Free Society Requires Free Press
BY: ROCANA DASA
Dec 31, CANADA (SUN) — Considering the year gone by.
For Jahnava and I, this year has heralded in a great change in our personal lives as the founders of the Sampradaya Sun. A year ago we moved from the U.S. back up to Canada, and got ourselves re-situated here. While our first six months publishing the Sun took place before the move, it was a learning experience that somehow represented the calm before the storm. We organized a lot of the technical aspects, and began to get our feet wet on the editorial side. The year of 2006 was a full immersion process, and we now realize that we're well suited to this particular type of service, which we believe is a valuable contribution to Srila Prabhupada. We've been allowed to play a part in something much bigger than ourselves, and Sri Krsna is inspiring us to continue on with this work, in the mood of it being our lifetime service.
Krsna consciousness in its pure transcendental state never changes, being eternal and spiritual, but many things are changing in the Vaisnava community. One of the things that changes is how Krsna consciousness is being spread around the world. Srila Prabhupada as the great Acarya has introduced and planted the seed, and we now see it fructifying in a very interesting manner. As everything grows, it requires us to make adjustments, and even though Srila Prabhupada has given us the blueprints, we have had to go through a lot of growing pains and make a lot of mistakes. In this material world we are prone to make mistakes, but everyone is trying to minimize the margin of error so as to make their life both peaceful and productive.
Without going into all the mistakes that have taken place since Srila Prabhupada has departed, I can say that my experience publishing this Sampradaya Sun has verified that many of these mistakes would have been minimized had we established the principle of free speech and expression much earlier in our movement. Today, we hope that the Sun is helping to fill that need.
We realize that it could be a much better news venue, and we're always striving to improve with the limited resources at our disposal. We could speak volumes about all the things we would or could do if human and financial resources were made available to us. But I'm quite confident that Krsna will provide, as individual devotees start seeing the importance of disseminating the truth and giving individuals the opportunity to feel that their thoughts, ideas and realizations are being heard. We know that the way ISKCON is structured now, the authorities don't have the willingness, or don't take the time, to hear from the devotees about what they're feeling or thinking. This newspaper helps to fill the gap.
A regular karmi newspaper is structured in such a way that 'beat' and investigative reporters go out to get the scoop on famous people or relevant issues that effect the readership. We don't have that luxury yet, but we do have a lot of intelligent devotees, both inside and outside the institution, who have been trained and purified by this philosophy and process, and can very expertly and articulately express themselves. We need to hear from these people, not just from the few at the top. And frankly, our leaders aren't saying much anyway, other than to give us their travel diaries, memoirs and "feel good" stories which give the impression that everything is what it isn't - i.e., that things are running smoothly, which is obviously not the case. And that's a shock to a lot of newcomers, what to speak of the old-timers who have a solidified conception of what's happening. When that conception gets seriously impacted by news of a past event that they discover had been covered-up, it results in their suffering. In the end that's what it comes down to. Individuals suffer because of a lack of information.
Regardless of what kind of society you choose to live in, as an individual you're forced by time and circumstance to make decisions that seriously impact your life. As it applies to Krsna consciousness, devotees are "joining" a society and then accepting someone as a guru, accepting a whole perspective on life that the great Acaryas have presented to us. This is a monumental, earth-shaking, life-changing event. It's foolish to try and make people believe that upon joining or becoming initiated, they're instantly going to transcended the difficulties in life. As time goes by, these individuals are personally put on the spot and have to figure out what to do with this lifetime Krsna has given. There's no use pretending that it's something other than it is. And I'm not talking about the pure absolute philosophy, I'm talking about the material world - Kali yuga, the three modes of nature, and all the defects of the conditioned souls. This is what Srila Prabhupada primarily talks about, and this is what distinguishes Srila Prabhupada from his Godbrothers. Srila Prabhupada has said Krsna consciousness is practical, and practical means that you have to practically apply it to your own life. And to do that you need information. When you're living in a society you need to know what's going on, what's actually happening, so you can personally make good decisions. Not that people tell you what to do every moment of your life like a child, and you never grow up.
In the Sampradaya Sun we publish many articles that we don't personally agree with. Those that we strongly disagree with, we counterpoint, or write an article presenting another view. We try to engage in a dialogue with other writers. I can honestly say that the contributors here have helped to change my perspective, and as a result I feel I've made better decisions in my life. These improvements are not just related to my material circumstance, but to siddhanta as well. It's very easy to develop misconceptions on the siddhanta, especially under the present circumstances, when the Sampradaya Acarya is present as the Book Bhagavata and Founder/Acarya, but is not personally present to take care of serious problems, as he did on many occasions before. Many times Srila Prabhupada "saved the day" because of his insight, potency and personal presence. You can say Srila Prabhupada is "alive today", but this aspect of our existence has changed. We might as well just grow up and accept that reality.
