The Seven Principles of ISKCON.
The Hare Krishna movement is based on ancient spiritual teachings and in 1966 the International Society for Krishna Consciousness was established in order to make these teachings more widely available in the West. The following is an edited version of a talk given by Satsvarupa das Goswami (pictured below) at the Belfast Temple on Sun. 20th August 1995, in which he discusses the principle aims of ISKCON.
When A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada originally founded the Hare Krishna movement, in 1966, he wrote down seven "purposes" which clearly reveal what he wanted for the society. When Srila Prabhupada first met his spiritual master Srila Bakhtisiddhanta Sarasvati, his spiritual master advised him to spread Krishna consciousness in the West and repeated that instruction to him in a letter, just before passing away.
Prabhupada's aims for ISKCON are not new things, independent from what he learned in disciplic succession from his spiritual master and from Lord Chaitanya; but his daring and his particular vision are also there. As the founder- acharya (one who teaches by example) of our Society, he keeps the essence of the message of Krishna consciousness but applies it according to time, place and circumstance.
Prabhupada came to America in his seventies and seemed to be just floating around, with no money, a short term visa, and nowhere settled to stay, but some people finally came to hear from him and invited him to downtown New York and around that time he began to conceive of starting a society. In letters which he wrote at at that time, he had already begun mentioning the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. The idea that the chanting of the Holy names should appear in every town and village of the world originally came from Krishna, and this was passed down through the disciplic succession of spiritual masters, to Srila Prabhupada, and it was he who actually accomplished it.
ISKCON was legally incorporated as a religion, according to New York State, in July 1966. Prabhupada then had to make some charter to describe the religion and that was the external impetus for writing these down. Here are the points:-
1. To systematically propagate spiritual knowledge to society at large and to educate all peoples in the techniques of spiritual life in order to check the imbalance of values in life and to achieve real unity and peace in the world.
This is an introductory sort of statement - a broad description of spiritual life, but it's not just rhetoric; there's an important point here and this may be attractive also to all sorts of people who don't know anything about ISKCON. There's an imbalance; people's values are heavily on the material side and this is the cause of disturbance and disharmony in the world. The balance has to be corrected and this is one of the purposes of ISKCON. ISKCON doesn't just exist unto itself; it's part of society as a whole - it's meant to help spiritualise society at large and to check this gross imbalance that people are just running around trying to achieve material ambitions. The purpose of ISKCON is to teach that there are techniques - practical things you can do in your individual life which will check the imbalance so that you won't just be a materialistic person. And ISKCON is a place where you can go and learn them. So, right from the beginning the aim is spiritual; it's a spiritual movement, it's not offering material welfare to the world; what the world really needs is spiritual welfare - this is a very great need and there are very few places where such authorised spiritual life is taught and practised.
2. To propagate a consciousness of Krishna, as it is revealed in Bhagavad-Gita and Srimad Bhagavatam.
From a general description ,now we become very specific; that it's Krishna who will be described. And who's Krishna? That you will find out if you read Bhagavad-Gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam. This particular phrase in English - 'Krishna consciousness' - is Prahbupada's contribution also. It comes from a phrase used by Rupa Goswami (a 16th century saint) krsna bhakti rasa bhavika- "to be absorbed in the mellow taste of executing devotional service to Krishna". Prabhupada has made it into a compact English phrase - this word 'consciousness' - thinking, a state of being or awareness and you add to it 'Krishna' or God. This is his translation of the phrase by Rupa Goswami - to be absorbed in thinking of Krishna. People are generally in other kinds of 'consciousness' according to their particular desires, but we are trying to practise bringing our consciousness to Krishna - the Supreme Personality of Godhead as it's taught in Bhagavad-Gita and Srimad Bhagavatam.
When Prabhupada announced that he was going to call the Society "The International Society for Krishna Consciousness", someone said"Why don't you call it the International Society for God Consciousness instead; that would be more attractive to people". But Prabhupada didn't like that idea much. He said " If I say God, then who is God? They will bring so many concocted ideas - that this is God or that's God., God is a light or you can be God. But if I say Krishna, then that will be ruled out. Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. "
So whatever we may have lost in terms of some popular appeal, we've gained by integrity; the more scientific name and more meaningful name for those who really take up spiritual life and find out about Krishna. It's not a cheap movement for cheap followers. So this is it's aim; for the members to develop their own Krishna consciousness and to teach it to society at large.. That must mean it's going to have some activity, it's going to make waves, it's going to try to influence people and tell about the need for this spiritual life
3. To bring the members of the Society together with each other and nearer to Krishna, the prime entity, thus developing the idea within the members and humanity at large, that each soul is part and parcel of the quality of Godhead (Krishna).
