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Here’s a question I just got in from Bhakta Fernando in Brazil:
Q: I am writing to Your Grace to ask a question about a discussion that i had with a person who knows both Iskcon and eastern paths of philosophy and metaphysics.
He was making comparison and criticism. He said for instance that Iskcon temples are a mess, dirty, noisy with lots of fighting amongst devotees and buddhist, taoist temples are very clean, organized, quiet, peaceful, satvic.
He said that many Iskcon devotees don’t have basic manners, culture, education, etiquette whereas budhist, taoist, astanga yoga practitioners are educated, well mannered people. He also said that these people seems to have much more sense control than the devotees.
He said that Iskcon doesn’t have organization, planning, structure, stability whereas these groups are very well organized, structured with years, decades, centuries or more of work and tradition.
His point is that you judge something or someone by the results and symptoms, so if the devotees are the topmost transcendentalists and if Iskcon and the Sankirtana movement is the most elevated spiritual movement then there should be example, results and symptoms of such superior position. His reasoning is that these eastern paths and their followers seems to be more advanced, self controled etc. than the devotees.
I know his thinking comes from a neophyte understanding but i want to know what i could say to him. Could Your Grace tell me what i can say to him?
Bhk Fernando
Answer:
Your friend’s analysis is very sweeping and contains negative generalizations which would likely not hold up under close scrutiny. His assessment of the devotees is very subjective and personally I doubt very much that he has had direct experience of dealing with all the different organizations you have listed.
To really understand a world wide organization like ISKCON an objective observer would want to spend at least several months in at least a dozen or more different temples or asramas to gain an overall experience. If he has visited one or two temples and spent just a few hours in each how can he say that
a) his experience is typical of all ISKCON temples
b) his experience is typical of an extended stay in even one temple
Has your friend ever spent time in any of our Indian temples? Has he spent time in our European temples, or American temples etc? The experience will differ to some degree from place to place. However, the activities should remain consistent, especially in regard to the standards of Deity worship and sadhana.
Has his association been with neophytes or advanced Vaisnavas? How much time has he spent with senior devotees of ISKCON?
Quite apart from this, what does he actually understand about the true value of devotional service and the mercy of Lord Caitanya?
What is his idea of genuine advancement on the spiritual path? What does he understand about Lord Krsna’s statements in the Bhagavad Gita that even a little advancement on the path of bhakti can save one from the greatest danger? That even a leaf or flower offered with love is accepted by Him, but many years of austerities and penances, or lifetimes of yoga practice devoid of genuine bhakti is useless?
Does he know that all forms of yoga spring from the Vedas and that Krsna states unequivocally that He alone is to be known by all the Vedas?
Therefore any yoga practice that does not culminate in devotional service to Krsna is not yoga at all.
He speaks of education. Does he know that Bhagavad Gita is ‘raja vidya raja guhyam’ the highest form of education?
Does he know that Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead and that the highest form of knowledge is realized when one concludes ‘sarva dharman parityjaja mam ekam saranam vraja’? If someone does not know this, his education is incomplete.
As far as cleanliness goes, I don’t know where your friend has visited but our temples are famous for being clean and neat. Srila Prabhupada put great stress on personal and institutional cleanliness.
Apart from this, real cleanliness is internal, which comes from chanting the holy names.
Ceto darpana marjanam means our whole process is based on cleanliness. Is the heart of any non-devotee who is adverse to worship and surrender to the Supreme Lord really as clean as that of even a neophyte devotee who is trying with sincerity to please the Lord by his service?
As for sense control, we have our four regulative principles. Do the groups your friend associates with have such regulations? Do they follow them? I know many so-called yoga practicioners who once they are outside the yoga school indulge in intoxicants, illicit sex and indiscriminate eating. At least ISKCON espouses the highest standards in this regard. If not everyone follows them, that is another thing, but at least ISKCON as an organization has very clear and strict guidelines, especially for its initiated followers.
As for infighting, one only has to look to the history of Buddhism to see how many offshoots have formed. The fact that there are many Buddhist sects speaks of their history of fighting and factionalization, so that is not a good example of peaceful coexistence. The fact is that in Kali-yuga, disagreement is the hallmark of the age, and there are no examples of perfect harmony. In ISKCON we have also experienced that tendency and we regret it, but what can be done? Why single out ISKCON when the whole human society is rife with it?
I am not saying here that everyone in ISKCON is perfect. Far from it. But that is the whole point. ISKCON is a vehicle for transporting the imperfect to the platform of perfection, whereby they become fit for personally serving the Supreme Lord and His devotees. Naturally when one is a neophyte, there will be so many discrepancies, but by constant practice eventually such persons will become the best of all living beings. A pure devotee is beyond the sum total of all the demigods, what to speak of ordinary human beings.
Even the leader of the Buddhists, the Dalai Lama can only speak about ahimsa and compassion and sense control but in practice the man is a first class hypocrit because he eats meat.
He is also an atheist. Even if the Buddhist does not eat meat and avoids violence against the bodies of other living beings, the Buddhists are still the most violent because they espouse the annihilation of their selves and anyone who will listen to their rascal philosophy. Their aim is nothing less than the destruction of the soul, so what could be more violent than that? So who is the better spiritual practicioner? Anyone of our devotees is better than the Dalai Lama or any other Buddhist.
The conclusion is that bhakti yoga as taught in ISKCON is designed to raise fallen souls to the level of genuine liberation, whereby they can enter into the spiritual realm at the time of leaving this body, and never come back here again.
Can the Buddhists, or the yogis, or the taoists etc. offer this opportunity? They can make a show only, but they cannot maintain because, as Lord Brahma says in Srimad Bhagavatam, their intelligence is polluted due to not taking shelter at the lotus feet of the Lord. Therefore they must at some point fall down from their practice.
Your friend’s assessment seems to be prejudiced and ill-informed. The best thing is to simply feed him prasadam.
Even if he cannot appreciate anything else, he may at least appreciate something good to eat.
Your humble servant,
Hari-sauri dasa
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