I stayed for one week in Kisumu - a temple which was established and inaugurated by HH Gopal Krishna Maharaja around 25 years ago. The community is rather small and consists mainly of people from Gujarati background - some having been here for several generations. But there are also a few people from Kenyan descent. Manasi Ganga Mataji, a senior devotee in Kenya, had come with two young girls to look after me and give me some company. We all stayed together in a spacious flat around the corner of the temple which was convenient.
Every evening we had a program in the temple churning deep and transformational topics, and devotees and guests were intrigued to attend them. On the last evening some participants shared heart-moving realisations
which is always a rewarding experience for a preacher.
Every evening we had a program in the temple churning deep and transformational topics, and devotees and guests were intrigued to attend them. On the last evening some participants shared heart-moving realisations
which is always a rewarding experience for a preacher.
In recent years we have been experiencing an increasing tension over the topic of culture within our ISKCON society. Let us try and gain some insights into the reasons for this tension.
Once we discover how materialistic and spiritual cultures are based on very different underlying principles - as different as day is from night (Bg.2.69) - and also feeding these worldviews back and strongly propagating them, it becomes clear that they are ultimately incompatible. Krishna consciousness is meant to bring about a transformation so that the day of the materialist eventually becomes night for us. We are meant to transform our likes and dislikes, our tastes, our patterns of behavior, our worldviews — everything — and ultimately our very heart, so that bhakti can grow. If this does not take place, then our spiritual practice is rather external and superficial. In fact, we are committing the tenth offense to chanting the Holy Name: We are maintaining material attachments even after understanding so many instructions on this matter. However, this transformation cannot be imposed and forced upon people. It can only be inspired. It is based on internal work, which devotees have to voluntarily perform at their own paces.
I would like to share one example that makes it very clear how these two cultures are indeed like day and night, even within our ISKCON society. In 2004, while traveling in Bangladesh, I contracted typhoid fever and had to be admitted to hospital. The doctors who treated me, as well as the President of the Sylhet temple, a very senior brahmachari, insisted that he should stay with me in the same room in the hospital.
This would very well be a huge scandal anywhere else in the world, but in Bangladesh where spiritual culture is still so prominent up to this very day, it was considered a must. In spiritual culture, the principle of protection of a woman is indeed the highest principle — far superior to the principle of brahmachari life. But in materialistic culture, the motto is to enjoy and exploit a woman for sense gratification. This is meant to serve as a small example in order to illustrate how these two cultures are indeed like day and night. Whatever is day and right in one part of the world may be completely wrong and night in another.
Of course, the influence of Kali Yuga is so widespread, that even in countries where spiritual culture is still strongly present to this very day, exploitative and abusive elements have also entered.
Once we discover how materialistic and spiritual cultures are based on very different underlying principles - as different as day is from night (Bg.2.69) - and also feeding these worldviews back and strongly propagating them, it becomes clear that they are ultimately incompatible. Krishna consciousness is meant to bring about a transformation so that the day of the materialist eventually becomes night for us. We are meant to transform our likes and dislikes, our tastes, our patterns of behavior, our worldviews — everything — and ultimately our very heart, so that bhakti can grow. If this does not take place, then our spiritual practice is rather external and superficial. In fact, we are committing the tenth offense to chanting the Holy Name: We are maintaining material attachments even after understanding so many instructions on this matter. However, this transformation cannot be imposed and forced upon people. It can only be inspired. It is based on internal work, which devotees have to voluntarily perform at their own paces.
I would like to share one example that makes it very clear how these two cultures are indeed like day and night, even within our ISKCON society. In 2004, while traveling in Bangladesh, I contracted typhoid fever and had to be admitted to hospital. The doctors who treated me, as well as the President of the Sylhet temple, a very senior brahmachari, insisted that he should stay with me in the same room in the hospital.
This would very well be a huge scandal anywhere else in the world, but in Bangladesh where spiritual culture is still so prominent up to this very day, it was considered a must. In spiritual culture, the principle of protection of a woman is indeed the highest principle — far superior to the principle of brahmachari life. But in materialistic culture, the motto is to enjoy and exploit a woman for sense gratification. This is meant to serve as a small example in order to illustrate how these two cultures are indeed like day and night. Whatever is day and right in one part of the world may be completely wrong and night in another.
Of course, the influence of Kali Yuga is so widespread, that even in countries where spiritual culture is still strongly present to this very day, exploitative and abusive elements have also entered.
