I'm no longer a devotee and was always very doubtful, but I was briefly around during this period. I really liked a lot of the devotees and I think that was mainly about recognising that we / they were generally 'misfits' in society. I think what we had in common was an inability to thrive in a materialistic society that felt like it didn't have much of a heart. Recruiting disenfranchised people is pretty easy and I was glad to try to live a different way. I used to see Rytasha in the temple and used to wonder who the hell she was, it was obvious she came from a very different world to my own. My gut instinct was also to feel warmth to Bhagavan ( or Gurudev). He seemed like a basically nice bloke and his singing voice was very endearing, magnetic and devotional. But unfortunately, the movement was riddled with pride and ego. There was a whole feeling of superiority and the idea of winning people over to the movement was a bit crass. The name dropping was embarrassing as well, as was trying to bring celebrities into the fold. I'm not dissing Hazel O'connor or Hayley Mills, but they made such a big thing out of it. This is the first video I have found of this era and I have to say it brings back some warm but also some sad memories. Many of the male devotees I knew were really lovely beings and I often wonder what became of them. A very few were a pain in the bum as I'm sure I would also be remembered, if at all!
Although I no longer subscribe to this particular world view, I really hope that all the lovely people let down by this movement have found their own individual paths and some peace in life. I don't regret my experiences in iskon, even the negative ones, but I have been totally shocked at the level of violence and corruption that I was so unaware of. Lurve ❤. (ex Bhakta Dave) .
This wasn't the true movement, so of of course. Bhagavan dasa (the snake) and the other 10 intentionally misinterpreted Śrīla Prabhupāda's words to declare themselves absolute, so they were all bound to fall. Only the pre 1978 stuff was valid. Moreover, the poisoning (of Śrīla Prabhupāda) thing is now being brought up again with the Justice to Śrīla Prabhupāda foundation, etc. The sarasvata branch always was very splinter-like in terms of siddhānta. Gaudiya Matha fractured, Gaudiya Vedanta Samiti, fractured, Sri Caitanya Sarasvata Matha fractured, ISKCIN was the greatest catastrophe, so on. Many theological deviations too, although the early days were good in terms of preaching and so on.
"You doubted my faith and integrity, that's why I went heavy on the phone"
Aka when a woman disagrees with a male, he beats her up.
Aka prabhupad saying that women like men who are expert at rape in the 4th canto of the Srimad Bhagavatam.
Chauvinism, Patriarchy and Misogyny.
Prabhupāda had old british-indian conceptions of gender, so that's that. But he got thousands to leave drugs for good, introduced a philosophy that (in its purest form) can actually hold up to scrutiny, and spent his whole life doing whatever he could to allievate global suffering.
Those comments exist, and I do not justify them. But one has to look at the effort. If you were born then, you would also have such conceptions. A guru, in nara-lila, also takes on the position of a human. He spent his whole life trying his best to be sincere, and he really was sincere. That is what matters. The 0.0001% of colonial-minded conceptions do not matter. Moreover, Prabhupāda is a special case because he belongs to the Sarasvata Parivara (or sarasvata-gaudiya splinter-sect, which has now for the most part been taken over by bickering idiots, criminals, usurpers, etc since 1977; and had historically also deviated very much), but he preached so much that it is impossible to ignore and not respect even for the people who were blanket-labelled apasampradayic by Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura and whose (original) gaudiya paramparas are now eclipsted & fading away in the face of the now-corrupt ISKCON, Gaudiya Matha, etc.
(P.S. I am neither an ISKCONite nor a Rtvik-ist. But you cannot disregard the efforts and successes and character of a man because of a few comments. By that logic, we are all demons because we are not beyond human nature either.)
Although I no longer subscribe to this particular world view, I really hope that all the lovely people let down by this movement have found their own individual paths and some peace in life. I don't regret my experiences in iskon, even the negative ones, but I have been totally shocked at the level of violence and corruption that I was so unaware of. Lurve ❤. (ex Bhakta Dave) .
Aka when a woman disagrees with a male, he beats her up.
Aka prabhupad saying that women like men who are expert at rape in the 4th canto of the Srimad Bhagavatam.
Chauvinism, Patriarchy and Misogyny.
Those comments exist, and I do not justify them. But one has to look at the effort. If you were born then, you would also have such conceptions. A guru, in nara-lila, also takes on the position of a human. He spent his whole life trying his best to be sincere, and he really was sincere. That is what matters. The 0.0001% of colonial-minded conceptions do not matter. Moreover, Prabhupāda is a special case because he belongs to the Sarasvata Parivara (or sarasvata-gaudiya splinter-sect, which has now for the most part been taken over by bickering idiots, criminals, usurpers, etc since 1977; and had historically also deviated very much), but he preached so much that it is impossible to ignore and not respect even for the people who were blanket-labelled apasampradayic by Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura and whose (original) gaudiya paramparas are now eclipsted & fading away in the face of the now-corrupt ISKCON, Gaudiya Matha, etc.
(P.S. I am neither an ISKCONite nor a Rtvik-ist. But you cannot disregard the efforts and successes and character of a man because of a few comments. By that logic, we are all demons because we are not beyond human nature either.)
Hare Krsna.