Why hasn’t ISKCON presented Prabhupada as a national spiritual hero?

From Ravikant Jagtap P

Ramkrishna Mission prapogated Vivekananda as national spiritual hero. Isn’t it a failure of iskcon to do so for Prabhupada when he has transformed many lives? What can be done on personal level and widespread organizational level so that every Indian feels proud of Prabhupada? Now also many people don’t know about Prabhupada.

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
So that’s my broad answer Hare Krishna Question from Ravikant Chakta Prabhu Ramakrishna Mission propagated Vivekananda as national spiritual hero Isn’t it a failure Of ISKCON to do so For Prabhupada when he has transformed many lives What can be done on personal level And widespread organizational level So that every Indian feels proud of Prabhupada Now also many people Don’t know about Prabhupada Answer The best way we can share Prabhupada’s glories Is by ourselves becoming Responsible devotees Who sensitively And vigorously share Krishna consciousness With the broader Indian community Especially this is our question For those who are in India And I am answering from that perspective So As far as propagating Prabhupada As a national leader is concerned That is definitely something which can be done And it should be done At one time there were devotees who were trying to See if Prabhupada could be Awarded the Bharat Ratna And I was also involved in that team I mean we presented the nomination And other things We tried to take it as much as possible But the challenge is that Shri Prabhupada Often critiqued everything material Shri Prabhupada Critiqued social service Shri Prabhupada critiqued Even nationalism In many cases And Prabhupada critiqued Many Mayavadis Who Whether we like it or not Form a major part of the Hindu religious world today So because of that Many people have preconceptions Which need to be Carefully addressed And for addressing those conceptions Devotees themselves have to Understand Krishna consciousness In its essence Properly So many devotees have a very dismissive Attitude towards these things Now if you look at Shri Prabhupada’s stand I have answered Each of these questions separately Now what Shri Prabhupada was against Was not so much impersonalism As impersonalist misrepresentation Of the Vedic literature especially Bhagavad Gita What he was not against Was not nationalism But nationalism being made into an object of devotion As a As something sacred As a competitor to Spiritual advancement Same with social service also He was not against social service but when social service itself was Portrayed as devotional service As a superior alternative devotional service Then that was what he was Criticizing but often many devotees Not understanding The subtleties And the profundity of Shri Prabhupada’s Arguments Used his word like Fools and rascals Talked about many things very dismissively So you know If we talk about nationalism dismissively On most occasions And then we say that Shri Prabhupada should be glorified As a national hero Then we will appear very self-serving In fact in the western countries Many Hindu communities Have become Annoyed with the scorn Whenever the scorn is warned We are Hindu and whenever the scorn is warned we say we are not Hindu So we cannot be seen And we should not act Also as Trash opportunists We have to understand Our own position properly And present it appropriately So this will take time Because in general when we come to Krishna Consciousness Because Krishna Conscious principles are so high We have to reject a lot of the material world For that and because of the rejecting Of the material world we often present Ourselves In a very confrontationalist way In order to defend our beliefs And in that confrontationalist mode Using the labels like fools and rascals That Shri Prabhupada has used Becomes an exercise that Massages our false ego It’s not that we are deeply convinced Or whether we are compassionate The way that Shri Prabhupada was But we just use that in a Egoistic way To just counter our own insecurities And this alienates A lot of people So As devotees we have to learn to become Responsible, sensitive And vigorous Presenters of Krishna Consciousness To others And actually what Shri Prabhupada has done is phenomenal In terms of the way he has influenced Thousands of people Millions of millions And he continues to influence today It is extraordinary And anybody who Comes to hear about Shri Prabhupada Or even read his brief biography Or come to know about what all he has accomplished Those people cannot but be Impressed that a person at the age of 69-70 went and shared Krishna Consciousness all over the world So If we actually present it properly Then we can bring about A significant change in people’s Mindset.