The biggest siddhantic issue everyone's struggling with right now is guru tattva -- what Srila Prabhupada meant by a 'bona fide spiritual master', and what our disciplic succession really is. And who is Srila Prabhupada? Understanding Srila Prabhupada is an evolving and maturing process, not something we just decide on as a singular event, taking an unchanging position. Understanding who Krsna is comes from hearing from the Sampradaya Acaryas. But understanding who a Sampradaya Acarya is, that requires the association of devotees. And associating with devotees doesn't mean sitting beside them taking prasadam -- it means discussing the important aspects of the philosophy that are causing you great concern.
Those who have seriously studied Srila Prabhupada's teachings could easily conclude that he wanted to create brahmans, first and foremost. Whether you want to focus on the Varnasrama aspect, on ISKCON itself as a society, or on the sankirtana movement of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Srila Prabhupada felt that without a system that produces brahmans, nothing substantial could be established and maintained. One of the most important principles of brahminical existence is telling the truth. We must learn to see the truth as it exists in this material world and use it to get through this material existence so we can go back to Godhead.
Telling the truth for a brahman doesn’t just apply to quoting sastra, or telling people what they've understood from reading Srila Prabhupada's books. It also means telling the truth about themselves and all those around them. That's why in the Varnasrama system, a brahman is supposed to be totally independent. A brahman cannot be obliged to someone, or else they end up like Dronacarya, on the wrong side of the battlefield. As soon as you compromise that principle, you're in big trouble.
In ISKCON, we have the dilemma that we're told by Lord Caitanya and all the Acaryas that we should live in association with one another as devotees. And to do that in a practical way, we have to have a structured type of community. Srila Prabhupada gave us that in the form of ISKCON. The emphasis in ISKCON is on the "international society"… not that it's a matha or an asrama. It's a worldwide society, and that means we have to deal with the practical matters of making that society brahminical. And to do that, we have to be able to speak truth about what we see.
For a brahman to see the truth and not be able to speak it is one of the most painful experiences that life has to offer. And I think the Sampradaya Sun has proven this to be a fact. Many of those who are brahminically inclined were really suffering because they could not speak their minds for fear of some non-brahminical person using their power to deny them the right to associate together under Srila Prabhupada's society.
We hear over and over that power corrupts, but really it's the fear of losing power that corrupts. We need administrators, we need gurus, we need teachers, we need powerful members of society, so long as they're all motivated to help us. Every family needs a father and a mother, and the society needs leaders, but if these leaders are pretending, and they've cheated their way into this position of power, then they'll try to maintain that power through any means possible. When they think they'll be exposed as cheaters, they'll do anything necessary to prevent that from happening. Therefore, speaking the truth is not only a service to those who are depending on the leaders in powerful positions to do the right thing, but it's also of great benefit for the powerful themselves. Public discourse serves to keep the leadership in check, and helps to keep the minds and senses of the leaders from going out of control. So long as nobody is calling their bluff they go unchecked. This is one aspect of the service meant to be offered by the brahmans.
Throughout the Srimad Bhagavatam we read about all the incarnations of Lord Krsna that have come to check those who became too powerful, ignoring the brahmans. The first sign of trouble is that the leaders ignore the brahmans. Then they ignore God in the form of sastra, and the worship of God in the temples. This is exactly what we see happening in ISKCON today, and the Sampradaya Sun is helping to expose it.
We don't want to become the only Sun in the universe. Srila Prabhupada encouraged decentralization, and that should also apply to the free press. For our part, we are just trying to be as brahminical as we possibly can, and to discourage the tendency to be non-brahminical. We're trying to give the devotee community a taste of what that means. We have to resist the temptation to become a church, and we can't accept "newspapers" that are really just like church socials. It may all be nice stuff, but we can't live in a church. We have to live in a society. And society requires the element of freedom to speak the truth.
