What Happened to the Hare Krishnas?
Srila Prabhupada said if you become a devotee of Krishna the whole world will become your enemy, and to some extent I have experienced that . Of course it is to be expected as practically speaking the whole world is engaged in sense gratification and Krishna consciousness is a threat to this.
I wouldn’t mind so much if it was the general public who were inimical and causing obstructions to the preaching work, but, although there are some “demons” out there who can be quite annoying, the vast majority of people are not demons, they are innocent souls who have been mislead by the sinful atmosphere of this Kali-yuga, the iron age of quarrel. The problem I am facing is that some so-called devotees of Krishna are making it difficult to preach Krishna consciousness …
Srila Prabhupada had the same problem. Practically speaking the only serious threat to his movement came from his godbrothers, the other disciples of his spiritual master, His Divine Grace Srila Bhaktsiddhanta Sarasvati Maharaja. His godbrothers had their own preaching organizations in India and saw themselves as world-preachers, jagat guru’s (guru for the whole world), but they never left India, despite the fact that Srila Bhaktsiddhanta Sarasvati had asked all his senior men to travel to the Western countries to spread the message of Krishna and Lord Caitanya. But they were not interested. They had their few temples and enough followers to send out begging money on the basis that it was for the service of Krishna but they were simply eating and sleeping. They had no life for the preaching work. When they saw Srila Prabhupada succeed in the West in fulfilling their spiritual master’s desire, instead of congratulating and encouraging Srila Prabhupada they criticized him. They were envious of his position, envious of his followers, envious of his large number of opulent temples all over the world. Even up to today Srila Prabhupada’s godbrothers are causing great problems within his society.
Now we have seen ISKCON (Srila Prabhupada’s preaching movement) develop, since Srila Prabhupada’s departure in 1977, into something quit different from the movement he established . There is still lip-service to the instructions of Srila Prabhupada and if you talk to one of todays ISKCON devotees they will still talk about Prabhupada and Krishna, but something has changed. The mood of pure devotional service has gone. Srila Prabhupada wanted his ISKCON to be a society of pure devotees, because it is only through the association of pure devotees that one can advance in Krishna consciousness. It is true that one can be a mixed devotee, the demigod’s are all devotees of Krishna, but they still maintain some independent material desires. This means they can’t leave the material world, they are simply promoted to a higher status to fulfill their material desires. It is not such a wonderful thing to be a mixed devotee, there are so many mixed devotees. Practically every religious group on the planet is promoting some sort of mixed devotional service. But that is not bhakti, that is not love. It is a business. If I have faith in God and I approach Him to serve Him with some motive in mind this is a business transaction. It’s good, in the sense that such a person is pious. When he is in need he turns to God to fulfill his needs, but it’s not Krishna consciousness and it’s not what Srila Prabhupada established ISKCON for.
So ISKCON has become an institution where the majority of members are practicing Krishna consciousness or devotional service to some extent, but not completely purely. Many members of ISKCON today have some motivation, some personal desire to fulfill through their devotional service. It’s understandable enough as there has been a history, since Srila Prabhupada’s departure, of leaders who are themselves materially motivated. Many of the former leaders of ISKCON have fallen away and in retrospect it can be seen that they were not pure devotees at all. The leader has a big effect on his followers and a cheating leader tends to attract cheating followers. So the current institution, ISKCON, can be very difficult if one is sincerely trying to practice pure devotional service, as that mood is no longer there.
My personal position is that I have absolute faith in Srila Prabhupada, my spiritual master, and Krishna and I am trying with all my energy and intelligence to engage myself and everyone else in the service of Srila Prabhupada and Krishna, but there’s no place for me in ISKCON. They just don’t know what to do with me. Because they are preaching some watered-down philosophy to the devotees to encourage them to do business and make lots of money rather than to preach and distribute Srila Prabhupada’s books my presence in the Temple makes them feel uncomfortable, because I just want to preach and distribute books, and I want to do it with the other devotees. So it’s very difficult. I wouldn’t say that the ISKCON devotees are demons or against Srila Prabhupada, generally they are all great souls who have dedicated their lives to preaching Krishna consciousness. It’s just because of bad leadership the temples are in the state they currently are and the pure devotional mood has been lost. > more here <
Complete article here:
http://www.harekrsna.org/pada/documents/what-happened.htm
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