a counter example / Beware of Kali's agents

[Guest guest]

Dear Mahatma prabhu,

 

My obeisances to you. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

 

In this august assembly of devotees, I request that you please do not send

me private emails that are insulting, that attack me personally, or which

use emotional means to try and make me feel bad, guilty, or wrong.

 

I am interested in philosophical discussions in the association of devotees,

not a psychoanalysis of my nature or personality, two things which you have

absolutely no knowledge of.

 

Your servant,

Braja Sevaki dd

[Guest guest]

Dear Mahatma Prabhu and others, please accept my humble obeisances. All

glories to Srila Prabhupada

 

On 6/22/06, mahat (AT) aol (DOT) com < mahat (AT) aol (DOT) com> wrote:

 

>

> The use of pyschology may never assist one in becoming KC directly, but

> it can help people deal with deep emotional issues which in turn may create

> more stablility in their lives and enable them to practice KC better.

>

>

>

 

People who suffer also take shelter of Buddhism and Mayavada to relieve

their suffering, and they often enough get the bliss they were after. Can

adding some Buddhism or Mayavada to a spiritual program help a devotee, even

if it helps her "deal with deep emotional issues" and creates "more

stability" in her life? Who is better off: the bhakta with emotional issues

or the Mayavadi who has achieved brahman realization?

 

The same is true of psychology: just becase someone feels better after

speaking with a therapist does not mean that therapy was good for her. For

more than 80 years in the West, psychology has been hugely influential in

shaping Western society. Since the 1920s courts have considered

psychologists expert witnesses, and during this time makers of public policy

have regularly consulted with authorities in the social sciences.

 

Practically applied psychology, also known as "psychotherapy", is also

popular with the general public. There is virtually no facet of Western

society that has not been influenced by modern psychology. Yet it is also

true that despite the pervasiveness of psychology, the people in Western

society have numbered among the most unhappy and mentally ill-adjusted

people in the world.

 

This observation is good enough to tell us that something is wrong with the

general claim that psychology (psychotherapy) can help people, but it does

not tell us what, exactly, is wrong with it. The fundamental problem is

that psychotherapy, in its most popular form within our society,

communicates a humanistic philosophy (existentialism) which is incompatible

with the god-centered philosophy of Krishna consciousness.

 

Although not all existentialist philosophers are atheistic--some are

theists--Sartre, is perhaps the best known existentialist philosopher, and

he summed up the meaning of existentialism in his famous phrase, "Existence

preceeds essence." "Essence," refers to a notion that preceeds the

existence of something. For example, before a paper-cutter can come into

existence, there is the notion of a paper-cutter in the mind of the person

who will invent it. That notion is the "essence" of the paper-cutter. In

the case of a paper-cutter, it can be said that "essence precedes

existence."

 

In the same way, it is considered that prior to the existence of mankind,

there was a notion of mankind in the mind of the Creator, or God. Just as a

man might first conceive of a useful object and then create it, God

similarly first conceived of man and then created him. The Vedic conception

of the existence of man is something similar: although we exist eternally,

we simultaneously emanate from Krishna. Krishna, who is the cause of all

causes, is necessarily the cause of our existence. Thus religious thought

on the existence of man embraces the dictum "essence precedes existence."

 

But what if man has no creator? This was the question raised by Sartre. If

man has no creator, then there is no essence that precedes his existence.

Sartre, of course, does not accept that there is a God who created man and

therefore concludes that in the case of man, essence does not precede his

existence.

 

Yet that does not mean that man has no essence. Since, according to

Sartre, man wasn't "created" (existence comes before essence), man's essence

is self-determined. Although various existentialist philosophers disagree

on the ontology of the self (some are theists and accept that God is the

origin of the self), all of them characteristically believe that one's own

self is necessarily the most important link to reality. For them, reality

is always "reality as perceived," so all of them take a phenomenological

approach to understanding the self and the world.

