Reinventing Christianity - The Bhaktivedanta Version
BY: KSHAMABUDDHI DAS
May 28, HIGH SPRINGS, FLORIDA (SUN) — When we read the writings and the statements of Srila Prabhupada on Christ and Christianity, we find actually a unique perspective and a sort of reinventing of Christianity in the form of Srila Prabhupada’s own conception. Srila Prabhupada’s idea of what is Christianity, compared to the actual version of the Christians, as it is popularly known around the world, is quite different.
In fact, we have now what we could call Bhaktivedanta Christianity as it has been distilled, interpolated and refined by Srila Prabhupada into something much better, greater and more transcendental than Christianity has ever been.
For example, Srila Prabhupada teaches that Christ is derived from the Greek word Christos, which Srila Prabhupada says is the Greek equivalent to the Sanskrit word Krsta, which Srila Prabhupada says means “attraction”. But factually, the Greek word Christos is said by Christian scholars and linguists to mean “the anointed one”. Nowhere in any writings of any Christian scholar or linguists have we ever seen Christos translated as meaning “attractive”.
So here, we have Srila Prabhupada giving a new meaning to the word Christos, which has never before meant “attractive” as does the translation of the Sanskrit word Krsta, which Srila Prabhupada says is the Sanskrit equivalent of the Greek word Christos. Despite similar sounding vowel structure, there is no actual similarity in meaning between the Greek word Christos and the Sanskrit word Krsta as far as any actual semantic translations are concerned. Krsta means “attractive” and Christos means “anointed,” which refers to an ancient custom of applying oils. An allusion to the title of Christos is made when a person is anointed with oil in order to be made king. Actually, the Latin word crista, which is phonetically more similar to Krsta or Krsna than is Christ, which has a long (i), means “crest, tuft or comb”. So, we can see that phonetic similarities between Greek or Latin and Sanskrit does no often indicate any sort of semantic similarities.
So, here we have Srila Prabhupada in fact reinventing the meaning of the Greek word Christos. As far as the Latin derivative Christ from the Greek Christos is concerned, it has always carried the same import as the Greek form, which means “the anointed”. Christos has never been said to mean “attractive” in Greek semantics or Latin semantics.
As such, the comparison by Srila Prabhupada to the Sanskrit Krsta in fact is a Bhaktivedanta rhetorical device that Srila Prabhupada used to in effect reinvent Christianity into something much more developed and transcendental than the Christian theology has ever been.
So here, we have Srila Prabhupada in fact reinventing meanings of words or terms as he in fact reinvents the concept of Christianity in a way that he appeared to feel gave value and meaning to the religious system of Christianity.
In another part of Srila Prabhupada’s reinventing Christianity he said - “When Jesus said, "Our Father, who are in heaven, sanctified be Thy name," that name of God was "Krsta" or "Krsna." There is however no record, history or tradition in Christianity of the name of God being Krsta or Krsna.
Here again we find Srila Prabhupada attaching to Jesus and Christianity a concept and a principle that was never before known to Christianity. In fact, in the Christian tradition the name of God was known to be Yahweh. God in heaven was not the Christ. The son of God on Earth in the form of Jesus was the Christ or the anointed one who was to become the spiritual king of the Jews. So, in essence, Srila Prabhupada here again is remaking the concept of Christianity in his own way since the name of God is not known to Christians as Christ, Christos or Krsta. In fact, in the Bible, the only actual name for God was YHWH or the Tetragrammaton representing God. All the other ways of addressing God in the Bible are known to be titles not names.
So, what kind of Christianity is Srila Prabhupada referring to here? It is certainly no form of contemporary or ancient Christianity ever known in the world. In fact, what Srila Prabhupada is here referring to as Christianity is a Christianity that he himself has invented. The terms and the ways in which Srila Prabhupada describes Christianity are in fact not conforming to any known form of Christianity that has ever existed in the world.
In traditional Pauline Christianity the ways and means of salvation had to do with accepting Christ as a personal savior who paid the price for human sin. It was never the act of chanting or repeating the name of God or Christ that was the cause of salvation, but it was the act of accepting Christ the person as savior and not the act of saying his name that was the salvation of man. It was about believing in your heart that Jesus died for your sins and thus redeemed you in the eyes of God that was the cause of salvation. It had nothing to do with chanting the name of Christ. It was faith in Jesus as the person that redeemed man. Repeating his name was not the process. Believing in Jesus and accepting in your heart that only Jesus can redeem sinners is the basis of Pauline Christianity. There is no such mechanical process in Pauline Christianity of repeating the name of God any number of times or any proclaimed process of chanting the name of God, which in Judaism was traditionally only allowed in the temple in Jerusalem.
However, we find that Srila Prabhupada in fact invented a new brand of Christianity which was about repeating the name of Christ and understanding that the name Christ is derived from Christos, which comes from the Sanskrit Krsta, which is derived from Krsna. This however is not Pauline Christianity. It is Bhaktivedanta Christianity. Srila Prabhupada’s version of Christianity in fact has little or nothing to do with actual “Christian” epistemology, as it has been known over the last 1700 years or so.
Therefore, we must conclude that the sort of Christianity that Srila Prabhupada endorsed was in fact a form of Christianity which does not exist except perhaps within the greater ISKCON community of devotees who are very much attached to their Christian families and Christian upbringing. Outside of ISKCON, there really is no such form of Christianity as the sort that Srila Prabhupada invented in his efforts to transform Christianity into something that actually had some religious value in his estimation.
So, those devotees out there who claim Srila Prabhupada endorsed or validated Christ and Christianity need to understand that the sort of Christianity that Srila Prabhupada validated and endorsed was in fact his new and improved version of Christianity which is in fact a Vaishnava interpolation of Christianity that really bears no resemblance to any form of contemporary or traditional Christianity -- Catholic, Protestant or otherwise.
Srila Prabhupada’s views on the commandment “Thou Shall Not Kill” as pertaining to the slaughter of animals, is again another departure from traditional Christian interpretation than has virtually no practical connection to the actual history of Christianity. The extension of the principle of “Though Shall Not Kill” to include animals is a total interpolation that has no known history in ancient Christianity and is not accepted or advocated by any of the original Christian churches.
As such, what Srila Prabhupada recognized as a form of Christianity which he validates and endorses, is a reinvented Christianity that has no connection to historical Christianity
as it evolved into organized religion in Rome and throughout Europe and the western world.
