Hare Krishna Movement
A. R. Krishnan
"We are not a sporadic pack of eccentrics. Ours is a bonafide religion." The American boy , Charles Brown, wearing an exotic saffron robe, with a shaven head sporting a foot long tuft and with a queer name newly pasted on him, stood waving before me the Krishna Consciousness Handbook.
Look for yourself. Everything about us is in here. I purchased the copy. It cost me ten rupees (1982)- and leafed through it. It was there : "We are above all religions and acceptable to all religions."
In their magazine, Back to Godhead, it was written "We are a superior religion, a first class religion."
"In fact," the deciple clarified, "we are not a religion at all. We are a bona fide society."
It was confusing. In one place they were claiming that they are vaishnavas, and in other asserting that they were not Hindus. The contradiction was sticking out a mile.
I went through their history, the account of their activities and their growth, their training methids and their speeches. I talked to the founder and the deciples. I read their multicolor million-copy magazine Back to Godhead (not for sale in India) and various accounts in Indian and Western Press. The confusion persisted.
In this Hare Krishna movement a positive one, meant to alevate and lead people of the world or one of those that spring up now and then to propagate some crazy notion in the name of the God? Is it a fanatic cult or a sound path ? Are they, or are they not a sporadic pack of eccentrics ?
The founder of this movement, His Divine Grace Acharya Abhay Charan Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, was born as Abhay Charan De in Calcutta on September 1, 1896. He studied philosophy and economics, served as a manager of a "large chemichal concern", and one day when he was 26 met with the founder of the Gaudiya Vaishnava math.
"This boy hears very nicely. He does not go away. So i shall make him a diciple," so the Gaudiya math founder said, according to their handbook. And in 1933, when abhay charan was 37, he was formally initiated to spread the Krishna Consciousness movement in the west.
When he was 63, he took up sanyas, and in 1965 at an advanced age of 70 he went to New York and founded the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) there the next year. As they were chanting their maha mantra "Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare", on the streets they came to be known as Hare Krishna People. The movement thus has its roots in the Gaudiya Vaishnava Math order, a sub-division of Hindu Religion, that traces its origin and ancestry to Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, who lived in 15th Century India. Lord Chaitanya, like Bhakta Meera and Purandardas, was a krishna Bhakta, who took to the ecstatic path of the Bhakti through Music and Bhajan.
The ISKCON today has more than 30 centers in major cities of the world and boasts a strength of 3,000 (This is as per 1982). It weilds vast financial resources. It owns posh bunglows, temples, a 133 acre farm and forest estate in west Virginia, press in Boston and has a global itenary that would shock a tycoon. Its members are a strange mixture of white, yellow and black boys and girls, mostly in their teens and twenties, co-eds, sons of millionaires, doctors, bank executives and similar assortment of the materially well advanced class.
They conduct festivals and rath yatras involving stagerring publicity budgets, with 35 foot high cars, decorated with carnations, gardenias and magenta satin, golden domes, thrones with gold fringed canopy, mammoth garlends, steel barrels of food and "simply wonderfuls" (the name given by acharya to Indian recepie) velvet-cushioned palanquins with rose petaled steps and large sensors of frankinsence. In India, their patrons include the Birlas and Mafatlals and various cine stars. They arouse curiosity and make news.
The diciples are mostly americans and Europians, though a few are from the other countries of East and West. They have left their parents, belongings and vocations. They do not take drugs or meat; they do not smoke or drink, and they do not indulge in illicit sex. They lead what they call "plain living".
"What made you join this?" I asked them when i met them in a bunglow in Albert Road, in Calcutta.
"I was fed up with the things around, and like many of my friends, i just dropped out. I took to pot for a while and when i came across this i joined."
"I was disgusted with all this rat race for money and material comforts. There was no satisfaction."
"I ran away from my people. At that time i came across this and joined."
The boy from Japan said, "Oh yes, it was so different and grand. I simply liked it and joined."
One boy from London, the most auspicious of the lot with his long face and dangling tuft confessed: "The Prrsbawdams were great. Frankly, that is what appealed to me first. Ofcourse were these dnces and songs? They were so different and cute."
