Rsiraja Das: The issue of interest is whether a soul “falls down” into matter. There is often confusion around this topic, which, in my view, rests upon a misunderstanding about the nature of knowledge about our past. There are three broad theological views on this issue:

(a) the soul is an individual; he falls down into matter and can get out of it;

(b) the soul is an individual but has always been in matter, although he can get out of the material laws;

(c) the individuality of the soul is an illusion; the creation of individuality is itself the falldown, although there is a universal transcendent observer.

Quite separately, there is the materialist / scientific position which denies both individual and universal transcendent observers. These views about the soul’s position and existence are tied to the views about matter, space, and time, and these ideas are therefore not just ideological commitments that can only be accepted on faith, but can also be discussed scientifically.

The Problem of Knowing the Past

If the falldown occurred, it must have been in the past, and to know whether it occurred we must know when it occurred. But how do we know what happened in the past? In Indian philosophy, living beings carry their past in their unconscious, which then produces the present under different times, places, and circumstances. The past existsmaterially in the present as history and carries the imprints of the prior time, place, and circumstance when it was created. When a similar kind of time, place, or circumstance recurs, these prior impressions are automatically excited much like a vibrating string can excite another string if they both have the same kinds of frequencies. The string that was not previously vibrating also exists, but its existence is unknown unless it is excited, and similarly the history exists as the “unconscious” and manifests our personality and behaviors only when subjected to different times, places, and circumstances.

This history is however not fixed. As we undergo new experiences, new impressions are created and the old ones are destroyed. This is not to say that the past is changed; it only means that the knowledge of the past—which materially exists as the history of the individual through impressions—is created and destroyed. In principle, we can only know the past through the materially existing history, because we cannot actually go into the past. We have access to the past through its historical imprint, but if the imprint has been destroyed then we have no way of knowing what happened in the past (unless, of course, the past resides as an impression in someone else’s memory).

The problem now is that the history is always being created and destroyed. If you had access to all your history (the unconscious) you could potentially go back in time until the earliest possible historical record. However, there is no guarantee that this historical record is actually the beginning of time for you. It is quite possible that you previously had even older historical records, although they have now been destroyed. Therefore, even if your earliest historical record has a date in the past, this date doesn’t necessarily indicate the time when you entered the material experience. The very fact that history can be created and destroyed entails that we have no way of knowing any past events beyond the oldest historical record. If you fell into the material experience only 5 minutes ago, and your history is therefore only 5 minutes old, you still cannot assert that you just fell 5 minutes ago, because you have no way of knowing that you might have actually fell long before and all the prior historical records have been erased.

There is, hence, no way of knowing when the material experience started because the historical record of that experience may itself have been destroyed. Since we also cannot know if it were destroyed, we can never be sure that it wasn’t. Your historical records of the past are a material entity and not time itself.

Time vs. History

Many people don’t understand the distinction between history and time. Time is eternal whereas history is created and destroyed. We have no access to time, but we can know about time through history. If things were not changing in this world, we could not know if time were passing. We could not measure time and we certainly could not talk about past, present, and future. The measurement of time therefore depends upon change, and change implies that things that existed in the past may not exist right now. History is also changing, and therefore our knowledge of the past changes, although the past itself does not. While the past is fixed, our knowledge of it is variable.

This point is important because causal effects depend on the historical imprint and not just on the past events. If the history has been destroyed, all its effects are also gone. The past which does not exist in the present (as a material entity) also has no effect on present or future. This is the reason that we can talk about a person becoming free of the natural laws—the entire sequence of events in the past doesn’t matter; what matters is the history of events that currently exists on record. In short, history is the past that exists in the present, and that history is causally efficacious. Everything else in the past is irrelevant.

The Question of Nitya-Baddha (The Eternally Bound Soul)

Indian philosophy speaks about the nitya-baddha or the eternally bound soul. The contentious issue regarding the eternally bound soul is whether the eternity of bondage concerns time or history. That is, are we claiming that the soul is eternally in the material experience as far as time is concerned, or is the soul eternally in matter as far his own knowledge about his own past is concerned? The problem in treating the eternity as time rather than as history is that we have no way of knowing when we fell (from the knowledge of the past) although we can know when we did not fall. For instance, if your earliest historical record goes back to time T1 in the past, you can know that you did not fall any time after T1. However, you cannot assert anything about any time prior to T1: you cannot know if the earliest historical record is also the first material experience.

Therefore, we cannot make any claims about anything that is temporally prior to T1. That we are eternally in material experience can neither be asserted nor denied. It is simply a metaphysical claim. The claim that we cannot know about the time of falldown, on the other hand, can be inferred from the fact that history is changing—i.e. that history is created and destroyed. The living being’s unconscious is like a slate on which things can be written but that writing is destroyed after its effect has been realized. This model of causality needs the view that all material experiences create an impression that exists temporarily until it has been converted into an effect. The effect in turn creates new experiences. The living being therefore undergoes a cycle of cause and effect, the origin of which cannot be traced back in time because once the prior impression has been converted into an experience, one only has the memory of the new experience while the memory of the prior experience has been destroyed.

If this causal model of experience were to be true, whether or not the soul is eternally in matter would be a scientific question in the sense that eternity as time would be unverifiable although eternity as history would be a valid theoretical and empirical construct. The temporal claim can never be theoretically or empirically asserted. However, the historical claim can be both theoretically and empirically asserted. For instance, we all infer that we had a childhood although we remember nothing about it; there are even periods of time when we draw a blank although we have vivid memories of times before and after that period. In these cases, the history has been destroyed, although the events did previously occur in time. The past that does not exist in the present as history cannot have a causal effect on the present or the future. Therefore, if one has become completely free of the past influences, he or she is also free of the laws of nature. This freedom is not violation of the nature’s laws. It is just that the laws depend on the material history to produce an effect, and that material history no longer exists.

The Argument from Authority

Some critics will now argue that the eternity of the falldown is based on statements from authorities—scriptures, teachers, advanced spiritualists, etc. I will not dive into this claim as refuting it would require quoting from these sources. I will, however, make a simple point: all knowledge gained from authority also has to be verified—theoretically and empirically. If we simply accept authority without verifying that claim, it becomes dogmatic. In a post on my blog, I justified the knowledge from authority as the only real way of knowing the truth. However, I also noted that the knowledge from authority concerns the discovery of truth and not its verification. If knowledge has to be discovered rationally or empirically, then knowledge can never be complete. However, if we substitute that discovery with authority, the true knowledge can easily be verified or denied.

The only way in which we can discriminate knowledge from dogmatism is if one is verifiable and the other is not. The argument from authority therefore works only when the claims can be verified. In this case, the argument from eternity can never be verified. We are free to accept it dogmatically, but if that view is extended to every other form of knowing, the entire epistemological enterprise will come crashing down.

The point simply is that the eternity argument can be understood in two ways—i.e. pertaining to time or to history. Only the latter can be theoretically and empirically asserted. The former must remain a metaphysical assumption and dogmatic belief.

The Problem of Spiritual Choice

Given the above, we can conclude that it is reasonable to suppose that the soul fell into matter at some time, although that time can never be known—if that knowledge is derived from the material historical imprint in our conscious or unconscious. If, however, we did fall, then there must be a time in which we had not yet fallen. Do we and can we have remembrance of that time? Note that there is an important difference between the time at which a soul falls, and the time before that fall. The difference is that after a fall, the remembrance must be stored in a material historical record. However, prior to that fall, matter itself did not exist, and therefore neither the material history. The memory of the past therefore isn’t the same for the time since the fall and the time before the fall.

Indian philosophy claims that each soul has innate memory of the time before the fall although that memory has been “covered” by subsequent experiences. This view is justified based on a distinction between two kinds of memories: the material unconscious is called pasyanti and the non-material impressions prior to that are called para. The key point is that even while existing in matter, each soul still has an innate memory of the past spiritual existence, even though that memory is now covered by the subsequent material memories. The spiritual nature of the living being therefore doesn’t have to be discovered; it only has to be remembered. There is a subtle but important difference between discovery and rememberance: discovery is external and remembrance is innate.

The proponent of eternal falldown, must—to be completely consistent—also change the definition of spiritual realization from remembrance to discovery. The knowledge about the self must now be imparted to a person, rather than remembered. E.g., if you have no innate knowledge of what you were in the past, then you have to be told about your spiritual position. Since you have no innate knowledge, you also cannot like or dislike a particular kind of position and role; you will have no preference for anything. And if you have no preference, essentially you cannot also desire or choose a position out of any innate capacity. You must simply accept whatever position is offered.

In effect, since you have no prior innate knowledge or preference for a spiritual nature, when that nature is imparted externally (rather than remembered) it cannot be a subject of free will, since every choice can work only in conjunction with a personality that prefers some things over others. The eternal falldown therefore creates a problem not only in explaining how we claim what we cannot theoretically and empirically know, but also serious issues in making choices in the future. Ultimately, it results in a denial of free will because we have no preference to choose, and therefore we cannot choose.

Choices and Buridan’s Ass

This problem is called the problem of Buridan’s Ass after the French philosopher Jean Buridan. The problem arises for an ass who is both thirsty and hungry and has a pile of hay and a pot of water lying before him, but cannot decide whether to eat or drink first and therefore dies of starvation and thirst. The point is that free will or choice alone becomes inadequate unless there is a personality that drives the choice in a particular direction. The ability to choose is not the same as making a particular kind of choice. In this case, the ass may be both thirsty and hungry but it must choose to drink or eat first. Since both options are equally possible, there must be some way this decision can be made. The preference for the choice must therefore come from something beyond choice itself.

In the case of eternal falldown, you have no innate personality to even make a preferred choice after you decide to get out of material experience. You are in effect like Buridan’s Ass who can choose one out of the many possible options, but cannot decide which one to choose. If you cannot make a preferred choice, a few things are possible: (a) someone else must make a choice for you, (b) you make a random choice—for which you could use a coin toss—which in turn is a decision made by something (rather than someone), and (c) you never make a choice, and therefore never enter the spiritual experience.

Now, we have an even more profound problem: if we cannot make choices, we have many possible alternatives that result from the inability to make choices, which must now be chosen! The only option consistent with the claim that we have no preferences (because we have no past beyond the material experience) is that we do nothing, which in effect results in death by starvation from the inability to choose, like the Buridan’s Ass.

The key point is that the premise that we are eternally in material experience in the past creates a further problem of how we get out of that experience in the future. The position of eternal material past is inconsistent with the idea that the future material experience is not eternal. The second position (of the three theological positions stated at the beginning — “the soul is an individual but has always been in matter, although he can get out of the material laws”) is therefore inherently inconsistent. It posits an asymmetry between the past and the future—the material past is eternal but the future is not—and this asymmetry rests upon the soul making a choice without having a personality. Only when the choice has been made, a personality must develop, and this creates the chicken-and-egg problem because choices cannot be made unless a personality already exists.

Existence, Choices and Personality

Indian philosophy describes that the soul has three properties—existence (sat), choices (chit), and personality (ananda). The term ananda literally means pleasure which dictates what we like, and therefore what we enjoy. Each of us must have a form of pleasure innate in us for us to be able to choose; the choices are made essentially to seek pleasure. If we don’t have a personal form, we cannot choose even though we might have the ability to make choices. Without a personality, choices can never be manifest.

The soul is said to exist, be capable of choices, and have a personality to choose. If you have a personality then you must also be an individual a priori. Of course, you may decide not to choose—which is also a choice—but to make any choice there must be a personality. All consciousness is in essence a choice—we focus our attention on some things while not on others. If there is no personality, then choices cannot be made, and if choices cannot be made there cannot be consciousness. The soul can still exist without individuality and experience—and this is in essence the claim of the third position described at the beginning where the soul’s individuality is itself termed an illusion. What proponents of this view don’t recognize is that in denying individuality they are denying choices and thereby consciousness itself. Once you remove personality and choice, you are left with an existence which is indistinguishable from that of material objects.

Note that material objects also exist and the key difference between matter and an observer is that the observers can choose and enjoy. If we remove choice and pleasure from an observer, then the observer is effectively like a material object—it only has existence which a material object also has. Of course, an observer has the ability for choice and pleasure, so even in the state where he chooses to not exercises choices and experience pleasure, the observer is distinct from material objects, which cannot in principle choose and enjoy. Nevertheless, when the observer renounces choices and pleasure, his distinction from material objects is unmanifest.

The impersonalist claims that the state without choice and pleasure is the real state of the observer. The undifferentiated existence is supposed to become divided and differentiated in the material universe, and if the original source is itself undifferentiated then how the differentiated world comes about itself becomes unexplainable. By discarding the a priori personality of the soul, therefore, the impersonalist loses the ability to explain why the material world even exists as a differentiated realm of objects and people.

I have previously explored this issue in greater detail in the essay Impersonalism, Voidism and Science published recently on Dandavats. The key point of that essay is that adopting an impersonal or voidistic position leads to the collapse of science because we cannot explain how differentiation arises from the undifferentiated.

The Rise of Materialism

Materialism stems from the denial of falldown, which in turn stems from positing either an asymmetry in time, or an undifferentiated reality. If you posit an asymmetry in time (the the soul is forever in matter in the past, but can get out of in the future), but do not accept that there is an original personality, then you can never explain getting out either. You are now permanently in matter, and therefore the supposition that there is a transcendent personality itself is unnecessary. Similarly, if you suppose that personality is an illusion, then consciousness must also be an illusion (since without personality choices cannot be made, and without choices there cannot be consciousness), and therefore we are left with an undifferentiated, unconscious reality. That reality can also be called matter.

Once you accept that the soul is eternally in matter, you may also assert that the individual is actually a product of matter. Similarly, if you accept that the soul has no individuality outside of matter, then its existence apart from matter itself becomes questionable. We can engage in philosophical hairsplitting about how the soul and matter are different, but if the soul did not fall into matter, then the process by which it gets out is itself unclear. If you can never get out, then what’s the point of talking about morality, judgement, and afterlife? Similarly, if the reality before the material experience is undifferentiated, then the experience of differentiation cannot be explained, which means that how the material world is created cannot be explained. These two positions undermine the fundamental cornerstones underlying the quest for religion. The first position is inconsistent while the second one is incomplete. They would eventually be rejected in favor of materialism, at least if materialism turned out to be a consistent and complete position.

