Seriousness

The Bhagavad Gita emphasizes the importance of taking our roles and responsibilities in society seriously. Each individual has a unique part to play in maintaining the world, and we are urged to approach our work with seriousness. While the specific cause of this tragic accident is yet to be determined, we must recognize that in our interconnected world, even a small negligence or mistake can lead to catastrophic consequences for numerous people. Sometimes, when we consider the vastness of the world, we may perceive our own contributions as insignificant. Occupations such as train drivers or signal personnel may be undervalued or regarded as less glamorous. However, in moments like these, where the consequences of a single mistake become evident, instead of solely blaming the individual, we should collectively reevaluate the seriousness with which we approach our own work.

Amid times of tragedy, we contemplate where to find our strength. Often, we derive strength from external factors such as wealth, power, social position, or physical fitness. However, the Bhagavad Gita reminds us that beyond these temporary and fallible sources of strength, our core essence is that of a spiritual being, an atma. The atma, or soul, is invincible and indestructible, having an inherent relationship with the Paramatma, the Supreme Soul or Krishna. By finding shelter in our spiritual core and establishing a connection with the divine, we can face difficulties, adversities, and tragedies with greater steadiness and grace [[2]]. Despite the horrifying nature of witnessing the loss of loved ones and encountering mangled bodies, knowing that these individuals are souls on their onward spiritual journey, accompanied by the Paramatma, can provide us with the strength to navigate such challenging situations.

Service Attitude

The Bhagavad Gita emphasizes the importance of a service attitude in times of tragedy. When faced with such events, we may swing between extremes—feeling that life is meaningless and bitter, or attempting to attribute blame through misinterpretations of philosophical concepts such as karma. However, the Bhagavatam, a text related to the Bhagavad Gita, provides a different perspective. In a similar scenario where a calamity threatened mass starvation and death, King Pruthu, the leader at that time, did not simply attribute it to collective karma and ask the people to suffer. Instead, he immediately took action to rectify the situation. Similarly, we should avoid bitterness, judgment, and misapplication of philosophical points. Instead, we should embrace a service attitude, understanding that the same Krishna who imparts the wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita also provides solace and support in times of distress. Adversities befall everyone in this world, regardless of their wisdom or lack thereof, and it is through a compassionate and service-oriented approach that we can truly make a positive difference.

The Bhagavad Gita teaches that the difference between the wise and the unwise lies in their actions. The unwise act in ways that make things worse, while the wise act in ways that make things better. When bad things happen to good people, instead of getting entangled in the philosophical dilemma of life’s meaninglessness or becoming judgmental by attributing everything to karma, the Bhagavad Gita encourages us to focus on our dharma, our duty or righteous action. Rather than seeking answers to why bad things happen, it reframes the question by asking, “When bad things happen to good people, what do good people do?”

The purpose of karma, as explained in the Bhagavad Gita, is not to blame or shame the victims but to emphasize that our actions matter. Even when it may seem that our actions have no visible impact, we have a choice. We can choose to believe that our actions don’t matter and the world is arbitrary and cruel, or we can choose to believe that our actions do matter. By embracing the latter belief, we can make a difference, no matter how small.

In a situation where a tragic event has occurred, the Bhagavad Gita guides us to act in ways that make things better. We can provide practical assistance to those affected, offer emotional support, and share philosophical wisdom to help others find meaning in their suffering. The Bhagavad Gita stands ready to provide such wisdom. Importantly, our actions should be driven by a service attitude, recognizing our connection with the divine Krishna and all living beings. When we act in service, we align ourselves with a greater power that can work through us to bring about positive change, even if it is in a small yet significant way.

The world can indeed be a dark and dangerous place, and incidents like these serve as sobering reminders. However, the Bhagavad Gita encourages us to take our responsibility seriously, seek strength in our spirituality, and approach life with a mood of service. By doing so, we can collectively contribute to making our corner of the world brighter and more compassionate.

In summary, the Bhagavad Gita provides insights on how to respond when bad things happen to good people. It encourages us to focus on our actions, understanding that they matter, and to act in ways that make things better. By embracing a service attitude and recognizing our connection with the divine, we can play our part in bringing light to our corner of the world brighter instead of darker.

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Channeling outrage in two ways

When such things happen, we naturally feel shocked, sickened and outraged. If we don’t feel angry, then where is our devotion? When five-year-old Prahlada was persecuted by his demonic father Hiranyakasipu, Lord Nrsimhadeva took serious action against Hiranyakasipu. We need not imitate Nrsimhadeva’s actions, but feeling anger when things connected with our Lord are threatened or destroyed is a natural sign of devotion. We feel angry about something when we are emotionally invested in it. Feeling indifferent about such incidents is a sign of apathy.
The main question is not whether we should feel angry, but how we should express our emotion of anger. Are our emotions taking control of us, impelling us to do things that we would regret or would make things worse? Or are we controlling our emotions and using their energy intelligently? We need to channel that anger in a constructive way so that our response makes things better.

Broadly speaking, there are two dimensions to our response in such situations:
1. Brahminical response based on scriptures (sastra)
2. Ksatriya response based on weapons (sastra).

The brahminical response with sastra, or scriptures, is used to protect people from misconceptions and to give them the right understanding. sastra or weapons are one part of the ksatriya response; this response is integral to a multi-pronged strategy for protecting the innocent and punishing the wrongdoers. Any healthy society needs to use both sastra and sastra to deal with such situations.

Brahminical response

From a brahminical perspective, we need to do three things:
1. Protect our own faith by taking shelter of scriptures
2. Avoid getting caught up in sectarian anger towards particular groups
3. Work in a collective spirit with those who share our cultural values, even if we may have philosophical differences.

Let us discuss each of them in detail.

1. Protect our own faith: Such events may shake our faith in Krishna’s power to protect us. But scripture offers a holistic understanding of Krishna’s protection. Both in Ramayana and Mahabharata, there were great souls who were on the side of virtue but were killed: Jatayu in Ramayana and Abhimanyu in Mahabharata. In Ramayana, even before the war took place, Lord Rama had come to a place in central India known as Ramateka, where he came across piles of bones. These were the remains of sages who had been performing austerities and had been devoured by cannibalistic demons who thereafter spat out their bones. In this material world, horrible things may happen to everyone, including even to sincere devotees of the Lord.

Krishna’s protection does not always manifest at a material bodily level; nonetheless, it always manifests at the spiritual level. Jatayu died in the arms of Lord Rama, and Abhimanyu died for the cause of the Krishna. Both of these personalities were elevated to the most auspicious destination. Similarly, those devotees who were unfortunately killed in Bangladesh will be elevated to a destination that is more conducive for their spiritual evolution.

2. Avoid getting caught up in sectarian anger: In such situations, it is easy to get caught up in sectarian conceptions by labeling certain religious groups as bad or violent. Instead, by taking guidance of scripture, we can learn to see the world around us in terms of the three modes of material nature. All over the world, in every group, be it religious or non-religious, there are some people in goodness (sattva), some in passion (rajas) and some in ignorance (tamas). People in goodness can discuss and resolve differences amicably. People in passion and ignorance will use violence to fulfill their agendas. These three types of people are there in every demographic group. Sometimes the leaders of such groups may also be in passion and ignorance. In such cases, all their followers may also become violent and destructive. Despite such occasional actions by some people or groups, we should be careful and not paint everyone in those groups with the same brush.

In our Gaudiya Vaisnava history, let’s see how our acharyas dealt with such situations in their times. Srila Viswanath Chakravarthi Thakhur came to Vrindavan at a time after the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb had fanatically wreaked havoc in that holiest of all holy places for Krishna devotees. Previously, Srila Rupa and Sanatana Goswami had come to Vrindavan when Akbar was the Mughal king. Akbar was tolerant, although not as broadminded as painted in the history books. Under Akbar’s rule, the Goswamis were able to develop Vrindavan. It was not that Akbar helped a lot, but at least he did not hinder the development. The Gosswamis also had a good rapport with the Rajputs, who formed alliances with the Mughal kings and who thereby that ensured Vrindavana’s protection. Aurangzeb, however, put his religious fanaticism above political alliances; he devastated Vrindavan and terrorized the Hindus. After these depredations, Srila Viswanath Chakravarthi Thakhur came there and restored Vrindavan (at least a portion of it) to its erstwhile glory.

This was also the time when Viswanath Chakravarthi wrote his commentaries of Bhagavad-gita and Srimad Bhagavatam, as well as many other devotional books. Despite having witnessed the consequences of Aurangzeb’s fanaticism, in none of his books did he mention those terrible acts. Instead, he reiterated the Gita’s statement that this material world is a place of misery, and that we can best tolerate and transcend such distresses by following the path of bhakti. Being an acharya, he taught by his example: don’t let contemporary situations consume your consciousness.
Additionally, we can sastra-cakshu (vision of scriptures) to understand these distresses philosophically. Such events of communal violence are part of adhibhautika-klesa (distress caused by other living entities), which is one of the three major forms of worldly distress, the other two being adhyatmika-kleça (distresses caused by the body and the mind) and adhidaivika-klesa (distresses caused by nature. The more people are in passion and ignorance in this world, the more they will inflict such miseries on each other. Undoubtedly, we need a ksatriya response to deal with such people. But if we let ourselves fall under the influence of rajas and tamas, then we will not be part of the solution; we will only further aggravate the problem. We need to see that the entire religion or entire country is not extremist; some people within it are.