"Different from what?" I asked. "Well different from those soul music that we used to have in our session."
He was ofcourse referring to underground pot sessions. For many of them it was the same "in" thing. They were mostly the same youth that professed frustration, that questioned authorities and felt restless with time tables and dropped out. No doubt, these are some who joined this directly without having a previous rendezevous with pot.
At any rate, it was their desire to be "different" that made them take this. They appeared to be the product of our topsy Turvy age in which things like free love and drugs are glorified and primitive standards like long hair and nudity are revived in the name of super-civilisation and quest for tranquility. We have seen modern "frustration" and the resultant "quest for peace" manifesting itself in the form of marijuana, lesbianism, free love, partner swapping and even in transcedental meditation. Their need is "ecstacy" and "trance," and they get it either from hasish or maharishis.
Do they profess resembelence to hippies? No they do not.
"We have sacraficed everything, and we have left our habits. We have nothing to do with hippies,, for we do not take drug, and do not indulge in free sex. We even avoid meat, smoke and drinks."
What about Mahesh Maharishi's transcedental medeitation ?
"He was bogus and has been exposed. His diciples were free to sin."
They stress on the sacrafices they have made. "Fow whom or for whose benifit are sacrafices made?"
Their answers are vague. The more one thinks of their sacrafices, the more these appear to the sacrafices made by the hippies. Some of the arguments are : "Disown is rather a better term than sacrafice"; it is a dropout jargon in a way. All sane people avaid drugs and illicit sex and it should not be called sacrafice. Hippies have renounced material comforts, but that is not the kind of sacrafice that demands respect.
Faith comes and go, only some stay. The test is that they should be meaningful to the man. There was a time when intelligent quesry was made: `Were religions born of primeval ignorance of savages or from ancient wisdom ?' To get the answer, wise men went far back into the past. They listened to the sermon on the mount rather than to the preist in the pulpit; they checked with the upanishads, rather than the local pujari . They found it was wisdon and not ignorance. They also found that faiths were contaminated by misuse and superstitions, and from time to time, they weeded them.
As all religions emanate from the same source of ancient wisdom, the worlds greatest religions have similarities. They all agree on the super-power God.
Does the hare krishna movement stand the test ? It appears that itr does not. Because, first of all, it looks like nno-question religion. The instructions include "Do not read too many Books; do not listen to the so called masters; do not bother to understand the mantras."
Secondly, it claims superiority of one god over the other. "Krishna was the supreme enjoyer, Rama, a mere enjoyer and Shiva, a demi-god." I asked the swamiji, what is a demi-god.
He answered: "It is like an arrangement in office. Krishna is something like the General Manager. The others are superintendants, clerks and peopns. Demi -gods are the latter variety."
Thirdly, they are superstitious. They say, "Nothing is symbolic in religion and there is nothing to interpret. Everything is ordained, our dress, our rituals, all of them. They should be followed withouth question. and interpretation." When i aske dthe founder whether it wuld not be some form of superstition to name somebody who is covered in our history of 15th century as as avatar of God, he explained: "it all depends."
They do not take the logical path of reasoning to win over followers but to adopt cheap tactics: "Lord Jesus was in Puri during a rath yathraThey are superficial and they stress "Vibrations and Trance. "The very combination of mridangam and cymbals gives ecstacy and bliss which cannot be got from anywhere else."
They are not broad minded and they scorn their beliefs: "Vivekannada made a god out of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. What else did he do? Adi Shankara hoodwinked the people of the world. People who follow Vedanta are impersonalists and they do not know the posiition of their father."
They denigrate wise men and intellectuals. "The people of this age are unfit to talk of spiritual affairs. The so called men of knowledge are actually fools, rascals."
I specifically referred to people like Dr. Radhakrishnan, Bertrand russel, Alduous Hulxey, Somerset Maugham, Max Muller, Goethe, J. Krishnamurthi etc. The diciples retorted that they were all half learned man who were not qualifies to talk about religion. They even explained that half learning was worse than no learning at all.
