duties / purpose
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Imported quote 13260 In Bhagavad-gita (Bg. 18.5) it is stated that even in the renounced order one should not give up sacrifice, charity and penance. The brahmacaris must perform sacrifices, the grhasthas must give in charity, and those in the renounced order of life (the vanaprasthas and sannyasis) must practice penance and austerities. These are the procedures by which everyone can be elevated to the spiritual platform. When the sages and saintly persons saw that King Vena had stopped all these functions, they became concerned about the people's progress. Saintly people preach God consciousness or Krsna consciousness because they are anxious to save the general populace from the dangers of animalistic life. There must be a good government to see that the citizens are actually executing their religious rituals, and thieves and rogues must be curbed. When this is done, the people can advance peacefully in spiritual consciousness and make their lives successful.
(More...) Imported quote 13278 It is a fact that the government's duty is to see that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is satisfied by the activities of the people as well as by the activities of the government. There is no possibility of happiness if the government or citizenry have no idea of Bhagavan, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is the original cause of the cosmic manifestation, or if they have no knowledge of bhūta-bhavana, who is visvatma, or the Supersoul, the soul of everyone's soul. The conclusion is that without engaging in devotional service, neither the citizens nor the government can be happy in any way. At the present moment neither the king nor the governing body is interested in seeing that the people are engaged in the devotional service of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Rather, they are more interested in advancing the machinery of sense gratification. Consequently they are becoming more and more implicated in the complex machinery of the stringent laws of nature. People should be freed from the entanglement of the three modes of material nature, and the only process by which this is possible is surrender unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This is advised in Bhagavad-gita. Unfortunately neither the government nor the people in general have any idea of this; they are simply interested in sense gratification and in being happy in this life. The word nija-sasane (in his own governmental duty) indicates that both the government and the citizens are responsible for the execution of varnasrama-dharma. Once the populace is situated in the varnasrama-dharma, there is every possibility of real life and prosperity both in this world and in the next.
(More...) Imported quote 13283 Human society, however, has artificially created a type of civilization which makes one forgetful of his relationship with the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Modern society even enables one to forget the Supreme Personality of Godhead's grace and mercy. Consequently modern civilized man is always unhappy and in need of things. People do not know that the ultimate goal of life is to approach Lord Visnu and satisfy Him. They have taken this materialistic way of life as everything and have become captivated by materialistic activities. Indeed, their leaders are always encouraging them to follow this path, and the general populace, being ignorant of the laws of God, is following their blind leaders down the path of unhappiness. In order to rectify this world situation, all people should be trained in Krsna consciousness and act in accordance with the varnasrama system. The state should also see that the people are engaged in satisfying the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This is the primary duty of the state. The Krsna consciousness movement was started to convince the general populace to adopt the best process by which to satisfy the Supreme Personality of Godhead and thus solve all problems.
(More...) Link to this page: https://prabhupadabooks.com/?qg=1353
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