How important is the Bhakti Vrksa program in terms of general preaching?

It is a completely natural sequence of any preaching attempt that when interested persons become more involved the need of an "organized attempt to spread Krsna Consciousness", as Srila Bhaktivinodha Thakura defined it, arises.

In order to start in a sobering mood: Srila Prabhupada never institutionalized any Bhakti Vrksa program, not even an official bhakta program. If he would see it as an absolute necessity from the very first day of His preaching in the West, it would be certainly part of His "ISKCON foundation document".

As much and as early as possible He pointed out the need of His-books-only based education for those who received second initiations in form of Bhakti Sastri and Bhakti Vaibhava test. However, He didn’t make it compulsory for those who want to be His followers and members of His movement. As He said, “we cannot expect every member of this movement to be very "studious"”.

As anything else Srila Prabhupada taught, it was practical. Above all He stressed the parampara principle where a disciple simply follows the example of his predictor by word, thought and action and in this way he becomes a teacher for others as well in any capacity given to him.

And so during Srila Prabhupada’s presence bhakta program meant simply to follow the examples of senior devotees who in return carried the PERSONAL responsibility to educate others. Of course mistakes were made as the education was often incomplete in terms of the recipient ability to understand, but nevertheless life was simple.

• You want to distribute books, learn from those who do distribute books.
• You want to cook, learn from a cook.
• You want to farm, learn from a farmer.
• You want to do puja, learn from a pujari.
• You want to manage, learn from a manager.
• You want to preach, learn from preacher.

In this way the educational "system", if there was any, never lost its personal feature. Persons learn from persons, starting with the Supreme Person and His Supreme Servant and not from academically conceived curriculums, however well written they may be. Srila Prabhupada wanted active servants, not a mentally conceived "congregation" of "intellectually inspired arm chair introverts".

It is natural for a kanistha adhikari, what to speak for a mayavadi, to de-personalize any process of education, hence the fascination with intricate seminaries without any thought being given to the quality of the audience, concepts and "new" techniques which are supposed to deliver "automatically" the desired result.

But in preaching, as any book distributor knows, nothing is "automatic". All preaching is conducted under the guide line Krsna Himself establishes in Bhagavad Gita, "whatever the big man does, the small man follows".

And so we all ultimately follow a person, if lucky not cheated, if unlucky definitely cheated. Therefore conscious parampara following is required, free of sentimentality and personal cultism, but that’s another big issue for another text to be written.

If we see any preaching program striving, it is due to the absolute dedication of the preacher, or even better, a team of preachers. Simply serving a program by any means by filling it with unqualified individuals is not only an insult to the basic varna srama understanding established by the Lord, but it is also discrediting the very same program it tries to promote. Mentally conceived programs simply filled with any deranged person available discredit Srila Prabhupada’s movement altogether.

And so any program depends on the soberness and sincerity of its leader. Birds of the same feather flock together. Maya may corrupt even the best of the warriors, still, if the leadership is strong, the educational base for those who want to follow in truth never gets lost. Such is the power of Srila Prabhupada and the line of education He established.

Preacher cannot simply issue educational programs while reaching out of his private comfort zone. He has to give himself to the conditioned soul without being contaminated by its conditioning. As one lady ones commented when meeting Srila Prabhupada, “he was so charming, he was so wonderful to be with, but He was simultaneously with us and simultaneously He wasn’t.” She got the point.

Preaching is very risky task, as the conditioned soul always wants to "establish the kingdom of God without God" and has the tendency to drag the messenger into its own conception of reality. But the mercy coming along and the protection for those who want to have it is also there instantly. Still, accidents can happen. But the fact remains that the preacher has to invest all his desires and prayers, all his personality to remove even one doubt from the heart of the conditioned soul. That’s especially for the West where it take "gallons of blood" to make one devotee.

Such was the power of Srila Prabhupada. He didn’t rely on Indian or Russian piety; He didn’t rely on established cultural background as there was none. He went straight to the heart of the demonic atheistic civilization and extracted from its domain few very deranged, but nevertheless sincere souls who then assisted Him to accomplish seemingly impossible task. Their only qualification was that they were ready to give themselves entirely to their guru, without any established educational programs, intricate curriculums and fancy vocabulary being involved.

Srila Prabhupada didn’t established educational programs first, He established Himself in the hearts of those He educated. This is not a sentimental thing as so often perceived today, this is a scientific fact. Due to His purity He broke into the heavily false ego guarded domains of the conditioned soul and even suffering occasionally setbacks, He uncovered its Krsna Consciousness dwelling within with such a power of His transcendental personalism that any educational program can be conducted only in this way by following in His footsteps.

And so education, proven by its result-the absence of material desires, can be very simple and pure. Academically conceived educational program, even it may be based on sastra, without any application of tapasya will produce simply arrogant kanistha adhikaris who may boast with the number of papers they filled in and the data they could record, But they will never be able to contribute anything substantial to spreading of Krsna Consciousness by creating a "church"-type of organization based on personal cults at best or uncontrolled sahajiasm at worst.

Whenever a true result of any program can be seen, there is always a person behind it, giving it all what it needs. Programs attract only programs. Persons attract persons. This is the very basic principle any preaching program stands on.