11/10/2019
"Accountability of a Leader":
In the Hari-bhakti-vilasa (1.70), a medieval manual for Vaishnava behavior, it is stated that a spiritual master is responsible for his disciples’ sins, that the husband is responsible for the wife’s sins, and that the king is responsible for the faults of his counselors. In each case we see the seriousness of responsibility. A spiritual master must consistently guide his disciples so that they will come to a higher platform; otherwise, he will certainly be held accountable and suffer for their sins. A husband’s duty is to protect, guide and care for his wife. If he fails in that duty, his wife’s sins fall upon him. Similarly, one who is in a leadership position—anyone dealing with the lives of dependents—is held karmically accountable.
If people could really understand the accountability associated with leadership, most would be reluctant to hold such a position. Although much of modernity is based on people thinking that they are units unto themselves, community means seeing our interdependence. We each have an integral role in the function and success of society. Many people these days are trying to avoid the responsibilities and implications of community without realizing that community is actually a great part of the natural order of things.
When there is a cheating mentality prevalent in the government, that mentality will be passed on to the people. There is a story in the Vedas concerning a king and his pious brahmana advisor named Bhagavan Pandita. While other ministers tried to make their fortune by exploiting the king, Bhagavan Pandita maintained his brahminical detachment. Therefore, the other ministers hated him; his presence interfered with their ability to manipulate and cheat. For this reason, they conspired to minimize Bhagavan Pandita’s influence. Perhaps they should kill him, they thought. In the end, they decided that he must be removed from the king’s service as chief advisor, perhaps by having him banished from the kingdom.
In the Vedic system, a king would rule for life unless he became mentally incapacitated. The king, however, appointed ministers and their posts were always temporary—depending on the king’s needs. Thus the ministers often feared losing their positions. Aside from the ministers, the king was always advised by brahmanas who remained free of official position, who were not materialistic, and who were never engaged in partisan politics.
One day, the ministers had a gatekeeper tell Bhagavan Pandita that the king did not want to see him again and that he was no longer welcome in the kingdom. Because of this, the dutiful Pandita left the kingdom of his own volition. After several days, the king began to ask for him. Some of the plotting ministers constructed a false story, saying he had died of a heart attack. The king was shocked to hear this news. He called in the palace doctor to learn more about Bhagavan Pandita’s death. The doctor was also part of the ministers’ plot, so he confirmed that the Pandita had died from heart failure.
After this, the king was convinced. He decided to reciprocate in some way with the loyal and sensitive service Bhagavan Pandita had rendered while he was alive. Accordingly, he decided to send a donation to the Pandita’s widow. He appointed one of the ministers to deliver the money, but the minister instead took the money and divided it between himself and the other ministers involved in the plot. At that same time, Bhagavan Pandita tried to gain entrance into the palace, but to no avail—the ministers’ were quite powerful.
One day while the king was out walking in the city, Bhagavan Pandita took the opportunity to try to meet the king. The guards, of course, were aware that this might happen, so they remained vigilant and did not allow Bhagavan Pandita to get close to the king. Finally, Bhagavan Pandita looked to see what direction the king was walking in. He ran ahead and climbed a tall tree. As the king was about to pass under the tree, Bhagavan Pandita began to shout, “Maharaja! Maharaja! It’s me, your old friend, Bhagavan Pandita!” Bhagavan was shouting out so desperately that the king looked up and saw his old friend in the tree.
The king immediately walked toward the tree, but the ministers quickly approached him and said, “Don’t go there, Your Highness. It’s the ghost of Bhagavan Pandita.”
At first the king was bewildered. Then he saw that all his ministers were in agreement. “Yes,” he thought, “it is a ghost. My ministers have saved me.”
The point of this story is to show how people often accept false theories and innocently become part of a culture of manipulation and lying. When the king does not monitor his citizens sufficiently and does not have a strong system for dealing with social deviation, the kingdom will be overrun by thieves, rogues and cheaters. The common people will not only be attacked and abused by such cheaters, but in time, they themselves will become cheaters. We see this all too often in today’s society, for we have become a society of the cheaters and the cheated.
Bhakti Tirtha Swami
Leadership for an Age of Higher Consciousness Volume II
Ancient Wisdom for Modern Times
