Ideal king, and reason for failures of monarchy

Dhruva Mahārāja, as an ideal king, practically emptied his treasury by giving charity. A king is not meant simply to realize taxes from the citizens and accumulate wealth to spend in sense gratification. World monarchy has failed ever since kings began to satisfy their personal senses with the taxes accumulated from the citizens. Of course, whether the system is monarchy or democracy, the same corruption is still going on. At the present moment there are different parties in the democratic government, but everyone is busy trying to keep his post or trying to keep his political party in power. The politicians have very little time to think of the welfare of the citizens, whom they oppress with heavy taxes in the form of income tax, sales tax and many other taxes — people sometimes have eighty to ninety percent of their income taken away, and these taxes are lavishly spent for the high salaries drawn by the officers and rulers. Formerly, the taxes accumulated from the citizens were spent for performing great sacrifices as enjoined in the Vedic literature. At the present moment, however, almost all forms of sacrifice are not at all possible; therefore, it is recommended in the śāstras that people should perform sańkīrtana-yajña. Any householder, regardless of his position, can perform this sańkīrtana-yajña without expenditure. All the family members can sit down together and simply clap their hands and chant the mantra. Somehow or other, everyone can manage to perform such a yajña and distribute prasāda food to the people in general. That is quite sufficient for this age of Kali. I follow this principle: chant the mantra at every moment, as much as possible, both inside and outside of the temples, and, as far as possible, distribute prasāda. This process can be accelerated with the cooperation of state administrators and those who are producing the country's wealth. Simply by liberal distribution of prasāda food and sańkīrtana, the whole world can become peaceful and prosperous.

(Prasada is food cooked with love towards the Supreme.)