Is Materialism Consistent and Complete?

I have— in several previous posts on this blog— described why current materialism is either an inconsistent or an incomplete position. There are currently several theories of matter which describe different facets of the material experience incompletely. These theories don’t work for all experiences, although they may work partially for a given experience. However, when we try to enhance these incomplete theories, they become inconsistent—either logically or empirically. That is, either they will predict things that will contradict experience or the theory itself would contradict its own predictions.

I have also described an alternative materialism in which matter is essentially information which begins in abstract ideas and through successive stages of refinement becomes contingent material objects; these objects are ideas too—they are just more detailed. I have also shown why the alternative materialism is both consistent and complete, and how it resolves the underlying paradoxes of incompleteness in current science.

This alternative materialism traces the origin of material objects first to senses, then to the mind, then to the intellect, then to the ego, then to morality, and so forth, all the way into the individual and then a universal observer’s consciousness. This consciousness—as already described earlier—is essentially choices governed by a personality. All information therefore is ultimately choices of the universal or individual observers. As already seen above, to make choices, there must a priori be a personality. The individual and universal observers must therefore have a personality to even create a material universe.

The personal nature of the soul follows from the problems of incompleteness in science: if these problems have to be solved, there must be a clear role for information in nature; if information is real then we need to ask about the source of that information in the choices of an observer; if the choices of the observer are real then the observer must be a person because without personality choices can never be made. These facts render impersonalism, materialism and eternal falldown theories untenable, and while the falldown is a theological problem thus far, its solution depends on a far more profound understanding of material nature than which generally exists today.

The Scientific Component of the View

There are several components of this profound understanding of material nature, which I have briefly alluded to in the above paragraphs, and I will try to summarize them again so that its differences with current scientific views become apparent. These components also represent areas of new scientific development—both theoretical and empirical.

1. All causality in modern science depends on the current state of matter and not the past states. In Indian philosophy, causality indeed depends on the current states, although these states may be impressions, history, or memory of the past. In current science, matter has no memory because all material states are non-referential: they can only point to themselves. If matter could have referential states, then it could also point to events in the past. In such a scenario, it would be possible to speak about how the past exists in the present referentially. These references can be created and destroyed, quite like any other material objects, and therefore the history of the past is not permanent, even though the past itself is fixed.

2. The above causal model depends upon the ability in matter to hold knowledge or references about other things. This knowledge can go backwards and forwards in time; it can also point to different objects in space at the present moment; finally, it can also point to other objects in space in the past or in the future. To reference something, matter must have conceptual properties—we describe other things using concepts, and then point to those things using references. References therefore work only when a prior conceptual role of matter has been inducted.

3. The conceptual nature of matter entails that ideas are not just in the mind, but also in material things. This follows from the inability to reduce ideas to things—consistently and completely. It also leads to problems of mind-body interaction. If both mind and matter are ideas, there is no interaction problem. Furthermore, if matter is contingent ideas derived from a mind which is abstract ideas, there is no reduction problem (followed by inconsistency or incompleteness) either. Ordinary material objects and scientific objects (such as electrons and photons) therefore have to be treated conceptually and not physically—they have to be seen as representing ideas, rather than just possessing physical properties.

4. The revision to our notions of matter, in turn changes our notions about space and time. If some material objects are abstract while others are contingent, and all these objects are in space and time then space and time locations themselves must be identified as being abstract and contingent. Now, space and time are not linear and flat but must be described hierarchically like postal addresses or clock times. Hierarchical space is closed and hierarchical time is cyclic. The closed and cyclic nature of space and time itself now represents a vibration. However, this vibration should not be described in terms of frequency, phase and amplitude, but rather as the representation of meanings, quite like ordinary speech has physical properties but its real property is that it denotes and expresses meanings.

5. Once we know that matter holds meanings, we can ask ourselves: are these meanings true or false? The existence of the meaning does not entail its truth, and meanings drive a wedge between existence and truth. The question of truth equates to the question of existence in physical theories, but the existence of meanings does not itself entail whether those meanings are true or false. If meanings are objective, then their truth status must also have a causal effect. It is now possible to speak about the moral differences between true and false, based upon a material theory of nature that utilizes meanings for causality. The moral consequences don’t act immediately and their causal effects therefore require the existence of the past in the present—as history. The semanticity of matter, which allows matter to refer to other things (including the past), is therefore intimately tied to a new model of causality based on meanings rather than physical states. My book Moral Materialism further details these aspects of a new causal view.

In Conclusion

I believe that many topics of theological debate—such as whether there is a soul or God, whether these are identical or different, whether they have free will, whether they are individuals or merely undifferentiated existence, whether they are identical or different from matter, whether they fall into matter unknowingly and randomly or descend into it by their free will—are scientific questions whose answers can be gleaned from the nature of material reality. These debates can benefit from a deeper understanding of material nature, and from the idea that religion is not a form of faith but of knowledge.

Source:http://m.dandavats.com/?p=17342

The board members of ISKCON New Vrindaban and ECO-Vrindaban humbly invite all New Vrindaban residents and well-wishers to participate in the upcoming weekend activities. Please see the detailed schedule below. We hope to see you all!

WEEKEND SCHEDULE:

Friday, December 4th.

7:30 pm to 8:30 pm: Dinner Prasadam with Board Members & GBCs (at Radha Vrindaban Chandra’s Temple)

Saturday, December 5th.

9:45 am to 1:30 pm: Department Head Presentations for 2015 (under the Lodge)

1:30 pm to 2:30 pm: Lunch Prasadam (at Radha Vrindaban Chandra’s Temple)

2:30 pm to 5:00 pm: Community Dialog (under the Lodge)

6:00 pm to 7:30 pm: Srila Prabhupada Sangam & Dinner Prasadam (at his Palace)

Sunday, December 6th.

10:00 am to 1:00 pm: New Vrindaban Community Tour (various locations, weather permitting)

1:00 pm to 3:00 pm: Sunday Program & Feast (at Radha Vrindaban Chandra’s Temple)

3:30 pm to 5:00 pm: Lifetime Community Service Appreciations (under the Lodge)

Source:http://www.brijabasispirit.com/2015/12/03/iskcon-new-vrindaban-and-eco-v-boards-meeting-on-december-4th-6th/

Petersburg Krishna Kirtan Concert

By Phalini Devi Dasi

At 7:00 a.m. on August 22, 2015, my husband and I climbed into the car with Sarva-drik dasa and his wife Sudevi. We all drove to the Petersburg (Virginia) Federal Correctional Complex where we all had gone for a kirtan and preaching program in September of 2014. Our first trip there had been such a positive experience that we were eager to go again.

During the pleasantly scenic drive between Sandy Ridge and Petersburg, we learned that before relocating to Prabhupada Village six years before, Sarva-drik Prabhu had lived at the Denver ISKCON Temple for twenty-five years. While living there, he used to regularly go to the prison in Englewood, Colorado to chant, preach and teach the inmates about Krsna Consciousness, as well as to distribute prasadam. He now works in connection with the ISKCON Prison Ministry. Over the last six years, he developped and now follows a regular prison preaching route. Prison preaching has given Sarva-drik Prabhu such a sweet taste that he goes to at least five prisons every month—one or two per weekend—including facilities in South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia.

We arrived in Petersburg right on time, with our closed-toe shoes (visitors are not allowed to wear flip-flops there) and our otherwise completely devotional dress, tilaka and musical instruments. After clearing security, we were escorted to the chapel. The Prison Chaplain and Bhakta Richard (aka “Krishna Kirtan”–the devotee who is in charge of the Bhakti-Yoga Club at the medium-security facility) met us there and led us into a large room which is part of the vast prison chapel complex.

We were not prepared for what awaited us. Forty men greeted us, many of whom were positioned and ready to play various types of musical instruments to accompany the kirtan. We recognized some of the faces and gave nods and smiles of recognition to those whom we had met the previous year—Simon, Louis, and David were a few of the names we remembered.

Bhakta David, the now-famous origami florist, had handmade many more paper flowers this year than he had the previous year (Petersburg Correction Facility still does not allow real flowers on campus). In fact, he had made more than two-hundred paper flowers, dozens of which were strung together as garlands. As we entered the concert hall, we were lovingly garlanded by four of the men. Bhakta David had also learned how to make multi-colored origami lotus flowers, which were beautifully arranged in vases on the altar. Their Lordships Sri Sri Gaura-Nitai, dressed in simple yet lovely outfits, graced the altar with Their effulgent, benevolent forms and were accompanied by an attractive statue of Sri-Sri Radha-Krishna as well as a set of blissful Jagannatha deities. Bhakta Louis, Krishna Kirtan’s cell-mate, is particularly attracted to Lord Jagannatha, so he always makes sure that Jagannatha, Baladeva and Subhadra are prominently placed on the altar and a huge three-foot wall-hanging of Lord Jagannatha’s face is hung on the wall behind the altar.

We were happy to see the familiar Prabhupada Pastimes video playing on a screen to the right of the altar. It always fills our hearts with joy and makes us smile to see old clips of Srila Prabhupada and his disciples from the sixties and seventies.

Krishna Kirtan Prabhu signaled for the kirtan to start. We were amazed by how all the men sang Hare Krishna so enthusiastically and played their instruments so expertly together. I was especially impressed that all the instruments were in tune with each other and even with our harmonium! The kirtan sounded so sweet that I found myself hoping that someone was recording it. Bhakta Simon played the congas and there were even a bass guitar and another harmonium playing along. It was phenomenal. A veritable Petersburg Krishna Kirtan Concert!

After the kirtan, both my husband and Sarva-drik Prabhu took turns speaking. Haripada Prabhu reminded the men that there are 8,400,000 species of life and that the human form of life is very rare. He said that we are all lucky to be in human bodies because we have the opportunity to reconnect with Krishna, God. He said that God is known as Yogeshvara—the master of all mystic powers—and that each of us has some powers, but God has all powers—all potencies—to the fullest degree. Krishna can be compared to the unfathomable ocean, and we can be compared to small quantities of ocean water. If you take a drop of ocean water or dip a bucket into the ocean, you’ll find salt just like in the vast ocean, but in a small quantity. So we are like Krishna, in that we have a small, minute quantity of powers compared to His unlimited powers.

Recalling for the men the Bible story of the prodigal son, Haripada Prabhu painted a mental picture for them, “Imagine a wealthy family. One of the children leaves home and becomes a drunkard. The family tries to encourage him to come back, but he refuses. But some day he may decide to reconnect with his father, with his family. We are like that prodigal child. We have the wealthiest, most loving father, yet because of our minute independence, we have somehow chosen to leave home, to disconnect from our family and to try to enjoy this material world in a separate way. As in the story of the prodigal son, when we decide to return home to Lord Krishna, we are welcomed with open arms and unconditional love.”

Sarva-drik Prabhu spoke about Canakya Pandita’s verse in Niti-sastra which explains that time is the most valuable asset for the human being. He emphasized that we cannot buy back even a moment of time, even with unlimited money. He questioned the men, “How do you invest your time, your most valuable asset? Do you spend time contemplating ‘who am I’?” Then he took that thought further by asking, “If you don’t know who you are, how can you be happy?” He asked, “You have all lost your families, your cars, your bank accounts, and your reputations. How can you be happy without these things?” Then he proceeded to explain how to be happy without material attachments and affluences. He advised, “Meditate on who you really are, and what is your relationship with God. Ask yourself, ‘Why do I have to be sick and grow old and die?” Sarva Prabhu told the men that only a fortunate person feels inspired to ask these questions. He concluded by urging the men to become fortunate, and to learn to use the wealth of their time wisely. “If you misuse wealth, all you have left is sorrow, but if you use your time efficiently to understand what is the soul’s relationship with God, you can become happy. That is the actual object of human life, the real wealth of human life.”

After the devotees spoke, we all joined together in another sweet, melodious kirtan. Although we sang a melody that the inmates had not heard before, they caught on quickly and soon became absorbed in the sound of the holy names. We noticed many of the men closing their eyes and really trying to hear the holy names. Some even accompanied us with their musical instruments. By Sri Nama Prabhu’s mercy, we all felt purified and uplifted by the beautiful kirtan of Krishna’s holy names.

Following the kirtan, Haripada Prabhu spoke again. “The Vedas tell us that God created two realms, the material realm and the spiritual realm. Both realms originate from Krishna. When we come to the human form of life, Krishna grants us the freedom to choose whether to reside in the spiritual realm or the material realm. In the human form of life, we have the chance to read transcendental literatures which describe both realms. We also have the chance to decide in which realm we want to reside.” He illustrated a scenario: “Someone may find himself in a bad neighborhood, a dangerous neighborhood. He may then choose to move to a better neighborhood. The human form of life allows us the chance to choose to move to a better neighborhood, the spiritual world. So how does one go about moving to that better neighborhood of the spiritual world? The method for transferring ourselves to the spiritual world is given by Lord Caitanya in this Age of Kali—the chanting of the holy names of the Lord.” He compared the chanting of Hare Krishna to a spiritual alarm clock. “This chanting is a sound vibration that wakes us up from the dream of identifying with our body and everything connected to our body. The chanting is a sound vibration that wakes us up so that we can realize who we are. Lord Caitanya, Krishna Himself, came five-hundred years ago to give us this process of mantra-meditation. The chanting of Hare Krishna wakes us up so we can understand our eternal relationship with Krishna.”

Because the Petersburg Facility does not allow prasadam distribution, the inmates bought candies and after offering them to Sri Sri Gaura-Nitai, happily distributed them to all.

Many of the men had requested to have their pictures taken with us. Unfortunately, the photographer arrived late, so many participants had already left before the camera was able to capture them. After much picture-taking with those who were still present, we said our good-byes, feeling very grateful to Lord Caitanya and the Guru-parampara for engaging us in prison preaching.

