Too Vedic or too Western. Two sides of the same coin

There are different ways to practice and spread Krsna Consciousness, but we should be careful to act inside of the tenets of the teachings of Prabhupada.

Subscribe to receive new articles by e-mail. It’s free, but if you like, you can pledge a donation:

Some devotees want to be very Vedic and rigidly follow dharma. On the other extreme, there are devotees who want to be more Western, hoping to make our movement more attractive to local people and thus better spread Krsna Consciousness. Both the idea of being Vedic and following dharma and the idea of spreading Krsna Consciousness are good, and in principle, there is nothing wrong in devotees having different ideas about service, as long as the goal is to serve Krsna. We can see that even in Goloka, there are the right-wing gopīs and the left-wing gopīs, and they have different ideas about how to better serve Krsna. However, because of their purity and perfection in Krsna Consciousness, there is no envy between them.

However, when it comes to this material world, things are more complicated. Practically everything is affected by material duality, and rarely are intentions pure. It can be observed that often members of both the Vedic and Western groups say and do questionable things, and they are in general at odds with each other.

In the book A Second Chance, Srila Prabhupada makes a few points that should be taken into consideration:

“Without following the mahājanas, it is impossible to know God, because we cannot understand the path of religion by our mental speculation. Religious principles are enunciated by the Supreme Personality of Godhead (dharmaṁ tu sākṣād bhagavat-praṇītam). Therefore real religion means to abide by the words of the Supreme Lord and His representatives. In the Bhagavad-gītā (18.66) Kṛṣṇa says, mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja: “Simply surrender unto Me.” That is true religion. Anything else is irreligion. Manmade religion is not religion; it is cheating. Nowadays it has become fashionable for everyone to manufacture his own religion without reference to the authorities. One should know that dharma, or religion, means the laws given to man by God. The path of dharma is strictly followed by the mahājanas, and so we have to follow them. Otherwise there is no possibility of understanding what religion is or who God is.”

In other passages, Śrīla Prabhupāda comments that conditioned souls (in other words, practically everyone living in this universe, including both human beings and demigods) have four defects. The first defect is to commit mistakes, the second is to be illusioned, the third is the propensity to cheat others, and the last is having imperfect senses (and intelligence). Because our senses are imperfect, we have an imperfect understanding of reality, and this imperfect understanding is then processed using our imperfect intelligence. As a result, we become illusioned and (even when sincere) we end up committing mistakes. On top of all of this, there is the propensity of not being completely honest with the purpose of getting advantage, or in other words, cheating others.

This makes the point that although there are different ways in which we can practice and spread Krsna Consciousness, and even a certain space for disagreement about how to better do things, we should be careful to act inside of the tenets of the teachings of Prabhupāda, trying to understand his mood in spreading Krsna Consciousness and grounding our practical actions in the standards he set. As he explains, we should base our approach to Krsna Consciousness in the principles enunciated by the mahājanas, all the way to Krsna Himself. Prabhupāda explained these principles to us, acting as their representative, and thus he is our connection with them. We may not be perfect, but as long as we are following a perfect person, we have access to perfect knowledge, and to the extent we can properly understand and practice these teachings, our actions can be perfect. However, as soon as we reject these teachings, this connection is broken, and our imperfections gain predominance. We can then commit mistakes even in the simplest points.

Although there is a great space for implementing new ideas in the spirit of Prabhupāda’s instructions, we must be careful to uphold important principles, avoiding compromising on fidelity in the name of innovation. Prabhupāda himself teaches this formula in his purport to SB 1.4.1:

“Personal realization does not mean that one should, out of vanity, attempt to show one’s own learning by trying to surpass the previous ācārya. He must have full confidence in the previous ācārya, and at the same time he must realize the subject matter so nicely that he can present the matter for the particular circumstances in a suitable manner. The original purpose of the text must be maintained. No obscure meaning should be screwed out of it, yet it should be presented in an interesting manner for the understanding of the audience. This is called realization.”

There are many great ācāryas in our line, but the current prominent link is Śrīla Prabhupāda, who explained this spiritual science to us in a way we can understand, adjusted to our modern language and modern societies. Ravindra Swarupa Prabhu did a very good job of explaining why Śrīla Prabhupāda remains an authority for all of us and how his disciples who became spiritual masters remain bound by his teachings even after his departure in his book Srila Prabhupāda, the founder-acarya of Iskcon. This book contains very important points that form the foundation of the very system of Paramparā, which is our connection with the perfect teachings that go all the way to Krsna.

Here we come to something that both groups have in common: Both often reject the parts of the teachings that don’t fit their mindset. This is what makes the approach problematic. In this way, the “Vedic” way of life one side wants to follow becomes often tainted with elements of the medieval caste system, to which Prabhupāda disagreed, and the spread of Krsna Consciousness advocated by the Western group often becomes tainted with mundane values and fails to be effective.

When we start operating outside of the teachings of the founder ācārya (or act with a limited or fanatical understanding of the teachings), we risk ending up misunderstanding and changing the philosophy. Instead of changing our mentality to properly follow the teachings, we end up changing the teachings to accommodate them into our fixed mindsets. We then try to disqualify parts of Prabhupāda’s teachings that don’t fit what we believe, or try to disqualify him as a bona fide teacher, which ultimately disconnects us from the paramparā.

When faced with points from the two groups, we tend to get involved in the duality and support one in favor of the other; in this way, we become captured by the modes and fail to see that both are actually the opposite sides of the same coin. Just as in different political systems, the best path is neither the extreme left nor the extreme right.

It’s possible to have unity in diversity when we base our approach on the teachings of Prabhupāda and work to cultivate our own Krsna Consciousness, but when we reject his teachings, we end up acting under the material modes, and the result is just division and decay.

You can also donate using Buy Me a Coffee, PayPal, Wise, Revolut, or bank transfers. There is a separate page with all the links. This helps me enormously to have time to write instead of doing other things to make a living. Thanks!