Sharing bhakti with a westernized audience

Talk at Govardhan Ecovillage, Wada

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Thank you. Most organizations start off as cults. The word cult has a negative connotation.
But it is actually a value, non-value judgment built up. Prabhupada used the word cult, Kalkaksh Chaitanya Mahaprabhu spreading far and wide. So cult basically means a group of people which is very radically differentiated from the rest of society.
For whatever reasons. So initially, when a cult starts expanding, the idea is there are outsiders and there are insiders. And our goal is to get the outsiders inside.
Our goal is to get the outsiders inside. And in that process, those outsiders who don’t come inside, they get demonized. So, for example, in the early days when devotees would do book distribution, there was sometimes the idea, Prabhupada sent one letter that we can distribute books by book or by crook.
Now that letter was terribly misunderstood and misapplied by devotees. And people would tell anything and everything to somehow get the books distributed. And the only definition of success was what was your book distribution score.
But in the process, sometimes people would tell some things about the books which were not present in the books. In order to sell the books. So, at one level, the book distribution score increased.
But at another level, when people would see the books, they would say, what is this? I was cheated. And it led to a lot of antipathy. People became alienated.
There was a time in the Dallas area when the Mahakrishna Maharaj told, stop book distribution. Because the movement got so much negative publicity because of that, that they decided better stop distribution and do other form of outreach. So, when the devotees went with one definition of success, that is, our goal is to distribute books.
See, fanaticism means when one definition of success becomes the only definition of success. Yes, book distribution is one definition. But it’s a part of a broader outreach initiative where we want to make people favorable to Christian consciousness.
But when one definition of success is made into the only definition of success, that often leads to fanaticism. So, this can happen in any field. Sometimes, say, we go into colleges and we do college programs.
And some people become devotees, but then they conduct themselves in a way which alienates the rest of the hostel from the devotees. And then we have made some people into devotees, but others have practically become hostile. So, in this purport, it is said that the purpose of a devotee is to give fearlessness to others.
So, giving fearlessness, how does it happen? Now, if people, even generally in Rajoguna and Tamoguna, there is a lot of agitation and fearlessness. 16.11 Krishna says that as long as one has the desire to gratify oneself, at that time, one has Chintam Aparineyam. One has incessant anxiety.
So, from where people are, even if they are in passion, they rise a little bit towards goodness. So, there, fear goes down, their anxiety goes down. And then they become more open to higher spiritual things also.
So, even if people don’t become devotees immediately, if they rise towards goodness, that itself is also an elevation of consciousness that not only makes them receptive for further Krishna consciousness later, it also makes them messengers of goodwill for the devotee community. As the religious organization matures, the dividing line between insiders and outsiders blurs. Because what happens is, we understand that all insiders are also not the same and all outsiders are also not the same.
Within insiders also, there will be grains. There are people who practice at different levels of seriousness, there are people who have different levels of sensitivity, there are people who have different levels, even within insiders, people who have different conceptions of bhakti. And similarly among outsiders also, there are people who are sattvic, rajasic, tamasic.
So, rather than seeing the success of a movement in terms of insiders are success, outsiders are failures, we see that actually outreach is more of a spreading of concentric circles. So, there are people who are cold devotees, there are people who are little less serious devotees, there are people who are emotionally inclined, there are people who are spiritually inclined. And by this understanding that there will be concentric circles of people with different levels of spiritual inclination, we recognize that success can be at different levels.
And then this leads to the elevation of consciousness gradually. So, we could say that success is more like a pyramid. There are some people at the top, but there are other people who are not just at the bottom.
They are at various levels of height on the pyramid. And especially in western and westernized societies, there are 2-3 factors which make it difficult for people to commit to any one school of thought easily. The first is what is called the post-modern ethos.
We often talk of modern times, but in the west they say it’s post-modern. Now, what does post-modern mean? In the pre-modern times, people had faith in scripture. Scripture was the source of authority.
In modern times, science was the source of authority. But now, a lot of people have recognized the harms of indiscriminate use of technology. So, in post-modern times, people consider neither science nor scripture as a source of authority.
The only source of authority is experience. So, for example, if a couple comes and tells a group of young couples, we have been married happily for 21 years. So, people will be interested.