On the drive home to North Carolina, my husband and I expressed our gratitude to Sarva-drik Prabhu for his years of hard work, traveling to prisons and sharing Krishna consciousness with inmates who might otherwise never get a chance to hear the kirtan of Krishna’s holy names or Krishna conscious philosophy. We thanked him for encouraging us to come along and experience the nectar that is freely and readily available to those who are willing to take the time and effort to touch prisoners’ lives with Lord Caitanya’s mercy.***

This article is just a small part of the bi-monthly IPM NEWS, an electronic newsletter. To read the whole Nov/Dec 2015 issue, please go to: http://iskconprisonministry.us/node/473 If you wish to receive it in your mailbox, simply email me at iskconprisonministry@gmail.com with “SUBSCRIBE” in the subject line. You can also view more excerpts of inmate letters and also their artwork on our website:www.iskconprisonministry.org You want to help? OUR PRESSING NEED OF THE MOMENT: One of our donors who, for many years (thank you!), sponsored all the shipping of boxes of books to chapel libraries will be unable to do so for an indefinite time. Without this donation, I am unable to send books to chapel libraries.

This is vital, as hundreds of inmates have access, for years on end, to the material placed in libraries. Please help! The yearly cost is $2,000 a year (or $500 every trimester/ or $167 a month). If you can help, please contact Mukunda Dasa or Bhakti-lata Dasi at:
iskconprisonministry@gmail.com

ISKCON Prison Ministry
3759 McCreary’s Ridge Road
NBU #46
Moundsville, WV 26041

Source:http://m.dandavats.com/?p=17348

(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 16 April 2014, Durban, South Africa, Srimad Bhagavatam 1.7.34)

Our strength is not brahman-tejas(brahminical power). Our strength is to carry the mercy of Sri Caintanya Mahaprabhu. That is our strength. Our strength is to, somehow or the other, chant Hare Krsna and induce others to chant Hare Krsna. To become great qualified brahmanas is not so easy. Srila Prabhupada describes in his purports to the first canto of Srimad Bhagavatam that it is an emergency in this age of kali. Therefore for the sake of emergency, we give positions to people although they are not really qualified; we give them positions of brahmanas, we give them positions of sannyasis. Prabhupada said we do this because we need leaders in society. We need leaders! But what is their qualification?

So, this is something to take upon our head: Our acute lack of qualification and the urgency to become more qualified.  We have just been given these positions out of emergency and that for once in our life, we should begin to embrace the principles very seriously and not only four regulative principles but also the principles of vaisnava behaviour and so on. Because that is a brahmana; brahmana means principled life and that is a great challenge for us because it means that we have to change. So Krsna consciousness means a great commitment to change and we are given the systems by which we can change.

Source:https://www.kksblog.com/2015/12/a-state-of-emergency-2/

A new biography of ISKCON Founder-Acharya Srila Prabhupada, entitled “Swami in a Strange Land: How Krishna Came to the West” is set to be released on May 3rd 2016, during ISKCON’s 50th anniversary year.

While there is already an exhaustive biography of Prabhupada in the form of Satsvarupa Das Goswami’s multi-volume Srila Prabhupada Lilamrita, as well as many individual memoirs, author Yogesvara Das (Joshua M. Greene) felt the need for a single volume bio that would be accessible and marketed to a broad general audience.

“I teach religious studies at the undergraduate level,” he says. “And whenever students asked me, ‘Do you have something about your spiritual master that I can read?’ I was feeling bereft that there wasn’t a single simple volume that would not only convey Srila Prabhupada’s life story in a succinct way for general readership, but also the essence of his teachings.”

Yogesvara – who asked for and gained the endorsements of many senior Prabhupada disciples for his effort – knows how to reach a broad audience. He’s had books published by Random House, Simon and Schuster, and other major companies, including successful biographies like Justice at Dachau: The Trials of An American Prosecutor and Here Comes the Sun: The Spiritual and Musical Journey of George Harrison.

His biography of Srila Prabhupada describes how Prabhupada grew up in a British India where deity worship, and worship of Krishna in particular, was put down by missionaries, yet his father Gour Mohan De was determined to see young Abhay grow up to be a strong devotee and preacher.

The book addresses the sacrifices Prabhupada made to fulfill his spiritual master’s order, the extent of his poverty, and the depth of his determination to write, print books and magazines, and secure all the papers needed to go West.

“Sumati Morarjee, who helped finance the printing of his Bhagavatam, had met “Swamiji” at Kurukshetra,” Yogesvara says. “She remembered him as a holy person then and was pleased to help with funds for printing. But she hesitated over giving him a ticket to America. She feared for his health—and we know that she had good reason, given the two heart attacks he suffered on the journey to America. But he convinced her, and just before embarking he traveled to Mayapur to offer obeisances at his spiritual master’s samadhi.”

Once in America, Prabhupada’s sacrifices continued through one of the coldest winters on record.

 
The book's cover

The story of “Swami in a Strange Land” culminates with the New York State Supreme Court case against his movement, charging that Krishna consciousness constituted brainwashing.

“The legitimacy of his whole mission was in question,” Yogesvara says. “But that case came out successful, just months before he passed away.”

Yogesvara’s aim is to tell a full biography of Srila Prabhupada, from the beginning of his life to the end, yet told from the perspective of his teachings.

“I asked myself, what would Prabhupada say if I told him I wanted to write his life story,” he explains. “And the answer was obvious: he would say, ‘My life story only has meaning if it can convey Krishna’s teachings.’”

Thus, Yogesvara’s five main goals in writing Swami in a Strange Land were that readers should come away thinking 1) “I’m not this body,” 2) “God is a person,” 3) “Now I understand what a real guru is,” 4) This person came here for me,” and 5) “I would like to read some of Prabhupada’s books.”

Yogesvara did three years of extensive research for Swami in a Strange Land. He read some 100 academic and popular books, including memoirs, studies of ISKCON, and biographies. He read every one of Srila Prabhupada’s 5,000 letters, and almost all of the 38 volumes of his transcribed conversations. And he conducted more than fifty interviews with personalities like Prabhupada’s now departed disciple Brahmananda Das, Professor Tom Hopkins – who was generous with his memories of 26 2nd Avenue – and Prabhupada’s son Vrindavan Chandra.

“Vrindavan Chandra kindly provided a description of being with his father when he walked up the gangplank to board the Jaladuta,” says Yogesvara. “One thing that reporters, editors and more have consistently told me is that they’re so impressed with Srila Prabhupada, but cannot understand why he left his family. So I deal with that in the book, and I’m so grateful to Vrindavan Chandra for helping me with it.”

Yogesvara’s book isn’t a detached, dry biography, but a dramatic narrative, full of evocative descriptions that bring the reader to a specific time and place, and dialog as Prabhupada interacts with disciples and others he meets. The best thing about the dialog? None of it is invented – it’s all lifted from transcripts and recorded conversations, with immaculate references at the end of the book.

Yogesvara also tells us about Prabhupada and his life through the viewpoint of his disciples.

“That’s the most valuable lens that we have,” he says. “Without understanding how people were affected by him, it’s difficult to convey a sense of what it was like to be with him.”

Swami in a Strange Land often uses the experiences of disciples to gain a deeper appreciation of elements of Prabhupada’s life or achievements that people are already familiar with.

“For example, when Prabhupada wrote Easy Journey to Other Planets in 1959, that was his first book,” Yogesvara says. “It came out first as an essay in two issues of Back to Godhead magazine. It was an absolutely brilliant transposing of Vedic wisdom into a contemporary scientific language. And it was that book that made Sadaputa [Prabhupada’s formost scientist disciple] a devotee. That’s how powerful Easy Journey was.”

Yogesvara himself, who joined ISKCON as a student in London in 1969, is also one of the book’s “lenses” through which we see Prabhupada.

“I had the privilege of traveling with Srila Prabhupada – not as much as his secretaries or personal servants – but the few weeks I did have were revelatory,” he says, explaining that these revelations are in the book.

“I got to ask him anything I wanted, and we had very long discussions about art, preaching Krishna consciousness, family life, and his personal life. Whenever I was with him, I would ask him any question that came to my mind. And he never declined to answer.”

At 304 pages and hardcover, Swami in a Strange Land includes 30 color and 30 black and white photos, each one of which is referenced to some incident in the text, giving readers unfamiliar with Krishna consciousness deeper insight.

It’s being published by Mandala, who are set to go all out in promoting the book to a broad audience – during ISKCON’s 50th anniversary, the perfect time to raise awareness of Srila Prabhupada.

“They’re hiring a publicist, so there’ll be author tours, interviews, feature articles, drive time radio, morning talk shows – they’re going for every venue they can,” says Yogesvara. “Also, starting next year their catalog will be distributed by the Simon Schuster sales force, one of the biggest book sales forces in the world – so Swami in a Strange Land will be listed in the Simon and Schuster catalog too.”

In an effort to further maximize the appeal of Prabhupada’s story to a large audience, a show, tentatively titled “Krishna and the Spirit of the Sixties,” will premier in New York in October 2016 and then be made available to ISKCON temples everywhere for their 50thanniversary events.

It will feature a live narration of Prabhupada’s life and teachings accompanied by Powerpoint, video, and live music by a band led by Godfrey Townsend, who has performed with some of the biggest rock artists in the world.

“The idea is that Prabhupada was a central personality in that dynamic time in American history, and that the “Spirit of the Sixties” is not over,” says Yogesvara. “It was a spirit of self-searching, of finding a greater truth to life. And that spirit is still alive in Prabhupada’s society 50 years later, through the junctures of Krishna consciousness and many areas of human endeavor: healthcare through initiatives such as Bhaktivedanta Hospital, environment (Eco-Village), conflict resolution (ISKCON Resolve) and the frontiers of consciousness and science (the Bhaktivedanta Institute and the Mayapur project).”

So what does Yogesvara ultimately want readers to take away from Swami in a Strange Land and its accompanying shows?

“That beneath the surface appearance of reality, there is a transcendental dimension of consciousness at work within creation,” he says. “And that solutions to the issues confronting humanity can only be long term and lasting if the issue of consciousness is addressed.”

“That was Prabhupada’s great contribution,” Yogesvara concludes. “He demonstrated, gave proof, that life does not come from matter. Life come from life. And it does not end with the body. It is eternal. That one fact can transform the landscape of the world.”

Swami in a Strange Land can be pre-ordered here:

Source: http://www.amazon.com/Swami-Strange-Land-Bhaktivedanta-Prabhupada/dp/1608876446

Bhaktivedanta Manor Temple's President Srutidharma Das, Managing Director Gauri Das and Head of Communications Vinay Tanna were amongst the few leaders selected to meet the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accompanied by UK Prime Minister David Cameron, during his recent visit to the UK. 

Photos released today show Srutidharma Das shaking hands with both Modi and Cameron at a special showcase event held at Wembley Stadium, which featured a performance of both the Indian and British national anthems by children from the Krishna Avanti Primary School amongst others, and was attended by thousands.

David Cameron also met and shook hands the children from Krishna Avanti, a flagship Conservative free school, and sat with them in the VIP area, which was an unforgettable moment for them. 

Srutidharma Das spoke to Narendra Modi in Gujarati about ISKCON's 50th anniversary next year, for which he offered heartfelt congratulations. Modi also spoke about his visit to Bhaktivedanta Manor in 2005. Upon meeting Srutidharma Das, David Cameron said "We meet again!" as Prabhu had only recited Diwali prayers at No 10 few days earlier. He also commented on the mangal arati sweets which were given as a gift to the Prime Minister and Mrs Cameron, who had worn a sari for the occasion, which his children enjoyed immensely.

Srutidharma Das said: "We were absolutely delighted to be part of this historic event - it was a milestone for the UK and India, and ISKCON were right at the very heart of it."

Source:http://iskconnews.org/new-photos-released-iskcon-leaders-meet-indian-pm-modi-and-uk-pm-david-cameron,5248/

By Sutapa das

Every December the entire ISKCON world focuses all attention on distribution of transcendental literature, something we all know was so close to Srila Prabhupada’s heart. He was incredibly eager to hear the figures of how many books were being distributed. Indeed, he said it gave him life. When a new book was printed, Prabhupada felt as though he had conquered an empire. He told one disciple – “the best of me is in my books.”

At this special time in ISKCON’s history, Bhaktivedanta Manor would like to make an epic offering to His Divine Grace – no less than 100,000 books distributed this Christmas! Last year we distributed 51,000 books, and that was the most successful marathon for 18 years! So this year’s “100k Effort” is a huge operation that requires everyone’s support! It was Srila Prabhupada who told us to “think big” and aim to “double it”. We hope, pray and sincerely request every single devotee to make a contribution to this momentous effort – be part of history in the making!

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/The100kEffort

Whattsapp: Text number to 07530 779 288

Please contact me if you have any ideas, and I’ll do my very best to assist. You can also get involved in the following initiatives:

1) Sacred Street Party – go out on Saturdays with a team of devotees from the Manor! Contact Bh Nikhil (07530 779 288)
2) Door-to-Door – go out in the evenings / weekends and visit homes! Contact Bh Nitin (07977 092 240)
3) Street distribution – visit the bustling town centres during the week! Contact Sutapa (07957 636 283) / Jagat Priya devi dasi (07776 060 697)
4) Gita Jayanti / Sponsorship – Sponsor books which will be placed in Schools, Universities, Hopitals, and Jails! Contact Saurabh das (07907 809 006)
5) Book Packs – Collect your Special Book Pack (contains 7 books) and vow to distribute them in December! Contact Candra Caitanya das (07957 417 147)

Thanks for reading! Let’s keep this sacred mission of book distribution, the heart of Srila Prabhupada and the “family business” of ISKCON, healthy and alive. Let’s make it a marathon to remember!

For any other information please contact myself (07957 636 283).

Your servant
Sutapa das

Source:http://m.dandavats.com/?p=17308

 Chennai’s Iskcon Temple gets inundated by flood waters.

