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| Beyond the “ISKCON” Paradigm |
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“Ashvatthama
proved himself to be an unworthy son of Dronacharya
or of a brahmana, and for this reason he was condemned by the greatest
authority, Lord Sri Krishna, and yet a mild woman could not withdraw her
natural courtesy for a brahmana. . . The specific words used in this sloka are vama-svabhava, ‘mild
and gentle by nature.’ A good man or woman accepts anything very easily, but a
man of average intelligence does not do so. But, anyway, we should not give up our reason
and discriminatory power just to be gentle. One must have good
discriminatory power to judge a thing on its merit. We should not follow the
mild nature of a woman and thereby accept that which is not genuine.” O Son of Pritha,
intelligence in the mode of passion is that by which religion and irreligion,
and what is to be done and what is not to be done, are imperfectly discriminated.
Covered by darkness, thinking irreligion
to be religion, and in all things striving in the wrong direction, is intelligence
in the mode of ignorance. Bhagavad-gita, 18.31-32 All
emphases added for your edification and realization Many years ago, I was invited
to a small, private gathering of metropolitan people, mostly rather
sophisticated and wealthy New Agers (not witches,
however), who speculated on occult topics according to their mutual tastes and
inclinations. One of them, the host, was
into a book by Seth, who allegedly channeled the highest, esoteric revelations. None of them was slightly inclined toward buddhi-yoga or even karma-yoga. When I brought up the
presence of the Supersoul, one young man at the
meeting emoted, “I know who can enter my heart and who cannot!” Previous to this outburst
(which ended the get together), I particularly noted that, in their shared
mindsets and verbal intercourse, there were frequent references of their strong
aversion toward anything that smacked of linear intelligence. They believed in the non-rational, the
non-linear, the humanistic paradigm: Subjective or
personal intuition, which, by the way, is not the same thing as prajna or higher intelligence. On
First Principles When we use a function of the
brain for something other than what it is created and suited for, we experience
problems—and this applies to what passes for spiritual life, as well. All paradigms that promote such “thinking”
are proven counterproductive when it comes to transcendence, but this defeat is
often realized too late, if it is realized at all. At a certain stage, it becomes very difficult
or next to impossible to effectively change such ill-advised habits encrusted
into the neural-linguistic pathways of the brain and central nervous system. There is a malignant and
unauthorized paradigm now spreading in this post-modern, hedonistic age; it
serves as an imposition spliced into and atop of the original yoga system
established here by a fully God-realized spiritual master, our guru maharaj, the last Acharya in the Caitanya line, His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
Prabhupada. The presuppositions and
assumptions of “ISKCON” are too great in number to delineate in this brief
article, but we shall touch upon some of them.
The paradigm allows a rather
wacky confederation, functioning through an evolved, existential
quasi-stability, to proliferate according to knowledge that works through
intelligence in the lower modes; the devoted and fanatical followers of this
operation are usually quite insensitive to any new input which contradicts the “ISKCON”
way of seeing things. Important doctrines
of the fabricated, so-called “ISKCON” always extend their influence according
to the self-interests of the hierarchy (especially at the top echelon), but this
parochial system limits the upside of realization for anyone entangled in or dependent
upon the organization. More often than not, occult “ISKCON”
methods, such as its dress codes (for the leaders, especially), rituals, fire
sacrifices, specialized language, ceremonies, distinctions, etc., become the
goal in and of themselves. They are
substituted for realization; these profiles, acts, and attainments supposedly entail
the weight of guaranteed liberation. Foolish
followers, whose intelligences are in the modes of passion and ignorance,
readily believe it, and when they mimic the methods, that makes
them great devotees in the eyes of their peers.
They discard the essential
importance of any analytical and detached assessment of the real situation and
instead accept an ever-increasingly refined, specialized, and abstract system that
is beyond the general public to even comprehend, let alone challenge. Madness permeates intelligence in the mode of
ignorance, but there is a method to the subtle and disingenuous madness initiated
and engaged here by the “ISKCON” elite.
In Misconceptions act as
barriers to knowledge and the functioning of sattvic
intelligence. The overall perspective awarded by intelligence in goodness is
required in spiritual life. However, in order to understand a confederate
culture, as well as two similar paradigms of reactionary cults spawned by and spun
off from “ISKCON,” we must learn about what the members of the thing all share--a
set of assumptions imposed in no small measure by the codes imbedded in its
common language. Before deliberating on
any of this, however, we must remember some basic facts about conditioned life,
especially in terms of how its buffers operate. Back
to the Future “The function of the brain
and nervous system is to protect us from being overwhelmed and confused by (a)
mass of largely useless and irrelevant knowledge, by shutting out most of what
we should otherwise perceive and remember at any given moment, leaving only
that very small and special selection that is likely to be practically useful.
