Jan 28, 2016 — OJAI, CALIFORNIA (SUN) — A Critique in Three Parts.
The Soul of ISKCON?
In the fall of 2015 Bhadri Narayan wrote a serious paper that asks many questions about the soul and direction of ISKCON called: "Who are we and where are we going? A Fight for the Soul of ISKCON". We are all troubled by the issues he raises and now Hridayananda is campaigning for his own interpretation of ISKCON with his drive to present Krishna West propaganda. The New Age movements attract huge followings because they mix some elements of the truth in with all their speculative nonsense. Hridayananda appears to have done the same thing. He is quite astute and offers some good observations, but unfortunately he packages them up in what many have said is a wacky proposal. Krsna West threatens to undermine the purity which has been the true force that makes ISKCON the powerful religious and cultural revolution that Srila Prabhupada intended it to be. Unfortunately, this pattern for building a newer and better ISKCON has been tried several times before.
The Gopi Bhava Club
Even before Srila Prabhupada departed some leaders bonded together in an elite clique that soon became known as the Gopi Bhava Club. It was made up of a select few devotees that met to discuss the intimate pastimes of the gopis, artificially thinking that they can enter into understanding of the gopis prematurely. As soon as Srila Prabhupada found out about it he immediately snuffed it out and chastised his disciples severely for interjecting their own speculative interpretations into his very straightforward and clear instructions. It was an insidious weed that sprouted from the hearts of senior devotees and threatened the creeper of devotion, bhakti-lata bija, so Prabhupada pulled it out strongly.
One would think that should be enough to snuff out that maya for good, but about 15 years later after Srila Prabhupada moved on, the Gopi Bhava Club was resurrected, at least partially due to the association of Narayana Maharaja, who spoke much more liberally about the Gopis' lila than Srila Prabhupada ever felt was appropriate. This time however, the GBC can be credited for disciplining those senior devotees who fell into that trap and sparing the greater devotee community from this deviation which Srila Prabhupada had clearly considered a sahajiyic tendency rooted in the hearts of those who promoted it.
Sridhar Swami of Navadwipa
Sridhar Swami was one of Srila Prabhupada's most beloved Godbrothers. He suffered from several serious medical handicaps but he loved Srila Prabhupada dearly and was one of the few who stepped forward to help him when he asked for it after he came to the West. Shortly after Srila Prabhupada departed, Sridhar was consulted by many concerned devotees in an attempt to sort out all the confusion on how ISKCON should move forward. Krishna clearly stated that ALL his devotees are magnanimous souls (Bg 7.18). However, it was not too long before anyone who even mentioned Sridhar's name would might be asked to find a different place to go. This was the first sign that our GBC leadership felt threatened by any outside source even if it happened to be a very exalted devotee of the Lord that Srila Prabhupada clearly trusted and respected greatly.
The ISKCON Monastery and Prabhupada the Monarch
The next radical deviation to the core ISKCON teachings came shortly after Srila Prabhupada moved on. It was brewed up in the defiant mind of Keith Ham (Kirtanananda) and manifested in the hills of West Virginia at New Vrindavan. He instructed his sycophants to replace the Indian dhoti with the brown robes of medieval Christian monks. He then dressed up the murti of Srila Prabhupada with a royal red robe, and a gold crown modeled to make His Divine Grace look like a king. It was the most ridiculous thing anyone who understood Srila Prabhupada's humble and servitor mood could ever imagine. Fortunately it did not take long for the GBC to act. Shortly after that Keith and his merry band of monk(eys) were all exiled from ISKCON for how shamelessly he embarrassed the reputation of His Divine Grace. After Keith and some of his eccentric followers were hauled off to jail for crazy things like racketeering and conspiring to commit murder, what was left of New Vrindavan was welcomed back into ISKCON!
The Ritvik Reaction
Then the Ritviks became alarmed by how many people were victimized after they got initiated by overly zealous individuals who accepted them as disciples but later fell down. The Ritviks leveraged the faux-pas of those individuals as indirect proof to assert that Srila Prabhupada didn't feel any of his disciples were qualified to initiate disciples into the ranks of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. They preached that His Divine Grace had the extraordinary vision to see how incompetent his disciples were before he moved on.