Note from the local devotees: Chennai is suffering from continous rain. Most areas flooded.
Our temple is surrounded by water. We are moving our devotees to a safer place.
Videos and photos: https://goo.gl/d2xprv 
https://goo.gl/N0CSGK
https://goo.gl/ZPeyg

Source:https://www.facebook.com/sumithra.krishna/posts/10153779211204777

I have more than one reasons to bring this up again. Whether NASA has keen interest in Sanskrit texts or not is, I would say, no more a debatable issue. It has. What i am referring to in here is not a revelation but the relevance of an old news that needs serious attention. Although there have been counter arguments put forward by some who couldn’t possibly imagine how on earth Sanskrit, the most ancient language on the planet, could be used for cosmic communication, a research paper submitted by a NASA scientist, Rick Briggs, meticulously shows how Sanskrit is the only language known to human beings that is capable of generating codes for cosmic communication. The findings were published by The Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence non-profit organization, aaai.org, on their website in their 1985 Spring issue.

Call it unfortunate or not, the same NASA scientist had invited 1,000 Sanskrit scholars from India for working at NASA but his request was turned down by the Indian scholars saying they were reluctant to allow the language to be put to foreign use! Later, it came to light that after the refusal of the Indian Sanskrit scholars to help NASA acquire command over the language, US had urged its young generation to learn Sanskrit. Smart indeed.

The NASA website also confirms its Mission Sanskrit and describes it as the best language for computers. The website clearly mentions that NASA has spent a large sum of time and money on the project during the last two decades. (Source)

Although, reportedly, in later years, NASA removed what they called Mission Sanskrit from their official website, the fact remained that they did continue pursuing Americans to learn the language.  In 2012, it was announced that NASA will use the traditional Indian language, Sanskrit, as a part of their space mission with the then government of the United States of America mulling the possibilities to use it for creating the most complex computer codes.

But there are people who believe it is English which is the best language for more efficient coding and in creating artificial intelligence. The reason given is the evolution of English is not regulated and it’s free to change and vary depending on the culture that uses it. Ironically, this is the very reason English or any other language that is prone to change over time cannot be used for cosmic coding and interplanetary communication. How can a non-standard language be used for coding? Any software engineer would laugh at such a proposition for it is known that even a single irregularity in a computer language can cause applications to crash. How can then the language used for interplanetary communication be non-standard? It just makes no sense.

On one hand, the so-called secularists and leaders have no idea about the knowledge stored in the Vedas, written entirely in Sanskrit language, on the other hand, it’s a good news that this knowledge is now being openly recognized, even by the western world. The article, why you should not have any doubt in Vedic science published on Mayapur Voice presents various aspects of Vedic science that are now being looked into with great interest by scholars across the world.

Veda is not all about religion and faith, it is the very basis of science; the infallible science that cannot be separated from God, because God, who, according to Vedic conclusion, is none other than  Lord Krishna, is the original source and scientist who has conceived, in less than a fraction of a second, the complex design of this material world, and under whose direction the laws of mother Nature, submissively works. This is confirmed in the Bhagavad Gita (9.10), by Lord Krishna Himself:

mayadhyaksena prakritih suyate sa-caracaram
hetunanena kaunteya jagad viparivartate

Translation: This material nature, which is one of My energies, is working under My direction, O son of Kunti, producing all moving and non-moving beings. Under its rule this manifestation is created and annihilated again and again.

Srila Prabhupada explains:

It is clearly stated here that the Supreme Lord, although aloof from all the activities of the material world, remains the supreme director. The Supreme Lord is the supreme will and the background of this material manifestation, but the management is being conducted by material nature.

People without spiritual insight, not realizing that they are constantly controlled, are mad after controlling the nature but in reality they are tightly bound by the laws of nature.  This is evident and clearly visible. As soon as there is an overdoing on part of those so-called controllers, the material nature pulls the string and we see torrents of rain, floods, earthquakes, drought, and other natural calamities. All that is possible by mankind during such calamities is relief activities. There is no way they will ever be able to stop natural calamities no matter how much they claim, one after another.

What we call death is nothing but pulling of the plugs by the agents of material nature, called devatas, or demigods, when a particular body, or a work station, stops functioning. Under all circumstances, Lord Krishna remains the supreme master of material nature.

Srila Prabhupada further explains:

Krishna also states in Bhagavad-gita that of all of the living entities in different forms and species, “I am the father.” The father gives seeds to the womb of the mother for the child, and similarly the Supreme Lord by His mere glance injects all the living entities into the womb of material nature, and they come out in their different forms and species, according to their last desires and activities. All these living entities, although born under the glance of the Supreme Lord, take their different bodies according to their past deeds and desires.

So the Lord is not directly attached to this material creation. He simply glances over material nature; material nature is thus activated, and everything is created immediately. Because He glances over material nature, there is undoubtedly activity on the part of the Supreme Lord, but He has nothing to do with the manifestation of the material world directly.

There is a beautiful example given in the smriti sastras where this phenomena is compared with the aroma of a flower. Srila Prabhupada continues: “when there is a fragrant flower before someone, the fragrance is touched by the smelling power of the person, yet the smelling and the flower are detached from one another. There is a similar connection between the material world and the Supreme Personality of Godhead; actually He has nothing to do with this material world, but He creates by His glance and ordains. In summary, material nature, without the superintendence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, cannot do anything. Yet the Supreme Personality is detached from all material activities.”

With due respect to modern scientists we must acknowledge that they are repeatedly baffled in their attempts to decode the laws of material nature. This is normal as it is the very nature that they are under full control of. The nature will never allow them to overpower Her. It’s futile to even dream to control Her as She is too powerful to even understand, not to speak of control.

The mantras written in Sanskrit are cosmic codes. By accurately vibrating them one can invoke the attention of the demigods, the universal managers. It is like today’s voice commands using which scientists are able to remotely govern satelites. The only difference is, mantras are in the form of prayers and not commands. This is because demigods are higher beings and Vedas know that by being rude none gets favor from higher authorities. There are plenty of evidences demonstrating how by properly chanting mantras one can produce fire, rain and even wind by invoking the favor of different demigods. These demigods are empowered to mange cosmic energies and use mantras (call it wireless commands) to activate rain clouds, breeze, storms, cold, heat, etc. This can be understood by understanding today’s laser technology. The innumerable universes and planets within them are like those modern-day satelites but extremely advanced.

Governments of different nations and educational institutions run by them need to introduce Sanskrit language in their curriculum so that more and more students of the new generation can benefit from this otherwise impossible to understand material science. That will save tons of energy, human work hours, and billions of dollars spent on space science, which, at the moment, is based on speculations and keeps changing its theories with every new research.

Source:http://mayapurvoice.com/svagatam/nasa-researcher-right-sanskrit-best-language-cosmic-communication/

The board members of ISKCON New Vrindaban and ECO-Vrindaban humbly invite all New Vrindaban residents and well-wishers to participate in the upcoming weekend activities.  Please see the detailed schedule below. We hope to see you all!

WEEKEND SCHEDULE:

Friday, December 4th.

7:30 pm to 8:30 pm: Dinner Prasadam with Board Members & GBCs (at Radha Vrindaban Chandra’s Temple)

Saturday, December 5th.

9:45 am to 1:30 pm: Department Head Presentations for 2015 (under the Lodge)

1:30 pm to 2:30 pm: Lunch Prasadam (at Radha Vrindaban Chandra’s Temple)

2:30 pm to 5:00 pm: Community Dialog (under the Lodge)

6:00 pm to 7:30 pm: Srila Prabhupada Sangam & Dinner Prasadam (at his Palace)

Sunday, December 6th.

10:00 am to 1:00 pm: New Vrindaban Community Tour (various locations, weather permitting)

1:00 pm to 3:00 pm: Sunday Program & Feast (at Radha Vrindaban Chandra’s Temple)

3:30 pm to 5:00 pm: Lifetime Community Service Appreciations (under the Lodge)

Source:http://www.newvrindaban.com/newvrindaban/node/568

By Yasoda devi dasi

On the 12 September, New Govardhana had a visit from 44 Year 9 students from Kadina High School, Goonellabah. The students were accompanied by three of their teachers. They are studying Geography at school and as part of their curriculum are required to investigate a ‘Community’.

Upon arrival, we visited the fruit and flower gardens in the Krishna Village area. We looked at the type of shortterm accommodation available and the communal kitchen, pizza oven and so on. We wandered across to the yoga centre and they were very impressed with how the shed had been beautified and converted into a yoga centre. We also headed up to the vegetable gardens to look at the produce growing here and to view some of our cows lazing in the sunshine. This led us into a discussion about the concept of “Simple living and high thinking”.

The bus drove everyone to the temple area. The teachers had sent me a document of 18 questions prior to the day of the excursion. I answered these as a group, as it is a requirement that the students were to discuss and record the answers for an assignment that they will complete back at school after their visit to us. The questions are quite varied and some of the topics include Hare Krsna key beliefs, sense of identity, lifestyle features, history and the like.

It was now time for the midday arati. This was a wonderful opportunity for the students to experience first hand what they had come here to learn about. I had asked permission from the gurukula, if the secondary students would be present at the arati. Anjali led a very powerful kirtana, with most students assisting with playing instruments. The students from Kadina were dancing enthusiastically.

The gurukula students then sang the Shanti mantras for peace, which impressed everyone with their potency. We followed this with the gurukula students explaining a little about their lifestyle and answering questions from the Kadina students. It was a wonderful exchange for everyone involved.

The Kadina students enjoyed a succulent lunch of prasadam cooked by Jhulan dasi. Many thanks to the devotees who assisted on the day, especially Vasustrestha dasa and those who assisted. This contributed in making it a very special and memorable day for the students.

Finally, I was so impressed that one of the teachers from Kadina has brought many school excursions to our community from various schools that he has taught at over the years. He had first visited us when he was a student on the same type of bus tour with the school he attended as a teenager. This showed me how much of an impression that our community had upon him, so much so that he wishes to share the experience with his own students whom he now teaches.

Source:http://m.dandavats.com/?p=17314

I am reading this wonderful book, “Sri Navadvipa-dhama Mahatmya”, by Srila Sac-cid-ananda Bhaktivinoda Thakura which is a conversation between Lord Nityananda and the young Srila Jiva Gosvami as they go on a tour (parikrama) of the holy dham. Once the parikrama is over and Sri Jiva is blessed to go to Sri Vrindhavan, he submits the following statements to the assembled Vaishnavas (devotees of Krishna) in the courtyard of Srivasa’s home. Folding his hands, he said to all of them:

Please excuse all of my offenses. You are Sri Chaitanya’s servants, the gurus of the world. O desire trees, be merciful on this insignificant living entity. Let the attraction of my mind reside in Lord Chaitanya. And let Nityananda Prabhu be the goal birth after birth! Without understanding I have given up my home as a mere child, but you are my friends, taking care of my life. Without the mercy of the Vaishnavas one cannot attain Krishna. Therefore, brothers, give me the dust from your feet.”

Source:https: //9days8nights.wordpress.com/2015/12/03/369-sri-jivas-begging-so-beautiful/

It’s a momentous year for ISKCON (the International Society for Krishna Consciousness) all over the world for it is 50 years since Founder A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada came to West and started the movement, and especially in its ever-growing community in the UK. ISKCON-London Radha-Krishna temple, was the UK’s first temple, and has just celebrated its 46th anniversary of the Deities Sri Sri Radha-Londonisvara’s installation.

Although the Deities were first installed at another location, they soon after (in the late 1970’s) moved to the present location at 10 Soho Street, right off the hustle of famous Oxford street, in central London.

Special guests of the evening, held in a large hall in central London, were three of the six pioneers of ISKCON in the UK: Gurudas das, Malati devi dasi, and Syamasundarda who spok, a little about the past of ISKCON, a little about the present, and most poignantly, to make a plea for commitment to the youth towards the future of the movement. Also H.H. Radhanath Swami, whose extensive celebrity meetings and guest appearances in the media, as well as his successful book: “The Journey Home” have made him a household name, spoke about the the amazing feats done by ISKCON so far by its Founder Acarya Srila Prabhupada.

The evening was a showcase of the success of the accomplishments of ISKCON-London, including a heart-wrenching drama from the Mahabharata and reggae mantra music by the temple’ record company: Radha Krishna Records (radhakrishnarecords.com).

By Kumari Sherreitt
ISKCON-London Communications
For more information about ISKCON, or for upcoming events at ISKCON-London please see:
Web: www.iskcon.london

Source:http://m.dandavats.com/?p=17319

ISKCON has signed the Hindu Declaration on Climate Change issued on November 23rd, showing its support along with 60 other Hindu leaders and organizations.

The Declaration was put together by the Bhumi Project at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, both of which count ISKCON devotees amongst their staff.

Partnering with them on the project was the Hindu American Foundation, the interfaith environmental organization GreenFaith, and the interfaith campaign for climate action Our Voices.

The Hindu Declaration follows similar documents issued this year by Islamic, Christian and Buddhist leaders.

It describes how global temperatures are increasing, sea levels rising, and ice in the Arctic and Antarctic rapidly melting.

“Climate change is a stark symptom of the deeper problem of humanity living out of balance with what Bhumi Devi, our shared planet, can renewably provide,” it says.

It quotes the Sri Isopanisad, “Isavasyam idam sarvam,” meaning, “This entire universe is to be looked upon as the energy of the Lord.” And the Srimad Bhagavatam (11.2.41): “Ether, air, fire, water, earth, planets, all creatures, directions, trees and plants, rivers and seas, they are all organs of God’s body. Remembering this a devotee respects all species.”

The Declaration then asks the world’s  900 million Hindus to transition to using clean energy, adopt a plant-based diet, and lead lives in harmony with the natural world.  

It also calls for strong, meaningful action from the 195 governments currently meeting in Paris from November 30th to December 11th at COP 21 (the 21st Conference of Contracting Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change).

The Hindu Declaration has been circulated through press releases and online UN newsrooms, while Christiana Figures, the executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, tweeted it to her 74,000 Twitter followers.

“By signing the Declaration, ISKCON is showing that it is working with the global Hindu community and all the other faith groups on climate change,” says Bhumi Project Director Gopal-Lila Das. “It’s also showing that it is concerned about what comes out of COP21.”

