Is ISKCON in America losing its Gaudiya focus due to being populated by South Indians

So, how much should we be concerned if the South Indians who are coming to ISKCON in North America also start talking about South Indian pastimes and forms of worship, just telling Tirupati Balaji stories or having pictures of Vishnu more than Krishna in their slides when they give talks? Answer? There are three points in this to consider. First is the purpose of the Krishna Consciousness Movement. Second is the needs of the people who are coming.

And a third is the authority that we as individual leaders have for bringing about change. Now, Srila Prabhupada started the International Society for Krishna Consciousness and he gave seven purposes of ISKCON. Interestingly, in the seven purposes, there is only one purpose which talks specifically about Gaudiya Vaishnavism which is to spread Sankirtan according to the teachings of Lord Chaitanya.

And Srila Prabhupada, in his own writings and in his teachings, emphasized Bhagavad Gita and the broad universal philosophical truths of Krishna Consciousness and spiritual practices much more in the specifics of Gaudiya Vaishnavism. So, for example, he did translate Chaitanya Ritavrata and even in the Bhagavatam, he gave Chaitanya Mahaprabhu as an example of the ideal Bhagavatam in the introduction itself. Beyond that, many traditional Gaudiya Vaishnav groups, be they Gaudiya Math or the pre-Gaudiya Math followers of Bhaktivinoda Thakur or the pre-Bhaktivinoda Thakur followers of Gaudiya Vaishnavism, they often feel ISKCON even in India is not Gaudiya enough that what we are doing are broad devotional practices and not specific Gaudiya Vaishnav practices.

And our leaders have not taken that criticism very seriously and a few devotees have focused on Gaudiya Vaishnav mood specifically in terms of becoming immersed in Lord Chaitanya’s pastimes and sharing those stories and sharing those values and focusing on the stories of our Acharyas. So, while that is an important purpose, I want to say that is either a defining purpose of Shila Prabhupada or it is not a defining emphasis of the successors of Shila Prabhupada both in terms of the Gurus and in terms of the managers, the GBC. That doesn’t mean it is not important.

It just means that it may not be the most important thing for them. As far as the needs of the audience are concerned, when they come here, most people come here because, most Indians come here because this is a cultural home for them. And often the fact that we have Deities and that we have traditional clothing that is recommended, all this makes them feel that this is culturally like home.

And to some extent, they will want to make it more and more like a cultural home for them. So, from their perspective, they have many choices. They can go to Tirupati Bajaj Bali temple, there are so many Venkateshwar temples over here.

There are so many other temples. They will go where their needs are fulfilled the most. Now, of course, we cannot define what we do solely by their needs.

However, their needs and our purpose, where it can intersect, that is something which we need to see. So, in India now, many temples have started celebrating Vaikunthai Kadashi. And we don’t do anything special in Vaikunthai Kadashi.

We just say that there is a Vaikunthai Kadi celebration. We have a talk. We have Kirtans going on.

We have Prasad distribution and crowds and crowds of people come on Vaikunthai Kadashi. Similarly, many temples have started celebrating Mahashivratri also. And a few other festivals which were not celebrated earlier.

The idea is, somehow other people are connecting with Krishna. Now, the challenge is that those who become our leaders, in their classes, they start speaking such stories, speaking more generic Vaishnav stories or Sri Vaishnav stories rather than Gaudiya Vaishnav stories. Then, it is something which is a matter of concern.

So, my understanding would be two, three things. Before that, the third point is that how much do we have the authority to change this? My understanding is that generally our GBC and our spiritual masters are preoccupied with many things. And not for many of them, maintaining the temples, expanding the temples, building grand temples, distributing books, these are their primary areas of focus at this point.

And of course, people becoming devotees and taking initiation is there. So, the specifics of what is taught in classes has not been a major point of emphasis for them as far as I know. There is some discussion going on at some leadership levels on what people call as the Hinduization of ISKCON.

And this is more led by western devotees who feel that ISKCON is becoming much more Hindu than what Srila Prabhupada wanted. And many Hindu practices that were not given by Prabhupada are being adopted over here. These are not just western devotees.

They are also first generation devotees or Prabhupada disciples and who have some experience of what Prabhupada emphasized and what Prabhupada wanted. Having said that, they are also happy that Indians are coming and quite often qualified and educated Indians are coming. So, the solution I see is 2-3 things could be done.

One is that when there are festivals about Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition directly, about Gaudiya Vaishnava Acharyas or about Mahaprabhu, then we emphasize that more and make sure that time maybe we have a series of talks, invite some speaker or have some online speakers and make sure that the devotees hear about Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and the Goswamis and the Acharyas. Specifically, making sure that those opportunities are fully utilized. So, rather than trying to tell others to decrease something, the stories of our Acharyas and our saints and Mahaprabhu are themselves so attractive that if they are heard regularly and presented properly, they will attract the hearts of so many people directly, even those who are from a somewhat Sri Vaishnava background.

Second is that if somebody is telling some stories from Sri Vaishnava tradition, I don’t think that is a problem unless they don’t tell anything from the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition at all and they become the defining speakers in our movement, in that particular place. So, as long as they are one such speaker and there are other speakers who speak more balancing things also, then again people will also understand, okay, this is one flavor. Everybody, when they are practicing Bhakti, we want to develop our spiritual attraction to Krishna.

But till that spiritual attraction is developed, we all have our cultural attraction to the Lord and that cultural attraction is often based on the region where we grew up and what kind of manifestation of the Lord we were connected with. So, try to have, rather than telling that person, not really try to have a balance. The third would be that see if you can invite travelling speakers who focus on Gaudiya Vaishnavaism and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and let them tell the pastimes of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and even you could organize online classes and that way it will work out very well in terms of people getting the necessary nourishment.

So, because a top-down effort at this stage is not happening. So, for us at that level, we need to focus more on what is doable for us and what is seen as success by the general devotee community as well as by the leadership at a higher level in our movement. And I think that is making more devotees, distributing books, building temples and of course beyond that taking care of devotees in general.

Thank you.