Common Sense, Intelligence And Maturity

July 5, 2003

I have read Tusta Krishna Prabhu's scholarly discussion of how Krishna was treated in last Saturday's episode of Xena. I wonder how he would treat a 5 year old girl who has a Krishna doll and wants to play with that doll. If the little girl says that she loves Krishna, would Tusta Krishna tell her that she doesn't because she is not totally pure and, therefore, can not possibly love Krishna. And if she says that she talks to Krishna, then would he tell her that she can not talk to Krishna because she is not totally pure and a pastime between her and Krishna is not described in the Vedic literature. I think he would not want to scare her away from Krishna so he might not caution her so much.

Or here's another scenario. A script writer has a dream or day- dream and in the dream Krishna appears with Rama or Buddha or Jesus. Then he likes the action so much that he presents that on a Television show, making it clear that here is the presentation of the story from a dream. This is similar to what people know about the Xena show in that the viewers know that the events are not reality. Are we then going to condemn the show by saying either:

(1) You did not have such a dream,

(2) We believe you had that dream but we don't want you to air that, even though it is abundantly clear to your audience that this presentation is someone's concoction.

The producers of the Xena show are not devotees and should not be held to a standard higher than we would demand of children. We don't want to scare them away from dealing with Krishna. Let's be real now. The producers of the Xena show will either present Xena with Krishna or will not present anything about Krishna. The choice that the producers present something directly from the Remanet or Mahabharata or other Vedic scriptures is not a choice, for, we must remember, this is the Xena show, not the WVA show. The question really is whether the population of the world is helped in becoming Krishna Conscious by having a Xena with Krishna show. If yes, then the show is good. If no, then the show is not good. We have to judge by the results. I have not, as yet, seen the results, but devotees who have seen the show here in LA, and I have had at least 5 showings here, agree that the effect must be greatly positive on people.

Another issue is whether that the Xena show could have more accurately presented Krishna and I think that everyone would agree that the answer is yes. So we should do everything in our power to try to positively influence any presentation about Krishna.

Tusta Krishna states that our writing does not at all cite shastra. Well, I would like to see what shastra tells us about dealing with international media who are not devotees. That specific item might not be in shastra and we may have to rely upon common sense, intelligence and maturity.

Mrigendra das

Los Angeles, CA