What is ISKCON? - Incompatibility with ISKCON

[Guest guest]

Thank you Giri-nayaka prabhu, for your thoughtful deliberations.

 

Allow me to comment.

 

> Besides points below, from previoust post, there is also a certain

> question coming to my mind, more and more often. I hope I can find some

> answer to it: "What is ISKCON?"

>

> I know that ISKCON is officially identified with Srila Prabhupada. But as

> more and more devotees disagree with more and more things in ISKCON, it is

> becoming obvious, that ISKCON is doing more and more things, that are not

> clearly connected to Srila Prabhupada's teachings.

 

What you are saying is not logical. First you say that you don't know what

ISKCON is. You ask the question, what is Iskcon? Then you say that more and

more devotees disagree with ISKCON, and that many things are being done

ISKCON that are clearly not connected to Prabhupada's teachings. If you

don't know what ISKCON is, then you also don't know if ISKCON is doing

things that are against Srila Prabhupada's teachings, or what it is that

more and more devotees disagree with.

 

I propose that it is not ISKCON we disagree with, but certain devotees

within ISKCON. If we disagree with some devotees in ISKCON, we can't say

that 's the same as disagreeing with Iskcon. That's one point. The next

point is then to define ISKCON. ISKCON is defined by the principle of faith

in Srila Prabhupada's instructions. Those who have the highest degree of

faith in Srila Prabhupada are those who stay in ISKCON and serve in the

system he set up. In my mind it's a very simple and straightforward - those

who follow Srila Prabhupada against all odds and keep his mission going,

those devotees, they are ISKCON.

 

But is Iskcon there are many devotees not all of whom we like or even have

to like. It's is up to every single one of us to seek out the association of

those of Prabhupada followers who have the most faith in him. Just to name

an example, I am not speaking of you, but say a devotee suffers some

injustice in Iskcon and then goes away disappointed, then that means he has

not strong faith in Srila Prabhupada. If he had faith, he would stay and try

to play whatever little part he could in Prabhupada's grand plan for the

rectification of mankind.

 

You ask what we have to do... that's what we have to do. We have to find

friends in ISKCON, those we can work with, and then stick with them. And as

Prabhupada's granddiciples it behooves us to find those of Prabhupada's

disciples who can help us increase our love for Prabhupada.

 

> My question is also, if there are any devotees at all in ISKCON, who 100%

> accept everything that is modern ISKCON standing for. I haven't meet any

> personally till now. My experience is, that all ISKCON devotees to some

> degree disagree with modern ISKCON. Therefore I'm asking myself, what is

> actually ISKCON? If even ISKCON devotees cannot accept modern ISKCON, how

> are we expecting, that it is for everybody? If it is for all, then at

> least ISKCONs own members should be enthusiastic about it, isn't it?

 

As I said, there is no such thing as disagreeing with ISKCON. To disagree

with ISKCON is to disagree with Prabhupada, and we just established, that

ISKCON are those devotees, who follow Prabhupada. You can't follow

Prabhupada and not ISKCON. It's simply an oxymoron to think we can disagree

with ISKCON. We can disagree with certain devotees in ISKCON, but then we

have to find those we disagree with, and then serve Srila Prabhupada with

them. Or if one doesn't have any friends in Iskcon, then he has to serve

Prabhupada by himself, but that's very hard. It's very hard if not

impossible to perform devotional service without the association of

devotees. That's why devotees of ISKCON must stick together, because if you

go any where else but Iskcon you will lose Srila Prabhupada. That's just all

there is to it.

 

> And if ISKCON means Srila Prabhupada's instructions, what is then this

> thing, that I call modern-ISKCON. Because so many things, that are done,

> cannot be connected to Srila Prabhupada, or are even against Srila

> Prabhupada's teachings. Too many times I can observe the principle "We

> used to think, but now we know!". But this is a karmi-scientist principle.

> If we used to think, but now we know, probably in few years we will say

> the same, that we use do think, and now we know. So why bother with

> things, that are changing?

 

That's another thing. We are bound to meet a lot of people who are in Iskcon

for reasons other than surrendering to Prabhupada, but those we have to

avoid. Personally I agree with you, that modern psychology is absolutely

useless for any purpose, if someone thinks he needs psychology, then by all

means, let him go for it. To me it signifies lack of faith in bhakti yoga

to think that one needs psychology, so I just don't bother with those

people. I don't have to like each and every devotee in Iskcon. but I have to

like Prabhupada, and those devotees who have dedicated their lives to him.

That's all I have to worry about.

 

 

> Srila Prabhupada gave us timeless teachings for the next 10.000 years. But

> modern ISKCON is proposing, usually in connection to social issues, that

> if Srila Prabhupada was here today, he would speak differently. And

> numerous methods are invented on basis of this premise, in order to bring

> KC closer to people. But at the same time those same methods drive away

> even ISKCONs own devotees. How can those inventions be expected to inspire

> people, if they drive away even devotees?

>

> So, what is ISKCON? What we do, or what we should be doing?

 

ISKCON does not drive away devotees. Devotees drive themselves away from

Iskcon because of a lack of faith in Prabhupada. You have to connect with

devotees in Iskcon you have faith in.

 

 

ys, jdd