. . That which, in the language of religion, is called ‘this world’ is (their)
universe of reduced awareness expressed--and, as it were, petrified--by
language. . . people most of the time know only what comes through (their)
reducing valve, consecrated as genuinely real by a local language. . . (that
is) carefully selected; (it is) utilitarian material which narrow individual
minds regard as a complete, or at least a sufficient, picture of reality.” Aldous Huxley, The Doors
of Perception The brain limits and selects input
as an individual imagines his own world by means of personal creations resulting
from past experiences; he only accepts and applies new experiences when they fit
into this paradigm. Having developed a kind of conditioned, stereotyped, neural-linguistic
system of quasi-stability, his internal model considers the world, and what he
experiences in it, to conform to expectations; these anticipations are
categorized. He sorts input per such categorization which continually trends to
further limit what he will accept. These
reactions become habitual, and he tunes out anything that does not fit into his
constricted model. The multi-level system of conditioning
is a process requiring different layers of filtration. A kind of stability is
achieved by this method of filtering input, and it is applicable to both an
individual and an institution.
Nevertheless, it is a personal construction, an identification that can
be traced to ahankara (false ego). The only way to actually purify consciousness
is to work (in yoga) against ahankara, but
institutionalized delusions, and the fools sucked into them, seldom engage like
that. The senses, and the chief sense
within (mind), serve mainly as data reduction valves, and Maya arranges to make
him think that he is actually making progress. Nevertheless, the central
nervous system is constantly forced, by the laws of time and material nature,
to confront shifts in the external world, to respond to unexpected
changes. When they do not neatly fit
into the paradigm he has accepted, cultural biases and expectations are
challenged. This is uncomfortable for
the chela, of course.
He is forced to create a new construct in order to re-establish a
stability that is apparently now being uprooted, its categories negatively
impacted in a big way. All his past
history and what he thought were his needs appear to require a new explanation;
when duped by an illusion of “re-initiation,” he thinks that he has accomplished
the transition. He
will eventually be forced to think otherwise. Personal consciousness not
actually linked to How the leaders in “ISKCON”
accomplish this has to be simple, however, because it is meant to keep simpletons
onboard and happy (“Got to keep the loonies on the path”). They are meant to chew grass and give milk,
so they must be placated by shining, bright lies, funny anecdotes, a sense of
confidence, and constant admonition not to criticize anything they don’t
understand. Since they don’t understand
much, they naturally think that the best course is to abandon all
discrimination (it leads to criticism, don’t you know?). If input appears not
to fit into the set of categories authorized by the “ISKCON” paradigm, chelas
are warned to ignore it; when that input is actually As such, the assumptions and
presumptions of these followers and fanatics always remain reactionary,
although, for the sake of preaching and deluding themselves, they may adopt a
liberal and progressive façade. However,
when compelling new evidence knocks on the door of their minds and deliberative
faculties, it still has the potential to alter their outlook, except in the
most hardened of cases. One example of
this can be a major scandal, e.g., a so-called mahabhagavat caught en flagrante in the act of homosexuality. The artificial stability of the chela, created in personal consciousness, then tips on the
razor’s edge. He starts the painful
psychic process of realizing that his conception of God and godliness has
mostly been rooted in imagination, in illusion, and he has simply been a part of
a process that is actually engaged in inflicting harm: Hayagriva:
Concerning religion, Nietzsche felt that, because Christ’s own disciples
misunderstood him, Christianity, as such, never existed. Elementary
Penguins Chanting Hare Krishna “For instance, the Jews say
that they are the only selected people of God.
But what kind of God is this who selects some people and condemns
others?” Dialectical
Spiritualism, Critique of Aristotle “It’s still the same, baby, baby, still the same. It’s
still the same, When a bona fide guru
manifests his form, knowledge, power, and activity, he then establishes a
system of genuine religion and devotional practice. He presents the Vedic and Vaishnava siddhanta
as it is. He warns against lying,
cheating, and concoctions in the guise of religion or siddhanta. Although his devotees are always encouraged
to remain a fool in the presence of such an exalted spiritual master, in point
of fact it dishonors him if his initiated disciples actually remain fools. He wants them to
advance. He wants each and every one of
them to become a guru in his own right.
