Aryan Revival Movement

[Kulapavana]

For many years I have been watching the struggles of our Movement in the West. There are many reasons behind our problems but it is clear that we need a broad base support for our preaching efforts, similar to laity in most Christian churches. At the same time we also need to spur a practical change in society in general, a move towards Vedic values and principles. The idea of a noble civilization is very powerful and has much support among people of the world. I can only think of one civilization that fills that bill: the Aryan civilization as presented in the Vedas. Aryans are people of any origin who adopt the social and spiritual culture of nobility as presented in the Vedas. What is very relevant today is the need to reestablish a true Aryan society based not on "noble race" but on NOBLE CULTURE idea... I believe that was the second part of Srila Prabhupada's mission. It is impossible to imagine the predicted (however limited) comeback of the Golden Age without recreation of such noble culture and society......we should preach the glories of the Holy Name and the benefits of a true Aryan society... the only way to really make a difference in the world. Hare Krishna!

[Guest guest]

so how do we do it?

 

[Kulapavana]

He he... We will need all the help we can get! ;-)

 

For now just learn about it (Vedic Aryan concepts) - plenty of stuff you can google on this subject and SPREAD THE WORD! Stay in touch with interested people, discuss it with them, always respecting their concerns. I recently chatted with some American Indians about this idea. They were delighted to hear that their ancestral religious tradition has a Vedic basis. That is to say there is a very wide potential audience out there...

[Guest guest]

I don't see how it is possible to revive "Aryan culture" unless those who claim to believe in it actually follow it.

 

The successful brainwashing of Indian society by "secular" British imperialist policies has pretty much eliminated any hope of that country being the broad based support one would expect for such an endeavor.

 

Allow me to suggest a possible paradigm - good conduct requires as a prerequisite a mature spiritual understanding, which is itself based on understanding the essence of spiritual life. I submit that the Bhaagavatam is the cream of all scriptures and really has this essence. Thus, the beginning of Aryan culture revival will be when devotees are 100% engaged in the daily study of the Bhaagavatam. This is important, because the current paradigm of guru initiations stresses attainment of a certain duration of chanting and following regulative principles, but there does not seem to be any systematic attempt to teach this great scripture in its entirety. The current system in the West appears to be that a guru initiates disciples, and then any further instructions is via long-distance correspondence. This allows for many disciples to be initiated, but it does not allow for extended personal association and instruction in the depth of our scriptures. Perhaps a return to the old paradigm of gradual & systematic cultivation of disciples' education, beginning with daily, required Bhaagavatam classes, will be the panacea for this.

 

Comments?

 

 

yours,

 

Alpa-medhasa

[Kulapavana]

Alpa-medhasa: "the beginning of Aryan culture revival will be when devotees are 100% engaged in the daily study of the Bhaagavatam"

 

I very much agree. We need devotees with solid understanding of spiritual and cultural basis of Krishna consciousnes and Vedic culture. I regularly talk about it when giving class. Much of our problems as devotees comes from shallow understanding of the shastra. We have to have a very deep, practical knowledge of Aryan culture before we can impart it to others without creating a disturbance. But we should not wait forever as time is not on our side. We need to train others as soon as possible to provide a broad base support for Lord Caitanya's movement. We are having a hard time maintaining our existing centers because of very limited support from general public. Many temples in the US function mostly on donations from the Indian community and devotees imported from Eastern Europe... Hare Krishna...

[Guest guest]

 

Well, I seek the help all the people to revive the Dravidian Culture (NOT THE RACE) right from Indusvalley times.

 

And I wanted to seek a dialogue ( Just like ongoing Hindu-Muslim and Christiam Muslim) dialogue and among other things, an explanation form the Aryan Brothers (!) for the following commissions:

 

Why was it that the great North Indian king, Rama, back-stabbed Bali, the great king of Kishkindha and is back-stabbing an Aryan tradition?

 

Why was it that the king of Ayodhya and/or his brother cut into pieces the beauftiful breasts of black beauty Princess Soorpanakha, when she proposed to them ( we are told that Vasishta had taught them patience, tolerance & dharmasastra well)

 

Rajadhiraja Ravanji Maharaj (peace be upon him)the son of great Pulastya and the greatest devotee of the Lord of the lords, Shri Mahadeva (glory, glory to His Name)did not persecute, torture or rape Smt. Sita Devi, in spite of her husband chopping of those beautiful bossom and nose of his beloved cousin-sister. He, true to our tradition, conducted the bhoomi-pooja of the Setu at Rama's request.. The king (then princes) of Ayodhya allured Vibhishana to defect, promising Lanka ( just like the Sugreeva Sakhyam)......

