Ramesvara: Krsna conscious government must be monarchy. A real Krsna conscious government...

Srila Prabhupada: No. Why monarchy? You can continue democracy, but the legislators should be first-class men who has knowledge, not these rascals.

Ramesvara: But the real problem is the businessmen, because they can influence the mass of people by advertising.

Prabhupada: The mass of people should be educated. Just like we are educating, "No meat-eating." So automatically the meat-selling, slaughterhouse will be stopped. (Allahabad, January 15, 1977)

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Even with a Master Plan, a community must develop organically.  As a community develops, it will need a specific ratio of persons who are qualified in various disciplines, such as medical care. One physician can only care for a limited number of patients. A rural community in a peaceful setting may attract many devotees for retirement, as well as families with children, both of which increase the need for medical care.

The doctors in Vedic society were the brahmanas, and served the people while accepting contributions according to individual capacity. Such physicians must therefore be truly brahminical and not practicing their trade for the money.

The community members will be primarily engaged in construction and agricultural pursuits in the early phases of development. As a community begins to gradually develop, the need for other roles will become manifest. This may be a little different in each community, but proper care of devotees is always very important. 

The Vedic model of using brahmanas in two important roles - teacher and physician -  immediately solves two persistent problems in Western society – the ever-increasing costs of healthcare and education, and the problem of low character by people in these roles which frequently make headline news.

If we consider some of the historical problems in ISKCON, they came about partly due to unqualified people in certain roles. A complete society and social structure is important to properly determine a person's varna, since that varna is properly manifest only in relationship to the rest of society, not in relationship to an organization. Varna is not only determined by one's qualities, but also by one's actual work within society.

For example, we must distinguish between someone who is a teacher in modern society, whether a devotee or not, and a brahmana. As a simple rule of thumb, anyone who is paid a wage is a sudra, and anyone charging a fee is a vaisya. There are practically no brahmanas in modern society partly because of the modern economic system - except for sannyasis, a few brahmacaris, and a few very renounced grhathas. There is nothing wrong with a devotee being a vaisya or a sudra, and in fact Ramananda Raya was a sudra in society. The error is only in the way we think, and in the way modern society is arranged. That does not mean that a teacher in modern society may not have brahminical qualifications, but they are not acting as a brahmana in that society if they are receiving a salary. As soon as they are getting paid there is external control over that person's activities, and such "brahmanas" must dovetail their actions in accordance with their authority. They cannot speak things that are opposed to the curriculum. An example would be a devotee working in a public school who must teach the theory of evolution as part of the curriculum, or who cannot teach anything about spiritual life.

Devotees charging a set fee for seminars or for teaching various subjects are acting as vaisyas. This creates an environment saturated with the need for money - which is a hallmark of modern society. A brahmana only accepts contributions, which allows both the rich and the poor equal access to knowledge. Srila Prabhupada very clearly said the Varnashram Colleges should not charge money. Of course, most of us have been raised in a society where money is an all-consuming necessity, and we typically have homes and lifestyles to match the amount of money we make. Dealing with this all-pervasive need for and attachment to money is one of the most critical factors in the transition to sustainable communities. People who have more money usually get more power and control in their respective communities - and while difficult to prevent, this trend must be minimized by the particular organization and rules of the community, as well as by the ongoing leadership. 

The modern economic machine thus destroys many good qualities, and it prevents many devotees from adopting roles other than sudra - and those other roles are desperately needed. In a rural community most of the exchange should be by barter. We do not want an economy based on paper money. Srila Prabhupada condemned paper money systems that are not backed by gold, which is now the case in every major country of the world.   

Certain occupational roles may not be needed until a community is well developed. A communities will rarely be so far away from a city or town with medical facilities that any community shortage during the initial development would pose a problem. As houses become established and families move in, the need for teachers for the children will come first. As the community grows other roles will become necessary.

Once a community becomes reasonably established, they should look toward getting cows and temples, and the need for roles associated with those functions will then increase.  We should be very careful about adding either of these before a community is fully prepared to maintain the Lord nicely and the cows nicely. Everything must be very carefully planned. 

All occupational needs or roles will be offered first to any devotees who worked to help establish a community. A community should seek for qualified devotees outside only if such needs cannot be met from within the community.

The four ashrams are an exception to this, since they are not occupational roles. Community development will take place primarily by grhasthas, and secondarily by brahmacaris / brahmacarinis. Sannyasis may be invited as soon as enough devotees are living there to provide proper facility out of respect to the renounced order. Residential or guest quarters can be associated with the temples and the Varnashram College, and should be very hospitable and carefully designed. Of course sannyasis and other people are always welcome to stay in a grhastha's home or particular village that invites them.

At inception, a community should be governed by consensus, with a democratic structure.  While this appears to contradict things Srila Prabhupada said about democracy, the quote above may shed some light. Today there is little chance of starting a community in the West without a democratic structure. This subject is covered more fully in the page on Government.

A community’s Master Plan or Community Constitution must provide considerable direction. The more details that are spelled out, the better. All details must be agreed upon prior to physical formation of the community. 

The primary government, laws, court systems, and defense already exist at the state and federal levels, including the military and local police.  Every citizen and resident has to abide by federal and state laws. We must use these systems, and extend them as needed within a community. In other words, if there is a problem with security any resident devotees who fill such necessary roles should be certified security guards, police officers, and so forth. The idea of establishing completely separate and independent law enforcement and government could cause huge problems and is not presently needed. 

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