3. Work collectively with those who share our cultural values:
While our focus is on spreading Krishna consciousness, just to survive, we need the basic maintenance of dharma (law and order in society). Therefore, we need to connect with those who share with us the basic values of dharma. Sattva means seeing our commonality with others, which includes with various groups within the broader Vedic and Hindu tradition. We need the breadth of vision to overlook theological, religious and philosophical differences so as to build bridges. Then we can have the collective strength to draw on during such situations. In the past when there was a threat to Bhaktivedanta Manor (the biggest ISKCON center in the UK), the entire Hindu community came together to counter this threat to what was then the biggest Hindu temple in the UK. And the Manor was saved. Similarly, when the Bhagavad-gita was banned in Russia, the fact that the main sacred Hindu book was banned created a national outrage that reached even the Indian Parliament. The subsequent governmental and media pressure compelled the Russian government to revoke the ban.

Ksatriya response
1. Better self-defense
2. Increased collective advocacy

1. Better self-defense
Temples need to make arrangements for better security through various ways like training interested members in self-defense, inspiring those already with such training to do service in the temple, and working with organizations that are more experienced and expert at such things. Such proactive preparation for self-defense has precedents. When Srila Prabhupada was developing the Mayapur project (the birth-place of Lord Chaitanya and the global headquarters of ISKCON), trained devotees there had to keep guns to protect the temple from dacoits in the region.

2. Increased collective advocacy
Simultaneously, it’s important to remember that the ksatriya way is not only about warfare; it is also about diplomacy. If we focus too much on weapons and fighting, we run the danger of being branded as right-wing extremists, and we may even face the danger of becoming such extremists. Broadly, ksatriyas may work in four ways to resolve conflicts: sama (conciliation: focus on common interests), dama (reward: offer benefits for amicable resolution), bheda (dissension: create rifts in the opposite camp to weaken their opposition) and danda (force: use physical or martial force to overpower opponents). Considering these strategies in today’s context, diplomacy can mean exerting pressure on the Bangladeshi government. Devotees across the world organized kirtana protest marches in 150 cities all over the world. Simultaneously, devotees along with other Hindu groups have given letters to the embassies of Bangladesh in various parts of the world. These letters have made four requests to the Bangladesh government:

● Protection of Hindu temples, businesses and homes;
● Justice by punishing the perpetrators;
● Reparation for the victims;
● Reconstruction of the temples at government cost.

For such protests and petitions to be more effective, we as a community need to be more united and focus more on advocacy, whereby our voices are heard by mainstream media outlets, human rights organizations and national governments. In today’s world, few things are as effective as monetary consequences. Many Western governments give millions of dollars in aid to Bangladesh; if these governments could be persuaded to make that aid conditional to the protection of the human rights of Bangladesh’s Hindu minorities – and such protection is the basic duty of any government that claims to be secular – that would galvanize the government into action. Even if ISKCON may not be demographically large enough for a democratic government to have to pay attention to, we are parts of a large community of Hindus, who are among the wealthiest immigrants in the Western world. Moreover, Hindus are usually respected for their law-abiding and tax-paying nature; their ethos of hard work and personal responsibility; and their educational and professional success. Together, we can have a voice that will be influential. Unfortunately, we as the Hindu community haven’t used such influence to do effective advocacy for causes that are important for us. May this terrible incident be the necessary jolt that impels us to come together for taking tangible action.

End of transcription.

Transcription in Hindi

प्रश्न:बांग्लादेश में भक्तों पर हमले की क्या प्रतिक्रिया हो?

उत्तर: इस वर्ष बांग्लादेश में दुर्गा-पूजा उत्सव के अवसर पर, सोशल मीडिया के कुछ संदेशों द्वारा यह दावा किया गया कि हिंदुओं ने कुरान को दुर्गा देवी की मूर्ति के सामने रखकर उस पुस्तक का अनादर किया। बाद में एक जाँच में सीसीटीवी के सबूतों से पता चला कि कुरान को वहाँ एक मुसलमान ने रखा था और यह मुसलमानों को भड़काने के लिए कुछ मुसलमान कट्टरवादियों का एक षडयंत्र था। दुर्भाग्य से, वे अपने मंशा में सफल रहे और सैकड़ों लोगों की आक्रामक भीड़ ने दंगा किया तथा कई दुर्गा मण्डपों, हिंदू मंदिरों, व्यवसायों और घरों को नष्ट कर दिया गया। इन दंगों में, भीड़ ने नोआखली के इस्कॉन मंदिर पर हमला किया, तीन भक्तों की हत्या कर दी और श्रील प्रभुपाद के विग्रहों को क्षतिग्रस्त किया।

आक्रोश की अभिव्यक्ति दो प्रकार से

जब ऐसी घटनाऐं होती हैं, तो झटका लगना, व्यथित होना, तथा आक्रोशित होना स्वाभाविक हैा। ऐसे में यदि हम क्रोधित न हों, तो फिर हमारी भक्ति के क्या मायने? जब पांच वर्षीय प्रह्लाद को उसके आसुरी पिता हिरण्यकशिपु द्वारा सताया गया था, तो भगवान नृसिंहदेव ने हिरण्यकशिपु के विरुद्ध गंभीर कार्रवाई की थी। हमें नृसिंहदेव के कार्यों का अनुकरण करने की आवश्यकता नहीं, किन्तु जब हमारे आराध्य भगवान से सम्बन्धित वस्तुऐं खतरे में हों अथवा नष्ट कर दी जाऐं तो क्रोध आना हमारी भक्ति का एक स्वाभाविक संकेत है। जब हम किसी विषय में भावनात्मक रूप से निवेशित होते हैं तो उस विषय के प्रति दुर्व्यवहार पर क्रोधित होते ही हैं। ऐसी घटनाओं के प्रति उदासीनता हमारे निष्ठुर होने का परिचायक है।

मुख्य प्रश्न यह नहीं कि हमें क्रोध करना चाहिए या नहीं, बल्कि यह कि हम अपना क्रोध कैसे व्यक्त करें। क्या भावनाऐं हमें नियंत्रित करें, जिससे हम कुछ ऐसा करें कि बाद में पछताऐं या स्थिति और बिगड़ जाए? या हम भावनाओं को नियंत्रित करें और उसका बुद्धिमानी से उपयोग करें? आवश्यक है कि हम अपने क्रोध को रचनात्मक ढंग से अभिव्यक्त करें ताकि इससे परिस्थिति सुधर सके।

मोटे तौर पर, ऐसी परिस्थितियों में हमारी प्रतिक्रिया के दो स्तर हैं:

1. शास्त्रों पर आधारित प्रतिक्रिया (ब्राह्मण स्वभाव के अनुरूप)
2. शस्त्रों के आधार पर प्रतिक्रिया (क्षत्रिय स्वभाव के अनुरूप)

शास्त्रों के आधार पर प्रतिक्रिया का अर्थ है लोगों को गलत धारणाओं से बचाना और उन्हें सही दिशा प्रदान करना। किन्तु शस्त्रों के आधार पर प्रतिक्रिया का अर्थ है निर्दोषों की रक्षा तथा दोषियों को दण्ड। किसी भी स्वस्थ समाज को ऐसी परिस्थितियों से निपटने के लिए शास्त्र और शस्त्र दोनों का उपयोग करने की आवश्यकता होती है।

ब्राह्मण स्वभाव के अनुरूप प्रतिक्रिया

ब्राह्मण दृष्टिकोण के अन्तर्गत हमें तीन बातों का ध्यान रखना होगा:

1. शास्त्रों का आश्रय लेकर हम अपनी श्रद्धा की रक्षा करें
2. विशेष समुदायों के प्रति सांप्रदायिक घृणा न पालें
3. उन लोगों के साथ सामूहिक भावना के साथ काम करें जिनके सांस्कृतिक मूल्य हमारे जैसे ही हों, भले ही ऐसे समुदायों के साथ हमारे दार्शनिक मतभेद क्यों न हों।

आइए हम इन सब बिन्दुओं पर विस्तार से चर्चा करें।

1. अपनी श्रद्धा की रक्षा करें: ऐसी घटनाओं से हमारी श्रद्धा डगमगा सकती है। हमारे मन में यह भाव आ सकता है कि क्या वास्तव में श्रीकृष्ण हमारी रक्षा कर सकते हैं। ऐसे में शास्त्रों द्वारा हम इस बात का ज्ञान ले सकते हैं कि वास्तव में श्रीकृष्ण की रक्षा के मायने क्या हैं। रामायण और महाभारत दोनों ग्रंथों में, कई ऐसे महान चरित्र थे जो पुण्यवान थे, किन्तु फिर भी मृत्यु को प्राप्त हुए। जैसे रामायण में जटायु और महाभारत में अभिमन्यु का उदाहरण। रामायण में, युद्ध होने से पहले, भगवान राम मध्य भारत में स्थित रामटेक नामक स्थान पर आए, जहाँ उन्हें हड्डियों के ढेर मिले। ये उन ऋषियों के अवशेष थे जो तपस्या कर रहे थे और नरभक्षी राक्षसों द्वारा खा लिए गए थे, तथा खाने के उपरान्त राक्षसों ने उनकी हड्डियों को उगल दिया और हड्डियों का ढेर लगा दिया। इस भौतिक संसार में, किसी के साथ भी भयानक घटनाऐं हो सकती हैं, और भगवान के निष्ठावान भक्त भी ऐसी घटनाओं से अछूते नहीं हैं।