This one is a real "togetherness" item, a warm, social proposal here, that the Society is for bringing people together. I see that you have a motto for the Belfast Temple "Serving Krishna Together" which is very nice. We have a Society and it's not only that the members should be listed and kept in a computer and somebody sends out a request to them every once in a while for fees! And they "belong" but that doesn't really mean anything. No, the members are to have relationships. And it's not only among themselves as a group that they learn to interact and have loving exchanges, but they become closer to Krishna, the prime Entity. So Krishna is in the centre of the Society, and that's how we come closer to each other.
Once a media interviewer in America challenged Prabhupada "From what I understand of your philosophy, you don't put much emphasis on brotherhood or loving dealings amongst people, which we do in Christianity, it seems to be just talking about the individual and God. Don't you think that this is important to teach how to love one another?" "No", Prabhupada said "it's not important". It doesn't have to be taught separately. You can put too much emphasis on teaching that and dilute your religion to learning how to get along with each other, but if you just learn to love Krishna, then the other will be taken care of. If we develop our relationship with Krishna, then how can we not love others? To love Krishna means to love His parts and parcels and now we have the real reason for brotherly love; because they're all His sons and daughters. Therefore, if we really love the Father, we have to be friends with His family. So, Prabhupada specifically mentions both of them here.
This is the truly social dimension of life; to see every living entity as a spirit-soul, part and parcel of Krishna. So that phrase "Serving Krishna Together" sums it up. That's how we develop loving exchanges. We chant and we read the books and make arrangements for others to chant and hear. . Someone's serving as guru, someone's serving as disciple, but they're both servants and Krishna's the One who's being served. This is how we become close, not by a material closeness or physical closeness or even a mental attempt without Krishna.
4. To teach and encourage the sankirtana movement , congregational chanting of the holy names of God, as revealed in the teachings of Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.
This follows on that social point that we're going to come together and when we do, we're going to chant together. That's one of the main things the devotees do . It's a very simple proposal and one which Srila Prabhupada taught wherever he went. He would gather people together and lead them in congregational chanting.
5. To erect for the members and for society at large, a holy place of transcendental pastimes dedicated to the personality of Krishna.
This was 1966 and there was only one centre then, a storefront in Second Avenue, but here Prabhupada's talking about a temple. Now we have many places like that - in the cities and in the countryside, little temples, big temples, every kind of transcendental place. It's not just real-estate - owning buildings, but people need buildings to live in and especially to congregate in. The temples are for the members - for them to live in and for society at large - the congregation. This is spiritual, it's not a material thing to have buildings when they're dedicated to the service of Krishna or God. So, here you have this building which requires upkeep, that's a spiritual thing to tend to the building and the gardens. People should be invited to come here and it should be kept very nice and the consciousness of the devotees should be that guests are all servants of Radha-Madhava.
6. To bring the members closer together for the purpose of teaching a simpler, more natural way of life.
This is a repeat of the third purpose and there's also indication here by the phrase " a simpler, more natural way of life."This indicates rural community. In a city temple, we may not emphasise that so much, because we're part of the infra-structure of the city and we're hooked up with the rubbish-collectors and telephones and police and rates department - we're another building on their map. And we want to be like that - in the yellow pages - a part of city life and we offer relief to the citydwellers. We still try to live as simply as possible but we also teach about protecting cows and living off the land as an economic solution.
The day will come, Prabhupada said, when there won't be any city life. When Prabhupada was still present, he began to develop and give instructions for what the farms should be like and visited many ISKCON farm communities around the world.
7. With a view toward achieving the aforementioned purposes, to publish and distribute periodicals, books and other writings.
Last, but not least, this purpose indicates the way in which the other points will be brought about. He says, "With a view to achieving all the other purposes. We have to propagate the knowledge through books" and that's what Srila Prabhupada himself did. He translated books and wrote the Bhaktivedanta purports, arranged for their publishing and requested his devotees to distribute books, magazines and other writings.
This idea also came from his spiritual master. There was an occasion at Radha-kunda, when Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati told his disciples, "If you ever get money, print books". Prabhupada very much took that to heart and when he did start getting money in America, from his disciples, he printed books. When these books are printed and distributed widely, it will help bring about the other six purposes of ISKCON.
An Open Secret
Some visitors to our temple come out of curiousity, wondering how it is that anyone, especially young or in the prime of life, can lead such an austere lifestyle and yet be so joyful. I was curious about this myself, before my first visit to a Hare Krishna temple, but by the end of three days, I'd discovered the secret.