Gopal-Lila is currently at COP21, where delegates from 195 countries are presenting the cuts they’ve agreed to make on greenhouse gas emissions, the environmental projects their countries are planning, and how they envision making it all happen.

With the previous international climate change conference – 2009’s COP15 in Denmark – ending in failure with no legal agreements or formal commitments made, COP21 is being called the planet’s last, best hope to stave off the worst consequences of climate change.

“Never have the stakes of an international meeting been so high, since what is at stake is the future of the planet, the future of life,” President François Hollande of France told a packed United Nations plenary session at a convention center in the Le Bourget suburb north of Paris.

To be a success, the meetings need to end with all the countries collectively committing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions enough to keep global average temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius over preindustrial temperatures.

For his part, Gopal-Lila is broadcasting podcasts with Our Voices daily from COP21, highlighting the role that faith communities can play in addressing climate change.

“Faith is not a silver bullet – we can’t solve this problem with religious organizations alone,” he says. “But people are moved to action by different things: some by politics, or science, or money; and many, especially in the developing world, are moved to action by morality and religion. So that’s where religious communities come in – they can help by giving the moral argument for why addressing climate change is important.”

As far as ISKCON is concerned, Gopal-Lila explains that because the environment is “the religion of the day,” conscious, concerned global citizens will want to know what religious institutions are doing to address climate change.

“It’s important for ISKCON to not only have the philosophy about caring for the earth, but to also put its money where its mouth is and actively start caring for the planet in line with its own tradition and teachings,” he says.

That active care starts not with some vague, impersonal ISKCON “they,” but with each individual devotee that makes up ISKCON.

“If your local temple is still using Styrofoam plates, you can take your own plate to the Sunday Feast and encourage your friends to do the same,” says Gopal-Lila. “If the temple isn’t using organic milk, you can get a group of devotees together to lobby for milk from protected cows. If the temple’s festivals are not environmentally friendly, and leave piles of garbage behind the temple, you can get involved and change that. And if you’re passionate about recycling, or solar energy, and your temple doesn’t have a recycling scheme or solar system, you can look into how to install one yourself.”

It’s an area Gopal-Lila is clear on. “I think ISKCON devotees need to stop waiting for the leadership of their temples and communities to act, and take personal initiative themselves,” he says.  

Click here to read the text of the Hindu Declaration on Climate Change:  http://www.hinduclimatedeclaration2015.org/english

Source:http://iskconnews.org/iskcon-supports-hindu-declaration-on-climate-change,5245/

After receiving both triple bypass heart surgery and hip surgery, his Holiness Mukunda Goswami has returned safely home to ISKCON’s New Govardhana farm in New South Wales, Australia. His occupational therapists expect him to be “back to his normal self in no time.”

An ISKCON pioneer, guru, and one of Srila Prabhupada’s very first disciples, Mukunda Goswami – known respectfully as “Maharaja” – was taken to the Tweed hospital on Australia’s Gold Coast when he slipped and broke his hip on October 22nd.

There, doctors discovered an underlying heart condition, and Maharaja was transferred to Gold Coast University Hospital and advised to go through two highly risky surgeries. Devotees around the world held vigil kirtans and prayed fervently, and the triple bypass and hip surgeries were ultimately successful, going off without a hitch.

Before his surgery, Maharaja was in good spirits, chanting Hare Krishna and listening to recordings of his beloved Srila Prabhupada. Afterwards, as soon as he was shifted from intensive care to the cardiac ward, he began having his disciples read Srimad-Bhagavatam aloud to him. Despite extreme exhaustion, he chanted japa whenever he could on an electronic finger counter.

In early November, Mukunda Goswami was transferred to the rehabilitation facility of Murwillambah hospital, which is a fifteen-minute drive from New Govardhan. There, he worked with physiotherapists and gradually increased his food and drink intake.

One of the therapists commented that she was “blown away” after looking “Mukunda Goswami” up on Google and learning of his world renown and many achievements.

On Friday November 27th, Maharaja returned home to New Govardhana, where his residence was decorated with a welcome sign for his arrival.

His house, which already included safe wheelchair access throughout, has received several safety improvements to prevent future accidents, thanks to the kind donations of devotees around the world.

The tiled floor in his bedroom, bathroom and study, on which the fateful slip occurred, has been treated by floor grip specialists to make it safer to walk on. Nonslip memory foam floor mats have been placed in his bedroom and bathroom. Extra support rails and a ramp from the carport to his bedroom have been installed, his office chair has been fitted with braking wheels, and the house is furnished with chairs that have armrests which make them easier to get in and out of. 

 Maharaja's house is now fitted with extra support rails and a ramp.

Meanwhile, the house is now fitted with a CareAlert system, enabling Maharaja to call his caretakers in an emergency. And he now wears a CareAlert pendant that, in the event of an accident, dials five emergency numbers in sequence until someone responds.

Despite all the precautions, therapists expect Mukunda Goswami to recover fully soon.

“Remember five weeks ago he was fit, able and independent, walking everywhere, delivering the Conch newsletter himself every month to devotees door to door, and driving himself to the pool three times a week,” says his caretaker Krishna Kirtan Das. 

Mukunda Goswami will now continue physiotherapy as an outpatient until he’s walking normally unassisted; and will likely resume swimming at around twelve weeks after his surgery.

He’s eating well, getting strong and has been off pain medication for nearly a week. Two local initiated devotee doctors are caring for him, as well as registered nurses, one of whom lives very close by.

Most importantly, Maharaja is in good spirits, joking about having to wear his alert pendant 24/7: “The three stages of age are: independent, dependent and pendant,” he commented.

“He also said that his favorite word in English these days is ‘discharge,’” Krishna Kirtan says. “He’s so happy to be home and out of the hospital!​”

Source:http://iskconnews.org/mukunda-goswami-returns-home-after-five-weeks-in-hospital,5246/

As you may have heard, we are creating a display at the ISKCON Leadership Sanga in Mayapur, taking place on February 24 – March 2, 2016. The display will feature highlights of the centres around the world from the last 50 years. It will consist of photos and text showcasing different yatras’ temples, programs, and devotees. In particular, devotees have submitted such things as:

– When their temple was built
– When deities were installed
– When Srila Prabhupada visited
– Significant successful programs and when they were launched
– Devotees who contributed to the community and who have since passed away
– And more

Don’t miss out on your opportunity to be featured! The perfect submissions have a document detailing highlights, and an accompanying high resolution photo for each highlight. Please indicate your interest to submit by sending an email to radhabhaktidd.cms@gmail.com. So far, we have received full or partial submissions from:

– Bus Tour
– Ahmedabad
– Bhaktivedanta Manor
– Boise
– Botswana
– Brazil
– Durban
– Indonesia
– Kiev
– Malaysia
– Nairobi
– Ottawa
– Seattle
– Vancouver
– Italy
– Japan
– Minneapolis
– Pandava Sena
– Pune
– Stellenbosch
– Vladimir
– Japan
– San Diego
– Nellore

Don’t miss out! Email us immediately at radhabhaktidd.cms@gmail.com for more information.

Source:http://m.dandavats.com/?p=17322

The ancestrals, divinities and philosophers were satisfied and delighted by the king’s speech. All the good people said, “Very good! Very good! Now we know why Vedas speak the truth when they say that parents attain success through their children – the guardian is partially responsible for the deeds of the protected. By your excellent deeds, you are saving your wicked father, Vena, from the darkness of being killed by the curse of philosophers. It is like Hiraṇyakaśupu, who entered the darkness because of hating the All-Attractive, was saved by the effect of his connection to Prahlāda, his son.”

Then they blessed the king, “You are the greatest hero, just like a father for the entire earth. May the years of your life be endless, for we see that you are devoted to Infalliable Acyuta, who is the true maintainer of all the worlds.”

Then they expressed their gratitude, “Aho! Now we really feel purified, for we have heard the enlightening words flowing from your lotus-like face, describing the True Master, Viṣṇu, who is the Subject of Topmost Poetry, and the Illuminator of Philosophers. Lord, it is not surprising that you can govern and provide livelihood for your people, for it is the trademark nature of great people to be affectionate and compassionate to the masses. Prabhu, all-knowing destiny keeps us wandering here and there in our petty tasks, like blind men. But today you have brought us closer to the other side of darkness.”

Finally, they offered their respect, “You are the most exalted and evolved, yet also the most original and primal existence, the most glorious person. Through the philosophers, you nourish the rulers. Through the rulers, you protect the philosophers. Through both, you protect this whole world. We off you our respect.”

Source:https://vicd108.wordpress.com/

On November 21st, 2015 about 200 people braved the winter conditions to come to an interfaith meeting organized by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jam'at Canada. The theme was God: Fact or Fiction? There were four speakers: a Baptist minister, an atheist, an Ahmadiyya Muslim representative, and ISKCON member Krsnadasa Kaviraja dasa. Each speaker was allotted 20 minutes and then there were questions and answers.

Krsnadasa put forth the Vedic viewpoint and afterward many people were anxious to hear more about the scientific basis of Krsna Consciousness. "This was a great opportunity to understand and to increase cooperation amongst followers of different faiths," said Krsnadasa, "Especially one week after the Paris terrorist attacks."

Source:http://iskconnews.org/krsnadasa-kaviraja-das-speaks-at-interfaith-conference-in-lindsay-ontario-canada,5241/

That is the gift of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu. It is in the śāstra. Caitanya Mahāprabhu does not give you anything which is not in the śāstra. He’s ācārya, although He’s God Himself. He can make śāstra. Whatever He does, whatever He speaks, that is śāstra. But still, because He’s playing the part of ācārya, He immediately gives Vedic evidences. That is the way of ācārya. Ācāryas will never say, “I think.” “It is in my opinion.” No. Such things are not accepted. No personal opinion. It must be supported by Vedic evidences. That is called paramparā system, genuine system of understanding. As Kṛṣṇa says, evaṁ paramparā-prāptam imaṁ rājarṣayo viduḥ [Bg. 4.2]. No change. Therefore we are presenting Bhagavad-gītā as it is. We do not change. We have no power to change. Then where is the authority of Bhagavad-gītā? I am a third-class man, and if I change the statements in the Bhagavad-gītā, then where is the authority of Bhagavad-gītā? That is going on. Therefore it is practically… You have got experience that there are hundreds of Bhagavad-gītā editions in the Western countries, but because we are presenting Bhagavad-gītā as it is, our sale is better than all others. There is a report from the trade manager of Macmillan. He says, “While other editions are dwindling, going down, this edition is coming up.” They published our, this present enlarged edition of Bhagavad-gītā, fifty thousand in the month of August. They are going to print again, second edition, August, September, October. So the reason is that if we present things as they are, it will be accepted. Without any adulteration. Sometimes, you know, people say that I have done miracles. They say everywhere. But I do not know anything, miracles or magic. If there is any miracle, that miracle is that we present things as they are. That’s all. Without any adulteration. So that should be the principle. Present as it is. It will be accepted.

Effect of Krishna Schools: Views of Former Students

By Urmila devi dasi

Introduction

We were taught to be independent thinkers—think outside of the box. We would analyze other philosophy and our own philosophy critically, not just doing this because it’s what my mommy did but because it’s the truth and it will make me happy. It was validated year after year. (Kalindi , one of the interviewees who received her primary and secondary education in Hare Krishna schools.)

Throughout most of the world, religious organizations have primary and secondary schools where students can gain knowledge and experience of their tradition in the context of academic learning. Whereas in some countries nearly all schools are religiously based, it is far more the norm in most nations for various religious denominations to have schools side by side with secular educational institutions. Some countries, such as New Zealand and the Netherlands, offer a wide range of support, including financial, to religious schools. In most nations with secular governments, however, a religious school is a private enterprise that exists primarily due to the dedication of staff and parents.

Although faith is fragile for students of religious homes learning in a secular culture (MacMullen, 2004), the mainstream educational research literature all but ignores religious groups in studies of multiculturalism (Grace, 2003). Not only are there almost no studies of students from various religious cultures in secular schools, but also neither secular nor religious educators and researchers attempt many empirical studies of faith-based schools and their effect on their students and society (Dickson, 2004; Dijkstra & Veenstra, 2001; Driesson, 2002; Grace, 2003). There are even very few theoretical models of the value of religious schools, or the effect upon children from religious homes who attend secular schools (Driesson, 2002; Grace, 2003; MacMullen, 2004).
A society in which people from diverse backgrounds, with individual strengths and challenges, work together for the common good is one definition of an ideal democracy (Kahne, 1994). Therefore, “education within a pluralistic society should affirm and help students understand their home and community cultures. However, it should also help free them from their cultural boundaries” (Banks, 1999, p. 4).

Conceptual Framework
Collective cultural identity, or strengthening students’ identification with a faith community, is generally a goal of religious schools (Frances, 2002) and is often necessary in order for individuals to embrace a religious faith (Rochford, 1999). At the same time, religious schools help students to make autonomous choices about individual identity through training in knowledge about their families’ religion, as well as having opportunities to experience that religion by practice (MacMullen, 2004). Religious knowledge includes the epistemology, or process of discerning the good. Members of a faith community generally share the same epistemology, even if their specific conclusions about what is good differ from one another (Dagovitz, 2004). Beyond accepting an epistemology, an affective experience of the good is essential in order to make moral choices (Ferrari & Okamoto, 2003; James, 1902; Piaget, 1962), and one purpose of religious schools is to imbue students with a moral sense (Johnson, 2002).

Based on the above premises, there are two main concepts in this study’s conceptual framework, that of spiritual transformation and that of identity. Identity, individual and collective, serves as a foundation for spiritual transformation. At the same time, spiritual experience and its branches reinforce individual and collective identity. Moral behaviors may set the stage for religious practice, which leads to knowledge, and then spiritual transformation. As a person becomes spiritually transformed, he or she will become inspired to act morally, practice religion, and develop knowledge. The circle can start at any point and each element tends to increase the others, though the goal is spiritual transformation. Religious schools can contribute to each of these interrelated parts of the goal of students’ religious education. (See download files for figure.)

