Why do senior devotees sometimes join apasampradayas?

Podcast

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna.
Sometimes some devotees who may be practicing Krishna Bhakti for 10-20 years they may go into some Appasampradaya so why does such a thing happen? See firstly we have to check whether it is actually an Appasampradaya if somebody goes to Gaudiya Math that is not necessarily an Appasampradaya if somebody goes to, is practicing Gaudiya Vaishnavism Gaudiya Math is not the only organization that is practicing Gaudiya Vaishnavism there are followers of Bhaktanath Thakur who are also practicing Gaudiya Vaishnavism so just because somebody leaves ISKCON and starts practicing Vaishnavism somewhere else or even Gaudiya Vaishnavism somewhere else, we should not immediately judge them as Appasampradayik we have to look at what they are practicing and certainly there is ISKCON is the most vibrant among all Vaishnav organizations right now not just Gaudiya Vaishnav organizations among all the Vaishnav organizations in the world ISKCON is the most vibrant working a lot to share Krishna Bhakti and sometimes some devotees may have some issues with some aspects of ISKCON some devotees may want to study Shastra very deeply and they may feel ISKCON, the philosophy all kinds of basic classes keep happening don’t get deep philosophy and that’s when they look for, looking for some deeper philosophy they go elsewhere or sometimes they may find that they may be attracted to certain things which they feel are not so much available within ISKCON so if somebody wants to study Shastra deeply, now gradually as our movement is stabilizing then we are having forums for deeper Shastric study of Ling, not just some like we have Bhagavathik Debate here where you can study Bhagavatam but there are other forums also and facilities need to be created for the devotees who want to specialize in certain things so, maybe 10 years ago, if somebody wanted to read the books of previous Acharyas you know, people would label them as deviants you are unfaithful to Prabhupada because you want to read previous Acharyas books well, this is ridiculous you know, Prabhupada wanted us to read the previous Acharyas books yes, we shouldn’t jump over Prabhupada, but we have to take his blessings and move onwards so there has been to some extent narrow-mindedness among ISKCON devotees also which has driven people away from ISKCON so firstly, we shouldn’t just blame those people alone there have been mistakes there is a natural part of the growth pains of a movement there have been mistakes from our side also from the ISKCON leadership side and many of these devotees are now slowly coming back sometimes there are relationship issues many devotees leave because they feel that ISKCON devotees are too hardline too fanatical and especially for many Prabhupada disciples you know, it was the time after Prabhupada departed it was very difficult for them because imagine all of you are living as equals and tomorrow one of you becomes a Guru and all of you have lived equally and now you have to do Vyasa Pooja for him, one of you only whenever you see him, you have to offer him the Andavan Pranam and you can see all his faults so it was very difficult, and suppose that person also becomes very high and mighty and thinks, you know, now I am the successor of Prabhupada or I am the successor of my spiritual master all of you have to bow down to me so they also found it very difficult so many Prabhupada disciples and senior devotees, even those who just missed initiation from Prabhupada you know, they came in 78 or they took initiation in 78 they had a lot of difficulty so gradually those sort of things have now decreased so in general if devotees don’t find what they are looking for different devotees within Bhakti itself have different needs and if they feel that those needs are not being fulfilled within this school, they may go elsewhere so rather than going elsewhere, we need to recognize that in Krishna consciousness movement itself there are different devotees who are practicing Bhakti in different ways so we should try to associate with those devotees and align with those devotees and get those needs fulfilled so if somebody wants to do more bhajan then somebody feels that what is the need to do all this preaching, I want to chant 64 rounds, I want to sing Vaishnav songs it’s ok it can be Sahajyayik, but it’s not necessary that it’s always Sahajyayik some devotees may make Vaishnav song itself into a, singing Vaishnav songs in a very beautiful, they can make that as a cultural presentation and through that they may attract certain different kind of people they are also preserving culture so there are some devotees now, one of my devotee friends is a scholar you know, he he spent something like six and a half years he said that he must have gone to something like 70,000 houses in Bengal, just knocking on people’s houses to ask, to check if in their old libraries or in their old attics, there are any Granthas of Bhaktivinod Thakur, or in the Acharyas no, no, no that was what he felt inspired to do now if somebody asks, evaluates from the perspective, how many devotees did you make, how many books did you distribute he is working at a completely different level so now, there have to be, if somebody is inspired to do that why do you need, Prabhupada’s books are there, everything is there why do you need to go into Piyush Bachara’s books that’s our tradition, it needs to be preserved so if somebody wants to do that the leadership needs to be broad minded enough to facilitate that, so these are all very important things they are not immediately they may not give immediate results in terms of the definitions of success that are considered most important in our tradition but they have their influence so rather than blaming those devotees we can recognize that it is our movement which needs to become more accommodating by which they can be accommodated at the same time, there are some devotees who feel that, oh so this is from the institution’s perspective from the individual’s perspective also one should be cautious there are some devotees who feel that oh, you know, here there is this there is no shortcut to spiritual advancement some devotees may feel it is gone, you know, you stick to basics and then I’ll just jump to higher things so preliminary jumping to higher things is of no use, there is no shortcut so if some people feel that by going to some other organization I’ll get a shortcut to spiritual advancement then they are mistaken and that feeling can come, sometimes so overall if we study Shastra carefully and recognize that there is no shortcut to spiritual advancement and also recognize that if we have particular interest Prabhupada’s house is big enough that we can fulfill those interests within Prabhupada’s house itself then we don’t have to go out of the movement that’s how we that thing can be avoided, it’s a big subject I think I’ll answer from the perspective of the individual and the institution Thank you very much Why do people leave