श्रीकृष्ण की सुरक्षा शारीरिक स्तर पर सदा प्रकट नहीं होती, किन्तु आध्यात्मिक स्तर पर यह सदा प्रकट होती है। जटायु ने भगवान श्रीराम की भुजाओं में अपने प्राण त्यागे, तथा अभिमन्यु श्रीकृष्ण के कार्य में निमित्त बनकर वीरगति को प्राप्त हुआ। इन दोनों ही भक्तों को परमगति मिली। इसी प्रकार, वे भक्त जो बांग्लादेश में दुर्भाग्यवश मृत्यु को प्राप्त हुए, वे भी ऐसी गति प्राप्त करेंगे जो उनके आध्यात्मिक उत्थान के लिए श्रेयस्कर होगा।

2. सांप्रदायिक घृणा न पालें: ऐसी परिस्थितियों में, किसी धार्मिक समुदाय को बुरा अथवा हिंसक मानकर सांप्रदायिक घृणा पाल लेना बड़ा सरल होता है। ऐसी धारणा पालने के बजाय, शास्त्रों के मार्गदर्शन द्वारा अपने चारों ओर के संसार को हम प्रकृति के तीन गुणों के रूप में देखना सीख सकते हैं। इस संसार में, हर समुदाय में, चाहे वह धार्मिक हो या गैर-धार्मिक, कुछ लोग सत्वगुण में, कुछ रजोगुण में और कुछ तमोगुण में स्थित होते हैं। सतोगुणी लोग चर्चा द्वारा अपने आपसी मतभेदों का समाधान कर सकते हैं। रजोगुणी और तमोगुणी लोग आवेश और अज्ञानता के कारण अपना स्वार्थ सिद्ध करने के लिए हिंसा का प्रयोग करने से नहीं चूकते। ये तीन प्रकार के लोग हर समुदाय में होते हैं। कभी-कभी ऐसे समुदायों के नेता भी रजोगुण और तमोगुण के प्रभाव में हो सकते हैं। ऐसे में उनके सभी अनुयायी हिंसक और विनाशकारी बन जाते हैं। कुछ लोगों अथवा समुदायों द्वारा इस प्रकार यदाकदा घटनाओं के बावजूद, हमें सावधान रहना चाहिए और उन समुदायों में सभी लोगों को एक ही रंग से नहीं रंग देना चाहिए।

यह देखना आवश्यक है कि हमारी गौड़ीय वैष्णव परम्परा के इतिहास में हमारे आचार्य ऐसी परिस्थितियों से कैसे निपटे। श्रील विश्वनाथ चक्रवर्ती ठाकुर ऐसे कालखण्ड में वृंदावन आए थे जब मुगल सम्राट औरंगजे़ब ने उस पवित्रतम स्थान में कृष्ण भक्तों पर कहर बरपाया था। इससे पहले, श्रील रूप और सनातन गोस्वामी वृंदावन आए थे जब अकबर वहाँ मुगल शासक थे। अकबर सहिष्णु था, किन्तु उतना भी उदार नहीं था जितना कि उसे इतिहास की पुस्तकों में चित्रित किया जाता है। अकबर के शासन में, गोस्वामी वृंदावन को विकसित कर सके। ऐसा नहीं था कि अकबर ने बहुत सहायता की, किन्तु कम से कम उसने विकास में बाधा नहीं डाली। गोस्वामियों के राजपूतों के साथ, जिनका मुगल राजाओं के साथ गठबंधन था, अच्छे सम्बन्ध थे और यही कारण था कि वृंदावन की सुरक्षा सुनिश्चित हुई। किन्तु औरंगज़ेब ने अपनी धार्मिक कट्टरता को राजनीतिक गठबंधनों से ऊपर रखा। उसने वृंदावन को तहस-नहस कर दिया और हिंदुओं को आतंकित किया। श्रील विश्वनाथ चक्रवर्ती ठाकुर का वृंदावन में पदार्पण इन लूटपाट की घटनाओं के बाद हुआ और उन्होंने वृन्दावन को (कम से कम उसके कुछ भाग को) उसकी पूर्व महिमा में पुनर्स्थापित किया।

इसी दौरान श्रील विश्वनाथ चक्रवर्ती ने भगवद्गीता तथा श्रीमद्भागवतम् पर अपनी टीकाओं के साथ-साथ कई अन्य भक्तिमय पुस्तकें लिखीं। किन्तु औरंगजे़ब की धार्मिक कट्टरता के दुष्परिणामों को देखने के बाद भी उन्होंने अपनी किसी भी पुस्तक में उन भयानक कृत्यों का उल्लेख नहीं किया। इसके बजाय, उन्होंने गीता के इस कथन को दोहराया कि यह भौतिक संसार दुख का स्थान है, और हम भक्ति के मार्ग पर चलकर ऐसे संकटों को सबसे अच्छी तरह से सहन और पार कर सकते हैं। एक आचार्य होने के नाते, उन्होंने अपने उदाहरण से सिखाया कि अपनी चेतना को समकालीन परिस्थितियों की बलि न चढ़ने दें।

इसके अतिरिक्त, हम ऐसे कष्टों को दार्शनिक रूप से समझने के लिए शास्त्र-चक्षु की सहायता ले सकते हैं। सांप्रदायिक हिंसा की ऐसी घटनाऐं अधिभौतिक-क्लेश (अन्य जीवों के कारण होने वाले कष्ट) कहे जाते हैं, जो सांसारिक क्लेशों के तीन प्रमुख रूपों में से एक है। अन्य दो हैं, आध्यात्मिक-क्लेश (शरीर और मन के कारण होने वाले कष्ट) और अधिदैविक-क्लेश (प्रकृति के कारण होने वाले कष्ट)। इस संसार में जितने अधिक लोग रजोगुण और तमोगुण में होंगे, उतना ही वे एक-दूसरे के लिए इन दुखों का कारण बनेंगे। निस्संदेह, हमें ऐसे लोगों से निपटने के लिए एक क्षत्रिय प्रतिक्रिया की आवश्यकता है। किन्तु यदि हम स्वयं को रजोगुण और तमोगुण के प्रभाव में आने दें, तो हम समाधान का हिस्सा नहीं बनेंगे, बल्कि समस्या को ही और बढ़ाएंगे। हमें यह समझने की आवश्यकता है कि समूचा धर्म अथवा देश कट्टरवादी नहीं होता है; इनके भीतर कुछ ही लोग ऐसे होते हैं।

3. उन लोगों के साथ सामूहिक रूप से काम करें जिनके सांस्कृतिक मूल्य हमारे समान हैं:

हालाँकि हमारा ध्यान कृष्ण भावनामृत के प्रचार पर रहता है, किन्तु मात्र अस्तित्व बनाए रखने के लिए, हमें धर्म अर्थात समाज में कानून और व्यवस्था के बुनियादी रखरखाव की आवश्यकता है। अतः, हमें उन लोगों से जुड़ने की आवश्यकता है जो धर्म के बुनियादी मूल्यों को लेकर हमारे साथ एकमत है। सत्व का अर्थ है एक-दूसरे में समानता देखना, और इसके अंतर्गत वैदिक और हिंदू परंपराओं से जुड़े तमाम अन्य समुदाय भी आते हैं। हमें शास्त्रिय, धार्मिक और दार्शनिक मतभेदों को नज़रअंदाज़ करने के लिए व्यापक दृष्टिकोण अपनाने की आवश्यकता है ताकि हम एकदूसरे के साथ सम्बन्ध स्थापित कर सकें। इससे हम एक सामूहिक शक्ति बन सकेंगे जो ऐसी परिस्थितियों में आगे बढ़ने में हमारी सहायक होगी। एक बार जब भक्तिवेदांत मैनर (यूके का सबसे बड़ा इस्कॉन केंद्र) पर खतरे के बादल मंडरा रहे थे तब उसका सामना करने के लिए पूरा हिंदू समुदाय एक साथ आया और यूके के सबसे बड़े हिन्दु मंदिर भक्तिवेदांत मैनर को बचाया गया। इसी प्रकार, जब रूस में भगवद्गीता पर प्रतिबंध लगा दिया गया था, तो इस तथ्य के कारण कि हिंदुओं की एक मुख्य पवित्र पुस्तक पर प्रतिबंध लगा दिया गया है, एक राष्ट्रीय आक्रोश उत्पन्न हुआ जिसकी गूँज भारतीय संसद तक भी पहुँची। इससे उत्पन्न सरकारी और मीडिया दबाव ने रूसी सरकार को प्रतिबंध को निरस्त करने के लिए विवश किया।