How does it work? Tell us. But if the same couple says, we have been married for 20 years and we believe that divorce is a sin against God and anyone who takes divorce is going to go to hell. People will say, you go to hell first.
So, there are three things. One is something works for me. Because in the post-modern age, the essence is everybody is lost.
What I should do? What I should not do? People don’t know. So, if something works for someone, people are interested in hearing it. People are very interested in hearing it.
When I first read Journey Home, before Varangalok gave it to me actually, before it was published. So, when I met Radhanath Maharaj, I told him. Maharaj asked me, how did you find him? I said, I have started.
The thing that struck me most is the difference in tone. Whenever I have heard you, you are Acharya speaking on the Yasasana, telling this is how we should behave. Maharaj is always humble, but still he is in the mood of a teacher.
But when in the Journey Home, he is not in the mood of a teacher. That is, practically, I remember, if you search for the word should or must, only there are three, four in the whole book. So, there is no instructive mode in that.
It is just that these were my experiences and this is what I learnt from it. So, it is a mode of something that worked for me. So, what works for me? Because people are interested.
What works for you? So, one thing is, if something works for you, you would like to know about it. But the second is, if you say something is a universal truth, this is how it should be, then people become suspicious. They become suspicious.
Because anybody who has claimed any absolute authority, as they say, power corrupts. And absolute power corrupts absolutely. So, whichever school of thought we see in recent history, wherever there has been abuse of power.
So, people are suspicious. And on top of that if you say, this is what you should do. Damn it! So, but, now the speciality of Bhakti, Prateksha Vagamam Dharanam Se Sukham Gartam Aude.
Krishna says that, Bhakti is something which you can experience. So, at one level, if we consider the postmodern ethos, because Bhakti talks about universal truths. Bhakti talks about regulative principles.
So, you might say postmodern ethos is hostile to the outreach of Bhakti. But it is not necessarily so. Because Bhakti also gives us experience of higher spiritual reality.
And in fact, among the various processes of self-realization or self-elevation, Bhakti is extremely potent in giving us higher spiritual experiences. So, if without absolute standards, without talking in any didactic mode of this is what you should do, what you should not do, if we just phrase it, this is what we are, this is what works for us, then people themselves will get the experience of Bhakti. They will get the experience of Krishna.
And when they get the experience of Krishna, they will themselves become convinced. So, now, in the Bhakti Samaj Syndrome, the whole concept of Rasa, it’s a complex subject, but briefly, Rasa is, when we usually use the word, before coming to ISKCON, probably the only time we heard the word Rasa was Amras of Dhanaras. So, the word Rasa, as it is used in Bhakti Samaj Syndrome, Rasa is a refinement in emotion that is experienced by an aesthetic audience.
Just like say, a woman is performing Bharat Natyam. Now, if a man is just lusty, a man will see nothing except the figure of the woman and the curves of the woman, the contours of the woman. If a man has some little aesthetic sense, okay, she is dancing, so if a man knows, has knowledge about Krishna’s pastime, knows that okay, this dancer is performing the same dance, he will see the same woman, oh, this is how Yashoda is angry after Krishna has stolen butter.
So, depending on the level of consciousness of the audience, the same dance will be seen differently. So, Rasa is a refined emotion that is experienced by aesthetic audience. And the whole process of Bhakti, as explained by Rupa Goswami, is to give the audience, the experience of Bhakti Rasa by creating appropriate stimuli in the people’s environment.
They themselves do certain activities and by this, they get the experience of Rasa. So, in Rasa, there is something called as Uddhipana. Rasa is an elaborate theory, I just speak about Uddhipana.
Uddhipana is external spiritual stimuli. So, for example, when you go to a temple, the deities are Uddhipana. They are an object externally that stimulates spiritual emotions.
So, one of the important aspects of Bhakti culture is the permeation of the environment with devotional Uddhipana. So, for example, when you go to the temple, we have Krishna’s pictures, we have soothing music, we have the deities, we have kirtans and we have devotees who remind us of Krishna. So, all this is Uddhipana.
Now, there are many of these Uddhipanas, they are sometimes seen directly as religious ones. And some people, especially people who are a little averse to religion, they are a little skeptical about it. But if these are presented in a natural environment, so, for example, in my understanding, the whole GV project, especially having the seven temples of Vrindavan, all this is we are providing devotional Uddhipana to people.