All the great thinkers in the world have come to this conclusion -- even the mundaners and materialists. Many people are advocating other ways to reform ISKCON, such as electing GBC's and opening up the whole guru process so anyone can become a guru, but very few are advocating this simple principle of freedom of the press, freedom of expression. We see from a political point of view throughout the world that this is the first principle the despots want to control. They always aim first at killing freedom of speech. We could point to many political circumstances, but I'm sure our readers are up on the news. In hotspots around the world today like the Middle East, we see that the advent of newspapers and media like Al Jazeera is the telltale sign that change is coming in their rigid society. Similarly, we believe that the Sun is a sign of things to come in ISKCON.
I want to encourage all the brahminical devotees to come forward and speak their minds. Several of our serious contributors have had to change their names for risk of being kicked out of the society, or worse. So this truth-speaking is a scary proposition, no question about it. In our own minds, we don't want to hear the truth about somebody we admire. We always want to think the best, not commit aparadha, and we like to believe that everyone is really nice, although our philosophy tells us otherwise. The absolute truth tells us that we're all contaminated by demoniac conceptions, and that we live in Kali Yuga, plagued by the modes of nature. And as Srila Prabhupada so often says,
padam padam yad vipadam -- at every step there is danger. And the problem with us westerners is we're not afraid enough of this danger. Consequently we suffer more than we need to, because we're reckless and we don't want to hear bad news… we don't want to hear the truth.
The way the Sampradaya Sun has blossomed and the response that we're getting from readers and contributors around the world is so encouraging for us personally, that we've dedicated ourselves to seeing that it continues. The only thing we can ask of others is that they get motivated to tell their own stories, to give us their realizations of the philosophy, and to share what they feel in their hearts Srila Prabhupada would want the rest of the Vaisnava community to hear. This personal truth-speaking will help us to shape ISKCON into a society that performs as Srila Prabhupada envisioned and designed it to, as a spiritual safe haven for sincere devotees,
We will continue to offer a cross-section of newsworthy items: not just the latest ISKCON news releases, but thoughtful and brahminical critical analysis, pure Vaisnava literature, Vedic art and culture, and relevant world news. If there's something of personal interest to you that you think will be of value for the rest of the Vaisnava community, please let us know how we can work with you to present it to the readers.
Naturally, we also have our practical circumstances to consider. Once, about five years ago, we ran a "please contribute" icon on the HareKrsna.com homepage for about two days, hoping to help cover the costs of server upgrades. Beyond that, we have never solicited donations for the site. The Sun began to offer non-intrusive advertising placement, both on our main pages and in the Classifieds. Our site traffic has grown steadily over the last twelve months, and continues to climb. As of the end of today, we will have received approximately 14 million hits this year alone. Considering the fact that the site is generating so many hits, we encourage anyone with a business or project that would benefit from high exposure to consider advertising with us. This revenue stream would help to keep our humble scene going and allow us to expand our reporting services. You'll find information on our advertising rates here. And needless to say, we would be more than grateful to any of our readers who have the means to
make a contribution towards the cost of the Sun's publication.
Anyone who has interest in this particular field of service should contact us. We're especially interested in hearing from those inclined towards investigative reporting. Aside from that, however, there are many daily chores one could do to help make the Sun rise each day. Please let us know if you'd like to become a member of the publishing team.
One of the ways that ISKCON has become so insulated is that it's practically become a universal policy for leaders not to write anything. Consequently, we can't critique how they're preaching the philosophy unless we happen to hear a lecture or read one that the disciples have transcribed. This makes it difficult for everyone in the global community to really analyze what's going on, on a siddhantic level. We can talk about people not following the practice or doing nonsense activities against scripture, but as far as people in authority speaking, preaching, or projecting a bogus philosophy or deviating from the siddhanta of our Sampradaya, that's hard for us to ascertain unless we actually see it in writing or have an opportunity to hear a questionable lecture.
In my experience, long before someone in an authority position actually "falls down" they begin to speak bogus philosophy. The reason these people are falling down isn't just because they aren't chanting their rounds or following the regulative principles. It's actually because they're preaching bogus, asiddhantic philosophy and no one calls them on it. This is really one of the biggest problems in ISKCON as far as I'm concerned. I encourage our readers to send us digital or taped lectures, or to provide us with typed transcripts of lectures they find to be of particular concern. This alone is a most important service contribution to the Sun.
Jahnava and I thank you for the opportunity to serve the devotees by way of this forum, and we beg you to forgive our mistakes and any offenses inadvertently made to the Vaisnavas. Wishing you a healthy, happy new year, blissfully absorbed in the Holy Name, the mood of Srila Prabhupada, our Sampradaya Acarya, and the nectar of his perfect instructions.
Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