क्षत्रिय प्रतिक्रिया

1. बेहतर आत्मरक्षा
2. सामूहिक समर्थन जुटाने में वृद्धि

1. बेहतर आत्मरक्षा

मंदिरों को अपनी सुरक्षा व्यवस्था बेहतर करने की आवश्यकता है। इसे कई प्रकार से किया जा सकता है जैसे आत्मरक्षा करने में इच्छुक सदस्यों को प्रशिक्षण देना, पहले से ही इस प्रकार का प्रशिक्षण प्राप्त लोगों को मंदिर में सेवा के लिए प्रेरित करना, तथा ऐसे संगठनों की सहायता लेना जो इस विषय में अधिक अनुभवी तथा दक्ष हैं। आत्मरक्षा हेतु पहले से ही तैयार रहना कोई नया नहीं है। इसकी मिसालें हैं। जब श्रील प्रभुपाद मायापुर (भगवान चैतन्य का जन्म स्थान और इस्कॉन का वैश्विक मुख्यालय) परियोजना विकसित कर रहे थे, तब वहां मंदिर क्षेत्र में डकैतों से बचाने के लिए प्रशिक्षित भक्तों को बंदूकें रखनी पड़ती थीं।

2. सामूहिक समर्थन जुटाने में वृद्धि

साथ ही साथ, यह भी याद रखना महत्वपूर्ण है कि क्षत्रिय मार्ग का अर्थ मात्र युद्ध नहीं है; इसमें कूटनीति भी आती है। यदि हम शस्त्रों और लड़ने पर आवश्यकता से अधिक ध्यान केंद्रित करेंगे, तो हमारे ऊपर दक्षिणपंथी कट्टरवादी होने का ठप्पा लग सकता है, और हमें ऐसे कट्टरवादी बनने के खतरे का सामना भी करना पड़ सकता है। मोटे तौर पर, क्षत्रिय विवादों के हल के लिए चार प्रकार से कार्य कर सकते हैं: साम (समाधान: परस्पर हितों पर ध्यान देना), दाम (पुरस्कार: सौहार्दपूर्ण समाधान के लिए लाभ का प्रस्ताव), भेद (विरोध: अपने विरोधी को कमजोर करने के लिए विपरीत पक्ष में दरारें पैदा करना) और दण्ड (बल: विरोधियों पर काबू पाने के लिए शारीरिक अथवा सैन्य बल का प्रयोग करना)। वर्तमान संदर्भ में इन रणनीतियों का कूटनीतिक अर्थ है बांग्लादेशी सरकार पर दबाव बनाना। विश्व भर के भक्तों ने दुनिया भर के 150 शहरों में कीर्तन विरोध मार्च का आयोजन किया। साथ ही अन्य हिंदू समुदायों के साथ भक्तों ने विश्व के विभिन्न भागों में बांग्लादेश के दूतावासों को पत्र दिए। इन पत्रों में बांग्लादेश सरकार से चार अनुरोध किए गए हैं:

*हिंदू मंदिरों, व्यवसायों और घरों की सुरक्षा;
*अपराधियों को दण्ड देकर न्याय;
*पीड़ितों के लिए क्षतिपूर्ति;
*सरकारी लागत से मंदिरों का पुनर्निर्माण।

इस प्रकार के विरोधों और याचिकाओं को अधिक प्रभावी बनाने के लिए, हमें एक समुदाय के रूप में अधिक एकजुट होने और जनसमर्थन जुटाने पर अधिक ध्यान केंद्रित करने की आवश्यकता है, जिससे मुख्यधारा के मीडिया केन्द्रों, मानवाधिकार संगठनों तथा राष्ट्रीय सरकारों द्वारा हमारी पीड़ा सुनी जा सके। वर्तमान जगत में, वित्तीय कार्रवाई का भय कारगर साबित हो सकता है। कई पश्चिमी सरकारें बांग्लादेश को सहायता के रूप में लाखों डॉलर देती हैं; यदि इन सरकारों को राजी किया जा सके कि वे ऐसी वित्तीय सहायता बांग्लादेशी सरकार को तब ही प्रदान करे जब वे बांग्लादेश के हिंदू अल्पसंख्यकों के मानवाधिकारों की सुरक्षा सुनिश्चित करे। ऐसी सुरक्षा किसी भी सरकार का मूल कर्तव्य है जो धर्मनिरपेक्ष होने का दावा करती है। इस प्रकार के वित्तीय परिणामों का भय बांग्लादेशी सरकार को कार्रवाई करने के लिए प्रेरित कर सकता है। भले ही इस्कॉन जनसंख्या के दृष्टि से इतना बड़ा न हो कि एक लोकतांत्रिक सरकार का ध्यान आकर्षित कर सके, पर हम हिंदुओं का एक बड़ा समुदाय हैं, जो पश्चिमी जगत के सबसे धनी अप्रवासियों में से एक हैं। इसके अलावा, संसार में हिंदुओं को सम्मान की दृष्टि से देखा जाता है कि वे आमतौर पर कानून का पालन करने वाले होते हैं, नियमित टैक्स चुकाते हैं, कड़ा परिश्रम और व्यक्तिगत उत्तरदायित्व उनकी प्रकृति में होता है, और वे शिक्षा तथा अपने व्यावसायों में सफल होते हैं। सामूहिक रूप में हम एक प्रभावशाली शक्ति बन सकते हैं। दुर्भाग्यवश, हिंदू समुदाय के रूप में हमने अपने इस प्रभाव का उपयोग जनसमर्थन जुटाने के लिए नहीं किया है विशेष रूप से उन कारणों के लिए जो हमारे समुदाय के लिए महत्वपूर्ण हैं। आशा है कि यह भयानक घटना एक ऐसा झटका हो जो ठोस कार्रवाई करने के लिए हमें एक साथ आने के लिए प्रेरित करे।

End of transcription.

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One criticism of the movie in some circles is that it may lead to stereotyping of all Muslims as fanatics, extremists or even terrorists. While that is a valid concern, how can that concern be actually addressed? By concealing the truth?

Truth

With regards to the issue underlying the Kashmir files, let’s consider some of the undeniable facts:
● A massive exodus of Kashmiri Hindus happened,
● The exodus was caused by an ethnic cleansing (irrespective of the exact number of people who were killed),
● The Kashmiri Hindus lived for a long time as refugees in desolate and even desperate conditions.
● In India’s mainstream media, the story of their tragedy and trauma remained untold and worse still was often downplayed, denied or even distorted.

Shouldn’t the telling of their experience be a valid concern, even a vital concern? While more may need to be done to avoid negative stereotyping of Muslims, at least something has been done by Bollywood — in fact, entire movies like My name is Khan have been dedicated to this theme. But what has been done to highlight, or even convey, the agony of the Kashmiri Hindus, who were the victims of the ethnic cleansing.

Sacrificing truth for tolerance’s sake?

Once it’s recognized that the truth was concealed, let’s analyze why this might have been done. There could be broadly three reasons:
● Malevolence: The people involved were evil and wanted to harm others or
● Incompetence: Those people just didn’t have the abilities or skills to do the right thing
● Ignorance: Those people didn’t know what was the right thing to do and they did what they thought was right, even if it wasn’t

Let’s consider which of these explanations apply to the denial of the plight of the Kashmiri Hindus. While a few may be malevolent and some may be incompetent, let’s adopt a spirit of charity and assume that they were largely ignorant: they genuinely thought that concealing the truth was the best way to avoid communal violence in India and even in the world at large.

Of course, the way the leftist intellectuals went about concealing the truth was not at all incompetent. The history was not just concealed but also distorted. The movie itself depicts the magnitude of the distortion: a young man whose own parents were killed in the ethnic cleansing thought that they died in just an accident — and he grew up to believe, or rather was (mis)educated to believe that the murderers of his family were actually freedom fighters, justified in the use of violence. In fact, a major plotline in the movie is his confusion and tension about what actually happened. And what resolved the tension? The truth; the carefully documented factual reports about events — the documentation is the basis of the movie’s name.

Depending on how history is told, victims may end up being remembered as the victimizers or at least as those who brought the victimization on themselves. And victimizers may end up being remembered as people who were wronged and who were justified in doing what they did. For example, during the Holocaust, Hitler’s propaganda machinery made many non-Nazi Germans believe that the Jews deserved whatever was being done to them — and that the Nazis were not just righteous in their actions but also glorious.

Thus, the attempt to conceal the truth, for whatever reason, ends up in the situation of ‘blaming the victim’ — making the victim believe that their actions were the cause of their victimization, not the victimizer’s vile actions. When ‘blaming the victim’ is used to explain away crimes such as an assault on a woman, the mainstream modern worldview finds it reprehensible; how much more reprehensible is it when an entire community is subjected to something similar?

The cause of intolerance

Intolerance, especially in the form of extremist ideology, is the enemy of humanity — it can attack humanity through many channels, be it through secular ideologies such as communism that left the USSR and China with a hundred million corpses or through religious ideologies such as Islamic extremism. Whichever be the channel through which extremism seeks to divide and destroy humanity, the point is that extremism needs to be curbed and countered.

