Why does ISKCON give less emphasis on Lord Rama?

From: dilip kumar mehta

      Name of lord Rama also comes in mahamantra what we chant daily but we hardly get oppurtunity to listen the past time of lord Rama. Though we equally chant the name of Krishna & Rama, Iskcon gives less emphasis to lord Rama. Please elaborate.

Transcript

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Jai Question by Dilip Kumar Mehta The name of Lord Ram also comes in the Mahamantra that we chant daily but we hardly get opportunity to listen to the past times of Lord Ram though we equally chant the names of Krishna and Ram ISKCON gives less emphasis to Lord Ram please elaborate ultimately there is no difference between Lord Ram and Lord Krishna because they are the same supreme person manifesting in different moods to facilitate and enable different kinds of relationship with devotees who have different desires to serve the Lord so in terms of tattva in terms of philosophical truth there is no difference between any of the many forms of the Lord so Ram, Krishna, Narasimha, Varaha Vamana, Vishnu and all of them are the same supreme person all of them have the same supreme potency in terms of rasa or devotional mellows the same person manifests himself in different ways to different degrees of intimacy so that different relationships can be facilitated so Lord Vishnu when he is in the material world as Maha Vishnu, as Garbhodaksha Vishnu as Yodaksha Vishnu, he is the maintainer of the world even when Lord Vishnu is in the spiritual world in Vaikuntha he has the aura of greatness surrounding him, the Aishwarya that he is the supreme Lord, he is Vaikunthanath that is always there in the forefront of the awareness of all the devotees serving him and certainly the devotees love Lord Vishnu very purely and wholeheartedly in the spiritual world of Vaikuntha at the same time that love is also tinged with the constant awareness that this is God and this is the supreme all-powerful Lord so we won’t see the intimate dealings that the Lord exhibits as Krishna so when Krishna is playing with the Gopas when some of the Gopas while wrestling defeat Krishna then as a punishment Krishna carries them on their own on his own body so now how can God be defeated and isn’t it sacrilegious isn’t it offensive to let oneself be carried by the Lord which implies that one’s feet will touch the body of the Lord yes, at a level of worship as we the seekers need to practice this is no doubt sacrilegious but at the highest level Krishna wants love that is not untainted or undiluted by awareness of his majesty so in Lord Krishna says that that the love which is made cold by awareness of my greatness and love which is spontaneous not being inhibited by any awareness of the Lord’s greatness so these are the two kinds of loves that are manifest in Vaikuntha and in Goloka Goloka is the abode of Lord Krishna so it is said the Supreme Lord says that he loves the love within Madhurya which is unconstrained by any inhibition as the greatest love so as we wish to develop these extremely intimate and personal relationships with Krishna with God and these relationships are revealed by God in his form as Krishna so we focus on hearing the past times of Krishna ISKCON comes in the Gaudiya Vaishnava Parampara and in this Parampara the focus is on the worship of Krishna and as a matter of following that Parampara and being faithful to the Parampara whose Acharya’s knowledge is received naturally ISKCON focuses on Krishna at the same time especially when there are festivals surrounding Lord Ram especially Ram Navami there are often extensive descriptions and narrations of Lord Ram’s past times also within the Krishna consciousness movement now in if we have some special attraction for Lord Ram then we can surely read the Ramayana it has been published by several devotees within ISKCON also and we can hear the recordings of the lectures on Ramayana that might be there and sometimes our attraction to Lord Ram might be just cultural because we were brought up in a culture where we might have heard Lord Ram’s past time or season from festivals connected with Lord Ram and they created an impression on our minds or our attraction to Lord Ram might be spiritual and we may have an internal relationship with Lord Ram in Ayodhya but as seekers who are taking their first steps in spiritual life we don’t have to bother too much about the spiritual attraction to Lord Ram if we practice Krishna consciousness nicely even if we are hearing primarily Krishna’s past times essentially we will become purified by hearing this and once we become purified the mood of being the servant of the Lord will awaken in our hearts and once that mood of service is awakened that mood of being a servant is common to all relationships with the Lord it is like the foundational basic denominator which underlies all relationships and once in the association of devotees when we learn to render services and imbibe that service mood so then we go out of the negativity of our material life, material conditioning and material misidentification when we start coming to the positivity then our natural spiritual attraction which is latent now, being covered over by our material conditioning will become awakened so we can also attain the board of Ayodhya the board of the Supreme Lord as manifested as Ram by practicing Krishna consciousness because once by this standard process of Krishna consciousness our material conditioning is removed and our original spiritual condition is revealed to us, then naturally we will gravitate towards the particular form of the Lord to which we are attracted, and then we can focus more on hearing the pastimes of Lord Ram and devote ourselves more to Him but that is later on when we come to the stages of Raga Anuda Bhakti at present stage of Sadhana Bhakti where we are practicing devotional service we can continue practicing the process of devotional service as it is given to us by the Acharyas and if we have some special attraction to Lord Ram we can also read Ramayana and cultivate that attraction but we need not let this attraction be the cause or the justification for giving up the standard process of Krishna consciousness because the standard process will purify us and bring us to the spiritual level and there is no substitute or replacement for undergoing this purification and coming to the spiritual platform