The Seven Purposes of ISKCON

Today we will talk about the seven purposes of ISKCON. Behind this there is a long history going all the way back to the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam as well as the Bhagavad-gītā.

Because it is in the Bhagavad-gītā that Kṛṣṇa speaks about His mission.
Maybe someone has an idea what Kṛṣṇa’s mission, as mentioned in the Bhagavad-gītā, is?

I remember two verses.

From the audience: paritrānāya sādhūnāṁ vināśāya…
“To protect the devotees and annihilate the miscreants.”

And sarva-dharmān parityajya – “Abandon all varieties of religion and surrender unto Me; I shall protect you from sinful reactions, do not fear.”

Very much so, very good – so here we have two points of view. First, Kṛṣṇa’s, and second, our own point of view. The same topic is also presented broadly in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, of course by the person who explains it – Lord Gaurāṅga. In the Caitanya-caritāmṛta this subject is treated in relation to the age of Kali.

Because in the Bhagavad-gītā Kṛṣṇa says: “I appear from age to age.” Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja explains that the Lord’s mission in the age of Kali takes on a particular style.

Of course, we could discuss the whole history of the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement before Śrīla Prabhupāda came to the West. So we move to 1966, or maybe some months earlier – Bombay.

In HH Bhakti Caru Swami’s film about Śrīla Prabhupāda we can see the scene in which Śrīla Prabhupāda comes to Sumati Morarji and asks her for a ticket to New York. That scene in the film is really well done:

The servant says to Sumati Morarji: “There is a sannyāsī waiting and he wants something from you.”
Sumati Morarji replies: “Oh no, I know what that sādhu wants from me, and I will not give it to him. He is already old, and he wants a ticket to New York. Tell him to go away.”

After some time the servant comes back and says: “But he doesn’t want to leave.”
Sumati Mataji: “All right, then let him come in.”

Śrīla Prabhupāda comes in and presents his case. She has this big desk, behind which she sits as the owner of a huge company. And personally addressing Śrīla Prabhupāda she says:

“Swamiji, I cannot send you to New York. For me you are like my father. How could I allow my father, at such an advanced age, to undertake such a dangerous journey? I cannot allow it.”

So Śrīla Prabhupāda slowly gets up and turns toward the door, and as he is already leaving he says:

“If you think I am like your father, then how is it that you cannot fulfill the last desire of your father?”

Then she finally agrees.

Even before this event, Śrīla Prabhupāda had founded a society of devotees. It was the League of Devotees. However, this project did not work. The building in Jhansi was taken away from Prabhupāda. Prabhupāda also did not have the funds to continue.

We can be happy that that project did not succeed, because if it had succeeded, Śrīla Prabhupāda would probably have stayed in India. Śrīla Prabhupāda was instructed by his spiritual master to preach in the English language, and he could have done that in India – many people in India speak English. But that did not work out, and Śrīla Prabhupāda had a plan to go to the USA.

Śrīla Prabhupāda lived in Butler, Pennsylvania. You can imagine that Butler is a small town. Like Busko-Zdrój – it’s a little town where the Jeep was manufactured, with conservative people who didn’t want to change anything in their lives. Śrīla Prabhupāda stayed there for a few weeks. He gave a few lectures there.

He understood that the future of the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement didn’t look very bright in Butler. Fortunately for us, after that Śrīla Prabhupāda went to New York and opened his first place at 26 Second Avenue. It was close to Manhattan, very crowded, and ultimately not meant to be the permanent base for starting ISKCON’s activities.

But Śrīla Prabhupāda began giving lectures there three times a week – there was a little notice posted about these lectures. News of the Hare Kṛṣṇa storefront spread quickly in the neighborhood. At that time there were many “seekers” in New York. Later one well-known American sociologist wrote a book called The Seekers’ Generation.

Young people began coming to these lectures and brought various instruments so they could chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra together with Śrīla Prabhupāda. There is a video recording from that time that shows Śrīla Prabhupāda chanting with the devotees, and it looks as if everyone is sailing on a boat across the ocean of material existence.

In this situation Śrīla Prabhupāda decided that the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement should be registered. There were also other reasons for this decision: Śrīla Prabhupāda needed a permanent visa in order to stay in the USA. People also needed a way to give donations to the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement in an official manner. Everything could then take place in a legal way.

