28, October 2011, By His Grace Krishna Kirti Dasa
In 2001, Sripad Jayadavaita Swami gave a lecture series titled "Food
for Death", which is still available on his website at
http://www.jswami.info/seminars#food and which examined how prasadam
distribution seen by the public as ordinary welfare work affects
ISKCON's core values. Sripad Bhakti Vikasa Swami in his 2011 lectures
titled "Some Concerns About ISKCON" and "Further Discussion on
Concerns About ISKCON" addresses the same issue Jayadvaita Swami
addressed but in a more generalized context that includes other
welfare initiatives.[1] Bhakti Vikasa Maharaja in his lectures also
addresses what he identifies as fundamental, philosophical differences
that have emerged within our society.
As far as social welfare is concerned, the lectures of both Swamis
make a common point: the time and resources devotees increasingly give
to indirect preaching in the form of welfare work, at the expense of
direct preaching, reflects ISKCON's growing acceptance of karma-kanda
as a part of its core mission and, hence, core values.
Mission drift and Vyasa's dissatisfactionThat as grand a spiritual
institution as ISKCON could itself become mundane is not a new idea.
In the Bhagavad-gita at the beginning of the 4th chapter, Krishna
describes the system of the guru-parampara and how, in the course of
time, the succession had been broken and the knowledge of the science
of yoga was lost. On some occasions, Srila Prabhupada himself said
that ISKCON could be destroyed not by outsiders but by insiders. Such
changes are the result of a gradual drift of the disciplic succession
away from its original message and mission.
Mission drift usually does not occur suddenly, like some natural
disaster. It almost always happens over long stretches of time, over
generations. The manner in which it is likely to occur is suggested by
Srila Narada Muni in his conversation with Srila Vyasadeva about the
reason for Vyasa's despondency. Narada Muni says,
"Whatever you desire to describe that is separate in vision from the
Lord simply reacts, with different forms, names and results, to
agitate the mind as the wind agitates a boat which has no resting
place. The people in general are naturally inclined to enjoy, and you
have encouraged them in that way in the name of religion. This is
verily condemned and is quite unreasonable. Because they are guided
under your instructions, they will accept such activities in the name
of religion and will hardly care for prohibitions" (SB 1.5.14 – 15).
With regard to mission drift, Narada's statement is relevant in these
two respects:
Describing reality without connection to the vision of the Lord
agitates people's minds.
Where Krishna is not directly and sufficiently glorified, conditioned
human nature all but guarantees a perverse outcome.
The first attribute would correspond to an absence of direct reference
to Krishna in any stated purpose or description of the activity
itself. For example, in the Gita itself Lord Krishna criticizes the
pretentious followers of the Vedas known as veda-vada-ratah, who take
the various rituals and sacrifices offered in the Vedas as ends to
worldly enjoyment. They perform religious acts that are disconnected
from krishna-bhakti, because, as Narada suggests, the connection
between the acts and the Lord are not obvious.
It may be said that indirect worship of the Lord can be performed with
the expectation of making spiritual progress as long as the performer
himself remembers the true connection. But the second attribute in
Narada's statement explains why that almost never happens. Because
people in general are inclined to material enjoyment (especially in
Kali Yuga), their perverse nature predisposes them to forget the
original purpose of such indirect worship of the Lord and give up the
regulative principles that must also be followed in the course of its
performance.
A view of the world separate in vision from the Lord need not be
totally separate to cause people to gradually become disinterested in
religion. The disjuncture may be partial. Vyasadeva's former works
that left him dissatisfied were not devoid of krishna-katha. The
Mahabharata, after all, features Krishna and the Bhagavad-gita itself.
So how could it lead to dissatisfaction? As stated by Narada, Vyasa
gave too much emphasis to pious activities and not enough to bhakti.
