7.5.12), in which Srila Prabhupada describes the mood of service and appreciation among devotees, as it should be:

“Everyone should be friendly for the service of the Lord. Everyone should praise another’s service to the Lord and not be proud of his own service. This is the way of Vaishnava thinking, Vaikuntha thinking. There may be rivalries and apparent competition between servants in performing service, but in the Vaikuntha planets the service of another servant is appreciated, not condemned. This is Vaikuntha competition. There is no question of enmity between servants. Everyone should be allowed to render service to the Lord to the best of his ability, and everyone should appreciate the service of others. Such are the activities of Vaikuntha. Since everyone is a servant, everyone is on the same platform and is allowed to serve the Lord according to his ability. As confirmed in Bhagavad-gītā (15.15), sarvasya cāhaṁ hṛdi sanniviṣṭo mattaḥ smṛtir jñānam apohanaṁ ca: The Lord is situated in everyone’s heart, giving dictation according to the attitude of the servant. . . As the Lord says in Bhagavad-gītā (10.10):

teṣāṁ satata-yuktānāṁ
bhajatāṁ prīti-pūrvakam
dadāmi buddhi-yogaṁ taṁ
yena mām upayānti te

‘To those who are constantly devoted and worship Me with love, I give the understanding by which they can come to Me.’ Everyone is actually a servant, not an enemy or friend, and everyone is working under different directions from the Lord, who directs each living entity according to his mentality.”

So, that should be our mood amongst ourselves: “Everyone should be friendly for the service of the Lord. Everyone should praise another’s service to the Lord and not be proud of his own service. This is the way of Vaishnava thinking.”

Also in Vrindavan, Srila Prabhupada had for years directed the managers that the temple bell should be rung every hour on the hour and every half hour. So during his final weeks, when the time came for the temple bell to ring but Srila Prabhupada didn’t hear it, he said, “This is my concern, that such a huge, huge establishment, if not properly, regularly, managed, then everything will be finished.” He had been insisting for years that the temple authorities arrange for the regular ringing of the bell and considered it a test of their management.

So, when Prabhupada said, “This is my concern, that such a huge, huge establishment, if not properly, regularly, managed, then everything will be finished,” Tamal Krishna responded, “I don’t think that’s going to happen. We are too much indebted to you to allow what you have established to become spoiled.” And Prabhupada replied, “Please see to that.”

In relation to temple construction, after Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura constructed a big marble temple in Bhag Bazaar, his disciples fought and quarreled over who would occupy which room, which I take to mean who would have what position, and at Radha-kunda, Srila Prabhupada’s spiritual master, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, told him, “If I could take the marble from the temple and sell it and print books, that would be better. If you ever get money, print books.”

So, in Juhu, Srila Prabhupada had us build a big temple, and in a talk in Mayapur in 1974 he had explained his purpose in constructing such big temples—and his concern that we use them in the proper mood: “We have got this nice, grand building. If we think, ‘This is my building,’ then there will be mishap. My guru Maharaja personally told me, ‘When we were living in a rented house, if we could collect two hundred or three hundred rupees we were living very nicely at Ultadanga. But since we have been given this marble palace, there is friction between our men: “Who will occupy this room? Who will occupy that room? Who will be proprietor of room?” Everyone was planning in a different way. . .If we forget our position—if we become pound-shilling men, property men—then Krishna will be lost, because Krishna is akincana-gocara, easily approached by those who have no material possessions. Therefore we should always remember that we possess this nice house not for our comfort, but so people will come, because they are not accustomed to uncomfortable living conditions. If we would have invited people, ‘Come and sit down on this ground,’ there would have been no possibility. Therefore we must keep Krishna’s temple very nice so that people will come, and we shall preach. That is the philosophy—not that because we have got this nice house, therefore we should be very much attached. Attachment must be there, but for Krishna’s service. The temple must be very clean. The establishment must be very nice. What for? For attracting devotees. This is the purpose. Not for our personal benefit.”

So, my dear devotees, thank you for listening so patiently and attentively.