 

After committing a genocide and putting into flame the most elegant city of the day (rivalling Alakapuri, even according to Rama's flatterer-poet)the prince recovered his princess. But why did he throw a fully pregnant wife (knowing fully well it was his own seed) into the forest (again Vasishta taught them a wrong dharmasastra)? To establish himself as 'Maryada Purushottama', the king of Ayodhya seriously breached Raja Dharma (that is entitled to his praja, Sita), Pati Dharma and Putra dharma (to his children-in-womb)to earn the name and fame of Maryada Purushottama! Kindly explain the Aryan king's behaviour (not in theological terms- because he was Lord's Avatar and the avatars could do whatever they like. Please do not denigrate the name of Lord Narayana)

 

And why the emperor of the Danavas, Mahabali, grandson of Prahlad and the beloved sishya of Mahacharya Sukra, was treacherously humiliated and finished off? The emperor was very pious, benevolent, magnanimous.... (Is it that back-stabbing and murders by treahery is a tradition, an Aryadharma ?)

 

And why was it that the blood-thirsty Rama with the Axe (the only Brahmin Rama)killed and finished of the valiant indigenous kings, not one but twenty one times? All these Rajas were adharmies, except the Aryan ones. We want an explanation for this genocide of our rajahs.

 

So we can have a great cultural dialogue, cultural debate and agree to disagree, at least!

 

 

 

[Kulapavana]

The nobility of a culture is based on the principles that make it's foundation. Truthfulness and respect for the shastras is one of them. You seem to accept the message of Ramayana very selectively: you accept it as a true description of wrongs done to "your people" (...why would you identify yourself with Rakshasas is beyond me...but lets accept it for now) yet you reject its spiritual and social conclusions. Many historical facts can bee seen quite differently based on the perspective of the viewer. In short: I guess I agree to disagree with you ;-)

[Guest guest]

Actually, there is no such thing as "dravidian". It was invented by Brits to divide North and South India. Now the Indian politicians are doing a good job at that! Anyway, even Ravana belonged to the Aryan race, albeit a different clan. But he became un-Aryan because he strayed from the path of truth. Hope this helps.

 

Luv,

Special Guest Star

[Kulapavana]

Interesting point about the Rakshasa Ravana possibly being an Aryan at one time. Rakshasas are not even one of the human species, yet when they work within the framework of the Aryan culture one can consider them to be Aryans. Not all people in Ravana's kingdom were Rakshasas, but it was a place ruled by Rakshasas.

 

For eons, Aryan society existed side by side with other people, some indeed very primitive. After the departure of Krishna and the onset of Kali yuga Aryan civilization was gradually swallowed by the barbarians...

[Kulapavana]

The following is a series of exchanges relevant to the topis of this thread, originally posted on thread: Why does everyone always blame the Jews?

 

On the issue of Jews being possibly the descendants of Yadu dynasty, here is a letter from Srila Prabhupada:

Letter to: Nayanabhirama

--

London

22 August, 1971

71-08-22

Philadelphia

My Dear Nayana Bhirama,

Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 16th August, 1971 and have noted the contents carefully. Also I have received your check for $25.00 and I thank you very much for the same. Yes, if it is approved by the GBC then I have no objection if you and your wife go to Israel to help out there. Philadelphia temple has improved nicely under your supervision. So for the time being continue to develop it nicely. Nothing should be done hastily or haphazardly. Then when the temple is very firmly situated I have no objection for your going. So do the needful and ask Krishna to help you.

 

Because there is some similarity of the word Jew and Yadu so some historian or scholar, so called, created this notion. I have read it also in some paper. But even it is true, we have nothing to do with it. Lord Krishna killed his own dynasty under His personal supervision. So certainly Krishna didn't like the idea that future dynasties would be able to identify having Krishna's blood. Krishna has no material blood; neither He is different from His body. The example is given that Malayan sandalwood is famous as grown in Malaya but the fact is that sandalwood can grow anywhere. Nowadays in Malaya there are only rubber trees but still in the market the sandalwood is known as Malayan sandalwood. Similarly a family may become famous for Krishna taking birth in that family but Krishna is independent and can appear anywhere and everywhere, where His devotees are.