Significantly, the Bhagavad-gita doesn’t categorize people based on religious divisions, certainly not religious designations as we see them today. It categorizes people based on behavioral and psychological characteristics into three modes: sattva (goodness), rajas (passion) and tamas (ignorance). Sattva is characterized by reflection before action, rajas by action before reflection and tamas by inaction or indiscriminately destructive action. These three modes exist in everyone, though their relative percentage varies from person to person. Depending on which mode is prominent in a person, that person is said to be in sattva, rajas or tamas.

Extremist violence is an especially toxic example of tamas. And one major reason for such violence is ignorance — or more specifically, in the language of the Bhagavad-gita, knowledge in the mode of ignorance (18.22). This paradoxical term underscores the situation where a person acquires knowledge in such a way that their increased knowledge simply reinforces their ignorance instead of removing their ignorance. How might this happen? When a person gains knowledge about only one particular point in a complex situation, they think they know what happened, but they only end up neglecting or rejecting other pertinent points — and rejecting it self-righteously or even arrogantly.

Consider a relatively innocuous example of such knowledge in the mode of ignorance. Suppose a child wants a toy, but his parents don’t get it — and the child concludes, “My parents don’t love me.” There could be a dozen other reasons why the parents didn’t get that toy for the child, maybe because the family needed other things urgently at that time. But the more the child sees other things being bought, the more the child’s knowledge ‘grows’ and reinforces his ignorant inference that his parents don’t love him.

A far more dangerous example of such knowledge in the mode of ignorance is seen in the mainstream strategy for dealing with extremism: its focus on Islamophobia instead of on Islamic extremism. Yes, it’s true that some people are stereotyped negatively in some parts of the world because they belong to a particular community. But does that mean the only reason for such stereotyping is that all of society is filled with judgmental people who are prejudiced against that community? And is the solution to such prejudice denying the acts of intolerance by any member of that community? Not at all, the actual solution is preventing acts of intolerance. When the fire is extinguished, the smoke will automatically go away. When the fire of Islamic extremism is dealt with firmly, the smoke of Islamophobia will automatically go away.

Tolerating intolerance spreads intolerance

Here, an argument is often advanced: “But the extremists are a tiny fringe. Why label an entire community negatively?” Agreed; considering that every fourth person in the world today is a Muslim, it’s entirely unreasonable to claim that every Muslim is an extremist — if they were, the world would be a far worse place. Still, there are several places in the world where the extremists are not the fringe; they are the mainstream. And the fringe can become mainstream in no time. As the Kashmir Files movie shows, violent terrorists were abetted by neighbors who turned informers, by priests who turned rationalizers and by housewives who actively aided in consuming, diverting or destroying the ration meant for the Hindu refugees, thereby starving them and compelling them to flee.

Extremism is like a cancer — if untreated, it can rapidly spread from the fringe of society to segments of society that we would normally never associate with extremism: segments such as children who are indoctrinated into becoming suicide bombers. Can the spread of such cancer be fostered by denying the truth — in this case, the truth of horrendous incidents of intolerance justified in the name of Islam? Not at all; it’s like arguing that cancer can be treated by denying its existence — that’s a suicidal strategy. To treat cancer, the exact areas where cancer exists have to be determined and those parts need to be rigorously treated while protecting and promoting the overall health of the rest of the body. Similarly, the key to fostering tolerance is twofold: disempower the intolerant and empower the tolerant. Neither of these is aided by concealing the actions of the intolerant. Such concealment takes away the impetus for the tolerant to stand up against the intolerant. If moderate Muslims don’t know what extremist Muslims have done — if they are taught to believe that allegations of extremism arise not from a grain of truth but from a smog of prejudice — then they will never even feel the need to stand up against extremists. And if extremists are allowed to get away with their violent actions, that will only embolden them further. Over time, such extremists will turn against people of their own faith, if those people disagree with them. Eventually, the moderates will become silenced and even co-opted in the cause of the extremists. Thus, concealing the truth about intolerance actually ends up empowering the intolerant and disempowering the tolerant. The sobering reality is that covering up intolerance by a group doesn’t help anyone — not even members of that very group. Indeed, tolerating intolerance spreads intolerance.

Consider several countries where Islamic extremists have significant political influence, if not absolute power. Such countries are characterized by persecution of not just non-Muslim faiths, but even Muslim denominations that differ from the ruling dispensation. Thus, Sunni Muslims are targeted in Shia Iran. The Ahmadiyya Muslims in pre-independence India chose to support the partition of the country and went to Pakistan. But there they are persecuted by mainstream Muslims — and many of them have sought and found refuge in India.

While much is made about Hindu-Muslim violence in India, the fact is that apart from a a few incidents of widespread riots, overall Muslims are far safer in India than in other parts of the world, including even in Islamic theocratic states. Though India has among the largest Muslim populations in the world, Shia-Sunni violence in India is almost non-existent.

The truth that can foster tolerance

It is the recording and repeating of the truth that is essential for empowering the tolerant and disempowering the intolerant.

How can the tolerant be empowered? By ensuring that they are exposed fully and frankly to the horrors of intolerance. Otherwise, they will not have sufficient impetus to resist and reject intolerance.

How can the intolerant be disempowered? By taking the existence and occurrence of intolerance seriously, not whitewashing or rationalizing it. And a part of taking intolerance seriously is taking into account the self-professed motivations of the intolerant. While their intolerance may have many causes including socio-economic and geopolitical, those causes alone don’t need to lead to extremist violence. The Kashmiri Hindus had sufficient socio-economic and geopolitical reasons to take to violence; they didn’t; instead, they sought education, employment and made a new life for themselves in other parts of the world. A large number of disaffected Kashmiri Muslims, whose plight certainly was not worse than that of the refugee Kashmiri Hindus, chose violence. If we want to get a full picture of why they chose this course of action, we need to consider what they themselves considered as a primary justification for violence. And their justification was religion.

The point is not to condemn a particular religion; the point is to recognize that at this particular point in history, extremism is expressing itself especially virulently through a specific channel, viz, namely Islamic extremism. The world’s failure to recognize Nazi intolerance darkened human history with the Holocaust; do we want that horrendous history to be repeated? It is the moral responsibility of everyone, whatever be their religion, to prevent Islam from being taken over by Islamic extremists. Rather than playing games with the truth in the vain hope that appeasement will pacify the intolerance, we need to see that truth is the precondition for tolerance.
To foster tolerance grounded in truth, we need to deal with both the channel and the source of intolerance. What does dealing with the channel of intolerance mean? It means recognizing where, when and how intolerance appears, and spreading awareness of such intolerance so that resistance to it can be galvanized. What does dealing with the source of intolerance mean? It means recognizing that intolerance arises frequently from an elitist, exclusivist mentality that derides, dehumanizes, demonizes and finally destroys others who don’t share that mentality.

The channel of intolerance can be dealt with by documenting historical truths about the emergence of intolerance. The source of intolerance can be dealt with by assimilating spiritual truths that can help counter an exclusivist mindset.

The two major religions of the world — Christianity and Islam — are characterized, at least in their mainstream versions, by an exclusivist ethos: “Our way is the only way.” This ethos doesn’t mean that everyone following that religion has an exclusivist attitude; some or even many practitioners of that religion may well be broad-minded as individuals. Nonetheless, exclusivism can act as a fertile breeding ground for extremism; once someone has come to believe, “Those who don’t follow my path are doomed”, they may well be manipulated by power-hungry leaders into believing, “Those who don’t follow our path can be destroyed or even should be destroyed.” This degeneration from exclusivism to extremism is a significant cause of most of the violence that the world has seen in the name of religion. In the medieval times, the Crusades were fought between Christianity and Islam. Even today, countries like Lebanon and Nigeria are witnessing inter-religious violence between these two exclusivist religions.

How can such exclusivism be countered? By fostering a more inclusivist ethos. One time-tested source of such inclusivism is Vedic wisdom. This ethos is embodied in the well-known aphorism: ekam sat vipra bahudha vadanti “There is but one truth, though it is known by different names.” (Rg Veda 1.164.46) Echoing that theme, the Gita too offers an inclusive worldview which acknowledges the value and validity of different paths for different people (04.11). And a foundational aspect of this worldview is stressing the shared spirituality that defines our identity. The Gita explains that at our core, we all are spiritual beings. This understanding can uproot prejudice and foster an equal vision toward everyone (05.18). This equal vision is not a naive denial of the differences between people and their choices, be they secular or religions — it is a mature acknowledgement that the things that draw us apart are less defining than the things that draw us together. To bring about that unity and harmony, the forces that unite us need to be strengthened and the forces that divide us need to be weakened. In terms of the modes, this means sattva needs to be strengthened in individual human hearts and people in whom sattva is already strong need to be empowered. Sattva is manifest in moderation. If moderates from various paths can come together to have candid discussions and formulate tangible solutions, then that collaboration can be the strongest insurance against intolerance. Who knows, many who are presently intolerant may rise from tamas to sattva and become moderates. If not, they will at least be exposed and empowered, thereby substantially decreasing their capacity to spread their toxic influence to the rest of society. Over time, they will lose both their deadly powers: the power to destroy the targets of their intolerance and the power to corrupt the targets of their radicalization.

