Farm 4

hare krishna and welcome to the next session of farm management course we are speaking about social sustainability there are three parts of sustainability economic environmental and social and among all these three social actually is the hardest to achieve social sustainability is something that that is hard so much because it is depending on the on free will it is depending on the individual that's not so keen to be influenced and based on this actually we can we can see that the different individuals have different nature they have different ideas they have different habits and it's not

that easy to have everyone under one flag so when we speak about social sustainability then sociologists say that if you would like to have an intentional community then you would need three main things in it to have it sustainable long term the first is you have to have a temple the second is you have to have a educational institution and third you have to have a place to get together that's different from the two previous so i think it's quite obvious that we would need a temple because we need a common ideology we need values

we need ethics we need morals rules principles that are that are not from this world that are transcendental that are coming from from krishna directly and that that place is the temple when where we get this uh input or this information and then the the second is the educational institution we we don't have to say that it's an institution but there should be a place for education either it's formal or informal or both the main the most important thing is that you have to have it because that's the place where you do the training where

you do workshops and different educational methods and that's important to solidify the values the principles and and morals ethics whatever have been conveyed to us through sadhu guru and shastra in the temple so the educational institution should be something that can convey the message to us in the present time and that would that would help us put everything putting everything in practice in our life so that's the educational institution part and then there's a third and that is a place to get together and it's important that it should be different from the from the two

other so the two other we can say that they are some kind of uh formal a mood so it's it's like this is the place where the transcendental message is conveyed to us this is a place where i'm being trained but i would like to be with with my friends and with my family and with the community members in a more relaxed settlement so that should be provided and when we provide those things we have to make sure that the environment is absolutely informal there is nothing formal about it it could be a place where

you can go and and you bake a bread or you can make a bonfire or or it could be just just some some field with grass and and some trees it doesn't have to be so elaborate the main thing is that you have to have a place where you can you can get together and it's not the temple and it's not an educational institution so when we when we speak about these aspects of social sustainability then we can also understand that that there are social influence and there are three main sources of influence that's that

that's usually there the first is the influence of the family where we live in then the second is the influence of the of the education and and the third is the influence of the community or the friends and if we see that in children you know the family gives gives values and the gurukul or the school gives values and knowledge and friends are exhibiting exhibiting the values so that is that that is an interesting thing that usually people tend to lean towards the friends because it's free will it's it's it's a group of people who

i chose who i like to be with who i can share my value system with uh and and actually that's that's a that's an important part of social sustainability that we should recognize these different aspects as much we can recognize these exactly that will be the the strength and and the foundation of social sustain sustainability within our community a community will stay together when there are common values it is really important to have an educational system formal and informal also that will help establishing that firmly establishing that value system the common values can be achieved

through many different means and the result of commonly accepted and shared common shared values is a high level of trust within the community and a really strong communal feeling that i really belong here and actually this this belonging that's a glue that will really keep the whole community together so when we are speaking about a sustainable community socially then we should we should see what are those elements that will really create that culture that will keep the community together and that's usually based on understanding that we are different and we we try to achieve that

everyone is engaged according to his or her own nature everyone can do any kind of service for a certain amount a certain amount of time but for a lifetime it's not that easy so it is important to figure out what what is my my skill set how i can i can really be inspired and be enthusiastic to do something and and what do i as a person think as that this is my life mission how would i be able to dedicate my whole life to one particular thing and when we can find this and the

individual goal setting and all these things are there and the individual understands his or her own nature then and he he or she can be engaged in that service then he will naturally be successful in that not just naturally be successful but naturally be enthusiastic and enthusiastic not only for one day or two days or a week or a month but for a really long period of time so this is the power of understanding what's my own individual nature and how common shared values can give a real a real input or can give real enthusiasm

and power and strength to the system let's speak about a little uh what are the tools that will help maintaining the common vision well there are tools like like education and communication and different kinds of uh trainings there could be regulations and also on the leadership level there are sanctions and all these things help the help defining the boundaries of a community what are the values principles regulations what are the different habits what are the different moods that we accept within this community and what are those that we really do not so these should be

