Srila Prabhupada's Pride in His Disciples

BY: H.H. BHAKTI VIKASA SWAMI

Srila Prabhupada's Pride in His Disciples, Transformed Into an Impotent Semblance

While preaching in India, Srila Prabhupada was often confronted with a common misconception. Traditionalists considered his Western disciples to be untouchables by birth (mlecchas or candalas) and thus unqualified to become brahmanas, even if purified of past sins. To conduct Vedic sacrifices, theHindus argued, Westerners would have to take birth in a brahmana family in India.

Srila Prabhupada responded to such superstition and explained the conclusive opinion of revealed scripture. (Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.33.6) He battled valiantly to establish that even persons born in families of dog-eaters can become qualified to perform Vedic sacrifices. That qualification came, he argued, by living the life of a pure brahmana: chanting the Holy Name, praising Krsna, hearing about His pastimes, offering Him obeisances, and remembering Him. (Srimad-Bhagavatam 3.33.7) It was spiritual practice, not birth, that determined who was a Vaisnava-brahmana. And if self-righteous brahmanas, though born in the best of families, neglected their spiritual duties, scripture considered that they were nothing more than the semblance of brahmanas (brahma-bandhu). (Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.7.19, purport)

Srila Prabhupada's preaching was successful. Most spiritual authorities in India now accept ISKCON's members as bona fide Vaisnavas. They accept that all devotees duly initiated and following the guidelines of their founder-acarya are purified of past sins and endowed with brahminical qualities.

That said, it must also be admitted that some members of ISKCON, or rather some individuals who identify themselves with ISKCON, are determined to undo Srila Prabhupada's preaching. Even in places like Vrndavana or Mayapur these devotees do not conduct themselves like brahmana-Vaisnavas. In the most sacred places of the universe they perform illicit activities, indulge in power politics, and even engage in acts of violence. Obviously, such behaviour ruins both ISKCON's reputation and the performers' spiritual lives. Their behaviour is also the source of virulent offences to Srila Prabhupada, the Vaisnavas, and the holy dhamas.

There is another dishonouring of Srila Prabhupada's attempt to advocate for Western Vaisnavas. While not as grievous as the ones mentioned above, it nonetheless misrepresents His Divine Grace. It is the widespread failure of devotees to embrace the cultural ways of pure Vaisnavism.

A few of the many aspects of Vaisnava tradition that have fallen by the wayside include the wearing of Vaisnava attire outside the temples, men's shaving their head and maintaining sikhas and women's braiding their hair, brahminical standards of cleanliness and education, regular attendance at the spiritual programmes, maintaining the teachings of Srimad-Bhagavatam as the value system governing the devotees' lives, and, most serious of all, the neglect of the very spiritual practices that transform us into pure devotees. Vaisnava culture as devotees practise it in the West, which Srila Prabhupada happily cited as evidence that his Western followers were becoming purified, has been watered down to become a hybrid culture in which Krsna consciousness is no longer a full-time way of life. In some parts of the world Krsna consciousness now appears to have joined other sects and become simply a belief system. Thus for many of Srila Prabhupada's followers, the prediction of His Divine Grace's critics has come to pass. By transforming Krsna consciousness into an impotent semblance of itself, these devotees fail to become purified of past habits and remain sadly victimized by past deeds and sins.

Srila Prabhupada's Pride in His Disciples, Transformed Into an Impotent Semblance 

(from Suddha-bhakti Cintamani, Ch. 9, by H.H. Sivarama Maharaja)