Without knowing something about the effects of religious schools regarding topics such as affective spiritual experiences and autonomous identity—some of the primary reasons for such schools’ existence—it is almost impossible for educational leaders and teachers to emphasize what parts of their program are effective and what parts should be modified or discarded.

The Hare Krishna Movement
The Vaisnava religious tradition, a major part of a spiritual heritage based on the sacred writings of the Vedas, is one of the oldest religions on earth. The Gaudiya section of Vaisnavism is a few hundred years old, and its manifestation as the Hare Krishna Movement, or International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) has been extant for only 40 years. ISKCON’s first primary school opened in Dallas, Texas, in the late 1960s. Since then, primary and secondary schools have started worldwide, with by far the largest number of enrolled students in India.

Practically all the research on ISKCON has been done through ethnographies or other qualitative methods. The focus of research (Braswell, 1986; Cox, Shinn, Hopkins, Basham, & Shrivatsa, 1983; Danier, 1974; Mukunda, 2001; Rochford, 1985, 1992, 1995; Rosen, 1992; Shinn, 1987; Weiss & Mendoza, 1990) has been on why people join ISKCON, how ISKCON is organized socially, the religious and philosophical tradition on which it is based, and the mental health of members. One of the few quantitative studies was that of Weiss and Mendoza (1990) who found that members had mental health comparable to those in more traditional Western religions, with the only significant finding being a greater sense of well-being associated with increased acculturation. However, they conclude that the existence of two strong concomitant factors does not imply causality. It is also unclear whether their definition of acculturation is similar to that of Anthony’s (2003) inculturation that involves synergy between a person’s religion and the surrounding culture.

Much of the qualitative research (such as Danier, 1974; Mukunda, 2001; Shin, 1987) has an emphasis both on the inner life of members and the degree to which they both have their own religious identity and can function in the larger society. Researchers agree (for example, Shinn, 1987) that members have made an autonomous decision to adopt a Hare Krishna lifestyle, often after extended study of the religion. All researchers note the ISKCON belief in one God—called Krishna—who is loving and personal, the doctrine of karma and reincarnation, and a lifestyle that includes avoiding illicit sex, intoxication, gambling, and the eating of meat, fish, or eggs.

Also relevant to this study, though not a study of ISKCON members per se, is a true experiment as to whether chanting the Hare Krishna mantra would increase the mode of goodness as explained in sacred writings such as the Bhagavad-gita. Goodness involves “understanding by which one knows what ought to be done and what ought not to be done, what is to be feared and what is not to be feared, what is binding and what is liberating (Bhagavad-gita, 18.30). A person in goodness will feel mentally satisfied, be self-controlled, honest, wise, clean, not unnecessarily violent, and will speak only what is both truthful and beneficial in such a way that others are not disturbed (Bhurijana, 1995, p. 417). The findings of Wolf and Abell (2003) showed a significant positive correlation between the spiritual practice of chanting Hare Krishna and the mode of goodness, including an increase in peacefulness and general mental health.

Schools and Children of the Hare Krishna Movement
Almost all the literature on ISKCON concerns adults. A few magazine and newspaper articles, as well as some television shows, have focused on Krishna children and schools, but none of these has been a rigorous qualitative or quantitative study. The first, and possibly only, thorough study of an ISKCON school (Lilliston, 1985) involved two weeks of observation and coding of student behavior. This took place at a boarding school in upstate New York. Unstructured interviews with teachers, administrators, and some parents, loosely focused on: (a) expectations for the children, (b) interpretations of children’s behavior, and (c) relating perceptions and beliefs to the philosophy of Krishna consciousness (p. 5). In addition to observations of the 72 children aged five to 15 years, Lilliston also administered a series of clinical assessments to 30 of the students. Assessments included the Standford Binet, some norm-referenced achievement tests, a moral dilemmas measure, and projective story telling. He also interviewed each child. He found no greater psychiatric problems than exist in the general population. Academically, students were, on average, one to three grades ahead of their public school peers, with an average I.Q. of 106. He found the children normal on measures of creativity, moral reasoning (80% in terms of interpersonal sensitivity, with the majority of children reasoning in terms of justice), self-monitoring, self-regulation (in which they were significantly high), spontaneity, and situational discrimination (in which they were significantly high).

While Lilliston’s (1985) study indicates a possible positive correlation between the school and children’s academic and moral development, the research was not controlled for other factors such as family level of education, income, and so forth. The primary aim of the research was to determine if there was any harm to the children, with results quite the opposite. However, no conclusions about the moral behavior, inculturation, religious beliefs, spiritual experience, or religious practice of former students who are now adults can be deduced from this study.

A very different kind of study, involving interviews, surveys, and observation (Rochford, 1999) examined the social and religious identity of students who were educated in ISKCON primary boarding schools in the 1970s and 80s. Most of these students then attended secular public high schools. Some of the students studied either continued in ISKCON schools at the secondary level, or were home schooled for their high school experience. Rochford’s data came from a survey of 87 former ISKCON school students, who had an average age of 18-19. He also conducted open-ended interviews with another 47 former ISKCON school students, 30 of whom were in their late teens or early twenties, and 17 of whom were still in secondary school.

Rochford (1999) found a significant difference between the students who attended an ISKCON or a secular high school in terms of their identification with the Hare Krishna religion, with those who attended ISKCON schools being more likely to self-identify as a devotee of Krishna. In general, students who attended secular high schools felt awkward and embarrassed about their identity with ISKCON, and often tried to assimilate. These attempts resulted in students having their primary social relationships with other students who were not also ISKCON members as a way to hide their identity. Slightly over half ended up engaging in aspects of modern American youth culture, which often included illicit sex, as well as drug and alcohol use. It is notable that only seven of the 87 youths surveyed indicated that they had ever tried meat; only three regularly ate non-vegetarian food. Meat-eating is one of the strongest taboos for devotees of Krishna.

It appears that the primary boarding schools that educated the youth in Rochford’s (1999) study had an exclusive/aggressive attitude towards any but the culture associated with the Krishna faith, according to Anthony’s (2003) definition. With this attitude, the students risk being in a kind of cultural “ghetto” or perhaps finding their religion irrelevant. Students were, thus, ill prepared to retain their own identity while functioning in society. Many of them felt torn between worlds, and took many years to be settled in their identity.

The only other study this researcher could find on adolescents or adults who had attended ISKCON schools was a survey (Manu, 1998) of ISKCON youth an average of nine years after they had left an ISKCON school. Because Manu’s data is probably one of the only two studies ever done on youth who attended Hare Krishna schools, it is included in this study. However, only the raw data are available, without any interpretation or analysis, and the low response rate makes this study susceptible to sample errors. The average age of respondents was approximately 22 years. Out of the 500 surveys mailed, 71 responded, leaving the study open to sampling error. Between 20-76% had experienced some negative, distressing problem during their schooling. Yet about 90% continued to accept Krishna as God, and about 74% self-identified as a devotee of Krishna. Yet 62% were having illicit sex, 38% were taking some kind of intoxication (which would include caffeine and tobacco), about 10% were gambling, and about 5% were eating non-vegetarian food. About 60% engaged in the most important spiritual activity of chanting Krishna’s names.

While Manu’s study (1998) is extremely relevant, being the only research done on adults who attended ISKCON’s schools, there are many unanswered questions. Some of the questions deal with possible problems in the study itself, whether because of sampling errors, or bias because of question wording. In addition, there does not seem to be any controlling in this study for how religious the families of origin are, socio-economic status, country of residence, and so forth. Finally, if Ferrari and Okamoto (2003) are correct in understanding that emotional, religious experience is the basis of morality, then questions relating to these experiences would also have been invaluable.

Research on schools and children in ISKCON is so scarce that it is difficult to draw any conclusions. There are some suggestions that ISKCON schools need to prepare students for living in cultures alien to that of the children’s faith, and that students who attended ISKCON schools in the 70s and 80s tend to accept religious beliefs and practices, but not necessarily moral behavior stressed in the Krishna religion. The schools in ISKCON are radically different now than when these studies were done, and little from the studies can be extrapolated to the present situation.

Research Questions
I wanted to find out what parts of attending a Krishna school had the most impact on former students, in both positive and negative ways. My particular interests centered on spiritual transformation and identity negotiation. In the area of spiritual transformation, I wanted to know whether or not former students would recall either isolated or ongoing personal experiences that gave them a direct perception of the spiritual philosophy they were learning. I also wondered whether or not having such experiences in childhood and youth would translate into an adult lifestyle that would indicate a continued desire for personal spiritual transformation.

In the area of identity, I wanted to know the role of a Krishna school, if any, in forming students’ identities as devotees of Krishna. Students could define this type of identity in several ways, including seeing themselves as part of a universal community of faith regardless of religious nomenclature, as part of Vaisnavas in general, as a Gaudiya Vaisnava, a member of ISKCON, part of ISKCON’s “second generation” or “gurukulis” (this is derived from the a Sanskrit term for school, gurukula, which means “the teacher’s place”) or as an individual striving to be conscious of God without reference to any other group of people with similar beliefs and practices.

The research questions were, therefore: (a) To what extent, and in what ways, did attendance at a Hare Krishna primary or secondary school promote personal spiritual transformation while students were enrolled and in their latter adult life? And (b) To what extent, and in what days, did attendance at a Hare Krishna primary or secondary school foster students’ identities as God conscious individuals and members of a faith community?

This particular research being, hopefully, the first stage in what will be several studies, I decided to make my interview questions to the subjects as broad and open-ended as possible. In doing so, I would leave open the possibility that what I considered most important—spiritual transformation and identity—were not so for those who lived the reality of going to a Krishna school. Perhaps the most significant effects would be very different from my own presuppositions. I therefore, limited the interviews to asking about some of the most important memories of schooling, how going to a devotee school affected adult life, and requesting interviewees to suggest important questions I could ask adults around their age who went to devotee schools. (See Appendix for exact questions)

Participants
Subjects in the interview portion study were adults between the ages of 22 and 36, four females and five males. All had been born to parents who were active members of the Hare Krishna Movement. All had spent some time as students at Krishna schools, at the primary, secondary level, or both. I had known, to a greater or lesser extent, all of the subjects but one previous to this research. Some of the subjects had spent some time in the schools of which I was a principal or teacher. One subject had only attended schools with which I was personally affiliated. This was a purposeful sample. Although the participants tended to have some experiences in common, subjects were chosen because they also represented a reasonably wide range of experiences with Krishna schools in various parts of America and the world. Among these interviewees, three had attended Krishna schools in India, representing two different schools. One had attended a Krishna school in Europe. Other schools attended included four in various parts of the United States. There were very few Krishna schools in existence during these participants’ childhood and youth not represented in this sample. One of the main limitations of this study, however, was that all but one interviewed subject is American; one is European. Future studies should include interviewees from a wider range of countries.

The document review portion of this study, however, did include a wider range of Krishna school experience, extending to every school worldwide that could have served adults now aged 20-36. Former students who write of their schooling experience and current lives in the documents studied come from many of nations, with varied circumstances in their families and upbringing. From these documents I took the writings of seven females and 12 males, all of whom are now between the ages of 20 and 32. Some of the material was written when the subjects were younger. Participants whose words are recorded on websites or in the print publications reviewed had an assortment of Krishna school experiences, and are representative of former students at all ISKCON schools, as far as the experience of this researcher. Pseudonyms are used throughout this paper.

Responses to the interviews and excerpts from the documents are treated the same in this study. Because my questions to interviewees were very open-ended as to their memories of school and its effect on their life, much of what I found in the documents could have been written in response to those same questions. The first time I refer to or quote from each person, I refer to him or her as an “interviewee” or a “writer” depending on whether the information came from the interviews or the documents, respectively. Both groups will also be referred to collectively as “subjects” or “participants.”

Method
I used two research methods, interviewing and document review. Because the interview questions were very open-ended, the time for each interview varied greatly, with some participants spending nearly two hours reminiscing and others struggling to access more than one or two memories of school. The documents reviewed included websites such as gurukuli.com and britcrew.com where Krishna youth post personal “profiles” and exchange information. The website psena.com, mostly geared to youth who are both in the Hare Krishna Movement and from East Indian families, was also reviewed to get current information. In addition, I collected data from print publications aimed at, and produced by, Krishna youth, though most are not current, since the Internet seems to have become the major means for this group to connect with each other. Publications included Spirit: Not this Body, What’s Up Gurukula Newsletter, Children of Krishna, As It Is: Voice of the Second Generation, and Stand and Fight. Because accounts given by each individual in the documents were generally much shorter than the interview responses, I often give a conglomerate view of the subjects’ writing from documents, and quote more extensively from interviewees.

In terms of validity, I have used the triangulation of having both interviews and a document review, as well as doing a member check of the results.

My Perspective
I joined the Hare Krishna Movement in 1973. Initially out of concern for my own children, I got involved with running a pre-school for five years. In 1983 my husband started a school in Detroit, Michigan, which gradually expanded to K-12. After a year, I became one of the academic teachers, and, soon after, the principal. In 1991, we were invited to open a K-12 school in Hillsborough, North Carolina. While being a full-time principal and teacher, I published a complete guidebook to K-12 education in ISKCON, and wrote a bimonthly column for eight years on educational issues for the international ISKCON magazine, Back to Godhead. I became very active in Krishna K-12 education on a national and international level. Working towards the development and success of Krishna schools has gradually become my primary vocation.

At the same time, I am acutely aware of the lack of reliable information about Krishna schools’ effects in non-cognitive domains. For this study, I aimed to step back and understand the world of Krishna school students as much as possible through the view of the former students themselves. Undoubtedly, my own deep immersion in the subject has so saturated my perceptions that anything approaching the objectivity aimed for in quantitative studies is unreasonable. Hopefully a balancing force is my desire to explore and begin to understand Krishna schools from the other side of the teachers’ and principals’ desks.

