(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 31 December 2018, Simhachalam, Germany, Srimad Bhagavatam 3.25.21)

Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is mahā-vadānyāya – He is most magnanimous. Devotees are also magnanimous where they will give gifts and receive gifts – dadāti pratigṛhṇāti (Nectar of Instruction, Text 4). This is an important point of the loving exchange of generosity and it is such generosity which is our trademark. 

In the cause of working on the master plan for Mayapur, we came across a man called Charles Eisenstein, not Einstein (laughter). And Charles Eisenstein came up with this idea called ‘Sacred Economics’. It was an economic model based on giving instead of charging for everything. And if one person gives to another, the other person becomes indebted and feels like doing something in exchange. So Eisenstein was an economist who drew a whole model on how an economy can work in this way, instead of paying our way where everyone is in competition with one another.

When I saw this, I thought, “This is our model! He somehow or other came across something that belongs to Lord Caitanya. This is the economics of Mayapur.” I saw that when we were making our master plan, and that is how it is meant to be. Mayapur should be a place of such generosity that everyone who visits there, should be so overwhelmed and should feel so indebted, that they feel like doing some service, something in exchange. That is the principle.  

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