I am watching a very good television show with my wife and son – it’s called The Walking Dead. It’s set in a zombie apocalypse scenario and shows how human beings try to survive. It’s much more about human psychology than about zombies.
One of the most disturbing and terrifying things the show reveals is that humans wind up being much more dangerous to one another than zombies. You would think that the survivors would think, “we are all humans, we have a common enemy and a common goal, let’s unite and fight together.” But what actually happens is that a lot of people think “I need to survive. My needs, and the needs of those related to me, come first – before everyone else.” In The Walking Dead, humans rarely ever unite or cooperate with one another – they mostly fight and try to conquer one another’s dwindling resources.
The realism of this depiction is disturbing.
It is, to me, vividly analogue to the way Gauḍīya’s recently split themselves into minute factions and war amongst one another.
“We are Gauḍīya Maṭh, you are not. We hate you.”
“We are are the bābājīs. We represent the real tradition. You don’t, so we hate you or pity you at best. Anyway, you are certainly not one of us.”
“We live in a temple, and you don’t – so you are a blooped fringie and we are the real deal.”
“We are ISKCON, and you are not. You are completely bogus and we are completely bonafide.”
“We are the ritviks. You are the Prabhupāda-usurpers. We will focus all our attention on defaming you, and none on faming Krishna.”
“We are the book distributors, you are the gopī-bhāva club. We never want to be as useless as you. Prabhupāda hates you.”
“We are mañjarī’s, we are pure. You are impure, you just want toenjoy Krishna in the guise of Sakhi-anugata. Therefore we don’t want to be touched by your shadow.”
So much ever-more-minute fractioning of what is essentially a single family of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s followers! We all have such similar goals and hopes, and we all face such similar obstacles and pitfalls. The way we are unable to band together in unity just seems so exactly similar to the way humans tear each other apart in The Walking Dead.
So much “diti” – division. Diti is the mother of the Daityas, demons – selfish beings absorbed in the consequent anger and hatred. Aditi (unity) on the other hand, is the mother of the divine forces, Adityas – self-sacrificing beings who help the world, and therefore experience peace of mind and come closer to understanding love.
Division is not an inviting path to tread, but it seems that the Gauḍīyas are swimming in it. We need to focus more on hearing Bhāgavatam and chanting Hare Krishna, and less on our cross-examination. This bhajan-kriya will effect anartha-nivṛtti, which will cure this ugly situation.
Vraja Kishor das
books, classes & more: www.vrajakishor.com
Comments
Hare Krishna, We facing more diversity and less unity, and the gap is expanding among gaudiyas,When an acharya leaves ,there is bound to be crisis. The need of constant association (acharya ,one who teaches with example)is very essential, and the best association is Srila Prabhupada Books.YS