Can harmonization with contemporary culture lead to dilution of tradition?

So, can harmonization lead to dilution? And how can we prevent that? Actually, non-harmonization can also lead to dilution. Because when we say faithfulness to tradition, the tradition itself has flexibility as an integral part of it.

So, faithfulness to tradition also means faithfulness to the flexibility of the tradition. Bhaktivedanta Prabhupada gives a classic example. When he would do his theistic exhibitions in Kolkata, actually 50% of the theistic exhibition would be simply mundane.

It would be science and technology. The greatest science and technology at that time which would be there, it would be displayed. More than 50% actually.

They have huge grounds. And in those grounds, half of it would be the scientific development and scientists would come, eminent citizens would come. And they would come to see the scientific part.

And then as a part of that same big pandal, there would be the teachings of Lord Chaitanya also described. And all this would be described. And people would come and see that also.

So, some conservative people, they criticized, this is all mundane. This is not spiritual. Bhaktivedanta Prabhupada said that throughout history, the Ganga, she keeps changing course.

If you want to take bath in the Ganga, you have to go where the Ganga is right now. If you go to a place where the Ganga was flowing in the past, you may go there, but you will get no water, then you will not bathe. Similarly, he says, the flow of the bursi, the flow of the potency of the parampara, the path is changing.

The flow of the Ganga is always towards doshi. Similarly, the flow of the potency of the tradition's teachings is to take all people towards Krishna. Krishna is like the ocean.

But the path it takes… So, the principle that we have to… Now, when we say the Ganga path keeps changing, why does it change? Sometimes there are seismic disturbances. So, sometimes what was a river bed, that just dries up or some landslide or some earthquake happens or whatever. Then wherever the bed is right now, wherever the path is for the water to flow, the water will flow from there and move towards the ocean.

Similarly, depending on the culture, depending on the ethos, depending on the intellectual conception of people, certain ways of the flow of Krishna's message work at certain times. And the same path by which Krishna's message flew earlier, it may not flow by the same path now. So, we have to be intelligent to accommodate, to say how is the water going to flow towards Krishna.

So, similarly, how are we going to attract people towards Krishna? So, it is that… Actually, Prabhupada at one level, he said that don't change anything. He said, I did not change anything. But then Prabhupada changed things.

Right from the altar itself. Most of Gaudiya temples had Radha Krishna and Gauranga Mahaprabhu. Radha Krishna separately and Gauranga separately.

So, right from the altar itself, Prabhupada changed things. So, when Prabhupada said, I did not change anything, what it means is the essence, the essence he did not change. So, the essential flow of mercy, which Bhaktivinoda Thakur gave, that Srila Prabhupada continued.

And when we say we should follow Srila Prabhupada faithfully also, well, which Srila Prabhupada? Srila Prabhupada himself did many different things at different times. Prabhupada's preaching strategy in America was very different from his preaching strategy in India. In America, he was primarily making people do devotees.

Becoming a devotee and moving into the temple. But in India, nobody was interested in moving into the temple like that. So, Prabhupada just became a life member.

Prabhupada's main preaching in India was making life members. They would take books, they would give some donations, and Prabhupada built temples like that. Now, if you consider, life membership means, there is not even a commitment to chant, there is not even a commitment to follow the four agenda principles.

It's just a commitment to give some donation and to take some books. So, now, Prabhupada was ready to cast the net that far also. And that thin also.

So, Prabhupada himself was remarkably flexible in how… So, if he had insisted in India, you have to move into the temple, nobody was interested. And if you see, in the history of India also, I have been studying this history quite a bit. So, our movement actually took off in India in the late 80s.

In the 70s, very few people actually became devotees. If you see amongst your Prabhupada's disciples, how many are Indians? And how many are Indians who were introduced in India? Very, very few. So, usually Prabhupada sent his many life members, because what are those? Prabhupada is a Acharya, but most of his followers, initially at least, they adopted the same confrontational approach.

No matter life is all false, give it up, let's join the temple. And nobody was interested in that. But then, over the years, as Prabhupada's followers stayed in India, they learnt how things work in India, then the whole concept of congregation preaching started.

Where, you beware the area, but you practice bhakti over there. Like, Rajendra Swarup writes an article about how congregation preaching started. In the West, something similar happened in India also.

He said that, in the past, whenever somebody would come for a Sunday program, our goal was to make him into a devotee, which is to get him to come to a temple. But, he said, people, the Indians, we saw that after a few, after talking with them, they had no intention of moving into the temple. We just kept neglecting them.

So, sometimes these Indians came for months and years, but we paid no attention to them. And, he said, if, on the street, somebody had asked these people, these Indians who come into our temple, which religious group do you belong to? They would say Hare Krishna. But if we had asked, are they Hare Krishna? They would say, no, they are not Hare Krishna.

Because they are not moving into the temple. They are not following our standards. But, eventually, year after year after year, we are coming.

And, especially, in the 19th century, when Prabhupada went at a particular time, Krishna had reached. That was the time of the counter-culture. The people in the West, they are rejecting mainstream culture.

