Corporate or Family ISKCON?
It’s always nice to receive e-mails which are from devotees, especially when in work however recently one or two appear to have dark undertones; almost a play for why the reasons that attracted me to ISKCON are unrealistic and a thing of the past.
The opening statement gave me a feeling of impending doom, may be it’s time to leave ISKCON as this new improved corporate; boiling the milk ISKCON which appears to have little to do with my spiritual well-being or advancement. And more to do with how to get as much money out of me and make the whole experience one of sheer misery, a one size fits all, your only a devotee if you do this or that course repulses me and my only response run away.
You see when I first met the devotees their was a family feeling, it was like I had met old friends within a short time my thoughts were how to get to spend more time with them. They tolerated a lot, never asked me for laxmi (Well apart from books, and that was alright, given they were so enthusiastic I read them I became enthusiastic to read)
This family atmosphere this friendship based on loving care for one another, getting to know the individual and developing them at a pace and way that developed trust; eventually one wanted to reciprocate this love and the devotees had you hooked on devotional service. No course, no money just love.
With this simple exchange one became hooked on Japa, reading, sharing and doing some small service; the desire to do more of these increasing the more you had this association, and this is what a lot of individuals speak about, the loving care a feeling of being a part of something, the feeling of family the feeling of love.
What the devotees had shown me was simple and in many ways these loving exchanges meant that you would do almost anything for them, it’s simply something that cannot be learnt in any educational setting, no classroom could teach devotional service in it’s purest form.
Devotional service comes from a basis of love, love comes from being cared and feeling cared for; so the term family appears appropriate as this is the nearest approximation or way of expressing a feeling felt when coming into devotee association.
Personally I miss those early days, this new corporate impersonal ISKCON is choking the life out of me, mentorship was by the devotees leading by example and recommendation was by a senior disciple; now mentorship is tor-mentorship and appears a way to fleece money out of the individual and little of engagement in devotional service, do this course, do that course give us money.
Over the years my inspiration has been a few devotees who by example and loving time spent in association makes ones desire increase, that one wants to do more. Simply put friendship.
I’ve learnt more in discussions with these devotee friends questioning and being questioned, and when one comes across something that appears contradictory one does research studying of Srila Prabhupada’s books and then sharing what has been learnt. Thus real knowledge increases and as it’s personal and not learnt in an educational setting it’s personal one remembers.
The email was explaining how now ISKCON is too big for this, temple presidents cannot get to know those who attend, and the family atmosphere one used to talk about is impractical and not work, one cannot expect recommendation to be as in the early days and spoken about by Srila Prabhupad, we now have a new structure.
The new structure means courses, exams, forms; a committee who decide upon ones suitability not on real
knowledge of the individual but how all these look, even the recommendation of the mentor can be overruled by a committee member who has had little association with the candidate; now this is impersonal by any standard and far from the system recommended by Srila Prabhupad’s who wanted initiation recommendation from a senior devotee who actually knew the aspiring devotee, this loving care some describe as family some like me describe as friend. This real knowledge of the aspiring devotee cannot be learnt in a classroom.
Yes temples have grown.
Yes it’s impractical for one individual to know everyone that attends our larger temple.
Yes learning about devotional life is good
Yes studying Srila Prabhupad’s books are good.
But an artificial mentorship system and an artificial impersonal committee, a corporate ISKCON one were the feeling of friendship and family is frowned on; seriously?
My conclusion is this is best avoided by one who wishes to make any real spiritual advancement, and a plea to all those in management and GBC please get rid of this nonsense and return to what Srila Prabhupada showed us, real love and personalise our approach that inspires one to spontaneously increase our desire to increase in devotional activities.
Or may be it’s that ISKCON doesn’t want individual’s like me who don’t need classrooms and form’s to be inspired, just the association of amazing devotees who make you feel like a part of something special; and inspire you to do more service and because your inspired that naturally inspires others.
But my fear is corporate ISKCON rather than personal ISKCON is the one that is winning the day.
And I’m guessing those who see corporate ISKCON as the way forward will use this article not to learn how others function and how to inspire a different group in devotional life, but will simply go look told you so he’s anti-ISKCON, and simply miss the point altogther.
Friendship first and all other things will come in time.
Comments