The Swamiji's reply was : "There are beliefs and beliefs, I see God in Lord Krishna, and others seee him elsewhere. In any case they are not all academicians and we do not recognize them." Their perodical, Back to Godhead, describes them as "bloated intellectuals".
They are not comprehensive and they are self contradictory. They profess to be Vaishnavas but maintain they are not Hindus. (Who are Vaishnavas, if not a part of the Hindus?). They quote the Bhagwad Gita and the Bhagvatam out of the context and spout scriptures of dubious pedigree.
They are afraid of how others interpret the scriptures. So they aver: "There is only one original meaning of the scriptures, and that is given out by Prabhupada. There is nothing to interpret to suit anybody." For obvious reasons, most of their literature is "not for sale in India."
There are other things also which reveal their primitive attitudes. "Moonlanding by Americans was a sheer waste of time." Emerson said, "The man who is closer to Godis never heard bragging about his own holiness." It makes sense. But the acharya of the hare krishna movement has ordained shisyas to "take shelter at his feet and serve him twenty-four hours a day." And this is an account of what they did during rath yathra ceremony in San Fransisco.
"..Suddenly the devotees began madly jumping up and down in ecstacy crying "Prabhupada,Prabhupada. All glories to Sri Guru all glorries to Srila Prabhupada." The swami emerged from the car.Purple velvet steps were lowered onto the street by the devotees and the Golden Guru rose up on the Opulent Throne. Garlands and roses were placed around his neck and rose petals were tossed at his lotus feet.."
And where was God ? Pushed Behind? No, no, they dont push god behind. They have already declared: "People are envious of God, and they want to become God. They are pushing him behind. We are advertising for him."
The training of the diciples alo appears to be hotch-potch with the result they mostly talk nonsense. However they are very eager to recite some oof the sanskrit slokas they have mugged up in their training. As an uninitiated lot, they appear to have been misguided also. They are all under the impression that people in India are trying to bury Lord Krishna, and their master was trying to save him. When i told them that krishna was a beloved god of all hindus, and i was myself named after Him despite my not being a Vaishnava, they were quite perplexed !
Because fo all this, they hardly impress anybody. The Indians are rathr amused. Indian newspapers gave them a tongue-in-cheek coverage throughout. In West, some Londoners complained: "They get up at four in the morning and raise a racket with their ruddy Hare Krishna and disturb the Neighbourhood." The onlookers feel amused by their roadside antics. An Indian visitor to America bemoans that "these freaks present an odd spectacle. They are disgusting and command no respect. They will bring a bad name to our country in th end, as some did in the past."
It is not our buisiness at all, and we can ignore them provided there are no risks for the reputation of the country and the religioon.
It has been our experience that once in a way a sadhu goes to West and start hitting headlines. Some have done it right from the place where they are sitting, like Ramana Maharishi of Tiruvannamalai. Perhaps we have something to offer to the frustrated West; probably it is spirituality, it is also possible that people in west look to us for that. But can we afford at the same time to cheat them with spurious or even mediocre commodity ? When it all comes out, which it will definitely come in the case of fake gods, who will be put to shame? Will they remember the long-winding pompous name of the swamis? Wont they simply say , "Those Indians, those Hindu fakirs?" and they will be justified.
The Hare Krishna movement because it is superstitious, is harmful and hollow from other angle also. Materialism is as good an enemy as superstition. As Annie Beasant said, "Escape from materialism need not be, or rather should not be, superstition." When it is so, it is doubly dangerous. Materialism is relative: one cannot say where it started and where it will end.
Lord Krishna is a beloved gods of Hindus, and none will be against spreading his name and teachings. For the same reason they will resist unscrupulous traficcking in it. The HK movement ahs already taken its roots on a filmsy foundation and has attained a status for reasons that have nothing to do with the religion of Lord Krishna. Its followers were to break their honeymoon and declare, "We are disillusioned please," as they one did in the case of Mahesh Yogi, the disgrace of that anticlimax will be ours. Therefore the fact that it is sold in the west is no proof of its effectiveness or genuineness. It is only a proof of a clever salesmanship of a fake commodity, which will end up with ridicule. It will hardly matter whether it has been sporadic or gregarious.
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