The topic of culture will always bring about tension in ISKCON as long as we approach it in terms of what is right and what is wrong — the black and white approach. However, Krishna consciousness is indeed all about a gradual transformation. As long as we are trying to establish what a woman should do and should not do, or what a man should do and should not do, we will always experience tension.
Whatever is right for one person may very well be wrong for another, depending on how much we have internally transformed. Or whatever was right when we first became practitioners will be now hopefully wrong, because maybe we have been transformed since our beginning steps in devotional life. Of course, our Vaishnava philosophy is absolute, but the application that ultimately forms culture depends very much on how far we have made this
transformation already, individually and collectively. And Vaishnava etiquette and culture is meant to immensely support this very transformation.
Let us assume that Lord Chaitanya’s sankirtana movement is meant to be a spiritual movement, which is based on the principles of spiritual culture. These underlying principles are universal, and unless we recognize and deeply understand them, we very easily lose them in the name of reformation and adapting to modern trends. This has indeed happened in all other spiritual cultures. For example, within Christianity, some eighty years ago we could find so many principles of spiritual culture, but because the leaders did not recognize them as universal principles, they are lost and forgotten today. This leads to watering down the spiritual content until the transcendental power is lost.
The very fact that we are struggling so much to understand and accept spiritual culture actually shows that we are not quite there yet in living our philosophy. As long as spiritual culture is so foreign to us, we are still hanging on to the materialistic worldviews, and we have not quite made this transformation yet.
Now we may come to realise that actually, there are no controversial topics in ISKCON. If we have unflinching faith in Srila Prabhupada and his words - his books being the law books for the next 10.000 years - then, even if we are not quite there yet in being able to fully understand and accept them in our life, we will simply park those points, saying to ourselves: "Srila Prabhupada says these things, so it must be right! He must have a good reason why he makes such strong statements in his purports! Maybe at a later point in time I will understand them - after I have done more internal work to transform."
Such a response requires humility and unflinching faith in Prabhupada. However, if we lack humility and faith, then many of Srila Prabhupada's statements become highly controversial to us, and our false ego takes over. We may become agitated and rebellious, and we may easily commit offenses to Srila Prabhupada and those who have already transformed more than we have.
On the 11th of June I moved on to Eldoret/Kenya....
Your servant, Devaki dd
Please visit www.theholynameretreat.net
www.therootsofspiritualculture.net
https://www.facebook.com/instituteforspiritualculture/
Whatever is right for one person may very well be wrong for another, depending on how much we have internally transformed. Or whatever was right when we first became practitioners will be now hopefully wrong, because maybe we have been transformed since our beginning steps in devotional life. Of course, our Vaishnava philosophy is absolute, but the application that ultimately forms culture depends very much on how far we have made this
transformation already, individually and collectively. And Vaishnava etiquette and culture is meant to immensely support this very transformation.
Let us assume that Lord Chaitanya’s sankirtana movement is meant to be a spiritual movement, which is based on the principles of spiritual culture. These underlying principles are universal, and unless we recognize and deeply understand them, we very easily lose them in the name of reformation and adapting to modern trends. This has indeed happened in all other spiritual cultures. For example, within Christianity, some eighty years ago we could find so many principles of spiritual culture, but because the leaders did not recognize them as universal principles, they are lost and forgotten today. This leads to watering down the spiritual content until the transcendental power is lost.
The very fact that we are struggling so much to understand and accept spiritual culture actually shows that we are not quite there yet in living our philosophy. As long as spiritual culture is so foreign to us, we are still hanging on to the materialistic worldviews, and we have not quite made this transformation yet.
Now we may come to realise that actually, there are no controversial topics in ISKCON. If we have unflinching faith in Srila Prabhupada and his words - his books being the law books for the next 10.000 years - then, even if we are not quite there yet in being able to fully understand and accept them in our life, we will simply park those points, saying to ourselves: "Srila Prabhupada says these things, so it must be right! He must have a good reason why he makes such strong statements in his purports! Maybe at a later point in time I will understand them - after I have done more internal work to transform."
Such a response requires humility and unflinching faith in Prabhupada. However, if we lack humility and faith, then many of Srila Prabhupada's statements become highly controversial to us, and our false ego takes over. We may become agitated and rebellious, and we may easily commit offenses to Srila Prabhupada and those who have already transformed more than we have.
On the 11th of June I moved on to Eldoret/Kenya....
Your servant, Devaki dd
Please visit www.theholynameretreat.net
www.therootsofspiritualculture.net
https://www.facebook.com/instituteforspiritualculture/
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