I was very attracted to the philosophy of Krishna consciousness and even to the monastic lifestyle of the temple members, but I knew I couldn't do it myself. The first hurdle was getting up at four o'clock in the morning to worship and meditate, after only six hours sleep. Maybe I could do it now and then, but not every day. Then there were the regulative principles - I was already vegetarian, so that was OK, but never any alcohol, or even a cup of tea or coffee! The one about illicit sex didn't bother me so much, until I realised it also meant no romantic relationships with the opposite sex unless married. And apart from that, the devotees just chanted and worked and read the scriptures all day - what if I had a strong desire to see a film, or go to a party, or just to go shopping in town? How did the devotees manage to survive without any fun?
And, not only did they seem to be surviving, but they were more glowingly, vigorously happy than anyone else I knew.
I got an inkling of the secret on the first morning of my visit. Woken at the appointed hour, I forced myself sleepily out of bed and showered and dressed. At 4.30 a.m. all the devotees (about 200 of them) gathered in the temple-room for the first service of the morning. After bowing down in front of the altar, they began to sing prayers to the accompaniment of drums and cymbals. It was very rhythmic and very melodious and I was thrilled to the core. The devotees swayed from side to side as they sang and some danced sedately with their arms raised in the air. The prayers led into the chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra - I knew the mantra and the tune, so I joined in - and the temple-room was filled with glorious, enchanting sound.
The drums and cymbals gradually picked up speed and the devotees began to dance as they chanted, jumping and twirling and smiling hugely. I felt very self-conscious then, not knowing anyone, so I stood to one side and watched and sang. Now I understood why they didn't miss parties or discos - they had their own every morning ! When this congregational chanting ended, everyone took out their beads and began their own private chanting. I decided to give it a go and chanted for about half an hour befor deciding to go back to bed!
After breakfast, I attended some philosophy classes and helped with various cleaning tasks and wondered why I felt so nice inside.
In the evening there was another worship session and we all gathered again in the temple room. They sang an exquisite song about Lord Chaitanya before launching once again into the Hare Krishna mantra:- Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna ... after a while, I didn't care that I didn't know anyone and forgot to feel self-conscious, a huge wave of something they called "bliss", swept me off my feet. I didn't intend dancing - my feet just left the ground The kirtana lasted half an hour before the lead-singer decided to finish, but when he did everyone yelled "more, more" and off we went again for another fifteen minutes. Quite some experience - it seemed all the petty, niggling worries of the mind took flight at the sound of the mantra . After a while you began to feel completely rejuvenated and satisfied at heart and you just didn't want to stop..
The next day I discussed my experience with one of the senior devotees, she confirmed that my "nice inner feelings" were due to the chanting and that the chanting was what enabled the devotees to give up material things and practise the austerities of spiritual life. The spirit soul, which is who we really are, is by nature eternal , blissful and enlightened and when we chant, we begin to experience that. My experience was actually only a tiny glimpse of what it means to be self-realised, but it was an encouragement to carry on chanting - which I did..
Now, twelve years later, one pleasure is seeing new people come to the temple and take part in kirtana. It doesn't always happen straight away, but maybe after a few visits, you'll see someone come out of the temple-room after a kirtana and know that it's happened to them too - they have a glow about them and are often trying to conceal the big grin on their face!
Reflections at a Vedic Wedding
In my , idealistic youth, I took a dim view of marriage. As an institution, it struck me as frighteningly dreary and dead-end. Looking around at the married people I knew, with their nine-to-five jobs, living in housing estates and washing their cars on a Sunday, it didn't seem to offer the heroism and romance which I was looking for from life.
I was remembering this as I sat with the other guests at the Indian Community Centre, watching my friends, Japa-Yajna and Shantasya; Michael and Sonya, taking their marriage vows.
It was a very beautiful wedding ceremony; the brides dressed in gorgeous red silk saris, gold-embroidered with heavy gold earrings, noserings and flowers in their hair. The arena was decorated with plants, flowers and drapes and in the centre, a sand-filled container for the fire-sacrifice was surrounded by colourful varieties of fruits and vegetables. The scent of fine incense wafted through the hall and Kripamoya das, presiding priest, charmed his audience with sound of mantras, explanations different rituals which parents couples helped to perform.>
Vedic ceremonies are always pleasing to the senses, so that, satisfied with the appetising smells, tastes, sounds and sights in a spiritual context, one feels no need to visit cinemas or night-clubs or the television for satisfaction.
