Is ISKCON misappropriating sanatana-dharma?
Answer Podcast:
Transcript
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people, thank you Hare Krishna question is ISKCON trying to misappropriate Sanatana Dharma answer not at all it is trying to propagate Sanatana Dharma not misappropriated so first of all Sanatana Dharma refers to our eternal nature so Dharma refers to our internal innate inalienable characteristic which at its core is to love and serve and that nature is something which is can never be lost but it can be misdirected away from Sanatana Tattva from the eternal truth that is supreme eternal truth that is God, Krishna towards other things so when that happens then we need purification we need a process by which our we can redirect our love towards God, towards Krishna so now based on the Vedic scriptures the Krishna Consciousness Movement provides a process to develop love for God so in that sense the knowledge of the scriptures which tell us about Sanatana Dharma and the process which the scriptures give for sharing Sanatana Dharma that is what the Krishna Consciousness Movement is sharing now sometimes it may appear that the Krishna Consciousness Movement is misappropriating Sanatana Dharma because many people have an open ended vacuous notion of Sanatana Dharma that means they think that Sanatana Dharma means anything goes so yes we should be open minded but we shouldn’t be so open minded that our brains fall out there is in the Sanatana Dharma the broad teachings of the Vedic scriptures there is a wide level of accommodation and people of different levels people of different mentalities are connected to the spiritual path at different levels but still while there is accommodation that does not mean that there is no regulation at all there is if people had the idea that anyone can do anything and still the person is in Sanatana Dharma then Krishna would not have any need to persuade the Bhagavad Gita itself so if we can just do whatever we want and by that we can attain perfection then why does Krishna have to speak the Bhagavad Gita but still Krishna does speak the Bhagavad Gita and the Bhagavad Gita Krishna tells Arjuna certain specific things do this don’t do this so it’s like a doctor has to tell the patient take this medicines and avoid these foodstuffs or avoid these activities because they will worsen the disease so now when a doctor gives instruction like this at one level it may seem like restriction but actually it is regulation so that there can be restoration of health of the patient similarly to raise us from our present disease condition what is the disease condition we are in though we are eternal we are loving the temporary things and because of loving temporary things when those temporary things get destroyed when they go then we suffer Sanatana Dharma encourages us that go from darkness to light go from the temporary to the eternal from the unreal to the real from the from the darkness to light so like that from the death to immortality so when it is talking about it now this is not just some sentiment or imagination there is a process for doing this and in our disease condition we stay attached to the temporary in our healthy condition we become attached to the eternal and then we find lasting happiness so to move from the disease condition to the healthy condition there is a process and when that process is taught that process is not misappropriation or misappropriation but that process is actually education propagation of that process is so that people can people can express restoration of their natural spiritual health and find happiness therein.
Thank you. Hare Krishna