What is ISKCON? - Incompatibility with ISKCON

[Guest guest]

Dear Babhru Prabhu.

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

> >

> > Or the way devotees are told to be "nice and friendly" to each other,

> > not based

> > on devotional service.

>

>

> Could you please clarify what you mean by that? I find it a very confusing

> sentence. Why? Well, one reason is that one of the most important things

> we learn from Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita is how devotees associate with

> each other. The only places we see faultfinding there is in examples of

> how notto behave among devotees.

 

I can try to clarify what I ment. Naturally, devotees should be nice and

friendly to each other not "harsh and unfriendly". But being "nice and

friendly" is a good case for another discussion. The point I was making is,

that certain things, that are accepted in modern ISKCON, drive away older

devotees. As one those things I mentioned trend, that devotees associate by

being "friendly and nice" even outside the scope of devotional service. Now,

one may say, how can that be wrong? Let me clarify. As usual, devotees take

such liberal ideas, and drive them to extremes, with broad smile on their

faces, "Finally it is bonafide!". And then you get sunday basketbal matches

by devotees, three day soccer devotee tournaments for Gaura Purnima,

watching movies with devotees, going to pizza with devotees, going on a trip

to mountains with devotees, going on a seaside for vacation with devotees,

taking a bicycle rides with devotees, discussing politics with devotees....

Basically, you get all karmi sense enjoyment life, but with devotees, so

that it is bonafide. And of course most importanti is to be "nice and

friendly" to each other, and in this way you achieve heaven on earth.

 

Probably, most devotees have something of above. Years ago, it was like

this, that if you had some maya, you do it alone. Now it is that if you have

some maya, find some devotees, and engage in same thing with devotees, so

that it is bonafide. Still this is no problem, really. It becomes problem,

when older devotees, or even Gurus, engage theis subordinates in above ways.

Subordinates consider such moments as rare nectar of pure vaisnava

association, but the master just needs somebody to hang with, to get

impression, that he is in association of devotees. Eventually those things

come out and when one sees this things happening, he just wonders, what he

is doing here. It surely increases sentimental enthusiasm of young devotees,

but kills commitment and cooperation of olders. So instead of having

missionary organization, you get membership organization, where nobody is

inspired to cooperate and there is no faith in authorities and no commitment

to mission.

 

Like this. I do not want to go into more specific details of "niceness and

friendliness" at this place. The point is, that ISKCON promotes things, that

drive away his own older members. And in place of olders, the new generation

of youngs is coming in. And while the olders do not buy everything ISKCON is

offering, the youngs are just suited for modern ISKCON, since they perfectly

fit in. While the olders were attracted to ISKCON for something else (there

was no modern ISKCON at that time), the new ones are recruited on basis of

all modern sentimental bridge expansions of ISKCON personality. The problem

is just, that the new ones do not have commitment and sacrifice of previous

generations. Because they join for sentiment, which is then maintained for

many years by ISKCON itself adopting all bridge preaching methods. And we

all know that sentimental niceness doesn't go well with missionary

sacrifice, if it is not fun. So you need to preach "fun" in order to get

people moving.

 

Thus ISKCON is less and less missionary oriented, while becoming more and

more a place for "nice and friendly" new age people, who basically just want

to feel good.

 

And membership in ISKCON is another undefined thing. I may write about this

in following days. The point is, that nobody has any idea, what makes one a

member of ISKCON. Actually, there is no unified membership principle. And

thus ISKCON becomes organization, adjusting itself to its members, who are

in reality non existent. Anyway, that another subject...

 

> You will very likely say that by pointing these things out yet again that

> I'm criticizing others or trying to shut down free discussion. Nothing

> could be further from the truth, dear sir. I'm simply pointing out the

> standard by which the efficacy of such discussion may be judged from the

> spiritual platform. As someone who has been around the block more than a

> few times, it would be shirking my duty if I declined to do so just to

> spare your feelings.

 

It is ok, if you criticize me, I'm not even a shadow of devotee. Besides,

I'm really asking for correction by openly writing this letters. I expect

nothing less than complete personal reform. And please, don't spare my

feelings, just kick me in the face if you see my misunderstandings. I will

bounce as it comes, taking every experiance as some sort of valuable

guidance. I rather cry in separation, then feel good in illusion.

 

>

> You're making it hard for me to keep my promise to shut up and leave you

> alone. ;-)

 

Thank you.

 

>

> In the meantime, I suggest that you make friends with those devotees whose

> vision you find compatible, and conducive to spiritual advancement. You

> don't need to have anything to do with the rest.

 

Thank you for your kind advice. I do that already and will continue in this

way. I'm sure I will be fine, Krsna knows what is happening. But I think the

problem is not really limited to me alone. I'm more talking of some more

general matters, which are harming ISKCON. Or better say, by which ISKCON is

harming itself. ISKCON is reaching out towards material world with full

enthusiasm and pure naivety, embracing all new ideas that look interesting

and could be helpfull. But other religions already reached in these

directions, and they burned their fingers. Of course, ISKCON believes, that

it will all be ok, and probably it is true, because Krsna protects. But

still, certain things drive devotees away, and new ones are attracted to

something lower, something that causes the olders to distance themselves.

Something is wrong in this pattern. And it must be discussed openly. Thus it

is only natural, that devotees have doubts in ISKCON. And although some try

to present it differently, actually modern innovations in ISKCON do not help

preaching at all. They just reduce originally pure ISKCON to the lower level

of popular sunday religions.

 

your servant Giri-nayaka das