To Be or Not To Be....?
BY: MAHAVIDYA DAS (ACBSP)
Apr 28, UK (SUN) — Once more, the issue of whether or not ISKCON is a Hindu movement or society comes to the fore.
Here is what His Divine Grace AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the Founder-Acarya of ISKCON has to say.
All the following quotes may be found in Siksamrta,
A compilation of Srila Prabhupada's letters.
On Hinduism...
Volume 2, Preaching to the Indian Community
"Of course, there are many Indians who may be delighted to have a Hindu temple there, but we are especially interested in something else. Our plan is not to sponsor the Hindus or any other individual group. Our real purpose is to spread Krishna consciousness."
Srila Prabhupada Letter to Yamuna, May 27, 1969
"I am not very interested to establish a Hindu temple. Perhaps you know from the very beginning I never described my movement as Hindu religion."
Srila Prabhupada Letter to Mukunda, June 10, 1969
"We should not anymore think in terms of Hindu society. If we limit ourselves to Hindus then there will be many competitors like Christians, Mohammedans, Buddhists and so on. But if we preach the philosophy of Krishna consciousness in right earnest, it will be accepted throughout the whole world."
Srila Prabhupada Letter to Sriman Bankaji, March 13, 1970
"Regarding the Hindu centres in the foreign countries, none of them are bona fide. There is similar hodge podge center in London. Actually, Hindus and non-Hindus, everyone is at the present moment out of touch of the real science of spiritual knowledge."
And...
"The difficulty has become more acute on account of Rama-Krishna Mission's preaching that any opinion about religion is all right."
Srila Prabhupada Letter to Jayapataka, April 17, 1970
"We must avoid the risk of a separatist movement, unity is our purpose; just like in London where the Indians are starting their own Radha-Krishna temple. We want to avoid skin disease and the Indian people are like the tannery expert."
Srila Prabhupada Letter to Sriman Hariprasad Badruka, March 5, 1973
I consider these statements of Srila Prabhupada's to speak for themselves. ISKCON "authorities" have performed a great disservice to Srila Prabhupada and Lord Chaitanya's Sankirtan movement by misrepresenting the teachings of His Divine Grace.Our ISKCON "authorities" are even willing to practise racism to foster their non-sense.My own GBC, Praghosa das (of Dandavats.com fame ), must be considered part of this offence in allowing this nonsense to continue in his zone.
I have spoken to many of my Godbrothers and Godsisters on this issue.
All of them, (with the possible exception of Kripamoya das), have told me they never came to ISKCON to become Hindus.
Of course,
Srila Prabhupada wanted EVERYONE to come and partake in the KRSNA conscious experience, including the Hindus.
However,
by advertising ISKCON as "Hindu", why should the Muslims, Jews, or anyone else come?
We did NOT join ISKCON to become Hindus.
We came to ISKCON to try become KRSNA conscious.
Those advertising ISKCON as "Hindu" certainly have a different agenda from Srila Prabhupada.
Yet…
these very same miscreants claim to represent Srila Prabhupada.
And yet…
they wonder why we complain.
