Back to Basics... I Mean, Forward to Basics

Competing brands of Gaudiya-vaisnavism at times claim that Srila Prabhupada only gave the basics, and that ISKCON people need to take shelter in their representatives to accede to higher dimensions of bhakti.

I beg to disagree. Besides the insulting and indefensible remark that ISKCON’s Founder-Acarya didn’t provide his followers with enough directions to achieve whatever is there to achieve, I would propose that ISKCON—or at least a good percentage of its members—need to go in the different direction. My observation is that devotees would tremendously benefit by absorbing themselves in the narrations of Mahabharata and Ramayana, thus imbibing the fundamental ethical values presented therein.

This morning the Bhagavatam verse we discussed included: “Ajamila could understand the religious principles that act under the three modes of material nature. These principles are mentioned in the three Vedas. He could also understand the transcendental religious principles, which are above the modes of material nature and which concern the relationship between the living being and the Supreme Personality of Godhead” (SB 6.2.24-25).

This made me reflect that without the “ordinary” religious parameters underpinning one’s personal existence it is very difficult—also for devotees—to maintain a modicum of advancement in devotional life.

Lord Krishna says in Bhagavad-gita (18.5): “Acts of sacrifice, charity and penance are not to be given up; they must be performed. Indeed, sacrifice, charity and penance purify even the great souls.”

Without a basic sense of sacrifice (that which renders sacred) we risk a functional disconnection from Lord Caitanya’s spirit and mission. Without regular participation in sankirtana-yajna (in its various forms, from book distribution to harinam) our enthusiasm and ongoing purification might simply dry up.

Charity is in many cases conspicous by its absence. Regular giving is often neglected. The many instructions of Srila Prabhupada on the subject are ignored and disregarded. As a result some of our grihastha develop a niggardly mentality—unsuitable for aspiring great souls—centered on a fear-based conception of life. Another consequence is that devotees gets burdened with accumulated karma (“by worship and charity offered to the brahmanas, material possessions are purified” SB 10.5.4). Laxness in the realm of charity brings poverty in the spiritual society, engendering a constant sense—factual and psychological—of indigence.

Austerities without devotional service might harden the heart, but devotional service without austerity might extinguish itself through sensual proclivities. Avoiding the austerity of raising early in the morning, for instance, makes serious japa higly improbable. And the breaking of the regulative principle brings spiritual dissipation and physical, mental and intellectual depletion.

We could talk much more but I guess you get the idea: for the movement (and its members) to make real progress, we need to re-discover (and in some cases to discover for the first time) the values and behaviors of the pious, civilized, regulated, productive and dutiful human beings.

Immature forays into the kunjas of Vraja are way down the list of priorities.