IskCons Bridge Preaching?

What is IskCons Bridge Preaching?

Some ISKCON leaders want to bridge the gap between “westerners” and ISKCON by teaching hatha yoga (butt-yoga) at our temples, thus building a bridge to the so called karmi world.

Some Problems With “Bridge Preaching”

Anyone who has read Srila Prabhupada’s introductory books for a few minutes can see he emphasized the fact that hatha yoga is not part of an effective spiritual process in this age. Obviously Srila Prabhupada felt this is something people really need to know. We must teach people in accordance with this. Our preaching style should demonstrate our foundational principal -the difference between material and spiritual. A “western” thing is spiritual if used in Krishna’s service, and a system of bodily exercise is material, in spite the fact that it comes from the east. Teaching hatha yoga at our Temples implicitly contradicts this.

Some will argue that hatha is being made spiritual because people are coming to the temple to learn it. This is a stretch of the truth. We could use this logic to justify teaching any type of exercise, hobby, or material pursuit at the Temple. Indeed, I know of one temple which offers classes in personal management, during the Sunday Feast, in the name of bridge preaching. We might take a lesson from the early Methodist Christians. Methodism spread like wild fire through itinerate preachers, traveling with great zeal on horse back all over the U.S. Thousands of families gathered for weekend camp meetings. Constant singing of hymns and reading from the scriptures took place. Then, occasional seminars on secular subjects were introduced. In a short time, the location of the biggest camp became known as Martha’s Vineyards, the now famous luxury vacation village.

Many people know of the connection between hatha and mayavadi philosophy which thy consider absurd. Such people are good candidates for Krishna Consciousness. Srila Prabhupada worked hard to distinguish ISKCON from these other groups. But when we advertise hatha yoga at ISKCON we encourage people to lump us in. There is nothing wrong with targeting any subculture. We can inject Krishna Consciousness into most anything people relate to. Such programs should be conducted in a location separate from an ISKCON Temple, so people in general do not identify us with these groups.

In the very beginning, when almost all devotees came from one group, spending the large amount of time targeting that group was warranted. After 50 years, the percentage of time we use targeting one group should be roughly equal to the percentage of the overall population they comprise. Krishna Consciousness is for everyone, hatha yoga is for a certain type.

If we want to attract westerners, we should find something they all love which can be directly spiritualized. If the Sunday feast program needs some innovation we should offer free prasadam pizza, french fries, and milkshakes. We can also look at carnivals to find foods that people go crazy for; candy apples, cotton candy, fried dough with powdered sugar etc. This will demonstrate that Krishna Consciousness transcends culture. It will be equally attractive to hatha yogi’s, Hindu’s, born again Christians and any other group.