Teaching The Christians To Chant

[Guest guest]

Teaching The Christians To Chant

 

BY BHAKTISIDDHARTHA DASANUDAS

 

 

EDITORIAL, Mar 15 (VNN) — His Divine Grave A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

Prabhupada is a liberal-minded brahmana and saintly pure Vaisnava of

exceedingly broad transcendental vision. Just how broad-minded is

exemplified by the following letter he wrote to me in September 1976:

 

"Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated

6, September, 1976 and have noted the contents with care. Thank you

very much for your kind offer to have me as your Permanent Acarya and

Honorary Chairman. I will accept this if your organization and

members are agreed to follow the four regulative principles which

discriminate animal life from human life, i.e. no eating of meat fish

or eggs; no illicit sex life outside of marriage and then only for

the begetting of God conscious children; no intoxicants, including

coffee, tea, or cigarettes; no gambling, not even bingo. Unless one

follows these principles, spiritual life is not possible.

----

----------

 

"This is alright that you will chant the names of Christ for after

all he was the representative of God."

 

 

----

----------

 

 

 

 

I can give you all guidance and direction for there are millions of

Christians in the world today. We are not concerned with how, so much

as the fact that one must develop his dormant love for God. This is

alright that you will chant the names of Christ for after all he was

the representative of God. People are lost due to not following a

bona fide religious system. If you can revive their God consciousness

that will be very good service.

 

I hope this meets you in good health. Your ever well-wisher, A. C.

Bhaktivedanta Swami" [letter 76-09-08.Dav]

 

This letter came about as a result of my proposal to Srila Prabhupada

to establish a separate mission specifically to preach to the

Christians. I was concerned that ISKCON in its ecclesiastical form as

a branch of the Vedic tradition could not be effective in bringing

the message of Lord Caitanya to the sectarian Christians. The

Christians see Krsna consciousness as a 'different religion'

worshiping a 'different God' and so could argue against it as un-

Christian. Therefore in my first letter to Srila Prabhupada in July

1976 I proposed to preach to the Christians by using the principles

of Vaisnavism to shed light on the being and mission of Jesus Christ.

Srila Prabhupada endorsed this idea enthusiastically in a letter sent

to me in Delhi that unfortunately was omitted from the Folio. My

second letter gave this proposal shape by suggesting the

establishment of an organization called World Christ Consciousness

Organization (World ChirstCOR) with Srila Prabhupada as the head. As

we can see, Srila Prabhupada authorized this proposal as well.

 

Please note the two points emphasized above. Srila Prabhupada agreed

to accept the posts of Permanent Acarya and Honorary Chairman of a

proposed organization to preach the Vedic path of self-realization to

the Christians. He also authorized the chanting of the Holy Name of

Lord Jesus Christ. These two statements have profound implications

for all Vaisnavas.

 

The first is that Srila Prabhupada accepts the principle of Permanent

Acarya. This tends to confound the arguments of some who say that

Srila Prabhupada never meant to act as the Permanent Acarya of

ISKCON. If Srila Prabhupada agreed to become the Permanent Acarya of

World ChirstCOR, why could he not also have intended to remain the

Permanent Acarya of ISKCON, especially in the absence of a qualified

successor?

 

Second, Srila Prabhupada authorized the chanting of the Holy Name of

Lord Jesus Christ. Someone may argue that as a devotee, Jesus' name

cannot have potency equal to the Holy Names of Krsna. However Srila

Prabhupada refutes this idea by saying that chanting the name of

Christ will revive people's God consciousness, implying the the name

of Jesus Christ in fact does contain transcendental potency. Of

course, the name Christ is closely etymologically related to Krsna.

This connection is so obvious that the Christians have erased the

derivation of Christ's name from their histories. So the question of

the origin and meaning of the name of Christ will stump any Christian

scholar. More than that, Jesus Christ is a pure devotee of Krsna. If

we accept the theory that Jesus is an incarnation of Lord Brahma, he

is also the ultimate param-guru of all Vaisnavas in this universe.

This is worth contemplating, for it indicates that instead of

neglecting Lord Jesus Christ, all Vaisnavas must give honor and

worship to him as our original guru.

 

The years after Srila Prabhupada's disappearance were very

distracting as we battered survivors of the post-samadhi ISKCON

disaster struggled to piece together our shattered lives, figure out

what really happened and put our experience in perspective.

Unfortunately, I did not have much time or headspace to implement

Srila Prabhupada's instructions regarding preaching to the

Christians. I started to write a commentary on the Gospels from the

Vedic point of view but could not make much progress and ultimately

gave it up.

 

However, starting in 1997 I got a lot of fresh inspiration from the

Lord in this regard and began to write another book. I tried to model

it on the thoughts that the Lord inspired in me upon seeing the

behavior and attitudes of modern so-called Christians. This book,

Here Be Wisdom, is now published by Harinam Arts Press

http://www.harinam-arts.org/ and available from Amazon.com

http://www.amazon.com/ (do a search for 'Dasanudas'). You can read a

sample chapter of it here.

 

I am now writing a much more substantial work, The Book of

Gethsemane. It began as a commentary on the Bible story of Jesus in

the Garden of Gethsemane drawn from Bhagavad-gita As It Is. However,

as I continue to work on it, it is taking on a life of its own (those

of you who are writers will know what I mean) and becoming a

commentary on Bhagavad-gita from an esoteric Christian point of view.

I plan to publish it next year in three paperback volumes of 300-400

pages each, so it is quite a substantial book. You can read a preview

chapter of The Book of Gethsemane here. Please note that this is a

work in progress, not a final draft.

 

The future of Vaisnava preaching to the Christian community is an

unwritten chapter of Lord Caitanya's global Sankirtan movement. I am

convinced that Srila Prabhupada's desire to create a special

organization to preach to the Christians will not go in vain. I am

trying to build a literary and philosophical bridge between the two

faiths that can serve future sincere pilgrims in their search for the

Absolute Truth. Lord Caitanya will arrange through His pure devotees

to enlighten everyone on this planet and create a Golden Age even in

the depths of Kali-yuga. We are but insignificant instruments in His

grand plan to spiritualize the world. I invite broad-minded devotees

with an interest in this topic to correspond with me.

 

Your servant,

Bhaktisiddhartha Dasanudas

, Harmony School of Conscious Art (Miami)

International Conscious Art Gallery: http://www.consciousart.org/

Vedic Astrologer e Writer e Musician http://www.harinam-arts.org/

Free Vedic Horoscope offer: http://www.consciousart.org/offer/

Listen to some of my tunes! http://www.mp3.com/DavidBruceHughes/