well defined and these these tools should be used regularly so that the devotees will understand and will maintain their understanding in in the common values the other thing that's really important to maintain common values is celebrations and appreciation these two things are so crucial to to have a sustainable community that without this it doesn't matter whatever glue you put in the community whatever whatever values you would like to put in uh whatever rules and regulations and boundaries you would set it will fail for sure celebrations and appreciations are are so essential to the individual that

actually one cannot live without it so when we try to set up a a sustainable community then we should try to find the most opportunities for celebrations and for appreciation celebrations are those things that that gives a real imprint in the heart and the mind of people and when we celebrate then it's like a samskar what we celebrate the individuals will try to achieve that if we celebrate amazing book distribution scores then devotees will tend to to go out and do book distribution but let's just stick to book distribution and let's let's let's see this

example a bit more in detail so if we celebrate the the amount of lakshmi that have been brought in by book distribution then the devotee's tendency will be to go for more and more lakshmi if we celebrate the number of books that have been distributed then the devotees naturally will be inclined to distribute more and more books so you can see the difference and this is actually determining the culture of the community so it is really important to celebrate the right things that reflects the values and principles of your own community appreciations there should be

appreciations like like every day uh appreciation just just even some good words that really boosts one's inspiration and enthusiasm and that helps the devotee to feel being a member of the community and that that helps the community uh to reach out to the individual and and accept his or her services and the results that have been done in those services and in this way the community can thank the individual for for his responsibilities and duties that he executed nicely and also in this way we can we can develop certain aspects of the community certain culture

in the community that will help the community to last long in regards to celebrations and appreciations there is one really important aspect of that and that is you should appreciate and celebrate only the true results if you celebrate results that the individual did not achieve then the community will start feeling that that it's just a fake thing and that your intent is not right and if your intent is not right or seemingly it's not right then the result of that could be that the trust within the community will decrease the inspiration to do a service

will decrease and it gives a real instability to the system stability of the system is vital and and consistency gives stability so if someone achieves something and we celebrate then if someone else achieves the same thing he also should be celebrated and this is important because otherwise it could be like well i was celebrated but it was just by chance you know it i didn't do anything great and actually the leaders whenever they think they they just celebrate something or they they say some words of appreciation but actually it's not consistent so i really don't

know what to do within the community so these these thoughts can can can be really destructive so we should have proper times of celebration and and proper times for for appreciation for the proper means so the next element of social sustainability is a sustainable leadership it is important to see that uh the individuals take responsibility for their own duties everyone all the individuals within the community should understand why they do things what can they use what are the tools to use where they should perform their duties what should be the result so all these questions

should be should be answered and and then the devotees will be willing to take responsibility but on the other hand we must not have expectations only we should give protection and a leader's job is giving protection influence is merely a tool to give protection to different things why i say different things is because there are four main things that leaders are giving protection to first of all it's knowledge second it's people the third it's the environment and the the fourth is skills arts crafts all these things let's let's see what these four really mean so

protecting knowledge means that that a leader should always strive for for securing the knowledge the principles the transcendental aspect of life and by doing that we we give the right boundaries and the right formula for for the devotees to live within the community the second is protecting people i think it's quite obvious that protecting people means that we understand what their needs are and we educate them so they understand what the community's capacity is what can we provide what are those elements that they can expect and what are those that they cannot when we are

speaking about protection giving protection to people then there are certain groups that and that the leader should have more focus on first of all children and elderly people women sick people permanently ill these are devotees who who really need protection they cannot provide things for themselves or not always and they need that protection and the protection doesn't only mean that giving only the basic necessities of life protection also means that they will have a feeling of belonging to this community and protection also means that we are giving service to the devotees and we help with

training so that they can execute their service nicely so all all these things are there when we are speaking about protecting people the third thing is protecting the environment so a leader should be ready to protect all the resources that surrounds him and what the community is using because those surroundings those those resources are actually the foundation uh and that that that's really something that they use every day and using of those resources over time uh that will that will have the community to stay on that particular place for a longer time and the fourth

thing is protecting talent and skills each and every individual has skills and talents a leader's role is to find that and nourish that talent nourish that skill so when the devotees are doing their services then they will be inspired and they know that what they contribute to the community is not something average or below average so no one would like to be average everyone would like to be excellent and actually average no one is interested in that maybe some of you have seen some of these talent shows that are so popular nowadays in the world

