Devotee Writings etc.
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“When Our Men Will Be Sahajiyas” Part 2 of 4
by bhakta Eric Johanson Roots of Sahajiya siddhanta-alasa jana anartha to’ chade na “One who is lazy in properly understanding the Vaishnava philosophical conclusions can never become free from anarthas, the unwanted bad habits and philosophical misconceptions that impede devotional service.” Prakrta Rasa Sata Dusini 28, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Prabhupada, “It is not so easy. That is called sahajiya. Why you want such exalted things so easily?” Room Conversation, July 8, 1976 Who Gets Misled? Like anything, cognitive dissonance is not, in and of itself, completely opposed to Krishna consciousness; many devotees surrendered because of a type of cognitive dissonance (the distressed). Many of us…
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“When Our Men Will Be Sahajiyas” Part 1 of 4
by bhakta Eric Johanson “These sahajiyas will come out of so many devotees. What can be done? From my Guru Maharaja’s disciples, so many sahajiyas came. These are called sahajiyas. Very easily they capture thing. So my Guru Maharaja used to say, ‘When my disciples will be sahajiya, it will be more dangerous.’ He used to say like that. Take things very easily.” A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Room Conversation on January 28, 1977 in Bhuvanesvara Cognitive Dissonance The theory of cognitive dissonance was first presented in 1956 by a social psychologist named Leon Festinger. He studied a UFO cult based in Chicago whose leader predicted that the…
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The Greater Krishna Consciousness Movement Part 4 of 4
by Nitya Krsna dasa Srila Prabhupada’s Non-Sectarian Movement & Apa-Sampradaya? cont. Servant to All Until the zonal acaryas and their abuses, virtually every devotee in the ISKCON institution had a strong service attitude. When the reform movement devotees concluded that they were just as qualified to lead the movement as the zonals, political maneuvering started to displace their service attitude. Similarly, for decades the movement’s women were sidelined and suppressed by the male GBC and apparent gurus. That changed after the child abuse scandals of the 80’s and 90’s, along with their lawsuits. The women then understood that their suppression had failed both the children and the…
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The Greater Krishna Consciousness Movement Part 3 of 4
by Nitya Krsna dasa Apa-Sampradaya? Sahajiya Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura was a great reformer of the Vaishnavism of 150 years ago. At this time, 350 years after Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu inaugurated the movement of chanting the holy name, all sorts of deviations from His teachings had become rampant in India. It was so bad that many respectable people equated Gaudiya Vaishnavism with sexual debauchery, usually because of imitations of Krishna’s pastimes with the gopis (cowherd damsels of Vrindavana). In response, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura listed the thirteen prominent deviations from the teachings of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. These were groups which had strayed from His strict instructions and example.…
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The Greater Krishna Consciousness Movement Part 2 of 4
by Nitya Krsna dasa The Circular Firing Squad Schism, Factions and Sectarianism Initiation in Vaishnavism means, among other things, that one agrees to follow the direction of their spiritual master for the rest of their life. It is by this submission to a pure personality that sincere initiates are delivered from the burden of the past karma of many lifetimes, both sinful and otherwise. Genuine deliverance is, however, dependent on the guru being genuine and the disciple being sincere. Initiated people are commonly called disciples and receive a spiritual Sanskrit name when they take their initiation vows. Uninitiated devotees are called bhakta John or bhaktin Mary, etc.…
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The Greater Krishna Consciousness Movement Part 1 of 4
by Nitya Krsna dasa Sects & How the Swanlike Condemn Pretenders While Remaining Strictly Non-Sectarian The greater Krishna consciousness movement always exists in the spiritual sky, and to the extent that we connect to those pure representatives of Krishna that are fully devoted to Him, we can also participate. This movement was most recently shown to the world by the last widely accepted pure devotee of Krishna, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta swami Prabhupada (Srila Prabhupada). He was acting on behalf of the previous spiritual masters of the Brahma-Madhava-Gaudiya Vaishnava disciplic succession, or sampradaya, going back to Lord Krishna Himself. Those unalloyed servants of Krishna have taught us…
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An Honest ISKCON Part 4 of 4
By bhakta Eric Johanson Part 4 – “From Which Even the Worst of Non-Ecclesiastical Criminals are Found to Recoil” Amplifying Nescience The GBC’s overall pattern of allowing the most powerful leaders free reign thus only served to expand and propagate these people’s pretence, deviations and polluted intelligence. Their rubber-stamping the zonal acarya’s ambition and deception established a number of the zonal’s deviations as official ISKCON institution policy. “Polluted intelligence has been compared to a prostitute. One who has not purified his intelligence is said to be controlled by that prostitute. As stated in Bhagavad-gītā (2.41), vyavasāyātmikā buddhir ekeha kuru-nandana: those who are actually serious are conducted…
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An Honest ISKCON Part 3 of 4
By bhakta Eric Johanson Part 3 – Caricatures What Changed? For the average devotee not much changed with Srila Prabhupada’s departure from the physical plane. They still went to the morning program and spent the day engaged in the services laid out by the temple leaders they were accountable to. However, for the leaders, especially the GBCs at the top of the above described military-like hierarchy, something very big had changed in regard to accountability. Suddenly the person who had kept them in line for years was no longer there. And it was these GBCs that had the most temptation to enjoy the movement’s facilities. For all…
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An Honest ISKCON Part 2 of 4
By bhakta Eric Johanson What Really Happened!?!? – A Very Tangled Web The General Pattern By now many devotees know the events that followed Srila Prabhupada’s departure. Rather than implementing just some of his common-sense guidance above (see part 1), the GBC established a dangerous pattern of merely reacting after the fact to the independent actions of the most powerful (and often most audacious) movement leaders. In many regards this has continued into the present. And by independent we very much mean that the actions were (are) often dictated by false ego ambition and desire for distinction. Because these actions sometimes do not concur with Srila Prabhupada’s…
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An Honest ISKCON Part 1 of 4
By bhakta Eric Johanson What Should Have Been Done? It’s easy to complain, but the question remains, “What should have been done by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) after the disappearance of Srila Prabhupada, especially in regard to initiating new devotees?” He certainly left instructions, some detailed, and there were the examples in the scriptures and of the previous acaryas (gurus). The greater context, however, was his desire to have what he developed maintained: “Our philosophy is perfect, and we cannot be defeated by anyone. So it is up to you to learn it and be able to present it nicely. Now you have everything,…
