Well-wishers of ISKCON
BY: PRAHLADA MAHARAJA DASA
Dec 08, UK (SUN) — There is a contention on what policy is in the best interest of the movement for Krsna consciousness, the International Society for Krishna consciousness in particular.
One consideration says that we must never ever question whatever may be the state of the movement. Whatever inconsistencies there may be, let them be. Be patient, be tolerant. Variants of this path also include those that pray to the Supreme Lord to for the well-being of the movement, of the Society, of the members, of the managers, of the gurus, etc. Some will also pray that they may be more Krsna conscious to be able to make a positive contribution themselves.
The other path suggests that we must be honest. The society, the individuals, the members, the ethics, the management. Some believe immoral and unethical incidents make for a bad precedent. That whatever the cost may
be, the purity of the movement is of paramount importance. Some amongst these also will pray to the Supreme Lord for the well being of the movement and all its various entities. And, amongst these, if they are not to fall guilty of hypocrisy, will pray to never fall for immoral and unethical behaviour.
Seen as such, both considerations are praiseworthy and laudable.
Any person with even a passing acquaintance with ISKCON, adopts one or the other of these two views, to a lesser or higher degree. He may even change between his views at different times and over different issues. Some, indeed, may vacillate from being well-wishers to being neutral to being altogether inimical.
There are others for whom their viewpoints simply remain their personal feelings, nothing more.
As with the neutral and the inimical, well-wishers of ISKCON are to be found both within the movement as well as outside of it. But some in one variety of well-wishers are sometimes viewed as manda, spiritually lazy, while the other, of the other variety, are perceived as dvesti, hateful of others.
That there can be such a variety and variance of well-wishers - especially those at odds with each other - is not as surprising as it first seems. A similar variety, variance and opposing feelings and opinions can be found within family members also. This similarity, however, is unfortunate.
We know there are certain views, feelings and actions among family members that can be to the detriment of the family, leading to the irrevocable break up of the family. Likewise, similarly detrimental views and activities of
the ISKCON society will not, cannot, help its survival or its goal to spread Krishna consciousness.
A Prahlada Maharaja points out in Srimad-Bhagavatam 7.5.30-32, in answer to his father, and as Srila Prabhupada elaborates in the purports, the spreading of Krsna consciousness cannot happen by any mundane effort or by persons implicated in mundane life.
Well-wishers of ISKCON we may be, but, to one degree or another, we are all embarrassed by the material energy. Do we leave ISKCON to its fate? Without any intervention from us? Without any practical expression of our well-wishes? Indeed, do we condone and suffer misdemeanours in its name; its
usurpation, its abuse?
Prahlada Maharaja certainly brings home how our association with ISKCON, our association in some way with Srila Prabhupada’s lotus feet, must translate to overcoming our blind material attachment - such as will awaken our affinity for Lord Krsna. Then, whatever form our well-wishing for ISKCON take, whether critical or patient, real benefit accrues if we can rise above the category of Sanda and Amarka, Prahlada Maharaja’s teachers - proficient in the mundane.