 

Hoping this will meet you in good health.

Your ever well-wisher,

A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

ACBS/adb

 

 

KP:

I said: "For now just learn about it (Vedic Aryan concepts) - plenty of stuff you can google on this subject"

The hint was to use "Vedic Aryan" as the search phrase.

 

As to your other comments: it is a common Pawlow reaction of associating anything Aryan with nazi ideology. Certain intersts were hard at work for over 7 decades to brainwash people in that way.

 

And finally to the issue of Jews being descendants of Yadu's: I hope SP's letter will lay this matter to rest. Thanks for posting it! But it also goes to show you that one of the things people criticize Jews for - considering themselves of superior birth as a race = racism by classic definition - does not stop at the doors of our temples.

 

Guest:

"As to your other comments: it is a common Pawlow reaction of associating anything Aryan with nazi ideology"

 

you are surely right, when i hear the word aryan and when i see a swastika i have some problems.. even if i am (badly) practising krsna consciousness from 20 years

 

KP:

Guest: "when i hear the word aryan and when i see a swastika i have some problems"

 

Yes, nazis grossly missused and twisted Aryan concepts and symbols and even seemingly mature and well informed devotees cringe when they hear the word Aryan or see the proper swasti mark on Sri-Yantras. Does it mean that we should cave in to the politically correct crowd and pretend such symbols and words are not a part of our Vedic tradition? Some people cringe when they hear the word "gurukula". Should we avoid it as well?

 

Guest:

you are surely right... but we have also to say that the most important thing (actually the only important thing) is to spread hare krishna mantra..

 

i should not want to loose any newcomer to krishna consciousness for the sake of putting somewhere (temple, altars, pictures of krsna, fire yajna, clothes, flags) a sign of swastika

 

so, let us be not shy of vedic culture but let us know that we are not here to challeng but for chanting and make others chant hare krishna.. everything else is not so important

 

 

Certainly: chanting of the Holy Names comes first, but we need to follow up with a broad base social structure. I will give you an example. If you were to believe a recent survey of religious affiliations in Poland, close to 50,000 people consider themselves to be "Hare Krishna". This is without doubt chiefly due to massive festival efforts of devotees like Indradyumna Maharaja. But the temples are struggling financially and have very few full time devotees. I think it is about time we started to work on creating a broad base social support movement to change that. The Aryan Revival Movement is an attempt along those lines.

 

Guest:

Big ambitions tend to lead to big letdowns. Slow and steady has its appeal, however.

 

Start with training up one person (yourself) and then work on training up two other people very nicely. Each of those individuals should then train up two more people each, and like that the movement will expand predictably - but not by filling itself with people who shave up one day and leave the very next - but rather with people who have strong conviction and stronger desire to see it through.

 

 

KP:

These are good points prabhu. I have been training myself since 1979 when I received my first initiation. I hope I'm about ready now ;-)

At one time most of Iskcon temples were full of devotees, they are quite empty now. The NY Brooklyn temple has like 6 devotees and all of them are imported from Eastern Europe. So much for "slow and steady".. ;-)

 

Stonehearted:

 

I don't think it's accurate to characterize my reaction as Pavlovian. It has been a couple of weeks (maybe more) since you started using the Aryan Revival signature (and is it not meant to be alitle provocative?), and I only raised the question after more than a few posts mentioning Jews.

 

As for eschewing the word aryan and the swastika, as brought up by another poster, I've always spoken against that. It's part of our business to show that aryan culture has nothing to do with the German paganism and antisemitism associated with the word over the last 70-odd years. That some devotees have tried to minimize Hitler's evil and show antisemitic sentiments hasn't helped.

 

KP:

Kulapavana: it also goes to show you that one of the things people criticize Jews for - considering themselves of superior birth as a race = racism by classic definition - does not stop at the doors of our temples.

 

Stonehearted: "And this is unique to Jews? The English, the Germans, the French (God, you name the group) all show this so plainly that it's remarkable to ignore it."

 

There is a difference between racism (considering themselves belonging to a superior race) and national pride as demonstrated by citizens of many powerful nations. In either case it is just a material consciousness. Anyway, I think we can safely drop this subject...

 

[Kulapavana]

I would sincerely appreciate devotee comments as to the relevance of such an effort (creating a social movement with emphasis on restoring the values of Vedic Aryan civilization)