He wants them to become free from all unwanted habits and aparadhas (offenses), so that he can then give them the
order to become diksa-gurus, or initiating spiritual masters, and spread Lord Caitanya’s mercy to every town and village of the world. He
wants them to realize brahman as soon as possible (srotriyam brahma-nistham). Through the agency of His
Maya, concocted religious systems must be there by the will of the Supreme,
because people want to be cheated by them.
Such so-called spiritualists want to remain as they are, not to undergo
the process of spiritual and devotional rejuvenation, and want still to consider
themselves special, destined for liberation in the
supreme in this lifetime. The bogus
leaders of such unauthorized religions see to it that these sentimentalists and
fanatics—who, through intelligence in the lower modes, always “understand”
everything in convenient black and white categories—follow a dumbed-down version of the process. Those leaders fool them in
this way, or, as Honest Abe so aptly put it: “You can fool some of the people
all of the time.” To become a transcendentalist
selected by God, the disciple must develop intelligence in the sattvic mode, dovetail it to transcendence, activate real
intuition (prajna), and constantly augment his
reasoning and discriminatory power in “In every system of religion, the order is to follow
the instruction given by God or His representative. Unfortunately, the so-called followers
deviate from the orders of the master and sometimes create their own concocted religious
system.” Letter to Mr. Dhawan, Fear
and Loathing in the Vegas Hayagriva: The Prince . . . contains the advice he
(Machiavelli) chose to impart to the ruling Medici family. It is a justification for power; the end
justifies the means. Success in
attaining power makes one the object of obedience and respect. Failure is the only sin. And the morals to be worshipped will be gone In the mid-Eighties, while living in a northern California mountain-valley just
above Hopland, our rural temple/ashram was visited by
various “ISKCON” malcontents. One such fellow
was quite the mundane genius type, particularly in the area of spotting how
various angles and relative realities could be manipulated to advantage; he
also liked to read occult literature. He
was never able to remain steady, although, during the periods he stayed with
us, this new man made helpful contributions in terms of our revenue
requirements. He left and came back
about three or four times (can’t remember the exact number). Each
time he departed, he would associate with his former “ISKCON” peers at their
center in order to yuk-it-up. Then, when
he would return, we would here stories, sometimes interspersed with minute repentance,
about what he learned while he had been away.
The last time he came back, he related how he had gone into a Bay Area
bookstore. Whatever group
you may be affiliated with, we are all into preaching. As such, since he was associating with
“ISKCON” during that time, as he was checking out an item to purchase from the store,
he began preaching about that movement to the New Age clerk behind the
counter. After listening to the initial
thrust of his spiel, the clerk replied: “I
hear it’s run by demons these days.” Bogus cults, wrapping the
mantle of alleged authenticity around themselves, claim that their leaders are
automatically special: Automatically special even when they engage in
unnecessary and degrading sense gratification . . . automatically special when
they use fear and guilt to keep chelas fools and loyal to themselves and their
institution . . . automatically special when they engage in never-ending
politics. What the chelas caught in
such an institution dread most, however, is its unreliability: Today’s great momentum
somehow or other morphs into tomorrow’s heresy.
Such followers are forced to remain constantly on edge due to this; they
come to, at least subconsciously, loathe these leaders for continually putting them
through these excruciating hoops. However, because these chelas
have staked out a share of sense gratification within the institution, and
because their senses (vaco-vegam manasah krodha-vegam) are
not controlled enough to stay above the degrading vortex of the outside world,
they settle for accepting regular doses of fear as the price for staying on the
boat. Whether the new dispensation turns
out to be a lie or not, as long as the GBC is pushing it at any given time,
then it must be accepted. If the next
dispensation from the governing body is exactly opposite and contradicts the
current line, well, the chela, at that time, will buckle
to that one too. Telling
Lies in “(The) chief obstacle in the
way of development is lying. . . If man could be described as a zoological
type, he would be described as a lying animal. . . the
psychology of lying is much more difficult than we think, because there are
many different kinds of lying and many very subtle forms hard to discover in
ourselves. In others, we see them
comparatively easily, but not in ourselves. . . All we have is opinions, and they
are all lies. . . Being surrounded by these lies, born and educated in these
lies, we cannot be any different from what we are . . . just the result, the
product of lying.” In A Civil Action, John Travolta plays an
ambitious lawyer, the head of a new and promising firm that takes on a case which
looks to be a rainmaker. It is a
class-action lawsuit filed by plaintiffs whose health and lives were severely
afflicted (even terminated) by pollutants from chemicals in their streams and
rivers. The plaintiff’s attorney and his
team go up against very wealthy and powerful interests who know the black art
of stalling for time, impeding any case, and conjuring up legal tactics that
put the opposing firm through great strain--as well as in dire financial
straits. Travolta and his men--forced to
live in a now barely furnished office, in deep debt, and completely flummoxed
as to how to proceed--agree upon a minimum settlement offer. During a private meeting in his office, a
powerful attorney for one of the chemical companies (obviously tipped by a
lawyer from Travolta’s firm) just so happens to himself
offer that exact figure, but there will be no admission of culpability in the
settlement. Travolta tentatively accepts, adding that he has to get the
approval of the woman who organized and now manages the class-action group
itself. She adamantly rejects the offer,
because it does not contain an unequivocal admission of responsibility for all
the human suffering wreaked by the chemical company. Travolta’s men quit and abandon
him, but the case finally does go to trial.