So, the whole natural setting, that is a Satvik Uddhipana. Within that, the devotional impressions, devotional objects that are there permeate it throughout. That is a spiritual, transcendental Uddhipana.
And by this, when these people are exposed to this, they start experiencing higher rasa. So, rasa at the highest level is Bhakti rasa. But rasa in general, as I said, is a refined emotion.
So, there can be Satvik emotions also if people experience. Then they can become more conducive to experiencing devotional emotions. So, projects like this, where, I won’t say like this, because as far as I know, this is the only project like it right now.
So, it is not a project like this. But, where we can get, we can get, yesterday I was talking about that, we can get devotional culture in a culturally non-threatening way. The culturally non-threatening way means, as soon as people start seeing, people come to a temple or people come to a religious institution, people start, you must be having an agenda to convert.
And, when people come to a retreat sort of place, where there is nature and there is a lot of, not just physical space, but people also feel there is emotional space. Now, I am not being forced to adhere to a particular kind of school of thought. Then, people open themselves to experience what is there.
And, if they experience bhakti, then their worldview will gradually and automatically change. It will evolve upwards. And, the whole success of such a project will depending on, will depend largely on having the right definition of success.
If we operate with the definition of converting people, then it will not work. Because, there are people who will be directly converted to the bhakti worldview. But, they will not be as many as will be people who will be open for gradual evolution.
And, we have many projects already, which are working towards directly philosophically transforming, educating and transforming people. But, what about the rest of the society, who are not yet ready for immediately taking Krishna Bhakti. Even if they get a higher appreciation for Krishna Bhakti, at the very least, it is Agnya Sukruti.
And, even if we say Agnya Sukruti is something which is invisible, but still, it’s not intangible. These people spread the good word around. And, the ripple effect of this, is something which we may not perceive immediately.
But, it does have a lot of positive effect. And, then there are some crisis in terms of, say, there is some, like say, I’ll conclude with this point. In London, when the Bhaktivar Manor was threatened, at that time, there was a huge groundswell of support.
And, the agitation that happened, it was, if it had been just ISKCON against the rest of the world, then we would have lost the Bhaktivar Manor. But, ISKCON had become like a retreat center for the broad Hindu community, as well as for others. So, there was a huge support from everyone, from large number of people.
So, when there are crisis or emergencies like that, at that time, there is invisible, but not intangible positive effect of outreach. We don’t get members directly, but we get people who are positive. And, they put their weight behind us.
That has a substantial effect. Because, right now, we live in a culture where we are the majority religion. Hindus are the majority.
So, we may not feel the need for this. In the western countries, where we are minority religion, this is very important. And, many times, I was just talking to Anupama who was a communication director, he was telling me that when there was this anti-cult cases against us, he said, what really saved us was our Christian friends.
There were many Christian organizations. And, it’s not that they were selflessly concerned about protecting Islam. They had their own concern.
Their concern was that if the government or anti-cult agencies can target one religion, they target Hinduism today, tomorrow they will target Christianity. So, their concern was more for religious freedom. They were not really concerned for our movement per se.
But, still, because they came and testified, yes, this is an ancient tradition, these people are serious religious practitioners. They are as committed to God as we are now. So, their testimony actually saved the religious landscape and other players in that religious landscape were coming out to support.
So, we may not feel the need for that kind of support right now in India because we are the majority religion. But, as the cultural values change, many people, although they are nominally Hindus now, they are not really committed to religious values. So, if the mainstream culture changes, then how we have alienated or positively attracted the mainstream culture will play a major role in our outreach and in our existence.
So, from the long-term point of view, while we are converting people to become insiders, actually conversion is not a good word, while we are attracting people to become devotees, in that time, what we are doing to people who are not devotees that is also important. So, I’ll summarize. I spoke only on distributing books, we will alienate people who get the books and if we focus on converting people, we may alienate the unconverted.
So, our goal is to elevate people’s consciousness from wherever they are. So, even from Rajoguna, Tagoguna, people are not we are trying to elevate people they are and we are trying to from where they are and we are elevate them and trying to elevate them from where they are and we