At that time there was also a lawyer coming to the temple who became friendly with Śrīla Prabhupāda, and he agreed that he could prepare the documents for registering the society. In this legal registration document Śrīla Prabhupāda included the seven purposes of the society. So this is a way of describing what our society is meant to do, what we want to achieve.

Someone suggested: “Why not call it the International Society for God Consciousness?” But Śrīla Prabhupāda said: “No, no – we are specifically propagating Kṛṣṇa consciousness.”

OK, now that we have briefly described the history, we can start discussing the seven purposes of ISKCON. Questions may arise about how these seven purposes relate to each other, what the connections are. Questions may also arise whether, after forty years, these purposes are still up to date. Maybe something should be changed? I’m not suggesting anything – I’m just presenting some loose thoughts.

To systematically propagate spiritual knowledge to society at large and to educate all people in the techniques of spiritual life, in order to check the imbalance of values in life and to achieve real unity and peace in the world.

As we can see, this is a very big aim. In this one statement there are many aspects.
First let’s look at the verbs: we have to propagate, to educate, and to check/stop the imbalance.

What kind of propagation? The propagation of spiritual knowledge, not material knowledge.
Śrīla Prabhupāda often challenged: “Where, at any university, is the department that explains the difference between a dead body and a living body? Do they teach this in medical school?”
(From the audience Aditya Varṇa d.d. gives a definition of why the body is dead.)

Prabhupāda would often pose this challenge, saying: so much material knowledge is being taught, but there is no systematic propagation of spiritual knowledge.

Then there is the verb to educate – to educate everyone in the techniques of devotional service. We can compare this to the three stages of spiritual development: sambandha, abhidheya, prayojana.

Next it is said what the result of such propagation of spiritual knowledge and teaching of techniques will be:
the result is to check the imbalance of values in life.
I don’t know exactly what Prabhupāda had in mind by “imbalance”, but it seems that this imbalance means that people put too much emphasis on temporary, material values. Śrīla Prabhupāda doesn’t say that this is completely wrong; he says rather that it is a lack of balance.

To achieve real unity and peace in the world.

Here Prabhupāda suggests that this imbalance leads to a lack of unity and peace in the world. Prabhupāda presents here a serious and very large intention – someone might say “too large”, just a pious wish.

We can call it what we like, but Prabhupāda decided that this would be the first purpose of our society. In this first point Prabhupāda lays out the direction.

We can notice that in this first point Śrīla Prabhupāda does not mention Kṛṣṇa. He uses more general expressions: spiritual knowledge, techniques of spiritual life. We can also understand this in such a way that Śrīla Prabhupāda is inviting the cooperation of various people who may not yet be ready to directly take up Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

In other words, Śrīla Prabhupāda presents a very broad goal. It is something almost anyone could agree with – it is a very good aim.
Everyone wants peace in the world, everyone wants unity. Techniques of spiritual life? – why not.
Propagation of spiritual knowledge? – why not.

The second purpose speaks about propagating Kṛṣṇa consciousness, as it is revealed in the Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Śrīla Prabhupāda again uses the same word – to propagate – he is speaking about a mission, about outward activity.

The Founder-Ācārya of ISKCON uses the same words as in the name of our society: consciousness and Kṛṣṇa. Someone might ask, “What does the name of this society actually mean?” — and the answer is given in the second purpose: it is Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

What is Kṛṣṇa consciousness about? We learn this from two books – the Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, which are revealed scriptures.

The subject of revelation is quite important in religion. In every religious tradition the theme of revelation appears – that is, receiving higher spiritual knowledge through revelation. Someone or something appears from a higher plane and reveals to us things not found here. It is a process of making the unseen known to the public.

In the Judeo-Christian tradition this usually happens through prophecy. Someone is living their life peacefully, then God appears and says, “You will be My prophet.” And that person replies, “No, that’s impossible, I have no qualifications.” God says, “Yes, yes, you – because I have chosen you.” And the person who previously had no qualifications suddenly becomes able to present spiritual visions.

In the Indian tradition this process works a bit differently: revelation appears through special qualifications. The people who have such qualifications are ṛṣis. Through their austerities and meditation a ṛṣi is able to see and understand things that we, on our level, cannot see. So on one side we have the tradition of prophets, and on the other side revelation through meditation.

When Nārada Muni told Śrīla Vyāsadeva to write the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Śrīla Vyāsadeva first began to meditate, and during his meditation he had a vision – on one side he saw Kṛṣṇa, on the other side Māyā. This is very significant, because outwardly Śrīla Prabhupāda says, “We will propagate Kṛṣṇa consciousness through the Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam,” but when we analyse the individual words Śrīla Prabhupāda used in his statements, we can see how each of them represents a very deep content.

We can also mention how much Śrīla Prabhupāda lamented that the Bhagavad-gītā was being wrongly presented and interpreted. These mistaken interpretations did not present this scripture as a revelation.

Maybe someone has a question on this point?

Rāma-ācuta Prabhu: A question about the definition of the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement.

KKP: Sometimes the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement is called kṛṣṇa-bhāvanāmṛta – the nectar of Kṛṣṇa’s mood. On the saṅkīrtana vans in Māyāpur it’s written: ISKCON, and then kṛṣṇa-bhāvanāmṛta.

(KKP goes on to discuss the next purposes.)
The first two points speak about propagating Kṛṣṇa consciousness – that is, about the outward mission. In the third point we have different perspectives: bringing the members of the Society closer to each other, and bringing them closer to Kṛṣṇa, who is the Supreme Person.

To bring the members of the Society together, and closer to Kṛṣṇa, the Primeval Personality of Godhead, and thus to develop within humanity at large the idea that each soul is a part and parcel of God (Kṛṣṇa).

Bringing people closer to Kṛṣṇa can be understood as the third element of Kṛṣṇa consciousness – prayojana, the ultimate goal or necessity.

Here we also find a definition of Kṛṣṇa. Who is Kṛṣṇa? Kṛṣṇa is the Primeval Person. This statement – that Kṛṣṇa is the Primeval Person – probably comes from Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta, since Śrīla Prabhupāda himself did not use this particular phrase very often.

What is the result of coming closer to Kṛṣṇa?
The result is that we should awaken a certain idea within ourselves.
What is this idea? – That each of us is a part of Kṛṣṇa.

Here we return to sambandha. Lesson number one in Kṛṣṇa consciousness is that every soul is a part of Kṛṣṇa. But at the same time this is also very advanced knowledge, because Kṛṣṇa says in the Bhagavad-gītā that when someone approaches a tattva-darśī – a person who knows the truth – and that person shows mercy to the one who wants to know the truth, then revelation takes place: understanding of spiritual knowledge. What does this understanding consist of? – That someone will know that every living being is a part of Kṛṣṇa, and that everyone is in Kṛṣṇa.

We had sambandha, abhideya and prayojana. Now we return to sambandha. The remaining four purposes explain how all of this is meant to happen. In the fourth point we have:

Teaching and encouraging the saṅkīrtana movement, the congregational chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa, as taught by Lord Caitanya.

Here we have a new verb – to teach. It is significant that Śrīla Prabhupāda uses different verb forms. At the beginning it was to educate, now to teach. The idea is that Śrīla Prabhupāda wanted to teach spiritual knowledge systematically. This also suggests the tradition of guru-paramparā – perhaps not so directly, because it’s not discussed here, but it does counter the idea that a guru simply touches someone and that person instantly experiences revelation.

It suggests a process that is also familiar in the West: we have schools, we have teachers, therefore the teachings of Śrīla Prabhupāda can be accepted in the same way.

“To teach and encourage the saṅkīrtana movement.” The first encouragement took place when Śrīla Prabhupāda asked the devotees to go to Tompkins Square Park and chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra. There were two parks – Washington Square and Tompkins Square – located not far from each other. At first the devotees couldn’t imagine walking down the street and chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra, but when Śrīla Prabhupāda took them on the first harināma, they caught the bug and chanted ecstatically without hesitation.

Also in this word encourage – Prabhupāda wants to encourage everyone; he doesn’t want to force anyone. Śrīla Prabhupāda especially encourages the saṅkīrtana movement and defines what the saṅkīrtana movement is: it is the congregational chanting of the holy name of God. We can see that Śrīla Prabhupāda does not specifically mention the holy name of Kṛṣṇa or Rāma, by which we can understand, in a more general sense, that Śrīla Prabhupāda is encouraging the chanting of God’s name in general, and not only the Hare Kṛṣṇa mahā-mantra.

There is a devotee from the USA, Brahma-tirtha Prabhu (Bob Cohen from the book “Perfect Questions, Perfect Answers”), who was the president of the Vaiṣṇava Institute in Berkeley. He would meet with people from various theological schools. One of these schools was the American Baptist Seminary. In America there are many Baptists – Southern Baptists and American Baptists. The Southern ones are very intense in their preaching.

Brahma-tirtha Prabhu was invited by the Baptists to an interfaith meeting. The main pastor encouraged Brahma-tirtha to take part in the congregational prayer, which consisted of singing. Those songs are very lively, and when Brahma-tirtha Prabhu came back he said that this was real saṅkīrtana.

Further on, the definition of saṅkīrtana says that it is revealed in the teachings of Lord Gaurāṅga. Again we have the word revelation, which goes together with teaching. This indicates that the teachings of Mahāprabhu are themselves a revelation. Earlier Śrīla Prabhupāda spoke about the Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and now he speaks about the teachings of Lord Caitanya. Here Śrīla Prabhupāda speaks about three of the four main books in our movement. The fourth is The Nectar of Devotion.

Now we will stop here; tomorrow we will continue. For me it is interesting how much content is contained in these points, and how we can apply this in life. At present we can have different groups practicing Kṛṣṇa consciousness around the world, even being in opposition to each other, and yet each of them can agree on the validity of these goals. Then the question arises: what is the reason for this disagreement? Is it really so important? Okay, I will stop here.

Question.
Aśrama Prabhu: I want to ask: is it that these points are meant for the future in terms of their realization? For example, the first point – universal peace. Will it come in the future?

KKP: Yes, of course. Does everyone agree that this is Śrīla Prabhupāda’s vision of the future? Yes? No?

Rāma-acyuta Prabhu: Even now we can see that under the influence of the saṅkīrtana movement we experience peace and prosperity.

Jambula Prabhu: (inaudible comment) It’s about presenting Śrīla Prabhupāda’s teachings in an accessible way and not “forcing” people. (The translator says he has difficulties translating exactly what Krishna Kshetra Prabhu is saying.)

Aditya-varṇa Matajī: She asks about the active and passive aspects of the seven purposes of ISKCON.

KKP: Is understanding this idea – that we are parts of Kṛṣṇa – really so active, is it such a big “activity”? In every society we have more active people, but the more passive members are not excluded because of that. In the following points there is talk about establishing holy places, and it’s clear that such places are perfect for more “passive” people.

I’m not sure how passive you want to be. But we can see that Śrīla Prabhupāda is encouraging everyone here and doesn’t exclude anyone. Well, maybe the word “movement” is very active. (KKP laughs.) Maybe we don’t want a saṅkīrtana movement, but “stable saṅkīrtana”?

My point is that the missionary spirit is very healthy. Śrīla Prabhupāda is explaining this mood of mission here, and he also hopes that each member of our society will accept at least some portion of this mood of mission.

Another point is that there are certain organizational principles, and one such principle is mission, which is defined here. I am trying to inspire everyone to reconsider: what is our mission? When we reflect on what this mission is, then we can relate to it. Either we will have some relationship with this mission; if we don’t, then we will consider how to develop such a relationship; and if we don’t want to have that relationship, then we will make our own decision.

This reminded me of something I wanted to read. This poem originally comes from another religious tradition and was adapted by a devotee woman from the ISKCON Communication Office. We can appreciate it.

About ISKCON

How much I have had to criticize you, my dear ISKCON,
and yet how much I love you.
You have made me suffer more than anyone,
and yet I respect you more than anyone.

I would like to see you destroyed,
and yet I need your presence.
You have supplied me with so many scandals,
and yet only you have made me understand what holiness is.

Never in this world have I seen
anything more compromising, more hypocritical,
and yet I have never touched anything more pure,
more generous, or more beautiful.

Countless times I have felt the door of my soul
slam in your face,
and yet every evening I have prayed
that I might die in your safe arms.

No, I cannot free myself from you, for I am one with you,
even if not entirely you.
So where could I go
to build another ISKCON?

But I cannot build another one without the same faults,
for these are my own faults.
And again, if I were to build a second ISKCON,
it would be my ISKCON, not Prabhupāda’s ISKCON.

No, I am already too old, I know better…

To establish for the members of the Society holy places of pilgrimage dedicated to the transcendental Person Śrī Kṛṣṇa.

We have discussed four of these seven purposes that Śrīla Prabhupāda included in his original document. As I mentioned earlier, the aim of these lectures is to recall and, with a fresh look, reflect on Śrīla Prabhupāda’s mission, and also on how we can find our place within this mission.

Sometimes we have certain positive feelings, and sometimes negative ones. Someone may be confused and, as a result of this uncertainty, his mind and feelings will clash with each other in conflict — I like this aspect of ISKCON, but I do not want this other one. If I reject the whole, I will miss the first. And so it goes on in our head; we arrive at contradictory conclusions.

The poem we have read shows us various impressions that are in conflict with each other, and one conclusion — it is not worth leaving ISKCON. With each thought the poet should initiate the founding of a new Society, but it would not be Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Society. What would be its purpose? In the end the poet comes to the conclusion that one should accept a higher goal.

The first three purposes mentioned earlier overlap with sambandha, abhidheya, and prayojana. The fourth purpose suggests other means, such as teaching and inspiring the saṅkīrtana movement, which will serve us in attaining Kṛṣṇa consciousness. I will now discuss the fifth purpose.

Now we will speak about building — building what? — a holy place. How can one build a holy place? Holy places already exist, so in this situation the next question arises: how can we build one?

Scholars have studied the Hindu community in the diaspora and have come to the conclusion that, basically, there are no holy places of pilgrimage in the West. Nevertheless, a certain group of Hindus in San Francisco, while out walking, found a stone and, as it later turned out, this was taken to be a Siva linga. News spread quickly and people from all over America began to come and offer various things to this Siva linga, which later turned out to be an ordinary roadside post that had accidentally been buried in the park. But for the Hindus this made no difference; for them it was a Siva linga, they had no doubt.

When scholars compared the Hindu community with the Muslim community, they saw that Indian Hindus are more restrained in giving donations for the construction of temples. Muslims, on the other hand, are more collective and socially oriented when it comes to building a mosque, whereas Hindus are individualistic.

I think we are dealing with a similar phenomenon in ISKCON. Grhasthas have the same tendency to develop their own programs, which is understandable, since they first try to situate themselves.

Srila Prabhupada always wanted to build a temple for Radha-Krsna, therefore when he learned that Kirtanananda had acquired a piece of land, he immediately decided to build a magnificent temple there. Srila Prabhupada wanted to establish New Vrindavan; the plan was that seven replicas of the temples whose originals are in Vrindavan would be established there: Radha-Madan Mohan, Radha-Govinda, Radha-Gopinath.

From history we know that after Srila Prabhupada’s departure a different plan for the development of New Vrindavan arose. Various kinds of problems occurred in the New Vrindavan community, and as a result the ISKCON authorities eventually had to officially dissociate themselves from New Vrindavan. In any case, some time passed...

At present New Vrindavan has returned to ISKCON and a plan to build several new temples is being implemented. It is interesting how Srila Prabhupada formulated his aim: “I want to create a holy place of transcendental pastimes.” This suggests that these pastimes will continue to unfold and can be experienced in the holy places; in other words, it will not be merely a museum.

Once, in Sweden, the devotees were invited to put on an exhibition of paraphernalia connected with Kṛṣṇa. The devotees collected all the exhibits and presented them in a museum style. Among other things there were Deities of Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa, but it was only a cold museum where people came, looked at the figures, said “hmm, hmm…” and moved on to the next display. Yet museums were not Śrīla Prabhupāda’s aim.

In London there is a huge marble temple that was built by the Gujarati community. It is richly decorated with wooden and marble carvings. It makes a great impression, but when you go inside you feel as if you were in a museum, and the statues standing there give the impression of being guards. A beautiful temple hall, many Deities of Nārāyaṇa, and at the back beautiful Deities of Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa; the mood of this temple is very strange, and the people staying there seem to be dissatisfied. Śrīla Prabhupāda said that holy places are dedicated to Kṛṣṇa, and not to museum buildings filled with exhibits.

Vāmana Prabhu comments: At the beginning, in Poland the temples were places of teaching, full of life; at present most devotees have moved out, and the temples have become empty. So it seems that something like “cell-based” preaching has greater significance.

KKP: Fortunately, Poland is not the whole world. There are many places in the world that are developing very well; for example, in England, apart from Nāma-haṭṭa preaching there is also widely practiced youth preaching. Wherever some festival takes place, young devotees gather and take care of the organisation and service, and in addition they also have their own programs. It is true that a shift has taken place – earlier there was great emphasis on the temples. I myself am curious what the future will look like and how everything will develop in the coming years.

Of course, we can ask: what is this holy place, does it really refer to a geographical location?
No, it is a place where devotees gather and worship Kṛṣṇa; such places can move – after all this is the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, therefore we have to keep up with the changes in order to benefit from these moving centres. Another way of expressing this principle is that wherever devotees gather and chant Hare Kṛṣṇa together, making sincere efforts to avoid offences, they create a holy place. Sometimes the devotees create a holy place at the very beginning of their coming to a given town.

Teaching the devotees a simple way of life.

This aim has not been very much developed so far; most of our Society’s farms have not been particularly successful, probably because most of us are city dwellers.
Did any of you here grow up in the countryside?
From the audience, one devotee – Viśvambara Prabhu.

I remember that in the early 1980s there was a widespread conviction that a world war would soon come, and that in order to survive the complete destruction we should establish farms. George Orwell wrote a book entitled War of the Worlds, on the basis of which everyone thought that this is how it would be. We established farms, we made the appropriate arrangements, but as it turned out, the year 1984 did not bring war; people continued to live in the cities and the economy continued to develop. In 1989 the Berlin Wall fell, the Cold War ended, and everyone began to wonder, “What about the war?” Soon a new threat appeared: the year 2000. When the clock was to strike 24:00, a small bug was supposed to become enormous and swallow everything. The year 2000 came, telephones still worked, the sun was shining, cars were driving, and again nothing happened.

From those years we have been left with farms that have not developed in the way we had hoped; perhaps we should be developing this project slowly, but more slowly, point by point and solidly. In any case, regardless of where we live, it is recommended that we live in a simple way.

Śrīla Prabhupāda did not define this aim more precisely; he often connected it with following the four regulative principles. We can see that devotees have difficulty keeping those principles because of the conflict between a complicated, real life and an ideal life in which they are followed. “Simple living, high thinking” – sometimes we tried to live simply and think highly, sometimes we tried to arrange such a life, but our way of reasoning was not very clear and we lost the general sense. This is something worth reflecting on, to bring about a balance between the one and the other. Perhaps someone has some suggestions on this subject? Through simple living, devotees can come closer to each other.

Question from Paravioma Prabhu: (inaudible)

KKP: In the beginning, the attempts at simple living were somewhat artificial. The idea was as follows: on a purchased piece of land, like trees one would “plant” people, and to the surprise of those managing the project it turned out that people are not as passive as trees. When you plant a tree, it will not run away anywhere, but “planting” a person in this way may not succeed. It took us some time to understand that separate communities only develop gradually, and that they cannot be “planted” just like that.

In our Society there are many individuals who would like projects such as organizing farms to come about; they speak a lot about this and are socially active.

Publishing and distributing books, periodicals, and other writings...

There is an entire history of Vaiṣṇava publishing that began in India at the start of the nineteenth century. Christian missionaries, who at that time were beginning to preach in India, started selling books. A particularly important place was Bengal, where in one town – Tarampur – there was a printing press that translated the Bible into Bengali, printed it, and distributed it at a very low price. Hindu brāhmaṇas did not like this…

In turn, a group known as the bhadraloka, who assisted the British in administrative matters, came under Christian influence, which led them to reflect on their position in light of their own tradition. One of the best-known bhadraloka was Rām Mohan Roy, the initiator of the Brahmo-samaj Society, a Hindu reform movement. One of the doctrines they rejected was Deity worship. They considered it one of the most backward aspects of Hinduism and therefore something they should free themselves from. They began publishing the Upaniṣads, which they were particularly fond of. So first the Christians began printing their publications, then the Hindus did the same, and that is how it started.

This was the atmosphere in which Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta began printing his books, in which he criticized all religious movements: Vivekananda, Rām Mohan Roy… He held that what we really need are the teachings of Kṛṣṇa Caitanya.

I wanted to present to you the historical course of the emergence and distribution of books because Śrīla Prabhupāda says that in order to achieve the six aims mentioned above, we should assist ourselves by means of publications. In this medium he saw the instrument for realizing them. At present we can look at the results of his activity – we have printed and distributed a great many books. Someone may ask: “And what about the achievement of the previous aims?” Someone might conclude that this aim has not been fulfilled and become discouraged.

At moments of doubt I would suggest – despite the regression in book distribution – looking at the situation of Vaiṣṇava literature in the American or English-language market. Under those conditions, the print runs of such literature are very large, and there is a growing demand, and consequently a growing number of readers to whom the books reach one way or another. In the time of Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta a maximum of 1,000 copies of a book would be printed; today in India books are distributed in a similar way in the temples. In “Radhadesh” we can read that in one small bookshop run by Viṣṇu-mūrti Prabhu one can see many diverse Vaiṣṇava books. There are quite a few books written and printed by devotees; one can see that their literary activity remains very lively.

Śrīla Prabhupāda did not want the publishing of books to end with his own texts; he desired that both his mission and literary activity be continued, and that is what has happened. His mission is still developing; many books are sold via the Internet – for example, Forbidden Archeology has become a bestseller thanks to online distribution. Something is happening; it is not so bad – look at this bright side.

It is getting a bit late… I wanted to encourage everyone to consider how each of us can help in developing these aims. Of course, we might say that we no longer identify with ISKCON. We may also feel indebted to Śrīla Prabhupāda for his sincere desire to please his spiritual master. Whatever we call it – ISKCON or, in reverse, NOCKSI – we may wish to reciprocate with Śrīla Prabhupāda and help him to satisfy his spiritual master.

On the other hand, we might say: “Yes, all this is very good, but do not tell me anything about an organization, I have had enough of that.” Yet if we one day return to the spiritual world, we must remember that there, too, there is organization.

Vāmana Prabhu adds: Yes, but there will be no GBC there.

KKP: Yes, in the spiritual world we can see various groups of gopīs very well organized to please Kṛṣṇa.

There is a certain swami who travels around the world and preaches, gathering many devotees around himself. He says: “We are not interested in organization, we only want to conduct Kṛṣṇa-kathā, discussions about Kṛṣṇa.” Yes, that too is really wonderful. You can be sure, however, that we will have some organization, because otherwise the whole idea would not survive. It is the nature of this world that some form of organization always exists, and we have to accept that. It is needed in order to fulfil the stated aims, but at the same time we do not have to place immense weight on it; it is simply organization for the sake of organization. Rather, we can see its purpose: that we become more Kṛṣṇa conscious, which will make us happier.

Question from the audience: Who is a member of ISKCON?

KKP: We can distinguish several definitions of ISKCON. If someone identifies with ISKCON’s main theses, this means that he or she is a member of our Society.

We distinguish three levels of ISKCON. The first level is the visible state, in which everyone is already “situated.” The second level is the higher platform – Kṛṣṇa consciousness – on which the practice of devotional service is manifested: śravaṇaṁ, kīrtanaṁ, viṣṇu-smaraṇaṁ…, these are the eternal practices of devotional service. The third level is the mystical movement of Lord Kṛṣṇa Caitanya of congregational chanting of Hare Kṛṣṇa, in which we may take part or not.

Sincere belonging to any one of these levels will give us the opportunity to make substantial spiritual progress. As for the seven aims of ISKCON, each of us can identify with them; it is rather difficult not to agree with them. If we do agree with these aims, we can then consider how to apply them in our lives. This is a good topic for joint reflection, perhaps at an iṣṭa-goṣṭhī.