The rituals of the wedding ceremony are important to help the participants to internalise the seriousness of the commitment they are making. For example, the Vedic custom of tying together the couples bridal garments, to symbolise their joining together as a unit.
"All very well", my youthful self would have scoffed, "but what happens after the wedding? It won't take long before the rot sets in!"
But there's a difference in married life when your goal lies beyond daily, mundane activities. The couples getting married that day, chose their partners with a view to their spiritual lives; their goal being, not to settle into the delights and comforts of domestic life, but to help each other and their children to become detached from such things and elevated to spiritual perfection. The activites of a devotee husband or wife may seem the same as those of any other; earning a living through their chosen profession, raising a family etc., but consciousness is very different; inner meditiation on Krishna - the "Reservoir of Pleasure".
Not that we can expect sweetness and joy "til death us do part" !. There will certainly be difficulties and troubles,but a devotee has reserves of spiritual strength to deal with these and in themselves, they can act as an impetus to spiritual life.
Marriage without divorce may seem strait-laced to many people today, but for the practice of spiritual life, such an injunction is essential for helping to control our material senses and to become mature and responsible people.
When I talked with Kripamoya, the presiding priest, after the wedding, he particularly emphasised the importance of marriage from the social point of view:-
"Marriage is there to solidify the relationships between men and women in order to produce a stable society, which will give the maximum number of people the opportunity for becoming God-conscious. Without a stable society, you can't really achieve anything and the foundation of a stable society is the stable family unit."
There was one aspect of the ceremony which I particularly liked and that was the way the priest involved the guests in offering their blessings and requested that they commit themselves to helping the couples if ever they should need it in their married lives. As he said:-
"This is a major vow for the longest period of your life, the idea of making a vow is that you make it in front of witnesses, who will be supportive and encouraging at a time when it becomes difficult for you to maintain your vow. It would be foolish to pretend that remaining married to one person for the rest of your life is an easy thing . It's a challenge and therefore it requires the maximum number of friends to be supportive of us. It's not just that we witness that they said "I do", but that we've also promised something and we should be forthcoming with that. We shouldn't just stand by and see devotees go through marital difficulty - we should try and help. We're trying to help each other back to Godhead- not that I'm just helping myself".
First Impressions of Srila Prabhupada.
by Mukunda Goswami
From the very start, I knew that His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada was the most extraordinary person I had ever met. The first meeting occurred in the summer of 1966, in New York City. A friend had invited me to hear a lecture by "an old Indian swami" on lower Manhattan's Bowery. Overwhelmed with curiosity about a swami lecturing on skid row, I went there and felt my way up a pitch-black staircase. A bell-like, rhythmic sound got louder and clearer as I climbed higher. Finally I reached the fourth floor and opened the door, and there he was.
About fifty feet away from where I stood, at the other end of a long, dark room, he sat on a small dais, his face and saffron robes radiant under a small light. He was elderly, perhaps sixty or so, I thought, and he sat cross-legged in an erect, stately posture. His head was shaven, and his powerful face and reddish horn-rimmed glasses gave him the look of a monk who had spent most of his life absorbed in study. His eyes were closed, and he softly chanted a simple Sanskrit prayer while playing a hand drum. The small audience joined in at intervals, in call-and-response fashion. A few played hand cymbals, which accounted for the bell-like sounds I'd heard. Fascinated, I sat down quietly at the back, tried to participate in the chanting, and waited.
After a few moments the swami began lecturing in English, apparently from a huge Sanskrit volume that lay open before him. Occasionally he would quote from the book, but more often from memory. The sound of the language was beautiful, and he followed each passage with meticulously detailed explanations.
He sounded like a scholar, his vocabulary intricately laced with philosophical terms and phrases. Elegant hand gestures and animated facial expressions added considerable impact to his delivery. The subject matter was the most weighty I had ever encountered: "I am not this body, I am not Indian ... You are not Americans... We are all spirit souls..."
After the lecture someone gave me a pamphlet printed in India. A photo showed the swami handing three of his books to Indian Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri. The caption quoted Mr. Shastri as saying that all Indian government libraries should order the books. "His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami is doing great work, and his books are significant contributions to the salvation of mankind." I purchased copies of the books and after reading the jacket flaps, the small pamphlet, and various other literature, I began to realize that I had just met one of India's most respected spiritual leaders.
Why Prabhupada came to America.
But I could not understand why a gentleman of such distinction was residing and lecturing in the Bowery, of all places. He was certainly well educated and, by all appearances, born of an aristocratic Indian family. Why was he living in such poverty? What in the world had brought him here? One afternoon several days later, I stopped in to visit him and find out.