"Although, great sage, you have very broadly described the four
principles beginning with religious performances, you have not
described the glories of the Supreme Personality, Vasudeva" (SB
1.5.9). Vyasadeva was trying to gradually purify people by dovetailing
their propensity for enjoyment into religious activity. Yet that did
not have the effect Vyasa intended. As stated in the purport to this
verse,
"The prompt diagnosis of Sri Narada is at once declared. The root
cause of the despondency of Vyasadeva was his deliberate avoidance of
glorifying the Lord in his various editions of the Puranas. He has
certainly, as a matter of course, given descriptions of the glories of
the Lord (Sri Krsna) but not as many as given to religiosity, economic
development, sense gratification and salvation."
Again, symptoms that one's spiritual program has the same problem
identified by Narada include emphasis of its alleged material benefits
while speaking minimally about its spiritual benefits. It is like
basing a large-scale preaching program on telling people that
Krishna's holy names "recharges your batteries", gives you peace of
mind, while hardly speaking about their true spiritual benefit.
Although the above criticism of spiritual activity devoid of proper
understanding is put forward by Shri Narada himself, one may still
question whether proper understanding is even necessary. For example,
saying "Hare Krishna" in a mocking or derisive way to taunt devotees
will nevertheless purify the person who utters Krishna's name in this
way. This is an example of ajnata-sukrti. Valmiki Muni is the
quintessential example of how transcendental activity performed
unintentionally nevertheless has the same transcendental effect as if
it were performed intentionally. This is also Sukadeva Goswami's point
in narrating the Ajamila moksha-lila. Like medicine, the potency of
Lord's holy name does not depend on the understanding of the person
who hears or utters it. The same can be said of Krishna prasadam.
So then it may be asked what harm is there in clandestinely
distributing Krishna prasadam to the masses, as if one were conducting
yet another mundane welfare program popular among the karmis? The
expected outcome is that the karmis give us their money and good will,
we give them prasadam, they get purified, and we expand the Krishna
consciousness movement. It sounds like a win-win-win-win situation.
What could possibly go wrong with it?
The key assumption made here is that devotees will maintain a level of
purity sufficient to keep themselves from falling into materialistic
consciousness while engaging in activity that purposefully avoids
krishna-katha. The time one spends extolling the perceived material
benefits of prasadam (which you call food now, not prasadam) is time
spent NOT glorifying Krishna. One is not engaging in krishna-katha
while one is trying to avoid describing Krishna. Distributing prasadam
while not presenting it in relation to Krishna has the same kind of
problem Narada pointed out to Vyasa. Although it is prasadam that is
being distributed, it is not presented in relation to the Lord. For
this reason the devotees will not be able to maintain for long the
requisite level of purity required of such a clandestine effort to
distribute prasadam to be successful. This is why Srila Prabhupada
insisted that prasadam distribution be accompanied by kirtana.
It may be further objected that although some people are too neophyte
to engage in any service other than direct hearing and chanting of the
Lord's names and pastimes, the devotees distributing prasadam in the
guise of worldly food relief are strong enough in their own devotional
service such that they will not fall down. This is not true. As Srila
Prabhupada explains in the Nectar of Instruction (Text 5),
— QUOTE —
"The Krsna consciousness movement prescribes sixteen rounds daily
because people in the Western countries cannot concentrate for long
periods while chanting on beads. Therefore the minimum number of
rounds is prescribed. However, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati used to
say that unless one chants at least sixty-four rounds of japa (one
hundred thousand names), he is considered fallen (patita). According
to his calculation, practically every one of us is fallen, but because
we are trying to serve the Supreme Lord with all seriousness and
without duplicity, we can expect the mercy of Lord Sri Caitanya
Mahaprabhu, who is famous as patita-pavana, the deliverer of the
fallen."
— END QUOTE —
If already it is admitted that 16 rounds of japa plus the 4 regulative
principles are still deficient in terms of quantity of sravanam and
kirtanam, and if, according to Srila Prabhupada's assessment above,
quotidian devotional service makes up for that deficiency, then a
preaching program deficient in sravanam and kirtanam means that the
devotees will not get sufficient spiritual support from their daily
activities. They will lose their taste for spiritual life in the way
that Narada describes to Vyasa.