 

One popular cultural expression of existentialism many devotees are familiar

with is manifest in the self-help and motivational gurus popular among

managers and business elites. A common technique these motivational gurus

teach is that you first make a list of all the things you are or want to be,

set goals (often in an expensive, specially formatted diary) to achieve your

self-defined roles, and then work hard to meet those goals. Sartre himself

said, "Man is nothing else but what he makes of himself. Such is the first

principle of existentialism." This is a foundational principle of the

modern self-help movement; all these self-actualization and motivational

seminars present repackaged existentialism.

 

Some areas within ISKCON are also becoming much influenced by existentialist

thought. In a brochure titled "Strong Marriages Have These 7 Vital

Ingredients", available at the Vaisnava Family Resources site (

http://vaisnavafamily resources.org), the seven ingredients listed are

"communication,teamwork,appreciation,faithfulness,financial

stability,quality time,shared spirituality or religious faith"--things

any marriage counselor will likely tell you irregardless of her religious

beliefs or lack thereof. But if the brochure says more or less what all the

other marriage counselors say, then what about it, exactly, is Krishna

conscious?

 

In this brochure, the notion of marriage as primarily a religious duty is

conspicuous by its absence. Instead, "shared spirituality or religious

faith" is just one of many other "ingredients" which all contribute to the

goal of having a "strong marriage." This is quite a different view of

marriage than the Vedic, or Krishna conscious, view.

 

"Financial Stability" is listed as one of the "ingredients," but what if it

so happens that money is hard to come by? It happens a lot. Yet if the

husband considers it his prescribed duty to earn a livelihood and the wife

considers it her prescribed duty to assist him, then financial stability is

not a consideration. In many parts of the world there are plenty of

husbands and wives who are street sweepers and are practically destitute.

Yet they stick together throughout their lives. "Financial stability" is

not a consideration in a marriage that emphasizes duty.

 

Much of the rest of the brochure is about compiling "needs" lists and

negotiating them:

 

--- begin quote ---

 

"People feel valued when they are appreciated for who they are and what they

do. When this need is not fulfilled in a marriage, your partner or you may

seek it in an extramarital affair.

 

"It is easy to take our spouse for granted and to forget how that person is

special. An antidote for this complacency is, every so often, to make a list

of the things you appreciate about your spouse. Choose one or two things

from your list to share with your spouse. Be creative: leave a surprise

phone message, a special e-mail or a note in your spouse's shoe!"

 

--- end quote ---

 

Of course, within a marriage there will be affection, yet this brochure

doesn't get beyond mutually negotiated I-me-mine lists:

 

--- begin quote ---

 

"Your spouse and you can make a list of activities you each like to do and

then regularly do things together that you both enjoy. Have fun!"

 

--- end quote ---

 

As is the case with the other brochures, this brochure is primarily about

fulfilling personal needs--either your own or your spouse's needs. Duty is

conspicuously absent.

 

The devotees behind the Vaisnava Family Resources site are sincere,

hard-working, and well-intentioned. I do not think they meant any harm by

publishing this and similar articles and brochures. I'm sure they have in

mind the best interests of the devotees they are trying to serve.

Nevertheless, this is but one sample of literature coming out of official

ISKCON that bears a strong imprint of existentialist thought.

 

Thirty years ago, the late Christopher Lasch wrote about the effect popular

psychotherapy and its "me-lists" has had on society:

 

--- begin quote ---

 

"Even when therapists speak of the need for 'meaning' or 'love,' they define

love and meaning simply as the fulfillment of the patient's emotional

requirements. It hardly occurs to them--nor is there any reason why it

should, given the nature of the therapeutic enterprise--to encourage the

subject to subordinate his needs and interests to those of others, to

someone or some cause or tradition outside himself."

 

(Lasch, Christopher. *The Culture of Narcissim*.)

 

--- end quote ---

 

This statement succinctly sums up why psychotherapy is generally

incompatible with Krishna consciousness (or any other half-way serious

religion) and why the enterprise of psychotherapy reinforces and strengthens

the false ego. When the therapeutic cure is "all about me", or even "mostly

about me" (with a side-order of religion), then from psychotherapy we can

expect an increase in the client's selfishness.

 

ys KKdas