The world needs such an inclusive ethos if it is to challenge and counter extremism. The truth-telling that has begun with the Kashmir Files movie needs to extend to the spiritual wisdom that made Kashmir and India at large the arena for a rich and inclusive culture.

The post The Kashmir Files Reflection: Tolerance at the cost of truth destroys both appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

Transcendentalist beyond traditionalist

Traditionalists believe that the past was the reservoir of everything good and that turning back the clock is the only way to human flourishing. They spend much of their time, emotion, energy and intelligence in lamenting how dreadful the present is and in nostalgically reminiscing how wonderful the past was.
Prabhupada certainly held that we had much to learn from the past. In our contemporary infatuation with progress, we have cut ourselves off from the past’s treasure trove of enriching wisdom. Therefore, Prabhupada presented and represented the wisdom that had been prevalent in India in the past. But he didn’t consider that wisdom as belonging to the past; it was timeless and transcendental, having its source in the supreme transcendental reality, Krishna. Because he knew that the timeless is timely at all times, he didn’t feel the need to center his outreach efforts on turning back the clock.

Recognizing that many of the religious rituals and cultural customs of the past couldn’t be replicated in the present, he downplayed those mores of the past. Steering clear of a naive idolization of the past, Prabhupada judiciously selected from the past those things which would help people today to come closer to Krishna. He engaged his students in spiritual practices that were doable and transformational for them. In a similar spirit of not fighting unnecessarily against the flow of history, he didn’t insist on rejecting the many facilities provided by modernity, especially by modern technology. In fact, he went far beyond acknowledging the utility and even necessity of technology for daily living in today’s world; he even encouraged the use of technology for sharing spiritual wisdom more efficiently and extensively.

Striking an even grander note in that same vein, he envisioned his movement as a global synthesis of the East and the West. Speaking metaphorically, he talked about how two people — one blind and one lame — can help each other. The lame man can show the way to the blind man and the blind man can carry the lame man, and thus both can reach their destination. Unpacking the metaphor, he asserted that India was like the lame man and the West was like the blind man. The two needed to work together for raising human consciousness and promoting the world’s welfare. How is this metaphor relevant to our discussion on transcendental vis-a-vis traditional? Because through the metaphor, Prabhupada conveys that India today needs to join forces with the West, not change itself to the India of some idyllic past.

Why did Prabhupada compare the West to a blind man? Because of its obsession with materialism and its alienation from its spiritual foundations. Was this comparison a self-congratulatory put-down of the West? No. He was not the first person to make such an assessment; many others, including several Western thinkers, have voiced similar sentiments. For example, Martin Luther King Jr stated, “Our technological power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.”

Why did Prabhupada compare India to a lame man? Because subjugation by foreign rulers for nearly a millennia had stripped India off most of its phenomenal past prosperity. How can India’s spiritual resources work in conjunction with the West’s material resources? If modern resources such as technology were used to spread spiritual values and if Western people, whom the rest of the world including India often imitated, started prioritizing spiritual values, the whole world would become much more ready to give spirituality its due place in their lives. And the consequent rising of human consciousness with its increased selflessness and service attitude would address at the root many of the world’s most trenchant problems.

Another example of Prabhupada’s emphasis on the transcendental rather than just the traditional is his strong opposition of the discriminatory caste system, wherein caste was determined by birth. He declared this system to be a latter-day corruption of varnashrama, an ancient system of social organization based on innate human psychophysical orientations. In his many talks and writings, he unapologetically explained the rationale for varnashrama, thus demonstrating how the baby could be cherished while throwing away the dirty bath water.

Prabhupada’s teachings were firmly grounded in tradition, or more precisely, in traditional commentaries on wisdom-texts from the Vedic canon. Simultaneously, he wrote extensive commentaries that explained the transcendental import and contemporary relevance of those texts. In the over seventy books that emerged from his teachings, he presented not just Vedic wisdom, but the best of Vedic wisdom: that is, those aspects of Vedic wisdom that were centered on the supreme spiritual reality, Krishna, and on the principle of universal spiritual love, bhakti.

Another key differentiator between Prabhupada and a traditionalist was his de-emphasizing ritual puritanism, while simultaneously emphasizing spiritual purity. Puritanism often centers on parading one’s own purity according to certain predefined cultural or moral standards, while simultaneously demeaning or even demonizing those who lack that purity. Such puritanism often made India’s religious elite and masses look down on people who were deemed lower caste or outcaste. In heart-warming contrast, Prabhupada saw the spiritual potential of everyone, irrespective of their status in terms of ritual purity. Stressing that everyone is a part of Krishna (Bhagavad-gita 15.07) and has Krishna present in them (Bhagavad-gita 15.15), he sought to fan the spark of spiritual interest in whoever he encountered. His spiritually inclusive approach enabled him to do something remarkable: connect with young people from the American counterculture in the 1960s, people who had come to reject most of the norms that defined mainstream Western society. He warmly welcomed such young people, cordially discussed philosophy with them and affectionately served them sanctified food (prasad). He even washed their plates after they left — something usually unthinkable for caste-conscious brahmins who wouldn’t even break bread with those considered impure.

While Prabhupada firmly avoided puritanism, he did convey that spiritual purity was vital for developing a personal relationship with all-pure Krishna. Though he wanted his committed students to adopt habits of self-regulation that would foster purity, he never made those who couldn’t or wouldn’t follow such habits feel guilty or dirty or unwanted. He focused on the spark of the Divine in everyone, not on the contaminations around that spark. Consequently, those who came in his presence often felt unconditionally loved by him. And he attracted toward bhakti spirituality thousands, even millions, from various backgrounds all over the world.

Additionally, with regard to some areas where Prabhupada might have seemed a regressive traditionalist, he has turned out to be a presciently futuristic. For example, among the many spiritual teachers that went from India to the West, he was among the rare few who emphasized living off the land and a vegetarian diet. Describing how Krishna lived in the pastoral paradise of Vrindavana and how devotees have for millennia lived close to nature, he encouraged his students to establish eco-friendly farm communities. Calls similar to his for living in harmony with nature are now being echoed and amplified by the widespread environmental movement which has recognized the dire necessity for humans to shift toward more sustainable ways of living.

Also, Prabhupada was among the Western pioneers in sharing the art of vegetarian cooking. Through his culinary expertise, he demonstrated how vegetarianism was far more relishable than an austere sentence to live on vegetables. Today, that trend toward vegetarianism has, with some variations, burgeoned into the huge veganism movement.

Transcendentalist beyond existentialist

“Live in the present” is a common existential saying that has gained widespread currency in today’s mainstream culture. It has merit in an important sense: being attentive to things happening in the present is far better than lamenting about the bad things that happened in the past or worrying about the bad things that may happen in the future. And Prabhupada was existentialist in that sense. For example, when he traveled to America at the age of sixty-nine for the purpose of sharing spiritual wisdom, he focused on the present. He seized whatever opportunity he got, however slim it might seem to a logical mind. And he responded enthusiastically to whoever showed interest, however unlikely that person might seem as a potential candidate for bhakti spirituality. He didn’t become discouraged by thinking about the past, wherein nearly all of his efforts to share bhakti had received at best an underwhelming response. Neither did he become paranoid by thinking about the future, contemplating all the dangers that might befall a lone, elderly teacher in a foreign land. Only because he paid meticulous attention to even the smallest of openings that came his way was he able to spread his movement, initially slowly and then dramatically rapidly.

Though Prabhupada lived in the present, he did not live for the present. In fact, living for the present can be a recipe for distress, especially for those whose present is bleak. Consider a patient suffering from a prolonged and painful disease. The only way they can get the inspiration to endure and survive is by living for a future when their health will be better. They need to live in the present in the sense that they need to take their treatment attentively, but to tell them to live for the present is to sentence them to unmitigated misery, maybe even unbearable misery.

Unlike such patients who somehow endure their present, Prabhupada wasn’t somehow enduring his present filled with anonymity waiting for a future of fame. Those who met him in the Lower East Side, New York, when he was still an unknown swami noticed immediately how he radiated a simple, sublime joy. He was satisfied speaking about Krishna to anyone who came to meet him or hear from him. And for the many who couldn’t or wouldn’t come, he was kindly writing books explaining the message of Krishna. Undoubtedly, he wanted more people to hear Krishna’s message and be benefited from it — that’s why he had traveled, at great personal risk, thousands of miles seeking an interested audience. Still, his happiness wasn’t dependent on the spread of his message; he was content in his service to Krishna. Those who met him during those days narrate how he seemed to be rooted in some unflappable reality far beyond the noisy, busy streets of New York.

Despite Prabhupada’s pragmatic focus on the present, he was certainly not an existentialist in the philosophical sense of the word. Existentialist philosophers posit that our existence in a hostile universe is ultimately unexplainable. Therefore, they disregard philosophical explanations about the nature of reality and concern themselves only with doing the best in the present. In radical opposition to such an unphilosophical approach to life, Prabhupada stressed that the faculty for philosophical inquiry differentiates humans from other life-forms. In the light of his teachings, a philosophy such as existentialism that downplays or denies the importance of philosophy is not a philosophy at all; it is better called a “foolosophy,” the sophistry of fools.