Some examples of preaching disconnected from krishna-kathaIn his
lecture, Bhakti Vikasa Swami reminisces about how in the 1980s
devotees started selling non-devotional paintings and other
paraphernalia to accumulate money. This money would then be spent for
preaching purposes. The collection program and the direct preaching
program were separate.
The result? Devotees lost their taste for spiritual life, and the
program proved unsustainable. As Maharaja points out, the best-selling
paintings were pictures of dogs. They were "selling pictures of Dog,
not God." It is not that the money was not being used for preaching
purposes. It was. Yet in the end the program proved unsustainable.
We also find in Srila Prabhupada's letters similar, cautionary
reminders to his disciples that selling incense is not their primary
business. "Attention diverted to incense business is not a very good
sign. We should give all our energy for distributing BTG" (Letter to
Satsvarupa 21/6/1971). ISKCON has first-hand experience with the
dissatisfying nature of activity in which sankirtana is at best a
secondary objective.
Mid Day Meals lacking krishna-katha, lacking kirtana.What makes
something a secondary objective as opposed to a primary objective?
Consider the Sunday Feast. Contrary to what the name implies, the
primary objective of the Sunday Feast is not to give people prasadam.
The primary objective is to give people a chance to hear
krishna-katha. The secondary objective is to give people prasadam. Of
course, prasadam is a necessary part of the program, as prasadam is
directly the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Lord Krishna, Himself. It
is His mercy. Yet distributing prasadam is not the primary objective.
We use it as an incentive to get people to come to our centers to hear
our lectures. The emphasis of our program and hence its primary
objective is on the propagation of krishna-katha. It is more important
than any other aspect of our mission.
Bhakti Vikasa Maharaja in his lecture notes not only the lack of
krishna-katha in the Mid Day Meals program but also that it is
advertised as having mundane, not spiritual, objectives.
"The advertising for the Mid Day Meals program, if you see their
brochures is that 'we're helping to build the nation', and that
appeals to people. We're helping to 'build the nation' by getting the
children educated, giving them a good future. But that's against our
philosophy. The idea of 'building the nation' is totally mundane."
Maharaja further notes how in India the India Regional Governing Body
had dealt with the question of what may be considered appropriate and
inappropriate in distributing prasadam, and one of the requirements
they came up with was that it must at least be accompanied by kirtana
and lectures. Yet the lack of devotees available to conduct kirtana
and the secular Indian government interfere with this requirement.
The first problem, which Jaydvaita Maharaja also mentions in his own
lectures, is that in the places where the Mid Day Meals program is
conducted on a substantial scale, there is nowhere near enough
devotees that can perform kirtana at each of the places where prasadam
is distributed. Kirtana performers cannot be hired like bus drivers.
So the prasadam gets cooked and dropped off at the schools and
presented as if it were any other mundane meal.
Bhakti Vikasa Maharaja raises the question of whether Krishna is
reciprocating in a way devotees running Mid Day Meals haven't
anticipated. What might happen if, for example, instead of our pujaris
worshipping the Deities in the temple we hire non-devotee brahmanas to
worship Them? Maharaja asks, "Is it prasada?" If a murti of Krishna is
handled negligently, is Krishna still obliged to remain there as
murti? Some of the same considerations seem applicable in the case of
prasadam.
The second problem has to do with the secular Indian government, or
secular governments wherever they exist. But in India in particular,
in some places the government will not allow kirtana and lectures
because whatever is given to the children or poor through the
government must be strictly food relief. Religious elements are not
always allowed. And for that reason kirtana and lecture would also not
allowed.
And because devotees have collected extensively for these programs, it
is nearly impossible to withdraw from places that disallow kirtana.
Bhakti Vikasa Maharaja in his lecture gives the example of the day
school on the ISKCON Juhu property, where, after some time, the
devotees there saw how the school itself was taking up time and
resources for no spiritual end, and it was not producing devotees
anyway. But when they tried to close down the school, the parents and
students objected, and now the temple has to raise huge amounts of
money to relocate the school outside of the temple campus. Thus the
devotees who run these programs will find it very difficult, if not
impossible, to reconnect the Mid Day Meals program with kirtana.