So, that rejection was what was the mood of people. Reject education, reject the normal way of family life, reject the government, reject the normal way of taking a job, just reject everything. That was the mood.

And then, Prabhupada, there he came and he gave them intellectual basis for their rejection. And a constructive alternative. If you reject, what will you do after that? The Hippies, it was said about them, they are rebels without a cause, and rebels without a cause.

Everything they were rebelling against. Rebel, rebel, rebel, rebel. But, ultimately, you need to stand for something.

So, Prabhupada gave them something to stand for. But, that counter-culture started in 1960s. By the late 1970s, it had battered up.

And, similarly, our movement, if you see the graph, it was just booming at a particular time. And, once the counter-culture went, nobody was coming to our temple. And, even people were not interested in taking our books.

Because, the Hippies, or the Hippies who became devotees, they often distributed books in very passionate ways, very aggressive ways. And, they alienated people. So, in the early 1980s, more or less, it was the Indians who started supporting our temples.

And, what happened was, in America, that the devotees who had joined the temple, their primary service was book distribution. But, if people were not taking books, then, the temple couldn't maintain the devotees. And, then, the temple told the devotees, you can leave.

They said, where will we go? We dropped our education. We came here. What will we do now? So, it became a big mess at that time.

And, then, for many of these devotees, who, western devotees, who thought the Indians are in maya, because they are not serious seekers, for them, when they decided to develop a grahasthashram, for them, their parents were not a model. Because, their parents were already breaking up families. So, they saw Indians, they have stable families.

And, in many ways, for the western devotees, it was the Indian grahasthas, they became models. This is how we should live. So, of course, Indian grahasthas may just be pious and not serious about spirituality.

But, now, they are becoming serious also. So, the point which I am making is, that the world has changed. And, Prabhupada himself recognized that India and America were different.

And, Prabhupada's strategy in India and America was very different. So, when we are faithful to Prabhupada, that means we are faithful to the purpose of Shri Prabhupada. So, the purpose of Shri Prabhupada was to attract people to come to Krishna.

And, however best that purpose can be served, we have to do that. So, if we don't do that, I am just following the same process. Okay, I did this, this, this.

But, nobody is coming. What do you do at that time? So, if nobody is coming, I was at a temple. And, at the temple, there is one very senior Prabhupada disciple.

He is a sanyasi and a guru. He has been doing college preaching for 15 years. I appreciate his dedication.

Every single day, whenever he is in that city, which is almost for 7-8 months a year, 6-7 months, the college is on, every day he goes and 3 hours he does Harinam Sutra in the college premises. He does Harinam and his student books. In 15 years, not one person has become a devotee.

Now, I appreciate his faithfulness. This is what, for 15 years to do that service. But, what is the respect? So, conduct some programs, cultivate some people.

No, this is not what we did at the time of Prabhupada. We just, we just, we just did kirtan, received books and people became devotees. 15 years, nobody has become a devotee, not one person.

So, well, dedication is fine, but what is the result? If there is no result, then Prabhupada will be pleased by the dedication, no doubt. But then, Prabhupada is also pleased by whether the results come or not. In principle, Bhakti Saheb Chitrakoot said that, if nobody comes for your program, preach to the walls.

But in practice, if Prabhupada has adopted that, in India nobody has become serious, Prabhupada kept preaching in India. And he would have satisfied. He would have lived up to the letter of Bhakti Saheb Chitrakoot's instructions.

Nobody comes, preach to the walls. But that doesn't mean, preaching to the walls is what we do all our life. Isn't it? Prabhupada went to America because he saw Indians were not serious.

So, that means, if we are doing a service, if the results don't come, we don't become disheartened in the service. But results not coming itself does not mean that that is the way we should keep doing the service, irrespective of the results. Prabhupada wanted results.

And Prabhupada was flexible in doing what it took to get the results. So, similarly, if you see the last 20-30 years, the world has changed more than what has changed in the last 200-300 years. It's a rapid change.

And I was at an inter-religious conference in America. So, there one Christian pastor was quoting that in 2005-2015, for them, among the youth from the age of 15 to 35, more than 50% of young youths who have become Christians have come through online outreach. More than 50%.

Not just online, but social media. So, they have a whole network over there. IAS, the Islamic State, which is a terrorist organization, they are very influential on social media.

They attracted people from all over the world to become terrorists and join them in Syria through social media only. So, the point is that we have to see what is the bed where Ganga can flow right now. If the bed is here, but we keep trying to get the water to flow from here, well, the water doesn't flow only.

Water is flowing nicely over there, you can go from here. So, based on the culture, based on the mindset of people, we have to find out how we can get Krishna into their lives. So, dilution would be if we never speak about Krishna.

We speak things which please them. But, if we speak that which pleases them so that they develop some faith in us, not pleases them in a pandering sense, but pleases them in a sense that doesn't agitate them proactively. Agitate them unnecessarily.

Then, we avoid those agitating things. We present the message of Krishna. Krishna Bhakti is actually very attractive.

It can attract thousands and thousands of people. Now, we just have to present it appropriately. One more question.

Yes.