Results
Subjects’ responses to interview questions, as well as written autobiographical profiles and sketches, yield several areas of common focus. These are: (a) academics; (b) individual and collective identity and relationships, including negotiating identity within the larger society, and dealings with family, friends and teachers; (c) activities beyond daily life, such as festivals, going to holy places, and extracurricular programs such as dramas; (d) learning about and practicing spiritual tradition; (e) vocational guidance; and (f) putting schooling in context. There were also a number of other topics that to which only one or two subjects refer, usually only briefly, and so were not included in this study.

Academics
It may seem, to teachers and parents, that the most important aspects of school relate to academic instruction. However, only a few participants in this study speak about classes, or what they learned or did not learn. If the academic program is mentioned, it is generally as a small part of the overall impression of getting an education in a Krishna school. For example, Gopal, an interviewee, speaks about how his academic program greatly improved when he switched, at middle school, to a school in America from one in India. Indra, another interviewee, briefly mentions that the academic program in a European school was “nice,” especially compared to what he had encountered in India. He emphasizes that academic programs in Krishna schools have greatly improved in the more than 15 years since he had attended them. The interviewee Yasoda considers that an important question for Krishna school students is whether or not they feel academically prepared for higher education and life. After loving the academic program at one American school, she was then transferred to another school in a different part of the States where academic instruction was, “scattered, with little continuity in a not very supportive environment.” Rupa, also an interviewee, notes specific subjects, such as logic and public speaking, which, he says, “helped me immensely…the average kid doesn’t get those things.”

The interviewee Lalita, who spent some years in a home schooling co-op, and years being taught in the home of her parents’ friends, notes more the atmosphere of her academic instruction than the content or rigor. She speaks of teachers who “made learning and Krishna consciousness fun.” Various parents in her Krishna community would come to teach subjects in which they had expertise—whether yoga, art, sewing, or writing. Remarking on the unique nature of his academic instruction, Damodara, an interviewee, muses that he often learns more in college from reading than from the lecture, attributing this preference to being in a Krishna school where students took a lot of personal responsibility for their learning. He says, in general, that he teaches himself, whereas most people he encounters expect to be taught everything step-by-step. In fact, he feels that the rigor of the academic program in his Krishna high school was more demanding than what he is encountering at a top-rate university.

One of the more unusual subjects is the interviewee Vrindavana, whose schooling years were interrupted and often unstructured. After a few years in and out of Krishna schools, he finished his secondary education in public high school. He taught himself to read as a young child, and, when in school, found it in general was not suited to his learning style. He would either understand things immediately or else ignored the instruction. So, he would learn in his own way, and spend class time “spacing out.” Vrindavana describes the pedagogy he encountered in Krishna schools as “mechanical.”

“Lack of good academic programs are no longer an issue,” opines Indra. He thus indirectly refers to the early days of establishing Krishna schools when leaders and teachers struggled to decide whether and how to have their own unique Krishna centered curriculum, often at the cost of meeting the standards.

Individual and Collective Identity and Relationships
In contrast to academics, which most subjects either ignore or deal with only slightly, all those interviewed, and most accounts in documents, dwell on how an education in a Krishna school affects their identity. For some subjects, one of the main impacts of their schooling was how they developed their sense of self. In some cases, subjects speak or write of their personal identity, how they view themselves as an individual. A common theme is of identity in contrast to those not in the Krishna community—the non-devotees, or society at large. Sometimes this group identity is expressed as a sense of belonging to a faith community, rather than of any sort of exclusion from greater society. Some subjects identify more with their own group of gurukulis than with Krishna devotees in general, whereas others do not differentiate in this way at all, and some emphatically state that they identified with the community of devotees, but not necessarily with other gurukulis.

Personal identity
In terms of personal identity, the writer Radha tells about how lucky she feels to have received Krishna in her life “right from the beginning.” Having had positive schooling experiences, her emphasis is on how easy and full of joy spiritual life is for her. Rama, a writer, is determined to “put this [spiritual] knowledge into practice” in his life, and can not see any materialistic goals for himself. Perhaps Citra, an interviewee, puts the matter of personal identity most clearly and dramatically. She went to public schools until high school. At that point she spent some time in a girls’ Krishna boarding school, and then attended another Krishna day school, first by staying with a family who lived close to the school. Gradually the rest of her family followed her. The main point of attending Krishna schools, she says, is how it affects their identity. [I] identify as spirit soul and as a devotee of Krishna. Then, even if the world blows up or all the sannyasis [a type of priest who takes lifelong vows of celibacy and asceticism] fall down [i.e. break their vows], we’ll continue….The nature of the world is to fall apart. Externals are always going to change. If we identity as a servant of Prabhupada [ISKCON’s founder], then we’re always there in our identity. Lalita explains how Krishna schooling gave her, and most of her gurukuli friends, a determination to be a devotee, not because of indoctrination, but because of feeling surrounded with love. She feels that this love is what Krishna consciousness is about and what she wanted.

Negotiating identity with the larger society
A person’s culture can be defined as “everything you believe and everything you do that enables you to identify with people who are like you and that distinguishes you from people who are different from you” (Lindsey, Robbins, & Terrell, 1999, p. 27). Former Krishna school students describe their sense of cultural identity in both ways—how they belong to the group of devotees of Krishna and their often carefully negotiated relationship with the non-devotee world. Rochford’s study (1999) dealt extensively with these issues. The adolescents and young adults in his study had almost all attended Krishna boarding schools, many in India, in which they were rather isolated from modern, Western society. Most of the subjects of his study discussed the tremendous shock and adjustment of having to closely relate, often quite suddenly, to a culture they did not understand and somewhat feared. Many of his subjects had their first in-depth interaction with the outside culture in high school—a place where social misfits do not fare well.

I had thought that the problem of being able to interact both with the community of Krishna devotees and the outside world was no longer very relevant for students in Krishna schools. Day schools have gradually, since 1982, replaced most boarding schools. Many, if not most, families have one or both parents working in regular jobs. In sum, the semi-cloistered nature of most Krishna communities has all but disappeared. Therefore, those subjects in my study who are less than 30 years old may be dissimilar to those Rochford (1999) surveyed and interviewed in terms of how they negotiate their cultural identity.

Yet, all interviewees in my study speak about how belonging to a Krishna community meant a period of sometimes difficult adjustment to those outside it. At the same time, appreciation for being sheltered was strongly expressed. This same theme is common in the documents, as well. For example, Rupa says his schooling was a wonderful experience—no pressure like high school proms and dating and all that. I see now that I was very sheltered and am grateful. It was hard to transition to the normal world. I did it rather abruptly but lots of people struggle with that.

Damodara similarly describes this specific benefit from attending Krishna schools. Going to other schools, in his opinion, would have induced him to drink and take drugs at a young age. He’s grateful to have been saved from what he sees in America, “So many people, at 19 or 20, are like having been divorced six times [because they are] so hurt by the opposite sex.” Citra finds that her education acts like a “filter” that allows her to take the good from working in the world. Speaking not only from his own life but also from his friendships with large numbers of gurukulis, Indra has concluded that even those who experiment, in curiosity, with aspects of life discouraged or forbidden to Krishna devotees, generally come gradually to understand through that experience the truth of what they were taught as children. Having gone from Krishna school to public education at age nine, Yasoda tells of having been in a very inclusive Krishna community and then feeling very out of place in public school, not being sure what would be appropriate to both cultures. She wonders if there are “ways to avoid the big culture shock,” and hopes that we can educate our children to both “maintain their devotee identity and the knowledge of other cultures.” Yes, it was a challenge for most of them, as Gopal explains, to go out into the world and interact with non-devotees, “more than a challenge than it might have been. At the same time there were positive things since I wasn’t into hanging out with non-devotees and didn’t get too many bad habits.”

A focus on being part of a community, without making any reference to outside society, is often expressed. Vrindavana, who has also taught in Krishna schools, says that the “main thing” in students forming positive identities is having a huge cooperative effort between school, parents, teachers and community. Kalindi, an interviewee, explains that the majority of her most important memories of being a student in Krishna schools involved adults who were not official teachers but who got involved with the school or the students. Most of the involvement of these adults was with extra-curricular activities. The point remains that, in addition to the significance of the activities themselves, students in Krishna schools form an important link to identification with their communities when they have positive experiences of community members’ participation in their upbringing.

Indra best expresses the importance of community involvement. He extensively describes how various Krishna devotees who lived near the school he attended in Europe would work with the children in hobbies such as photography and bee-keeping, arrange for students to play in their barn, and involve the children in huge festivals. There was even one “daredevil” who thrilled the boys with wild rides in a van at full speed through agricultural fields. While Kalindi and Indra repeatedly stress the love and connection they felt from community involvement in their school, Citra longed for even more. She expresses discouragement with the fact that she longs to be more involved with community, yet feels neglected. Feeling “so discouraged with community,” she wonders why students who received extensive training in teaching and preaching were then, as graduates, never asked to deliver classes on philosophy. Emphasizing that there should be more manifestation of the mood of service that is taught as so important, Citra feels alienated and isolated from the Krishna community, and finds herself more identifying with gurukulis than with Krishna devotees in general. Rather than perceiving that Krishna members were very involved with students, and that students could really integrate into their faith community, she feels that many members live very separate lives without active service to one another. She has many suggestions for how regular service to the local faith community could be integrated into a curriculum. Yasoda, who is presently doing an in-depth study of the formation of cultural identity for Krishna youths, explains that an important topic in understanding the effect of Krishna schooling is how former students describe support from peers, family, and community in terms of managing their own culture.

Family and friends
Gopinatha, a writer, attended Krishna schools in Europe and India through the primary level; high school was at a European government school. Echoing some of the above themes about having to “fit into the high school way of doing things” and coming to a personal identity as a Krishna devotee in part through direct experience of the world, he points out that most of his friends continue to be those who also attended Krishna school. One of Yasoda’s more important memories of schooling was how the students related to each other. Where the children got along and were warm and caring, her memories of school are generally positive. In another Krishna school, however, the children were always bickering among themselves which made the entire experience unpalatable.

Some former students, such as Damodara, feel that their family was so much a part of their growing up in Krishna consciousness that it is difficult to separate out the effects of family from that of school. Others, such as Indra who attended an Indian boarding school at an early age, matter-of-factly speak about scanning festival crowds hoping to find his mother, or on some ordinary days sitting on a window ledge thinking that someone in the crowds below must be her, although she lived in another country and was not visiting. Receiving a package from home was a significant event for the boys.

Teachers
“We used to do school in our teachers’ living room…just loving him and his wife…they had enthusiasm for making learning and Krishna consciousness fun,” says Lalita. Some subjects, such as Bhima, a writer, had the opposite experience, of having teachers who were “just not very mature in their Krishna consciousness.” What he sees as the positive effect of having these teachers is, “I don’t accept authority blindly. No title impresses me anymore in the least, but only personal example.” Yasoda also had negative experiences with teachers who were “not very involved” and “failed to teach students social skills.” Similarly, Vrindavana had teachers who were “awful; [I was] told I was stupid.”

Govinda, like Lalita, had teachers who “used to look after me as her own daughter.” Govinda also had another teacher who “helped me more than words can say.” Kalindi has fond memories of the teachers who taught physical education and drama. There was one teacher the students would ask to push the swings harder and harder until they were laughing crazily and screaming. The participation of these community members in the school showed her how happy the adults in the Krishna community were and that there was much involvement in the school in addition to the academic teachers and parents. Citra is convinced that teachers will be sweeter if they are careful only to accept students who deeply desire being in a Krishna school.

Beyond Daily Life
Festivals
Both Indra and Kalindi, although attending Krishna schools in different parts of the world and having a difference of about a decade in their ages, both stress the role of festivals in their Krishna school experience. Indra speaks of how even in an Indian school, the food was really good at the many festivals. In Europe, festivals were at the center of the community of which the school was a part. At least two or three times a year, Krishna devotees would visit from many communities. Thousands of people would be dancing, singing mantras [a type of worship called kirtana] while playing “three feet in diameter” hand cymbals and two-headed drums carried by a strap around the neck [mirdanga]. The kirtanas seem to Indra, in retrospect, to have been like huge rock concerts—without any form of intoxication or illicit sex. Sometimes during festivals there would be a contest of throwing and catching traditional Indian sweets called gulubjamons (a spongy, pancake- texture ball dripping with syrup).

Kalindi recalls festivals as a time for art, the “perfect in every detail” clay figures they would make for dioramas in primary school on festival days, in the shoe boxes filled with cotton ball clouds; and, in secondary school, the sophisticated drawings of saints. The dramas they rehearsed for weeks or months and then performed for the festival crowds was a very significant part of her Krishna school experience.

Outreach
The Hare Krishna Movement, based on the teachings of Caitanya Mahaprabhu (Braswell, 1986; Hopkins, 1989, pp. 42-54; Shinn, 1987, pp. 85-86), encourages its members to share Krishna consciousness with others. Students in Krishna schools were sometimes involved in these outreach activities. The positive mood of sharing spiritual life continues to have a large influence in the adult lives of a few of the former students in this study. Citra enjoys explaining principles of divine creation to new Krishna members. And Radha, for example, writes about helping her father in “fund and friend raising,” expressing a love for public chanting and selling of sacred literatures. The writer Bhisma describes how he assisted with introducing Krishna consciousness on a Malaysian island where most of the residents are Chinese and Muslims. The students at one school, as Indra explains, would assist with a once-a-year intense effort to distribute scripture and sacred audio recordings. The students would help pack books and make sweets, sometimes staying at one member’s vacation home for a few weeks. Once a week during the year, the whole community of Krishna devotees, children included, would drive two hours each way to chant and sing in public. In fact, Indra finds it common among his gurukuli friends for them to view the world through what he called a “missionary framework, seeing everything around you in that perspective—how to engage everyone and everything in Krishna’s service.”

Holy places
As mentioned, some former students in this study went to Krishna schools in India. The only Krishna schools available in India when this group of adults was school aged were boys’ boarding schools. In particular, the school in Vrindavana, Uttar Pradesh, had a large number of students whose families were not of Indian origin. At that school, all the students trekked to the nearby Yamuna River once or twice a week. On the way, they would sing mantras through Vrindavana town, one of the holiest pilgrimage places in India. Upon arriving at the sacred Yamuna, they would play in the water and on the sand. Every student in this study who attended the Vrindavana school speaks or writes with great fondness about these trips to the Yamuna as one of their most important memories of being in a Krishna school. Gopal, for example, whose overall experience in Vrindavana was negative, said, “One thing I definitely liked with the situation was being with the other kids there, going to the Yamuna River, holy places.”