Embracing karma-kanda within ISKCONBhakti Vikasa Maharaja raises a
more serious issue: that the Mid Day Meals program is advertised as
fulfilling purposes that are against the philosophy Srila Prabhupada
taught. This is an example from the "Who Are We?" page of ISKCON Food
Relief Foundation's Delhi Mid Day Meals website:
"ISKCON Food Relief Foundation is a Non-Religious, Non-Sectarian, and
Not-for Profit Charitable Trust"
(http://www.delhimdm.com/whoweare.php).
The website's vision page (http://www.delhimdm.com/vision_m.php) makes
it even more self-evident that the prasadam distribution program
embraces objectives opposed to ISKCON's original core mission (bolding
added).
— QUOTE —
Vision: Removing hunger and upscaling learning opportunities for
underprivileged children
Mission: ISKCON Food Relief Foundation works with Government to
provide hygienically cooked, balanced, nutritious, wholesome Mid-Day
Meal food to children in municipal and government aided schools in
India to improve access to good food and promote education.
Philosophy: ISKCON Food Relief Foundation believes that food is a
fundamental right. Inadequate nutrition not only affects physical,
mental, and emotional health of children adversely but also restricts
their learning ability, development opportunities and effective
participation in the community.
We believe that a simple way of breaking the vicious cycle of hunger
and poverty is by providing them regular and nutritious food and this
fulfills ISKCON's mission.
Goals: 1. To promote the provision of distribution of sanctified meals
all over the India; and 2. To promote food system education;
— END QUOTE —
This is Bhakti Vikasa Maharaja's response to examples like the one above:
— QUOTE —
The idea of "building the nation" is totally mundane. It is the idea
that we will "build the nation" by having more people educated so they
can become lawyers, doctors, or more likely become factory workers. It
is also the idea that we are helping children to improve their life,
and that's also mundane. And that we want to help develop the present
modern society. . .
But that wasn't Prabhupada's welfare program at all. His social
welfare program was to develop varnashram communities where people
don't have to live in this demonic society. That was Prabhupada's
welfare program.
It wasn't that Prabhupada was callous to social welfare, but he wanted
to do so through varnashram and varnashram education—that people will
be educated according to their role in varnashram. So the advertising
for Mid Day Meals is totally mundane.
And you may say it is just a way to induce people to give a donation
for it, but the problem is that, when we start talking like this, our
people go out and speak to the public, they meet businessmen and tell
them, "OK, we're helping hungry children, and building the nation. .
.", and you keep repeating it and saying it again and again and again,
you start to think like that yourself. And instead of following
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's order jare dekha tare kaha krishna upadesh,
you're going to people to talk about mundane things. It changes the
whole atmosphere of ISKCON.
— END QUOTE —
Maharaja's argument echoes the same point that Narada Muni made to Vyasadeva.
How the fall from suddha-bhakti to karma-misra-bhakti takes
placeJayadvaita Maharaja in his own lecture series argues similarly,
except that he follows through with his argument to its logical
conclusion, which is the mixing of karma-kanda with bhakti:
— QUOTE —
There is a problem, or downside to that, apart from whether or not
you're actually doing something that you are supposed to be doing, or
that you are authorized by Srila Prabhupada, by a Founder-Acharya to
do. You have this problem:
First you say, "We're going to make a strategy here. We're going to do
something charitable, and people are going to give us their
appreciation. We understand that it is not really our business, but
we're going to do it, and people are going to see that we're doing it,
and that's going to help us in our main business. We're going to be
able to distribute more books, people will give us more facility, and
so on." That is stage one.
Stage two is that as you start to get appreciation and as you preach
to the devotees that this is what we're going to do, the next stage
two comes. That is, devotees start thinking that we really are doing
something here, which is our mission. That really, "We are doing good
work here. Really, we're fulfilling Prabhupada's mission. We're
helping the needy. We're saving people afflicted by disaster." That's
stage two, to the point where if anyone says, "Well, Prabhu, you know,
this is not . . .", then you'll start getting heavy letters saying,
"Don't you know there are sincere devotees working all over the world,
dedicating themselves, risking their lives. . ." That's stage two—this
IS our mission.