At that point they contend he radically changed the instructions he gave about initiation for over 11 years with a one page highly controversial letter dictated to Tamal Krishna Maharaj on July 9. In that short correspondence, the Ritviks propose that Srila Prabhupada changed the parampara system set up by Krishna in the Gita (Bg. 4.2) and there was absolutely nothing unusual about that because Srila Prabhupada was empowered to change what Krishna established!
Narayana Maharaja
Those who took shelter of Narayana assert [without evidence] that he was appointed by Srila Prabhupada to carry on and lead his disciples into the future after His Divine Grace departed. Yet some of those individuals became just as openly antagonistic to the welfare of ISKCON as the most militant of the Ritviks. This led to a complete breakdown of good will in the Vaishnava community that should have been avoided but wasn't, to the disgrace of all parties.
Sexist Language & Female Gurus
More recently women have objected to some of the language that Srila Prabhupada used in his books and for a while there was a campaign to have all of those clauses rewritten using more politically correct language. Now there is a huge debate regarding whether or not it is appropriate for women to accept disciples. Once again it appears everyone's intentions are also good, but that is obviously not an acceptable criterion for deciding such delicate issues. One thing that is evident, however, is that while this debate rages on it will further divide the Vaishnava community and may lead to yet another group defecting from ISKCON proper.
Sexual Distractions and Personal Preferences
Those who are attracted to the same sex are also becoming more vocal about wanting to know where their place is within Lord Chaitanya's sankirtan movement. Will ISKCON acknowledge their plea, or will we exile them to the social equivalent of the leper colony? At the end of the day, sex that is not exclusively for the purpose of bearing a Krsna conscious child is distractive and inappropriate no matter how it is practiced.
The Wild West and Krishna Whoppee!
Now Hridayananda claims he was appointed by Srila Prabhupada to "Use His Intelligence" to devise ways to make Lord Chaitanya's mission acceptable to the masses in the Western world. He apparently feels that the program Srila Prabhupada set up has failed and therefore justifies the interjection of the radical changes he has concluded will fix it. His apology to the GBC, published by Sampradaya Sun on Jan 15, sounds very prim and proper… but I am sure I am not the only one to notice that nowhere in his apology does Hridayananda say he intends to back off from his radical ideas. We can only assume he remains intent about stripping the Vaishnava culture out of the Hare Krishna movement. So all his letter really says is: "I am sorry I got caught and called my Godbrothers a bunch of morons. I'll be more careful not to do that in the future if the GBC will no longer pose any objections to my revolutionary ideas about changing the dress, the food, and everything "Indian" about the Hare Krishna movement." I.e.: Politics as usual.
I have my doubts regarding ISKCON management being able to resolve all of these divisive issues to the satisfaction of those who raise them. When the Ritvik revolution began I suggested that perhaps ISKCON could make some accommodation for those who wanted to take shelter of Srila Prabhupada's mercy until they felt comfortable surrendering to one of his disciples for diksha initiation. Perhaps those individuals would never do so in this life, but had the GBC offered a way to accommodate those with the Rtvik sentiment we might have been able to prevent the huge conflict that now exists between that community and ISKCON.
It later became obvious that there was nothing the GBC could do because it was Krishna Kanta who boldly asserted that he would not tolerate ANY aspect of the traditional parampara system. He showed no goodwill and made no effort to cooperate on all the other things Vaishnavas readily agree on. It was Krishna Kanta's stubborn unilateral demands that forced the fracturing that has since led to a lot of unnecessary strife and ill will among the Vaishnava community.
This is the real tragedy and as new challenges come up, we should all strive to learn from this how to avoid similar breakdowns in the future. Despite our various minor differences we can remain bonded as one Vaishnava sanga to protect mother Bhumi and her inhabitants from New Age nonsense, Neo-Advaita sophistry, Buddhist voidism and the other demoniac forces of Kali in general.