Drawing from the vast library of ancient Indian wisdom-texts, he articulated a coherent philosophy that infused the lives of millions with meaning, purpose and joy. He wove together diverse concepts such as the immortality of the soul, the universality of reincarnation, the pervasiveness of cosmic accountability in the form of karma, the accessibility of a personal all-attractive divinity and the inalienable potential of the heart for everlasting love. And in the resulting philosophical mosaic, he emphasized how love and service, centered on Krishna, could help us all make ourselves better and our world better. Simultaneously, we would be preparing our consciousness for elevation toward a better place, in fact the best place in our post-mortem existence.

Though he was deeply philosophical in his teachings, he cautioned his students against getting lost in a philosophical maze. When he was asked, “What do you think of Buddhism?” he sensed that the questioner was asking from a platform of idle intellectualism. Rather than getting into the intricacy of any philosophy, he counter-questioned, “Do you follow Buddha?” When the surprised questioner replied, “Er … No.” Prabhupada emphatically declared, “Follow Buddha; follow Jesus; follow Krishna; follow someone. Don’t just talk.” His point was that mere academic comparison of various schools of thought wouldn’t provide any substantial spiritual insight; only by adopting a path through appropriate lifestyle change could one realize the validity and suitability of any path for them.

Transcendentalist beyond utopianist

Utopianists believe that the future holds the answer to all problems. They usually subscribe to some ideology or methodology, which they hold will bring in utopia in this world. Nowadays, the most influential utopianists are champions of technology; they claim and proclaim that technological advancement will provide the key to a secure and happy future.

It’s difficult to see Prabhupada as a utopianist — he often quoted the Gita (08.15) to declare that life will always remain tough in this world; distress can never be eliminated from it. He also quoted the Bhagavatam: the present cosmic age is a dark age (Kali-yuga) characterized by human decline. Yet such statements didn’t make him gloomy, lethargic or pessimistic.

Far from it, Prabhupada often exhibited a defining feature of a utopianist: a positive, hope-filled vision of the future. Based on a holistic understanding of the Vedic texts, he knew that though the cosmic cycle might be presently on a downturn, humans always have the potential to evolve spiritually. And the activation of that potential is often aided by divine compassion. During times of spiritual emergency such as the present, Krishna becomes more merciful and makes himself more accessible than the past through comparatively easier means such as the chanting of the holy names.

Considering himself a humble instrument in the hands of his spiritual master and Krishna, Prabhupada tirelessly played his part in what he saw as a cosmic rescue plan. And he felt confident about the materialization of a divine prediction: the holy names of Krishna will be chanted in every town and village of the world. With such a vision of his mission, he was always optimistic about the future. While he was still an unknown swami, he would sometimes declare: There are temples all over the world and they are filled with hundreds of devotees. Time alone is separating us from them.

And his confident optimism was well-founded. In little more than a decade, he had spoken at thousands of places in fourteen speaking tours that circumnavigated the world. He had founded a vibrant global movement that had 108 centers across the world. And he had inspired millions toward higher consciousness, greater meaning and deeper fulfillment. He assured his students that they all could be instruments for ushering in a golden sub-age within this dark iron age, provided they maintained spiritual integrity and vibrancy. By the time he departed from the world, he had bequeathed his students in specific and the world at large a rich and resourceful spiritual legacy that could raise human consciousness for generations, centuries, even millennia.

The essence-seeker (sara-grahi)

Through his life and teachings, Prabhupada demonstrated how to be a paramahamsa (the supreme swan). Just as the swan is said to have the ability to take the milk out of a combination of milk and water, he focused on the spiritual essence from all three phases of time: past, present and future. Through his personal example, he demonstrated the truth of one of the key verses of the Srimad-Bhagavatam (1.7.7): by hearing about Krishna, our devotional attraction to him awakens, thereby freeing us from the illusions characteristic of the three phases of time — lamentation about the past, illusion about the present and fear about the future.

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Late into the night, while the world slept 

A light was being lit by a spiritual adept

That light would illuminate humanity for generations

Showing a spiritual pathway to people from many nations. 

After just a few hours of sleep, Prabhupada arose and contemplated, 

Working tirelessly at an age when most people vegetated 

Blessing us with a wisdom that we didn’t know we were missing  

Explaining what a world with technology and prosperity was still lacking.

With a dictaphone in hand, pausing, deliberating, recording, 

He exposed the meaningless materialism in which we were residing

He spoke of a God whose love could make our empty heart full,

Of a devotion that could make life’s challenges meaningful. 

On this sacred day, on a sublime evening of nineteen seventy-seven, 

He departed to be with his Lord in the supreme heaven

Leaving as he had been living, in divine absorption, 

He showed how we all can pass life’s final examination. 

When desires crowd our heart, may his teachings be our vision

When doubts cloud our head, may his example be our beacon 

May remembering his dedication become our driving inspiration

May sharing his message become our unifying aspiration. 

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Abortion has been positioned in today’s mainstream media as a right of woman or an issue of female reproductive health. In today’s media, movies which give a message opposite to the dominant leftist narrative centered on feminism are systematically sidelined. This movie, produced by the Christian equivalent of Netflix called “Pureflix”, was denied trailer advertisements on all mainstream networks except Fox News, and it was banned by critics not so much for its cinematic flaws as for its core message.

To deny the ghastly reality of abortion so that people can go about uninhibitedly – and to present it as a right of a woman – is a great wrong. The very name of the global organization that propagates and facilitates abortion –”Planned Parenthood” – points to the deceptive cover-up of the reality. It is a systematic plan to not only prevent unwanted parenthood, but also to deter any deep thought about the choice of abandoning parenthood through abortion.

The women who go for abortion are not allowed to see the sonographic pictures of what is there in their womb. The sonography is done so that the clinic can determine the size of the embryo, and accordingly the charge for the abortion. However, women are given sanitized messages that actually neither they nor the embryo at this stage will feel any pain.

The magnitude of the denial present in the abortion industry is seen through the fact that Abby herself has never encountered the unvarnished reality of abortion, despite working in the industry for nearly a decade, including several years as the clinic director. Due to a staff shortage, one day she is unexpectedly called to assist in a sonography-guided abortion of a thirteen-week-old unborn child. When she sees through the sonography on the computer screen, the child is desperately trying to get away from the suction machine, which inserts a cannula into the womb and dismembers and drags the remains of the child out. The child struggles frantically as its finely formed backbone is crushed with diabolical precision. Then it becomes motionless as the tiny pieces are collected and brought out. And where there was a throbbing life in the uterus just a few minutes earlier, now there is a dark empty space. This experience is so jolting that she soon resigns as the clinic director and decides to become an anti-abortion activist.

Eventually, she wrote a bestselling book about her personal entry into and out of the abortion industry, which has the same name “Unplanned.” This motion picture is an adapted version of that book. In America it has an R rating. Some abortion films try to avoid this “R rating”, so that they can reach a greater audience. So, they don’t show the horrific blood and gore that are intrinsic to the act of abortion. But such sanitization numbs the impact by further continuing the denial of reality that enables people to embrace abortion as a default choice, whenever the pregnancy test shows an unwanted positive.

Of course, condemning those who conduct abortion or those who have done abortion themselves is not the solution. We need a bigger dialogue and deliberation in society, about how we have arrived today at a place, where in America alone, 926,000 documented abortions take place every year. This is not just because the technology to do abortion has become more widespread and accessible. It is also because the responsibility associated with sexuality has been increasingly dwindled, which is because of the ever-increasing glamorization of casual sexuality in the name of sexual freedom.

The sexual revolution started in the 1960’s, and has had many unwanted consequences such as the breakdown of the families and the neglect of the children. One effect is the alarming increase in the number of abortions.

To deal with abortion at the root, we need to stop the denial first. Many to-be-mothers, if they see their baby through sonography scans, change their minds about having it aborted. But unfortunately, they are never given access to that, and they are given misleading anodynes, including the canard – the deliberately fabricated lie that abortion is painless for both them and their fetus. But as the movie graphically shows, it can be horribly painful on occasions for the mother, and it is of course murderously painful for the infant. By confronting the reality of the life in the womb, and speaking for the rights of the embryo, and not just the rights of the mother in whose womb that embryo is, we can rise beyond the casual sexuality, to see sexuality and its product, life, with greater sanctity and spirituality.

And the rectification of this has to begin by acquiring a more spiritual world-view, wherein we see all life as sacred. Bhagavad-gita, the ancient guidebook of spiritual wisdom, indicates that life comes not from the biochemical combination that is the body, but from the spark of spirit, the soul.

Srimad-Bhagavatam (3.31), another time-honored guidebook for spiritual living, describes how the soul enters into the mother’s womb and is conscious while there – it is certainly not a mere tissue to be removed. With such spiritual understanding, we see our sexuality as a sacred gift to be used for bringing new life into the world; and we recognize the dangers of casual sexuality for everyone involved.