Extracurricular activities
One of the more interesting results of this study, for me, is the emphasis that so many subjects put on extracurricular activities both in terms of important school memories and effect on their present adult life. Festivals, outreach activities, and training in hobbies and vocational skills are all part of this category. Subjects describe at length and with obvious enthusiasm time at playgrounds or natural surroundings, arts and craft projects, or rehearsing and performing dramas. For subjects such as Kalindi and Indra, for example, these types of activities were the bulk of their positive memories and a lot of the basis for their current identification with the community of devotees.

Learning about and practicing spiritual tradition
Philosophy Classes
“I learned a lot about religion and philosophy—see everything has a purpose,” Damodara related as a major effect of going to a Krishna school. Classes in sacred literature and philosophy are an ubiquitous feature of Krishna schools. Many schools also require their students to attend daily scriptural sermons at the local Krishna temple. Yet, only a few of the subjects refer to these classes either when discussing their most important memories or how their adult lives have been affected. Of all the subjects, Citra is one of the most enthusiastic about philosophy classes, especially the in-depth bhakti shastri course she had in secondary school. In a similar way to which Indra spoke about understanding all of life through the perspective of a spirit of outreach, Citra explains that this course enables her to “see through the eyes of scripture.” She wishes that there were “more continuing education and bhakti shastri,” though she wonders if she is disciplined enough now in her life to take up such a course. Some, such as Kalindi, really enjoyed it when renounced traveling preachers, sannyasis, visited the school to discuss their adventures. The sannyasis’s fun and magic tricks with the students seem to have made as much of an impression than their philosophical discussions during her primary school years, however. Kalindi did also say that during her teenaged years the philosophy became concrete and you decide that’s how you want to live. Kids want to have fun. I don’t remember philosophy as a kid—just going to the temple. Philosophy didn’t make that much impression. But as a teenager, bhakti shastri classes were highly valuable, especially kids asking questions…we teenaged girls would talk about it all the time.

Some subjects, such as Rama, Govinda, and Gopinath, all writers, enthusiastically describe in a general way how knowing the philosophy of Krishna consciousness is important in their adult life and is a product of their Krishna school education. Even more indirect and non-specific references to having received beneficial spiritual knowledge are part of the writings or interviews of many subjects. On the other hand, Vrindavana, who attended Krishna schools only at the primary level, said, I guess maybe there was a philosophical aspect but I don’t remember teachers ever getting into philosophy with us; they should have. It would have been nice…because emphasis should have been not ABCs but philosophical…. I would have really liked a lot more as a kid—practical matter. What is life for, why are you here, of course being related to the age of the kids…I really wanted to know and really liked whenever anyone talked about it.

Scripture memorization
Verses from scripture, especially Bhagavad-gita, continue to play in the minds of many former Krishna school students. Gopal feels that gita verses were some of the few things he had learned in an otherwise academically poor school in India, for example. Damodara often remembers those verses both because they were recited so often and because they were “learned in a neat way.” Gita verses are one of the few specific things Lalita remembers about her primary school. She said that even a few of her friends who had mostly negative experiences in Krishna schools find those verses going through their minds at the oddest times.

Religious practices
A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, representing the ancient teachings of Vaisnavism, founded the Hare Krishna Movement worldwide and encouraged his followers to institute the gurukula system of education for their children. Prabhupada stressed that all Krishna school students should have regular religious practices as part of their education. The practice he most emphasized was the early morning community worship. “From the gurukula we are training small children. There are about more than hundred children in [the] Dallas [school]. They are rising early in the morning, attending mangala aratik” (Arrival Lecture, Calcutta, March 20, 1975).

In most Krishna schools, especially those that were boarding schools, students attend (a) early morning worship of group singing of mantras with dancing and instruments, called mangala aratik kirtana; (b) a philosophy class; and (c) individual chanting of mantras on prayer beads, japa. A number of subjects relate their memories of these practices. Yet, considering the pervasive nature of these practices in Krishna schools, it is of interest that fewer than half the subjects mentioned them. Perhaps Indra’s recollecting his mornings in an Indian boarding school are the most interesting in this connection. Before anyone else got up, he would shower and go to Prabhupada’s former rooms to chant japa by himself. It was, for him, a very deep and personal spiritual experience. In contrast, one of the things Dhruva, a writer, did not like about attending a different Indian boarding school was rising at 4:00 am for mangala aratik. Lalita explains, Getting up and going to mangala aratik—for me it was a positive experience. But for some it was torture, and when I tell them I get my kids up at 5:30 people groan. But my kids love to get up and they sometimes get up early on their own and call someone and ask them to take them to the temple. Positive experience is key.

Personal relationship with Krishna
“When someone knows about Krishna at such a tender age, one won’t be able to forget him,” is the succinct way Vishaka, a writer, put it. She describes how she often turns to prayer, especially in moments of difficulty. Another writer, Candra, tells of the importance of finding Krishna on her own and keeping her faith. Indra describes that as a young child in boarding school he was often, “turning inward to Krishna at some level as a child; turning to Him as a friend.” As an adult, Rupa finds himself “looking for a deeper value…[I] analyze a situation and try to see how it’s going to affect me spiritually….[I’m] very turned off by anything dogmatic, any fake religion…I feel very much like spirituality is a part of me, devotion.”

The goal of education in Krishna consciousness is personal spiritual transformation (McDaniel, 1992). Damodara describes this effect on an intellectual level when he talks about carefully evaluating his actions in the light of spiritual and moral principles. Kalindi speaks of the affective changes when she says, “13 years later I haven’t changed my paradigm—more compassion and empathy, a deeper ‘taste’ of chanting and more blissful.” Perhaps the best explanation of how Krishna school students understand their personal relationship with Krishna is in the description of Balarama, a writer, Pure ecstatic love for Krishna! There is nothing in the world like what you feel in that situation. When you take an ecstasy pill the feelings may be similar, but we have all heard of the side effects and besides, being just an illusory that lasts only for a couple of hours, it can’t compare to the effects of a kirtana which stays with you for days. There is no come-down because it puts you on a permanently higher level.

Stories
In all Krishna schools, student regularly hear scriptural stories about Krishna and his incarnations, or about great saints. A few subjects describe the effect of these stories in their lives. “We fell asleep listening to Mahabharata,” Rupa explained. “We hear that stuff and we think about Arjuna and his adventures. What’s so attractive—they had their whole life, not just little [chanting of] Hare Krishna. You want a whole education and whole cultural side, as well.”

Vocational guidance
A gurukula education is supposed to provide the students with “specific training for a livelihood” (Srimad Bhagavatam, 2.7.6 commentary). However, since not all of the subjects attended Krishna schools at the secondary level, it is reasonable that this topic was not discussed much. Rupa speaks at length about how one’s vocation and even hobbies should be able to integrate the physical, mental, and spiritual aspects of a person, but seemed to feel that this training was not part of his Krishna school experience. Yasoda, who started public school at a young age, credits her Krishna school years with affecting her adult decisions about work. Gopal explains, “One thing that was important for my vocation was learning computer programming at 11 years old in the school.” Bhima feels lucky that he got both personal and vocational guidance, mostly from his spiritual master, as he was transitioning from school to occupation. Speaking extensively about the opportunities and encouragement given to students to learn and develop both hobbies and beginning vocational training, Indra describes how one European school structured the afternoons. Students could do what they enjoyed, which would include photography, beekeeping, growing an herb garden, or helping and learning from a variety of adults in the community. Most subjects, however, did not mention this topic.

Whole Picture
It is “hard to differentiate between going to a devotee school and growing up a devotee,” as Damodara clearly put it. And, for a school to have a positive effect there needs to be harmony between the school, family, and community. Perhaps Vrindavana said this best, Main thing—there needs to be huge cooperative effort between school, parents, teachers, and community…emphasis needs to be the same. If you have fun at school and they talk about Krishna conscious stuff, but at home the biggest thing is…”life sucks,” then they [students] will be very confused…emphasis is going to be on mommy and daddy, and school at that point becomes almost irrelevant….As important as it is, school cannot be more than one of the sticks [that, like in the fable, cannot be broken when in a bundle]. Even the tape [that holds the sticks together] isn’t all encompassing. The main leader is the glue, not the all-in-all Where Vrindavana emphasizes both the role of parents and a community’s spiritual leader to enable a school’s success, Lalita speaks in a similar way about parents. If there is a bad family situation, she says, students will either “bond with the teacher or boycott everything the parents want them to do, and rebel against the teachers.”

So, when children growing up in the Hare Krishna Movement who also attend its schools think about their childhood, their answers can rarely separate school experiences completely. “[You are] trying to isolate a specific cause but for anything there are so many things that lead together to affect them,” Gopal says.

Conclusion
In broad terms, subjects describe their Krishna school experience, both as it occurred and as it impacts them as adults, in terms of academics, individual and collective identity, special events and programs, learning about and practicing their spiritual tradition, and preparation for livelihood. Whether asked in an interview about important memories of schooling, or when having space in a printed or electronic publication to write as they wish, these former Krishna school students are overwhelmingly positive about their experiences, with a few, sometimes strong, exceptions. Even those who had some trauma or suffered abuse in a school tend to focus on the fun at festivals, the personal relationship they developed with Krishna, and how they have benefited as adults. There were some passages in the documents that were entirely negative, and certainly if different subjects were chosen for interviews there may also have been more who see little or nothing of value in their Krishna school education.

Many subjects give suggestions for how to improve Krishna schools, from increased positive community involvement, to screening students, to choosing caring teachers. It would be wise for educational leaders in religiously affiliated schools, Krishna schools among them, to keep contact with former students and regularly ask them for feedback and advice. Although during the time students are in school it may appear that parents are the prime “customers” of a school, it is ultimately the students towards whose satisfaction a school should be aiming.
The two main themes I originally looked for from the conceptual framework, identity and spiritual transformation, were indeed reflected in the subjects of this study. But, while the contribution of attending a Krishna school to adult personal and community identity was mentioned by almost all subjects, only some directly referred to personal spiritual transformation. It does seem that all the aspects of faith education that tend to lead to personal and community identity as proposed in the framework are operative in the subjects of this study.

In terms of spiritual transformation, however, there were some subjects who discussed their bent toward considering moral and spiritual factors in both minor and major life decisions, and, in a very few cases, subjects tied this inclination to affective spiritual experiences that were part of their education. However, this area of study remains largely unexplored. It would be useful to have the topic of spiritual transformation, including its causes and effects, the basis of future research of Krishna school students.

Reflections
I entered into this research making a conscious effort to put aside the assumptions that fueled my more than two decades as an educator and administrator in Krishna schools. Although the extremely open-ended nature of the questions I asked former students left some without a guide in the vast woods of possibilities, all eventually went beyond trying to find out what I wanted, to an exploration of their own schooling experience and its effects.

The findings confirmed a few things for me, such as the permanency of scripture verse memorization in the thoughts of students. This limited study also strongly confirmed that a spiritual sense of self, both on a personal level and as a member of a faith community, is one of the clearest effects of attending a Krishna school, even if for only a few years at the primary level.

Many of the findings, however, were unexpected. For example, those who spoke of the importance of loving relationships surprised me in that having such relationships with classmates and general Krishna community members was equally if not more important to most subjects than their relationship with teachers. I had obviously inflated the role of a teacher in students’ lives. Perhaps most unanticipated for me is the importance in adult life of school-related experiences that appear peripheral to school. Being in a drama, traveling with teachers and classmates to help with a community project, going regularly with the school to sacred places, and in general having fun, seemed to be of much more importance to these subjects than the content or pedagogy used in science classes.

It is rare that students, the greatest stakeholders in education, are seriously consulted about how they view their education and what has been helpful, hurtful, or neutral in their lives. They are, ironically, one of the most marginalized groups in educational politics and policy making (Marshall & Gerstl-Pepin, 2005). Educational leaders might put more of a research focus on having adults reflect on their education and how they perceive the ramifications of schooling on their adult lives.

References
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Appendix

Semi structured interview questions

How many years did you go to devotee schools and at what age?

In what country were those schools?

Tell me about some of your most important memories of your schooling.

How has going to a devotee school affected your life?

I’m trying to discover how going to a Hare Krishna school affects a person’s life as an adult, especially in terms of spiritual attitudes and behavior. What are some important questions I can ask young adults who went to devotee schools?

Thank you very much for helping!

Lay Summary
Spring 2005

Please accept my obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

You are invited to participate in research about the experiences of young adults who spent at least two years in schools of the Hare Krishna Movement.

To give devotee youth the best possible educational experiences, it would be very helpful to know what aspects of our schools were helpful in adult life, what were useless, and which had negative results. I have been a principal and teacher in ISKCON schools for over twenty years. No one really knows, though, what kind of results going to these schools have on an adult’s life. It is difficult to decide how to improve schools without information from the most important people, former students who’ve had the time to know the impact on adult life.

An open interview, where you can discuss how your experience in a devotee school affected your life, will help me design a confidential survey for large numbers of devotee youth with a variety of schooling experiences. One interview of about a half hour to an hour will be enough, though I might briefly contact you later for clarification of a point. You might also want to give me any articles or other written material that would be helpful. I can interview you over the phone, or, in some cases, in person. Interviews will be recorded, unless you prefer that I only take notes. Participation is entirely your choice, and you can withdraw from the research at any time, or chose not to answer whatever question to which you would rather not respond.

All interviews are confidential. I am the only one who will know who gave me what information. I have gotten your name and contact information from other devotee youth, or from one of the gurukuli web sites, but I am the only one who knows you are participating in this study. Tapes and notes will be secure.

Thank you very much!

Your servant,

Urmila devi dasi

Source: http://urmiladasi.com/effect-of-krishna-schools-views-of-former-students/