After the jury enters deliberation, the chief attorney (played by Robert
Duvall) for the most powerful chemical firm, starts to get a bit nervous about
the outcome. He sits with the Travolta
character in a hallway just outside the courtroom. The Duvall character writes
a three-digit figure on a piece of paper, and carefully hands it to his
counterpart: “How would like to see six zeroes added to that?” It is an unprecedented offer! The plaintiff’s attorney replies that he cannot
accept it without the inclusion of culpability from the chemical firm. The defendant’s attorney looks at him in
amazement, asking him what he is actually after. The Travolta character says
that he wants the truth. The Duvall character,
in utter contempt, completely jaded, and in sheer exasperation, replies: “’Truth?!? You’ll find ‘truth’ at the bottom of the
bottomless pit!” A great deal of damage has been perpetrated by wave
after wave of lies produced from the ocean of nescience known as “ISKCON.” Maybe
there was a time when you only suspected that you might have been lied to by the
confederation, but the situation is different now: You’re being slapped straight in
the face by so many lies! Still,
the truth remains elusive for you. It
does not have to be so. You will not be able to awaken until the enormity of all
this institutional prevarication has sunk in.
Let us help you. It is time to wake up, and if you think that you can
keep dragging your feet, and that time is on your side, guess again! People are catching on, however. Many devotees no longer accept any “ISKCON”
propaganda as truthful, and this completely reverses the way we were encouraged
to think about these leaders back in the day; it is something you have to come
to grips with yourself, either today or tomorrow. We want authority, genuine authority. We want to have confidence in our spiritual
leaders. But we want complete honesty as
well. “ISKCON” has stretched the rubber band for three
decades--and now it has snapped. We live
in an age of image manipulation, and they have taken advantage of that too: The
fix-it-as-you-go strategy has run its course, however, as their lies have
caught up with them. Prabhupada would never have approved these
American temples financing their operations as they do now, with all the
compromises that are entailed in that.
The Hinduization of “ISKCON” was brought to
your attention in March, 2007, but it has not at all abated. Instead, we find American temples now stocked
almost entirely by Pollacks, Ukranians, Russians, and
Hindus, many if not most simply serving time in order to secure a green card: “I am concerned to preach this gospel amongst
the Europeans and Americans, and I am not at all interested to preach amongst
the Indians, because they have now become hodge-podge, due to so many years of
subjugation by foreigners and having lost their own culture.” The whole operation is
managed by powerful intelligences in the lower modes, and, as a result, is
loaded with lies. So many lies about how
they became gurus, how the GBC is allegedly the highest spiritual authority,
how the zonal acharyas were all good men who simply
made mistakes that can be dismissed as growing pains, ad nauseum. The whole thing runs on a
mystique, and intelligence that maintains historical accuracy is dismissed as
limited and not transcendental, merely linear and rational. Nevertheless, no one is free from the sinful
reactions of speaking lies. Every jot and
tittle will eventually have to be addressed, and you,
as an individual, are responsible for your life and death. Prabhupada began his movement
in “Mother Earth has thus spoken: ‘There is nothing more
irreligious than the compulsion to lie. I think that I am able to bear
everything except the most heinous human being, the liar.’” Srimad Bhagavatam, 8.20.4 
Quotes from the books of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada are copyright by the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust |