Reboot the Mission
Dr. Joseph T. O’Connell, Associate Professor in the Department of
Religious Studies, St. Michael’s College, University of Toronto, discusses
sadhana — spiritual discipline, or a pattern of religious practices or
observances. He agrees that sadhana exists in every religious tradition.
"You’ll find a lot of this, of course, in the Christian tradition, where you
have a great variety of denominations and religious orders which have their
own specific ways of honing and reinforcing the devotional sensibility of
the Christian.
"And even the average layperson is encouraged—especially in more traditional
forms of Christianity—to have a program of daily or weekly prayer, or
periodic participation in church services. They may be asked to do a certain
amount of scriptural reading. For some laypersons this is done in a very
systematic way, for others, it is more casual. All this can be seen as
Christian sadhana.
A strong spiritual regimen lies at the heart of Krishna Consciousness. Srila
Prabhupada set down four principle vows, required of any student in
devotional life who wished to become his disciple:
(1) No meat-eating. (2) No intoxication—this proscription includes even mild
substances like tobacco or caffeine. (3) No gambling. (4) No illicit sexual
connections. Sex is permitted only within marriage and only with the intent
of procreation.
In addition to these four regulative principles, Srila Prabhupada called for
16 rounds of chanting God’s holy names on rosary beads. Such a regimen would
not be uncommon in a Christian monastic community.
Compared to the demands Jesus made upon anyone wanting to become his
disciple (Matthew 19:16-24; Mark 10:17-23; Luke 9:57-62, 14:25-26,33,
18:18-25), these four regulative principles are not at all unreasonable.
The Western religious traditions also teach that the body is a temple of
God, a vessel for the soul, which is to be sanctified and used for His
glory, rather than for one’s own lust. Many religious conservatives and
fundamentalists believe sex is meant only for procreation; they condemn
fornication, homosexuality, birth control, divorce, etc.
Gambling, drugs, alcohol, and sexual immorality are denounced as evils in
spiritual circles. Vegetarianism makes perfect sense in terms of human
anatomy, nutrition, ethics, resources, environment, energy, and economics.
In the West, vegetarianism, or nonviolence towards animals, can be traced
back to Pythagoras. It has been a way of life for Jewish mystics, Christian
saints, and Christian monastic orders. The Bible teaches that God intended
humans to be vegetarian. Biblical history begins (Genesis 1:29-31) and ends
(Isaiah 11:6-9) in a kingdom where violence is unknown. Chanting on beads is
a common form of prayer for Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, Roman Catholics,
Eastern Orthodox Christians, etc...
The apostles studied under Jesus. A disciplic line was started by Jesus
beginning with Simon (Peter). Aquinas studied under Albertus Magnus.
Writing in 1987, Dr. Larry Shinn explains:
"In his book Soul Friend, Kenneth Leech unfolds the often forgotten heritage
of the spiritual director in the Christian tradition. He notes that the
practice of submitting oneself to a spiritual guide was primarily a monastic
or elitist one in both the Jewish and Christian traditions.
"There was the zaddik in later Hasidic communities and the abbot in the
Roman Catholic monastery. For example, in the writings of the Christian
desert fathers, the advice is given, ‘Go, attach yourself to a man who fears
God...give up your will to him, and then you will receive consolation from
God.’
"The contemporary Trappist monk Thomas Merton describes the Christian
‘spiritual father’ or ‘spiritual director’ as one who was set on fire by the
Holy Spirit.
"According to Merton, such a person should be, above all else, a charismatic
leader marked by complete devotion to God. Second, he should be a man of
experience who has struggled with the realities of prayer and devotion in
the midst of worldly life. Third, he must be a man of learning who is
steeped in the scriptures. Fourth, the spiritual guide must be a man of
discernment who has special perception and insight into the world and its
limitations as well as into his pupil’s soul and its particular needs.
Finally, such a guide must always be open to the direction of the Holy
Spirit as the channel of God’s love and grace.
"Only a person marked with these special attributes can hope to help others
‘read the breathings of the spirit.’ The similarity of these criteria to
those for the Krishna spiritual master is obvious.
"It is not surprising that the Krishnas’ chanting raises suspicions among
worried parents or persons who are unaware of the Indian context out of
which this practice comes. Chanting is one way of focusing the mind’s
attention as Christian monks and nuns who practice the ‘Jesus Prayer’ know.
"Also, chanting in most theistic traditions does have as its goal a
lessening of material and worldly attachments so that one becomes more
attached to God than to oneself, one’s friends, or one’s family.
"However, only in the monastic traditions of Christianity is the admonition
of Jesus to love God more than family really taken seriously (see Matthew
10:37-39).
"Since ISKCON began primarily as a monastic tradition in America, and one
that demanded complete surrender to the religious path, it is a mistake to
compare ISKCON’s life and practices with those of Protestant Christianity or
Reform Judaism which do not require — except in lip service—a full
twenty-four-hour, seven-days-a-week religious lifestyle.
"Congregational Christianity and Judaism are quite distant from their own
monastic traditions that require the undivided attention to the religious
life that ISKCON does in its devotional practices.
"Nonetheless, anticult critics continually insist on viewing the deity
worship and chanting of Krishna devotees as fanatical devotion caused by
malevolent manipulation."
On the subject of "deprogramming," Dr. Shinn notes that "the attempt to
dissuade persons forcibly to abandon their chosen faith is as old as
religion itself...the closest thing to contemporary deprogrammings occurred
in the thirteenth century when both Thomas Aquinas and Francis of Assisi
were abducted by family members in order to discourage their new ascetic
lives.
According to Dr. Shinn, the real danger of deprogramming "is that anyone in
any situation is a potential victim. Two members of the Tucson Freedom of
Thought Foundation deprogrammed an Old Catholic priest because his
Episcopalian parents objected to his faith choice.
"(Ted) Patrick has tried to deprogram two Greek Orthodox women ages
twenty-one and twenty-three ‘because the parents were upset that their
daughters had resisted the traditional Greek custom of living at home until
the parents found them suitable husbands.’...Patrick has also tried to
deprogram a young woman who joined an unpopular political party!
"In criticizing the Ted Patrick type of deprogramming, Galen Kelly, another
deprogrammer, tells this story: One time a deprogrammer ‘snapped’ a young
woman out of her ‘cult mind’ and then proudly announced to her parents,
‘You’ll be glad to know your daughter’s a Christian again.’ ‘But,’ said the
dazed parents, ‘she used to be Jewish.’"
Lord Acton has been quoted as saying, "The most certain test by which we
judge whether a country is really free is the amount of security enjoyed by
minorities. Liberty, by this definition, is the essential condition and
guardian of religion."
According to Dr. Harvey Cox, "Some deprogrammers have gladly deprogrammed
people in the Episcopal and Catholic churches, depending on the preference
of those who wanted them deprogrammed. As far as I can see, deprogrammers
are simply hired-guns. They will deprogram anybody you pay them to
deprogram."
Dr. Shinn observes further that a significant number of Krishna devotees
came from Jewish and Catholic backgrounds:
"While the number of new converts to ISKCON from Jewish backgrounds has
dropped to 15 percent or lower in recent years, the number ranged above 20
percent for the first decade of ISKCON’s history in America. Likewise, the
proportion of youths from Catholic backgrounds ran above 30 percent in a
survey this author did several years ago. Why are Jewish and Catholic youths
in particular attracted to ISKCON?
"One common attraction of Jewish and Catholic youths to ISKCON is ISKCON’s
stress on its ancient Indian scriptural tradition that is mediated through a
formal and complex ritual cycle. However, while both Jewish and Catholic
traditions extol the value of history and tradition, the theological
orientation of these traditions is dramatically different.
"On the one hand, most devotees raised in a Jewish context saw their
decision to join ISKCON as a break with their ethnic/religious family
tradition that practiced no devotion to a personal God. On the other hand,
most devotees raised in Catholic homes felt that becoming a Krishna devotee
was a continuation or deepening of their Catholic faith. One woman said
bluntly, ‘I am a better Catholic now.’
"...the Krishna theology included their previous faith, their new faith also
superseded their old one...there is a similarity in the Krishna and the
Catholic traditions in their stress on formal rituals, the abundant use of
iconography, their hierarchical institutional/authority structure, their
strong emphasis on the private prayerlife, and their ideals of the monastic
life of full time religious service and personal piety."
Dr. A.L. Basham suggests a possible explanation: "...the old-fashioned type
of missionary was quite certain that Hinduism was the work of the Devil, and
hence that it was very evil. It did all the things which Christianity,
especially Protestant Christianity, said you shouldn’t do, such as image
worship and the worship of many gods.
"Catholics were always much more tolerant of this sort of thing. Though he
may be theoretically monotheistic, the simple Catholic will, to all intents
and purposes, pray to quite a wide range of divinities, including the
Blessed Virgin Mary and various important saints, often in the form of
physical images.
"But Protestant Christianity was founded on the basis that there is one God
only, divided into three persons, and that worship of images is sinful. To
the Protestant of the old-fashioned kind, this was a terrible thing to do,
almost as bad as it was to a traditional Jew or Muslim. So the missionaries,
I think, are largely responsible for the polytheism stereotype and the
‘caste-ridden’ society stereotype."
Vaishnavas, like Christians, are not pantheistic, but dualistic. The
Vaishnava theology makes a clear distinction between the paramatma (God, or
higher self within one’s heart) and the jivatma (individual ego or
consciousness): distinguishing between a personal God and His children.
Like Christians, Vaishnavas also believe that souls in this world have
fallen from grace, that this world is transitory, and that there is an inner
conflict between one’s carnal and spiritual natures.
Srila Prabhupada drew an analogy between the biblical and Vaishnava teaching
on the Fall from grace:
"When a living entity disobeys the orders of God, he is put into this
material world, and that is his punishment...The real fact is that the
living entity is eternal, and the material world is created to satisfy his
false existence... The individual is thinking that he is independent and can
act independent of God. That is the beginning of paradise lost, of Adam's
fall.
"When Adam and Eve thought that they could do something independently, they
were condemned. Every living entity is the eternal servant of God, and he
must act according to the desire or will of the Supreme Lord. When he
deviates from this principle, he is lost. Losing paradise, he comes into the
material world...
"That is the process of transmigration, the rotation of the cycle of birth
and death. This is all due to disobeying God...Having rebelled against the
principles of God consciousness, we are cut off from our original position.
We have fallen."
Following biblical tradition, St. Augustine made a distinction between the
earthly and the heavenly, the flesh and bodily appetites versus the spirit
and peace of the soul. Describing the predicament of the soul in a physical
body in the material world, Augustine wrote:
"And so long as he is in this mortal body, he is a pilgrim in a foreign
land, away from God; therefore he walks by faith, not by sight."
Augustine said the soul "needs divine direction, which he may obey with
resolution, and divine assistance that he may obey it freely..." These
doctrines are consistent with Vaishnava theology.
In Krishna Consciousness, one will find priests and monks with vows; the
worship of consecrated images; the veneration of saints and different
divinities; the chanting of the holy names on beads of prayer; the belief
that sex is intended solely for procreation (upheld by St. Augustine and St.
Thomas Aquinas); two monastic orders (bramacharya and sannyassa);
sacramental food; the use of holy water, candles, incense and ash; a
platonic theology based upon metaphysical dualism: the spirit versus the
flesh, the earthly versus the heavenly; an emphasis on "otherworldly"
concerns such as salvation, the afterlife and eternal life; belief in the
incarnations of God; and the worship of a plural (e.g., Trinitarian)
Godhead.
Srila Prabhupada’s disciples recall a heartwarming dialogue with Christian
clergy which took place when Srila Prabhupada was visiting Detroit in the
1970s. His guests were two Catholic priests. Srila Prabhupada spoke beyond
the superficial, external, cultural differences between religions.
He asked them: "Do you believe that God is a Person?" (i.e., a personal God)
They said yes. He asked: "Do you believe we are also persons, meant to love
God?" They agreed. He asked: "Do you believe that sin separates man from
God?" They said yes.
Srila Prabhupada challenged them: "Then why don’t you teach people to stop
sinning?"
