Sheltering Criminals and Curing their Criminality: ISKCON'S Mandate
BY: MARGARET CONNORS
Jan 26, USA (SUN) — Gadadhara das has initiated a very important subject and it is in our interest to discuss it a bit further.
According to Bhagavad-gita and Srila Prabhupada, this material world is, in fact, a kind of prison, within which all jivas are exercising the free will that is the primary feature of our very existence, to which we are immediately exiled, and upon misusing this minuscule parcel of independence, choose to compete with the Lord's exclusive position as the Supreme Enjoyer, Controller and Exclusive Best Friend of all souls instead of eternally relishing our natural position as His loving and dependent servants.
In this sense then, we are all criminals - competing with all other like-minded criminals for the purpose of extending our miserable, temporary lives in whatever body we unfortunately find ourselves. While we struggle to endure, we likewise imagine we can increase our enjoyment and diminish the suffering that is already "stored up" within our fixed destiny that is - in truth - completely unchangeable, without the intervention of Lord Krsna and/or His pure devotees.
The purpose or mission of the International Society for Krsna Consciousness - worldwide - is the very purpose of His Divine Grace Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada.
Its purpose is to provide all members of the criminal class - (all of us) shelter and guidance. This purpose was wonderfully expressed by Srila Prabhupada in a discussion with a Chicago Police Lieutenant named Lt. Mozzee in 1975, and found in the Science of Self Realization. This conversation between His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada and this gentleman is every bit as helpful and timeless as the Lord's conversation with Arjuna in Bhagavad-gita. I have no doubt that it will likewise endure for the benefit of all for a very long time.
Addressing this issue of crime and how to minimize and even eliminate it, he spoke with great confidence in the process of Krsna Consciousness as the real and indeed only means to accomplish that.
Lieutenant Mozee: I understand you have some ideas that could help us in our efforts to prevent crime. I'd be very interested to hear them.
Srila Prabhupada: The difference between a pious man and a criminal is that one is pure in heart and the other is dirty. This dirt is like a disease in the form of uncontrollable lust and greed in the heart of the criminal. Today people in general are in this diseased condition, and thus crime is very widespread. When the people become purified of these dirty things, crime will disappear. The simplest process of purification is to assemble in congregation and chant the holy names of God. This is called sankirtana and is the basis of our Krsna consciousness movement. So, if you want to stop crime, then you must gather as many people as possible for mass sankirtana. This congregational chanting of the holy name of God will dissipate all the dirty things in everyone's heart. Then there will be no more crime.
Later in the conversation, Srila Prabhupada again emphasizes the real and only "cure" for the criminal mentality and the crime it engenders: encroachment upon a person or his property.
Lieutenant Mozee: If I could return to my original purpose for coming, might I ask what advice you could give to assist us in reducing crime? I recognize that the first and foremost way would be a return to God, as you say--there's no doubt about that--but is there something that we could immediately do to diminish this spreading criminal mentality?
Srila Prabhupada: Yes. As I've already outlined in the beginning of our talk, you should give us the facility to chant the holy name of God and distribute prasada. Then there will be a tremendous change in the population. I came alone from India, and now I have many followers. What did I do? I asked them to sit down and chant the Hare Krsna mantra, and afterward I distributed a little prasadam. If this is done on a mass scale, the entire society will become very pleasing. This is a fact.
The natural implication of Srila Prabhupada's guidance here is that ISKCON readily opens its doors to each and everyone of us - all convicted by our own obvious condition of separation from Lord Krsna - and is committed to helping each of us "dissipate all the dirty things in our hearts". Then - and only then - will there be no more criminal desire in our hearts - what to speak of criminal action on our part.
If either you, Gadadhar das, or Mahavidya das is stating that any Krsna Conscious center established by Srila Prabhupada does not shelter and guide anyone from criminal consciousness and its concomitant actions - by providing the above mentioned "cure", you need to prove that to be a fact - and to take this complaint to the proper authorities and reverse that. You insist that ISKCON does not protect women and children. Prove it. I do not see this at all.
According to Srila Prabhupada, the protection of women is the duty of their fathers, husbands, and then their sons. ISKCON's business is to tell the fathers, husbands and sons this - IF they are so pathetically disconnected that they do not already realize it. Children are meant to be protected by parents who are vigilant - in the extreme. ISKCON'S business is to organize mass samkirtana, the worship of the Diety, the distribution of prasadam and Srila Prabhupada's books to the masses. The qualified men are encouraged to protect (as husbands) women who are willing to gratefully accept that protection. These qualified couples are the only logical choice for souls seeking birth in such families. ISKCON'S mandate is to encourage this kind of naturally protective environment. To whatever extent the men and women of ISKCON who desired to become parents did not understand or embrace their responsibility correctly - I am sure they and the next generation of devotees have learned from the consequences of their mistakes in the past and are ever working to bring everyone's understanding of what constitutes genuine protection up to the correct standard.
ISKCON does not, nor has it ever maintained a policy of endorsing, maintaining, promoting, or ignoring - any devotee's reawakened criminal desire or action. If or when - any devotee's previous criminal condition resurfaces and it becomes known, the leadership has confronted it and taken the necessary steps to eliminate it and prevent its interfering with anyone's own practice of Krsna Consciousness. However - our mandate is to do all we can to turn the criminals (us) into devotees - and as long as a devotee is willing to honestly and fully commit to the only means capable of really and finally curing us of our diseased criminal mentality - ("gathering for mass samkirtana") we are counseled by Srila Prabhupada and Lord Krsna - to see all such criminals as devotees - separated by time only from their inevitable complete and final restoration.
ISKCON was initiated by Srila Prabhupada for the expressed purpose of sheltering the criminal class - in the merciful care of Lord Chaitanya's wonderful mass samkirtana movement. Such shelter does not condone one's stubbornly refusing to renounce his or her criminal impulses - ingrained in us as a consequence of "contact with the material energy since time immemorial", as HDG Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada describes it. If or when such has occurred - the gentle but firm hand of Srila Prabhupada and his remedies have been invoked - and worked.
Gadadhara das writes: "ISKCON temples are established for the purposes mentioned in the above verse, and not for sheltering criminals and exploiting the innocent." But this begs the question "Where are recalcitrant criminals being "sheltered" incorrectly in any of Srila Prabhupada's temples? You are merely expecting your readers to accept this backhanded accusation as simple fact, as if you are not obliged to provide hard evidence of such apathetic mismanagement of any ISKCON center and its management.
Some individuals have managed in the past to evade the oversight of, as I said, parents who were basically asleep at the switch - but this has been long since reversed and you would have a hard time finding a single parent who has put or left their child in harm's way since knowing the score on this.
My comments are not meant to be my endorsing stubborn criminality. They are to be understood as being an endorsement for the programs HDG Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila
Prabhupada provides us all, in order to eradicate once and for all our criminal condition, while sheltered under the protection of his guidance.
I have no doubt that you agree with this essential principle. Where you disagree is in your insistence that ISKCON is not providing this. I can only advise that one look carefully at what the parents and leadership of ISKCON are actually doing today in this regard. I am sure you will find that the correct shelter is given and the criminal impulse of a small few finds only the equivalent of Maharaja Pariksit's determination instead.