There are other factors also In addition to the insensitive Presentation of Prabhupada’s Teachings by devotees Generally in the History textbooks The post-independence history Is not talked about much So most of the Spiritual leaders that people know about like Swami Vivekananda They were in the pre-independence era And that pre-independence era Is talked about quite a bit So what happened in the post-independence is not talked about Much in our textbooks today And because of that people do not Come to know about Shri Prabhupada Who preached from 65 to 77 Primarily And along with that also In general If we see The Vedic culture People because of the influence Of the Media Are more materialist and more Actually they want to say they are secularist But secularism is just becoming a Garb for materialism In most cases So they are not interested in anything that is serious Spirituality To the extent that spirituality Helps them in their material life They are interested in that kind of spirituality Which is basically like a shock absorber or a stress Reliever for their material life But they don’t want a spirituality that is a Goal transformer that is a lifestyle transformer That kind of spirituality they don’t want But that is what is the ultimate message Of the Vedic literature and that is what Shri Prabhupada has given So as devotees We have to present things in a Responsible way. So individually What can we do? Individually We can try to become more serious devotees And serious in terms of Understanding the philosophy and also presenting it Sensitively and vigorously So sensitively means we don’t Unnecessarily hurt people and vigorously means We try to share it on as many forums As possible And beyond that if we want to Consider from institutional perspective Devotees have been Organizing programs like Say On the 108th anniversary of Shri Prabhupada’s Appearance Devotees did big festivals in Mumbai and other places Where one of the goals Was to help Indians understand The glories of Shri Prabhupada Now similarly the 50th Anniversary of ISKCON is coming up ISKCON’s establishment is coming in 2016 So devotees can do something to share Krishna Consciousness in a vigorous way At that place or that forum also So some devotees are planning that how Say in Maharashtra Shri Prabhupada Has Created a revival of the bhakti culture Through his Krishna Consciousness movement And like that devotees can think of Creative ways in which We can share Krishna Consciousness with various target audiences So If we find that we have particular Ideas we can send it to the 50th anniversary Celebration Steering committee And we can ourselves also take up things in a small way And Krishna will guide us And other devotees can also Come and help us eventually If we have a Good vision And we have the determination to continue that So overall What we should focus on is internalizing And sharing Krishna Consciousness And that itself will remove many of the misconceptions And Prabhupada’s glory Is actually there for people to see We just have to make sure that we remove the Obstacle that will block people From seeing it So as compared to other spiritual teachers Prabhupada brought not just Intellectual appreciation For the depth of the Vedic teachings Prabhupada also brought about cultural transformation Not many of the followers Of the other Spiritual teachers They adopted Vedic culture In terms of say Wearing dhoti kurta or wearing sarees And doing deity worship And the Cultural aspects like that So Prabhupada’s contribution As a cultural ambassador of India to the world Are extraordinary And as individuals And as an institution By sharing Krishna Consciousness Responsibly, sensitively And vigorously We can share this awareness of Prabhupada’s glories with the world So ISKCON Another very significant difference Which has happened is that There is a western scholar who has written a book Called American Veda In which he talks about various Indian spiritual leaders Who went to the west and they influenced The west So he says that For example the Ramakrishna Mission The institution is small but its influence is large Because its teachings Are represented in a universalist way So many devotees Somehow for whatever reason They don’t make this universalist presentation Of Krishna Consciousness They make a sectarian presentation And to some extent for many devotees The definition of success in Krishna Consciousness Has been that we withdraw From the rest of the world and become more serious devotees That can be one definition of success But actually The success of sharing Krishna Consciousness Is in terms of concentric circles Of greater and greater circumference So in the center we can have Very serious devotees Who are very strict practitioners And then we can have other devotees Who are also sharing The Vedic values but maybe not at the same Level and then we can have Another circle where devotees are also sharing Krishna Consciousness At another level So we need to have these circles of influence Which radiate outwards And we also need to recognize that The broad spreading Of the Krishna Consciousness movement will happen Not just by withdrawing from society But by engaging in society So If the Krishna Consciousness movement Also helps in And that means when Krishna Consciousness movement helps That means we as individuals help in Sharing In engaging With the issues That concern people and that are Also related with our philosophy Then we can In many ways Help increase the appreciation for Srila Prabhupada So eco-friendly living And then rural development Small scale industries Self-sufficiency These are all Things which many Indians Appreciate because they know that this is The way for India’s sustainable development So there are many devotees working in this direction Also So people should be able to see The tangible down-to-earth Contributions of Srila Prabhupada’s movement And then that will influence them To Understand Srila Prabhupada’s glory As a representative And ambassador of Indian culture Thank you. Hare Krishna