duty
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Imported quote 13268 The saintly persons continued: When the king protects the citizens from the disturbances of mischievous ministers as well as from thieves and rogues, he can, by virtue of such pious activities, accept taxes given by his subjects. Thus a pious king can certainly enjoy himself in this world as well as in the life after death.
(More...) Imported quote 13270 The duty of a pious king is described very nicely in this verse. His first and foremost duty is to give protection to the citizens from thieves and rogues as well as from ministers who are no better than thieves and rogues. Formerly, ministers were appointed by the king and were not elected. Consequently, if the king was not very pious or strict, the ministers would become thieves and rogues and exploit the innocent citizens. It is the king's duty to see that there is no increase of thieves and rogues either in the government secretariat or in the departments of public affairs. If a king cannot give protection to citizens from thieves and rogues both in the government service and in public affairs, he has no right to exact taxes from them. In other words, the king or the government that taxes can levy taxes from the citizens only if the king or government is able to give protection to the citizens from thieves and rogues.
(More...) Imported quote 13273 The state's duty and the citizen's duty are very nicely explained in this verse. The activities of the government head, or king, as well as the activities of the citizens, should be so directed that ultimately everyone engages in devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The king, or government head, is supposed to be the representative of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and is therefore supposed to see that things go on nicely and that the citizens are situated in the scientific social order comprised of four varnas and four asramas. In the Visnu Purana it is stated that unless people are educated or situated in the scientific social order comprised of four varnas (brahmana, ksatriya, vaisya and sūdra) and four asramas (brahmacarya, grhastha, vanaprastha and sannyasa), society can never be considered real human society, nor can it make any advancement towards the ultimate goal of human life. It is the duty of the government to see that things go on in terms of varna and asrama. As stated herein, bhagavan yajna-pūrusaḥ-the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krsna, is the yajna-pūrusa. As stated in Bhagavad-gita: bhoktaram yajna-tapasam (Bg. 5.29). Krsna is the ultimate purpose of all sacrifice. He is also the enjoyer of all sacrifices; therefore He is known as yajna-pūrusa. The word yajna-pūrusa indicates Lord Visnu or Lord Krsna, or any Personality of Godhead in the category of visnu-tattva. In perfect human society, people are situated in the orders of varna and asrama and are engaged in worshiping Lord Visnu by their respective activities. Every citizen engaged in an occupation renders service by the resultant actions of his activities. That is the perfection of life. As stated in Bhagavad-gita:
(More...) Thus the brahmanas, ksatriyas, sūdras and vaisyas must execute their prescribed duties as these duties are stated in the sastras. In this way everyone can satisfy the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Visnu. The king, or government head, has to see that the citizens are thus engaged. In other words, the state or the government must not deviate from its duty by declaring that the state is a secular one which has no interest in whether or not the people advance in varnasrama-dharma. Today people engaged in government service and people who rule over the citizens have no respect for the varnasrama-dharma. They complacently feel that the state is secular. In such a government, no one can be happy. The people must follow the varnasrama-dharma, and the king must see that they are following it nicely.
(More...) Imported quote 13279 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 13459 Lord Brahma addresses King Prthu as prajapate just to remind him of his great responsibility in maintaining the peace and prosperity of the citizens. Maharaja Prthu was empowered by the Supreme Personality of Godhead for this purpose only. It is the duty of the ideal king to see that people are properly executing religious principles. Lord Brahma especially requested King Prthu to conquer the pseudo-religious principles produced by King Indra. In other words, it is the duty of the state or king to put a stop to pseudo-religious systems produced by unscrupulous persons. Originally a religious principle is one, given by the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and it comes through the channel of disciplic succession in two forms. Lord Brahma requested Prthu Maharaja to desist from his unnecessary competition with Indra, who was determined to stop Prthu Maharaja from completing one hundred yajnas. Instead of creating adverse reactions, it was better for Maharaja Prthu to stop the yajnas in the interest of his original purpose as an incarnation. This purpose was to establish good government and set things in the right order.
(More...) Imported quote 13475 To give protection to the general mass of people who are citizens of the state is the prescribed occupational duty for a king. By acting in that way, the king in his next life shares one sixth of the result of the pious activities of the citizens. But a king or executive head of state who simply collects taxes from the citizens but does not give them proper protection as human beings has the results of his own pious activities taken away by the citizens, and in exchange for his not giving protection he becomes liable to punishment for the impious activities of his subjects.
(More...) Imported quote 13477 Lord Visnu advised Maharaja Prthu that a king is not enjoined to give up his kingdom and the responsibility of protecting the prajas or citizens to instead go away to the Himalayas for liberation. He can attain liberation while executing his royal duties. The royal duty or the duty of the head of state is to see that the prajas or the general mass of people are doing their respective duties for spiritual salvation. A secular state does not necessitate a king or head of state who is indifferent to the activities of the prajas. In the modern state the government has many rules and regulations for conducting the duties of the prajas, but the government neglects to see that the citizens advance in spiritual knowledge. If the government is careless in this matter, the citizens will act whimsically, without any sense of God realization or spiritual life, and thus become entangled in sinful activities.
