By Devaki Devi Dasi
Over the recent years we have been experiencing an increasing tension over the topic of culture within our ISKCON society. The following article is a humble attempt to give some insights into the deeper underlying reasons for these misunderstandings, hoping that it may contribute to alleviate this tension.
In general terms, culture develops through the practical application of a certain philosophy and ideology. By living according to a certain worldview, culture manifests in all different aspects of our daily life. In this world there are basically two cultures: materialistic culture and spiritual culture. These two cultures have very different underlying worldviews.
As we know, materialistic culture is based on the mottos of materialistic life, namely sense gratification being the goal of life. Out of all sense gratification sex life is seen to be the topmost enjoyment. Materialistic culture is based on the bodily concept of life – gross and also subtle. It reinforces our identifiation not only with our gross body, but also with our subtle body of mind, intelligence and false ego. Infact, it is centered around blowing up and feeding the subtle body, mainly the false ego: “I am so special, I am so unique, let everyone recognise my greatness.” This is the very essence of materialistic life and its culture. Another important aspect is the understanding that there is only one life, and therefore no purifying duties. These are the underlying worldviews of materialistic culture.
Spiritual culture has the opposite underlying worldviews, namely our relationship with Krishna being the goal of life. Therefore we reduce and regulate sense gratification, we cool down the man-woman attraction and we minimize the bodily concept of life. We aspire to understand that we are not this gross body, and the subtle body of mind, intelligence and false ego has to be transformed and fully spiritualized. Infact, spiritual culture is designed to dissolve and subdue the subtle body, especially the false ego. And the understanding of many lives leads to purifying duties which, when performed within Krishna consciousness, will qualify us to get out of this material world.
Already now we can see that these two cultures are based on very different underlying principles, and they are also feeding these worldviews back and strongly propagate them. This is what culture does. Once we clearly understand these points, it becomes obvious that these two cultures are incompatible – they are actually like day and night. In Bhagavad-Gita 2.69. Krishna explains this: “What is night for all beings is the time of awakening for the self-controlled; and the time of awakening for all beings is night for the introspective sage.” We can visualize a broad spectrum with the day of the materialist being on one end, and the day of the spiritualist being on the opposite end; in between is a broad spectrum of all kinds of shades, grades and mixtures. Krishna consciousness is meant to bring about a transformation, so that the day of the materialist eventually becomes night for us. We are meant to transform our likes and dislikes, our tastes, our patterns of behavior, our worldviews – everything, ultimately our very heart, so that bhakti can grow. If this does not take place, then our spiritual practice is rather external
– it is very superficial. In fact, we are committing the 10th offence to chanting the Holy Name: we are maintaining material attachments even after understanding so many instructions on this matter. However, this transformation cannot be imposed and forced upon people. It can only be inspired. It is based on internal work, which each and every devotee has to perform at his/her own pace – voluntarily.
I would like to share one little example which makes it very clear how these two cultures are indeed like day and night, even within our ISKCON society. Some twelve years ago when travelling in Bangladesh I caught typhoid fever and had to be admitted to a hospital. This happened in the yatra of Sylhet. The doctors who treated me and the President of Sylhet temple, a very senior brahmacari, insisted that he would stay with me in the same room in the hospital. This would very well be a huge scandal anywhere else in the world, but in Bangladesh where spiritual culture is still so prominent up to this very day – there it was right. But in other countries where spiritual culture is not much present any longer, this would be wrong. In spiritual culture, the principle of protection of a woman is indeed the highest principle – far superior to the principle of brahmacari life. This is meant to serve as a little example in order to illustrate how these two cultures are indeed like day and night. Whatever is day and right in one part of the world may be completely wrong and night in another.
This topic of culture will always bring about a lot of tension in our ISKCON society, as long as we approach it in terms of what is right and what is wrong – the black and white approach. However, Krishna consciousness is all about a gradual transformation. As long as we are trying to establish what a woman should do and should not do, or what a man should do and should not do, we will always experience tension. Whatever is right for one person may very well be wrong for another, depending on how much we have internally transformed. Or, whatever was right ten years ago will be now hopefully wrong, because maybe we have transformed in these ten years. Of course, our Vaisnava philosophy is absolute, but the application which ultimately forms culture depends very much on how far we have made this transformation already, individually and collectively. And Vaisnava etiquette and culture is meant to immensely support this very transformation.
In this world we can observe that there are many places where spiritual culture is still prominent; in other places it has been completely pushed aside by a materialistic way of life. It is very much connected with the standard of life: the higher the standard of life is, the more easily sense gratification becomes the goal in life. As materialistic culture sets in, spiritual culture is pushed aside. In countries like India, Bangladesh, Eastern Europe or even Southern Europe we can still find remnants of spiritual culture, whereas in other countries it is almost lost and forgotten.
Let us assume that Lord Caitanya’s Sankirtan Movement is meant to be a spiritual movement, which is based on the principles of spiritual culture. These underlying principles are universal, and unless we recognize and deeply understand them, we very easily lose them in the name of reformation and adapting to modern trends. This has indeed happened in all other spiritual cultures. For example within Christianity, some eighty years ago we could find so many principles of spiritual culture, but because the leaders did not recognize them as the universal principles, therefore they are lost and forgotten today. And this leads to watering down the spiritual content, until the spiritual power is lost.
My humble suggestion is that these principles of spiritual culture be systematically taught. Once the devotees will receive systematic training and education in this field, they will ongoingly be inspired to do this internal transformational work and move towards the day of the spiritualist. The very fact how much we are struggling in understanding and accepting spiritual culture actually shows that we are not quite there yet in living our philosophy. As long as spiritual culture is so foreign to us, we are still hanging on to the materialistic worldviews, and we have not quite made this transformation yet. To conclude I would like to share a little quote from a lecture in Los Angeles, 16th of December 1968: “Srila Prabhupada didn’t want us to adopt American ways of life. After a Bhagavad-gita lecture Srila Prabhupada was asked if he was in this world. He replied, “Just like I am in America. It is very easy to understand. I am not adopting any ways of life as the Americans. So I am not in America. Not only myself, all my disciples who are following me, they are also not Americans. They’re different from American behavior, American ways of life. In that sense I’m not in America. I am in Vrndavana because wherever I go, in my apartment or in my temple, I live with Krishna and Krishna consciousness. I don’t accept any consciousness of America. And I teach my disciples also to take to that consciousness. So one who takes to that consciousness, he is also not in America, not in this world.”
For further information please visit www.therootsofspiritualculture.net