you know there are two categories that they usually show on tv they're really good and they're really bad no one shows the average they show they're really bad because people can laugh and they show the really good because they could be the heroes people can can really look up to them so when when we when we think about ourselves we would also always like to be excellent in something you know if you go to a windows restaurant you won't go there and say that what's what's the menu they said was the menu and you would

say well actually uh what what's what's average what's average on your menu i would like to have something average and then when when the waiter comes with your tally and puts down your tally you look at it oh thank you very much it's such an average tally you won't say that you're always looking for excellent things so it's the same thing with finding talent and skills we should find in the individual what are what are the excellent qualities what are the excellent talents what are those those skills that that that he has and and maybe

no one else has that and we should nourish those talents we should provide education so that devotees can can develop those talents nicely and and those skills and they can practice all those the last aspect of social sustainability and also we spoke about this before a little that's the membership who is the member of your community you have to define as you spoke about had earlier you have to define what are the boundaries what are the limits of entry how people will be able to identify themselves with your community what does it mean to belong

to your community all these all these are really important questions and it's actually really important for the development of the community because the policies that the leadership will make and and the rules and also the values are only valid to those who think that they are members of your community so it is important to keep your community always clean meaning that everyone understands what is their role in the community and everyone understands their own contribution to the community so if someone cannot contribute or don't feel that he is contributing to the community he will not

be a member or he will move out and if someone cannot identify him or herself or with the values then gradually he will move out or she will move out and find his own own community so it is it is important to define your membership and by defining your membership uh the the individuals who are in the community will become real members and they will expect actually they will expect everyone else who is a member to act like they do and in this way they will develop a a commonly accepted culture and that culture will

be your community's culture and that culture should be should be always nourished and and you should have that culture to develop but you cannot develop a community culture if you don't know who the members are so it is really important always think of who are the members and when you make any decisions make sure that the members know that this is for their welfare in the beginning we were speaking about networking and we were speaking about how we should find partners within iscon and maybe outside of isco so when when we are part of a

global picture then we we see that we have something greater to think of than only our own farm and the same goes for the city temples so when we put these two things together the farms and the city temples then there could be a really good balance and actually there could be such a good and strong and close cooperation that would help the community to grow naturally within the farm and also within the city temple so there it is our job to somehow develop that connection properly and to develop that connection so strongly that it

cannot be caught and there are many different aspects that that we can we can think of here and one aspect is the social aspect so we should make the the farm in a way we should develop the farm in a way that the devotees in the cities can have access to the farm and also if they would like to move there they can move there not just move there but stay there and maybe relocate there but we should make the farm eligible for that so we should understand the needs of the different devotees over there

and also we should provide education in the cities in the city temples so that they understand the importance of the farm and they understand what are their or their own personal opportunities there on the farm and also is the other way around the farm should understand what what what it can provide to the city and what are the needs in the city and how the farm can produce all those things so so that all the farm products can go to the city so that the devotees in in the cities and towns they can have access

to that and devotees on the farm should go to the cities for celebrations for festivals and also from the from the city the devotees should go for certain festivals to the farm so when the farms and the city temples are working closely together then there could be a flow of resources and there could be a flow of devotees also and neither the farm nor the city temple devotees should worry about this flow because it is natural because the devotees are going through different stages in their lives so there could be a stage when a devotee

would like to move to a farm and there could be a stage where the farm devotee would think that okay i would like to be more involved in direct preaching now so maybe i can move to a city and and preach there and also maybe there are devotees who would like to have children and would think that we would like to raise our children in a more krishna conscious settlement so they moved to the farm and maybe there are devotees who are staying on the farm who became old and their their kids got married and

they think that okay let's get back to to direct preaching in the cities so they would think that okay we are moving back to the city now for some time until we can we can uh use our our energy uh to serve shiloh's mission over there and maybe after when we got old then we can just move back to the farm and live peacefully but for this there has to be a proper system there there has to be a real good and close cooperation because it it it affects your your economy it affects your community

it affects a lot of things so so it's it's really good to have a detailed uh strategy for the resource flow and also for the flow of devotees from one place to the other so thus we conclude the farm management course thank you very much for being with me i wish you a really happy study please go through all the materials don't just look at the videos and go through all the other materials that are provided especially prabhupad's quotes because it will be really important and it will help you to understand deeply how a farm

should be managed thank you very much again hare krishna