(More...) An executive head should not be callous to the welfare of the general mass of people while he simply goes on collecting taxes. The king's real duty is to see that the citizens gradually become fully Krsna conscious. Krsna conscious means completely free from all sinful activities. As soon as there is complete eradication of sinful activities in the state, then there will be no more war, pestilence, famine or natural disturbances. This was actually prevailing during the reign of Maharaja Yudhisthira. If a king or head of the government is able to induce the citizens to become Krsna conscious, then he is worthy to rule over the mass of people; otherwise, he has no right to levy taxes. If the king looks after the spiritual interests of the citizens, he can levy taxes without difficulties. In this way both the subjects and the king will be happy during this life, and in the next life the king will be able to share one sixth of the pious activities of the citizens. Otherwise, by levying taxes on the sinful citizens he will have to share the reactions of their sinful activities.
(More...) Imported quote 13500 A responsible king or chief executive has many responsible duties to attend to in ruling over the citizens. The most important duty of the monarch or the government is to perform various sacrifices as enjoined in the Vedic literatures. The next duty of the king is to see that every citizen executes the prescribed duties for his particular community. It is the king's duty to see that everyone perfectly executes the duties prescribed for the varna and asrama divisions of society. Besides that, as exemplified by King Prthu, he must develop the earth for the greatest possible production of food grains.
(More...) Imported quote 13521 King Prthu continued: By the grace of the Supreme Lord I have been appointed the king of this planet, and I carry the scepter to rule the citizens, protect them from all danger and give them employment according to their respective positions in the social order established by Vedic injunction.
(More...) Imported quote 13522 A king is supposed to be appointed by the Supreme Personality of Godhead to look after the interests of his particular planet. On every planet there is a predominating person, just as we now see that in every country there is a president. If one is president or king, it should be understood that this opportunity has been given to him by the Supreme Lord. According to the Vedic system, the king is considered a representative of Godhead and is offered respects by the citizens as God in the human form of life. Actually, according to Vedic information, the Supreme Lord maintains all living entities, and especially human beings, to elevate them to the highest perfection. After many, many births in lower species, when a living entity evolves to the human form of life and in particular to the civilized human form of life, his society must be divided into four gradations, as ordered by the Supreme Personality of Godhead in Bhagavad-gita (catur-varnyam maya srstam, etc.). The four social orders-the brahmanas, ksatriyas, vaisyas and sūdras-are natural divisions of human society, and, as declared by Prthu Maharaja, every man in his respective social order must have proper employment for his livelihood. It is the duty of the king or the government to insure that the people observe the social order and that they are also employed in their respective occupational duties. In modern times, since the protection of the government or the king has been withdrawn, social order has practically collapsed. No one knows who is a brahmana, who is a ksatriya, who is a vaisya or who is a sūdra, and people claim to belong to a particular social order by birthright only. It is the duty of the government to reestablish social order in terms of occupational duties and the modes of material nature, for that will make the entire world population actually civilized. If it does not observe the institutional functions of the four social orders, human society is no better than animal society in which there is never tranquillity, peace and prosperity but only chaos and confusion. Maharaja Prthu, as an ideal king, strictly observed the maintenance of the Vedic social order.
(More...) Imported quote 14955 When Maharaja Nabhi saw that his son Rsabhadeva was popular with the general populace and the governmental servants, he chose to install Him on the imperial throne. In addition, he wanted to entrust his son into the hands of the learned brahmanas. This means that a monarch was supposed to govern strictly according to Vedic principles under the guidance of learned brahmanas, who could advise Him according to the standard Vedic scriptures like Manu-smrti and similar sastras. It is the duty of the king to rule the citizens according to Vedic principles. According to Vedic principles, society is divided into four categories-brahmana, ksatriya, vaisya and sūdra. Catur-varnyam maya srstam guna-karma-vibhagasaḥ. After dividing society in this way, it is the king's duty to see that everyone executes Vedic principles according to his caste. A brahmana must perform the duty of a brahmana without cheating the public. It is not that one attains the name of a brahmana without the qualifications. It is the king's duty to see that everyone engages in his occupational duty according to Vedic principles. In addition, retirement at the end of life is compulsory. Maharaja Nabhi, although still a king, retired from family life and went with his wife to a place called Badarikasrama in the Himalayas, where the Deity Nara-Narayana is worshiped. The words prasanna-nipunena tapasa indicate that the King accepted all kinds of austerity very expertly and jubilantly. He did not at all mind leaving his comfortable life at home, although he was the emperor. Despite undergoing severe austerities and penances, he felt very pleased at Badarikasrama, and he did everything there expertly. In this way, being fully absorbed in Krsna consciousness (samadhi-yoga), always thinking of Krsna, Vasudeva, Maharaja Nabhi attained success at the end of his life and was promoted to the spiritual world, Vaikunthaloka.
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