He then explained how killing animals, intoxication, gambling, and illicit
sexual connections are ungodly and unspiritual. When the priests left,
garlanded and carrying holy books and Bengali sweets, one of them said to
Srila Prabhupada, "Why, I feel as if we’ve become your disciples!"
The prayers and life story of Mahema dasi are revealing:
"I went to the Catholic church and knelt before the altar and prayed to
Jesus, ‘I’m not going to turn my back upon you.’ I sort of took Jesus’
permission to join the Hare Krishna movement because I felt close to
Catholicism; but I also felt that this was a path that could lead me even
further.
"On a spiritual level, in my heart, I felt that the link was still their to
my Catholic upbringing. But it was like I had gone through Catholicism and
was continuing on another path. I was not turning my back on my faith, nor
was I rejecting Catholicism. I sensed that I had gotten permission to join
ISKCON, and the next day I was initiated (accepted discipleship; taken
formal vows)...I was twenty-three...
"I saw my joining ISKCON as a natural extension of my Catholic spirituality.
I had been born in a suburb of Detroit in 1948, but my parents moved to
California, where my father had bought a small orchard...
"My father had been raised in a Jewish home and had converted to Catholicism
during the Second World War. He met my mother while he was a Marine and she
was working for the Navy.
"I remember them as devout Catholics who went to Mass every Sunday and tried
to follow the principles of the Catholic Church. My mother prayed a lot and
used to say, ‘Never underestimate the power of prayer.’
"...I immersed myself in the life of a middle-class parochial school
student. My high school career was uneventful, as I did well scholastically
and participated fully in school social activities. I even considered
becoming a nun. However, when I went to a Catholic college, I hung out with
friends who had a very different response to their Catholic backgrounds.
"They smoked dope, drank, and smoked. They were active in the anti-Vietnam
War movements and were much more activists than I was...my friends’
dependence on drugs seemed silly to me. I liked to be more in control of
myself than they did...it actually frightened me to see how people were
becoming speed freaks and dope addicts, and I didn’t find that attractive at
all.
"By the beginning of my third year in college I was beginning to feel the
need to return to the simple life in the country. So I dropped out of school
and shortly thereafter went to the Woodstock Festival with some
friends...While there, I began to search for alternatives to the Catholic
religious life...
"From Woodstock, I joined a group of traveling hippies who were going to New
Mexico in an old bus they owned. We stopped at several hippie communities
that were practicing American Indian paths to spiritual growth. I came to
appreciate the Hopis’ and the Navajos’ simple way of life. I had never been
into the violent antiwar protests nor the heavy drug scene, so this rural
way of life really agreed with me. Most of my friends were flower children
who were more into nature than drugs and demonstrations...
"...I was also attracted to the chanting and the kirtan (praise of God
through music and dance in Krishna Consciousness). Kirtan was especially
blissful and reminded me of the communal chanting we had done on the
farm...You really felt a spiritual high from singing, which also was
attractive to me. These religious occasions reminded me of my childhood when
I would feel chills go up my spine while praying or singing in the church...
"...I was reading the books and I was attracted to the philosophy. The
Bhagavad-gita was my main attraction. I was convinced by the Gita’s argument
that the soul is eternal and that there was a purpose for every life. And
the Gita showed how one could come to a higher level of consciousness in the
spiritual life...I believed that love was the motivation for the world, that
love tied the world together.
"But I knew that pure love was something that had to be cultivated. So I
felt the Gita was right when it said pure love was love of God—not just each
other. Consequently, in reading the Gita I felt that all I believed as a
Catholic was being confirmed and that the Gita was going further because it
was telling you how to love God...step by step.
"It took me about a year to assimilate the philosophy. I visited the Oregon
and Berkeley temples for short stays during this time. I was reading the
Gita and I was chanting, though not consistently. I tried to cultivate the
spiritual life...At that point I felt actually an inner strength from Srila
Prabhupada...The next day I went to the Catholic church to ask for Jesus’
permission. And I actually sensed that my joining was authorized."
Dr. Larry Shinn notes that unlike their ex-Catholic brethren, Krishna
devotees from Jewish backgrounds felt they were leaving one venerable
religious tradition in favor of another.
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