“Unplanned” is an important reminder of the darkness and gruesomeness toward which society is increasingly headed because of casual sexuality. No living being aborts its progeny with the systematically designed technological mechanisms and equally systematically designed denial mechanisms as do humans today. Society urgently needs the course correction of a more spiritual world-view and lifestyle.

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madopaśamanaṁ śāstraṁ khalānāṁ kurute madam
cakṣuḥ prakāśakaṁ teja ulūkānām ivāndhatām

madopaśamanam — removers of arrogance; śāstram — scriptures; khalānām — for the wicked; kurute — they increase; madam — arrogance; cakṣuḥ-prakāśakam — eye illuminating; tejaḥ — brilliance [of the sun]; ulūkānām — for the owls; iva — like; andhatām — blindness.

“The arrogance of the wicked increases on studying scripture, which is actually meant to remove arrogance, just as the darkness owls experience increases with the rising of the sun, which is actually meant to remove darkness.”

— Subhāṣita-ratna-bhāṇḍāgāram, ku-paṇḍita-nindā, Verse 11.

To properly perceive even ordinary reality, we need humility. While driving along a road, if we become overconfident, thinking that we know the way, we may become neglectful and get jolted by newly-formed potholes. For our life-journey, scripture is a guidebook. If we become over-confident, thinking that we know the way and don’t need scripture, we won’t see life’s spiritual side and will find ourselves coming to a dead end at the end of our life with death. Even along the way to that gloomy destination, we will be tormented and thwarted by the temporariness and emptiness of the world’s many allurements. Given this blinding power of arrogance, the Bhagavad-gita (13.08-12) places humility first in its list of twenty items of knowledge.

Humility means to acknowledge that reality is bigger than our conceptions. And since scripture is a guide to reality, humility in the study of scripture means acknowledging the complexity of scripture too. No matter how learned we may be in scripture, it will still have many subtleties and nuances unknown to us.

This Subhashita illustrates the pitfall of pride with the example of owls. With the rising of the sun, all living beings start seeing, but owls stop seeing. Scripture is like a sun – it illumines our life-journey with the light of knowledge. However, if we are owl-like, we shut ourselves to that illumination. Pertinently, the Ishopanishad (mantra 9) cautions that those in ignorance enter into darkness, but those with so-called knowledge enter into far greater darkness. To understand this paradoxical statement, consider the metaphor of blindness. To be blind is problematic; to be blind and to believe that one can see is even more problematic; to be blind, to believe that one can see and to believe those with vision are blind is most problematic. Similarly, to be in ignorance is bad; to be in ignorance and to claim to be in knowledge is worse; to be in ignorance, to claim to be in knowledge and to deem those in knowledge to be in ignorance is worst. Such is the condition of those proud of their scriptural knowledge – they remain blind to the essence and purpose of scripture.

While it is easy to minimize or even demonize others as being owl-like, we ourselves may have owl-like tendencies too. We all tend to zero in on things that reinforce our understanding and tend to explain away things that problematize our understanding. That’s just basic human tendency to seek intellectual security. Nonetheless, if we have humility, or at least if we don’t have arrogance, then we remain open to re-examining and revising our understanding when presented proper reasoning and references.

Whereas owls just can’t see in light, we can, provided we use our free will to seek holistic understanding of scripture. We need to study scripture to understand our place and purpose in the overall scheme of things, not to reinforce the place and purpose we have assigned to ourselves without considering the overall scheme of things.

The Bhagavad-gita states that the ultimate purpose of all knowledge is to know Krishna (15.15), and that those who have devoted themselves to him have attained all knowledge (15.19). Without humility, even if we study scripture extensively, we can neither know Krishna nor love him.

Why not?

Because as long as we are filled with thoughts of our greatness, we have no room within us for appreciating Krishna’s greatness. Even if we study scripture and even if we use our scriptural knowledge to glorify Krishna, we end up doing it with an erroneous motive – we long to be glorified for being learned and devoted, not to savor and share Krishna’s glories.

Srimad-Bhagavatam (10.23) describes the pastime of the pompous priests engaged in elaborate ritualistic sacrifices. Being inebriated by their prestigious position as officiators of that grand sacrifice, they neglected the unimpressive-looking cowherd boyfriends of Krishna and thereby neglected Krishna, who was the Lord and purpose of their sacrifices. In contrast, their wives, though not as learned as them, grabbed the opportunity to serve Krishna. They had the humility to not judge people based on external appearances – they could see that the simple cowherd boys were offering them the greatest privilege of their lives: a chance to directly serve the Lord of their hearts, who was the master of all living beings and the purpose of life itself.

When we cultivate humility, our consciousness becomes increasingly available for realizing and relishing Krishna’s unlimited glories. The more we accept our insignificance, the more we taste his magnificence. Indeed, humility opens the floodgate for our head and heart to be inundated with Krishna’s supremely sweet glories.

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ajñaḥ sukham ārādhyaḥ
sukhataram ārādhyate viśeṣajñaḥ
jñāna-lava-durvidagdhaṁ
brahmāpi taṁ naraṁ na rañjayati

ajñaḥ — the ignorant; sukham — is easily; ārādhyaḥ — convincible; sukhataram — even easier; ārādhyate — is to convince; viśeṣajñaḥ — the expert; brahmāpi — but even Lord Brahma; na rañjayati — cannot convince; tam — that; naram — person who is; jñāna-lava-durvidagdham — puffed up in the pride of a mere fraction of knowledge.

“The ignorant can be easily convinced [by explaining the truth]. The intelligent can be even more easily convinced [for they have the capacity to recognize the truth]. However, even Lord Brahma cannot convince half-baked people puffed up with their little knowledge.” (Nīti-śatakam of Bhartṛhari, Verse 3)

We sometimes need to confront people who hold views different from ours. If their view is incorrect, we may need to correct them. Sometimes however, they stay stuck to their opinions.

To have a better chance of changing their opinions, we need to understand how opinions are normally formed and reformed. Good opinions are usually formed based on information and reason. If we have the right information and follow the right reasoning, we have a high chance of coming to the right understanding.

Suppose we have formed an opinion in this way. If we encounter someone who has more information or better reasoning or both, then discussing with them may prompt us to change our understanding. Though we may initially feel bad that we were wrong, that feeling will soon be superseded by the joy of having gained a better understanding.

Conversely, if we hardly know anything about an issue, then we may either have no view or some casual view that we aren’t much attached to. If someone gives us a better understanding, we will happily accept it.

Some people, however, don’t form opinions based on proper information or proper reasoning – they have some partial information, do some half-baked reasoning and arrive at a stand that they then hold on to. In fact, they don’t hold opinions; their opinions hold them. Changing their understanding is well-neigh impossible. The Bhagavad-gita (18.22) indicates that such knowledge is knowledge in the mode of ignorance; it is fragmented knowledge that keeps one in ignorance, or even aggravates one’s ignorance. The philosopher-saint Srila Jiva Goswami, in his Bhakti-Sandarbha, uses the same word as in this Subhashita to refer to such people: jnava-lava durvidagdhah. It literally means those whose opinions are baked badly with a fraction of knowledge – their knowledge is minute; their obstinacy, mountainous.

Such opinionatedness doesn’t infect only some frustrating fanatics out there; it infects us too. We all have an ego that wants to prove that it is always right. Thankfully, we also have an intelligence. If we use our intelligence discerningly, we can detect when our ego is making us irrationally attached to our opinions.

Spiritual wisdom can sharpen our intelligence by changing our source of security. We are often attached to our opinions because our ego gets security in being right. But it is pseudo-security, coming as it does from the false notion that we are right when we aren’t. We can become free from the need for this pseudo-security when we get real security: security coming from love, especially spiritual love. The Gita explains that we are souls who are eternal parts of the whole, Krishna (15.07). He always loves us – his love won’t be lost to us even if we turn out to be wrong. When we are situated in the security of divine love, losing an argument no longer seems an unbearable loss.

Spiritual wisdom can do more than protect us from being irrationally attached to our own views; it can also equip us to better respond to people who are irrationally attached to theirs. Rather than futilely trying to make them see reason, we can turn prayerfully towards Krishna: “O Lord, what are you trying to teach me through this? How can I serve you now?” Such submissiveness makes us more receptive to his inner presence and voice. Connecting with him raises our intelligence above our ego – instead of trying to prove ourselves right, we try to seek the right way ahead. Our service attitude towards Krishna infuses humility into our interaction with them, thereby increasing the probability of their being more receptive. Amidst a confrontation, words coming from ego usually reach till the ego. In contrast, words coming from the heart frequently touch the heart.

What if we still don’t succeed in changing their opinion? We can let them be and move on with our life. Even through such an impasse, we can grow deeper in the most important right understanding that we are servants of Krishna, subordinate to his will. And growth in that understanding takes us closer to the only success that really matters – victory over the ignorance that keeps us bound in distressful material existence. When we appreciate that we are progressing towards that ultimate success, a stalemate in a confrontation in this temporary world pales into insignificance.

[I thank my friend and scholar, Hari Parshad Prabhu, for providing me with this verse]

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