And stage three, four, five comes when you reach the mature stage,
like the Salvation Army. I don't know how they're known in England, in
America, when you have junk, that you would dispose of, rather than
take it to the dump, you call the Salvation Army. And they cart away
your old clothes, old furniture, old whatever-it-is, and distribute it
to the poor. Or the St. Vincent DePaul Society. There are various
organizations. . .
I knew of that organization. I used to see their trucks with the big
shield on it, when I was a child, a boy. And I don't think I was
younger than about 20 before I found out that they had any sort of
spiritual component to them. They are in fact a Christian missionary
organization, they do have a message about Jesus and salvation and so
on. But I had no idea what it was, and in fact, because in my
tradition the word "salvation" is not a big term, as far as I
understood, "salvation" meant picking up your old garbage and carting
it away, and that's "salvage."
So in the mature stage, you finally reach the point where even your
leaders of your organization believe that this is your mission. The
leaders of your organization, the theologians, the priests, believe
that this is what Jesus, or this is what Jehova, or this is what Lord
Chaitanya wanted us to do. And at that point, what is the distinction
between you and a karma-kanda organization?
What is the distinction between you and the Red Cross or the Red
Crescent Society? Now that you are doing the work of all these
charitable societies, who is doing your work? Who is there to preach
renunciation? Who is there to preach that you're not this body? Who is
there to preach that you should turn your back on material enjoyment
and go back home, back to Godhead, now that you're busy fully
dedicated to the urgent mission of uplifting the afflicted people of
the poorer classes of this material world, so they can have a decent
life, who is going to do that other work?
— END QUOTE —
Though Jayadvaita Maharaja focuses more on the end result—the
establishment of karma-kanda as one of ISKCON's core values—he and
Bhakti Vikasa Maharaja make the fundamental point that because welfare
activities like the Mid Day Meals program is promoted in a mundane way
and in ways that stand against our long-held siddhantas, the
transformation of ISKCON into yet another mundane religious
institution is not merely a remote, theoretical possibility. It is
likely.
And now, perhaps inevitable.
Some Quotes from Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura on Altruism
and CharityFrom Bhaktisiddhanta Vaibhava, page 421:
— QUOTE —
The thousands of karmis who have opened innumerable hospitals, old age
homes, centers for the poor, and schools, and the thousands of jnanis
who have undergone meditation and severe austerities, are
insignificant compared to a single kanishta-adhikari Vaishnava once
ringing the bell before the Lord's deity. This is not sectarianism,
but plain truth. Atheists are wholly incapable of realizing this; thus
they become either direct or indirect blasphemers of devotional
service, or adherents to the doctrine of harmonistic all-inclusiveness
(Amrta Vani 102 – 3; Sri Srila Prabhupadera Upadesamrta 174).
Being averse to Lord Visnu, countless jivas have come to Maha-maya's
dungeon to envy Lord Visnu in countless ways. To deliver even one of
them from Maha-maya's fortress and make him a devotee of Krsna is
unlimitedly better welfare work than the construction of countless
hospitals and schools (Sri Srila Prabhupadera Upadesamrta 286).
Krishna-bhakti is the only way to deracinate miseries from the world.
You are working only for the good of the body and treating the
symptoms, not the original disease. Your patchwork schemes of various
social, economic, and political ideologies are like blowing on a boil,
which gives but a momentary and false sense of assuagement. The real
cure is to lance the boil and squeeze out the pus. Similarly, the pus
of material attachment must be excised by the sharp words of the
expert devotee, the only genuine well-wisher of human society (Jati
Sekhara Prabhu, disciple of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] Both lectures by Bhakti Vikasa Swami are available here:
http://www.oneiskcon.com/2011/09/his-holiness-bhakti-vikasa-swami-has-some-concerns-about-iskcon/
--
Yours
Dinesh
Blog:http://dinesh-krsna.blogspot.com
ISKCON and social welfare: Mission Drift
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