To my surprise, Srila Prabhupada (as I later came to call him) was not too busy to talk with me. In fact, it seemed that he was prepared to talk all day. He was warm and friendly and explained that he had accepted the renounced order of life in India in 1959, and that he was not allowed to carry or earn money for his personal needs.
He had complete his studies at the University of Calcutta many years ago and had raised a family, and then he had left his eldest sons in charge of family and business affairs, as the age-old Vedic culture prescribes. After accepting the renounced order (becoming a monk), he had arranged a free passage on an Indian freighter through an old family friend. In September 1965, he had sailed from Bombay to Boston, armed with only a few pounds worth of rupees, a trunk of books and a few clothes. His spiritual master, His Divine Grace Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, had entrusted him with delivering the Vedic teachings to the English-speaking world. And this was why, at age sixty-nine, he had come to America. He told me he wanted to teach Americans about Indian music, cooking, languages, and various other arts. I was mildly amazed.
His lifestyle.
I saw that Srila Prabhupada slept on a small mattress and that his clothes hung on lines at the back of the room, where they were drying in the summer afternoon heat. He washed them himself and cooked his own food on an ingenious utensil he had fashioned with his own hands in India. In this four-layer apparatus he cooked four preparations at once.
Stacked all around him and his ancient-looking portable typewriter in another section of the room were seemingly endless manuscripts. He spent almost all of his waking hours - about twenty in twenty-four, I learned - typing the sequels to the three volumes I had purchased. It was a projecteed sixty-volume set called the Srimad-Bhagavatam and it was virtually the enclyclopedia of spiritual life. I wished him luck with publishing and he invited me back for Sanskrit classes on Saturdays and for his evening lectures on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.. I accepted, thanked him, and left, marvelling at his incredible determination.,
A few weeks later - it was July 1966 - I had the privilege of helping Srila Prabhupada relocate in a somewhat more respectable neighbourhood, on Second Avenue. Some friends and I pitched in and rented a ground-floor storefront and a second-floor apartment, to the rear of a little courtyard, in the same building. The lectures and chanting continued, and within two weeks a rapidly growing congregation was providing for the storefront (by this time a temple) and the apartment. In his new location, Srila Prabhupada was teaching chanting, Vedic philosophy, music, japa meditation, fine art, and cooking. At first he cooked - he always taught by example. The results were the most wonderful vegetarian meals I had ever experienced. (Srila Prabhupada would even serve everything out himself!).
In philosophical debate and logic Srila Prabhupada was undefeatable and indefatigable. He would interrupt his translating work for discussions that would last up to eight hours. Sometimes seven or eight people jammed into the small, immaculately clean room where he worked, ate, and slept on a two-inch-thick foam cushion. Srila Prabhupada constantly emphasized and exemplified what he called "plain living and high thinking". He stressed that spiritual life was a science provable through reason and logic, not a matter of mere sentiment or blind faith.
By 1966, Srila Prabhupada had begun accepting disciples. He was quick to point out to everyone that they should think of him not as God but as God's servant, and he criticized self-styled gurus who let their disciples worship them as God. "These 'gods' are very cheap", he used to say.
One day, after someone had asked, "Are you God/" Srila Prabhupada repled, "No, I am not God - I am a servant of God". Then he reflected a moment and went on. "Actually, I am not a servant of God. I am trying to be a servant of God. A servant of God is no ordinary thing."
In the mid-seventies Srila Prabhupada's translating and publishing intensifeid dramatically. Scholars all over the world showered favourable reviews on his books, and practically all the universities and colleges in America accepted tham as standard texts. Altogether he produced some eighty books, which his disciples have translated into twenty-five languages and distributed to the tune of fifty-five million copies. He established one hundred and eight temples worldwide, and he has some ten thousand initiated disciples and a congregational following in the millions. Srila Prabhupada was writing and translating up to the last days of his eighty-one-year stay on earth.
Srila Prabhupada was not just another oriental scholar, guru, mystic, yoga teacher, or meditation instructor. He was the embodiment of a whole (spiritual) culture and he implanted that culture in the West. To me and many others he was first and foremost someone who truly cared, who completely sacrificed his own comfort to work for the good of others. He had no private life, but lived only for others. He taught spiritual science, philosophy, common sense, the arts, languages, the Vedic way of life - hygiene, nutrition, medicine, etiquette, family living, farming, social organisation, schooling, economics - and many more things to many people. To me he was a master, a father, and my dearmost friend.