![\"\"](\"http:\/\/dandavats.com\/wp-content\/uploads4\/2014-08-13_10-54-45.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Srila Prabhupada \u2013 boring or refreshingly original?<\/b><\/p>\n
Vraja Bihari Das: Once a person challenged me that Srila Prabhupada often said he is simply repeating what he had heard from his spiritual master and the previous teachers. \u201cBy his own admission\u201d, the man reasoned, \u201cSrila Prabhupada had nothing original to contribute. Isn\u2019t he hackneyed and what\u2019s his relevance if he hasn\u2019t given us something unique?\u201d<\/p>\n
Adhering to traditions<\/strong><\/p>\n Srila Prabhupada\u2019s adherence to the strength of tradition is often misunderstood. Recently I read the Western media\u2019s appreciation of Mr. Narendra Modi, India\u2019s new prime minister as the first Indian prime minister who is in blood and spirit Indian. All the previous prime ministers had apparently a colonial hangover. Mr. Modi, the media pundits acknowledge, is a man rooted in Indianness, whether it\u2019s his talking eating, dress and lifestyle. Even his policies have a typical Indian touch.<\/p>\n When one carefully examines Srila Prabhupada\u2019s life and contribution, you can\u2019t help but admire his determination to remain rooted in the traditional spiritual culture of India when all around in the early 1950\u2019s, a growing fetish for western ideas took over. After independence, the government ignored India\u2019s traditional agrarian strengths and instead focussed on western ideas of industrialization. Yet Srila Prabhupada always advocated India to be built on cow protection, agriculture, and an overall revival of spiritual traditions. He was way ahead of his times, and not the least bothered by popular votes and media hoopla.<\/p>\n His originality and freshness can be appreciated when you see what he did and under what circumstances.<\/p>\n Three challenges faced by Srila Prabhupada-Deterioration, Disinterest and Distraction<\/strong><\/p>\n \n<\/p>\n Deterioration<\/strong><\/p>\n At the age of seventy your body is surely deteriorating. That\u2019s when most people either sulk or retire gracefully to spend their sunset years in obscurity. Srila Prabhupada however chose to travel to the west all alone on a cargo carrier, braving sea sickness and heart attacks. He was positive and determined to be an instrument to spread the chanting of Hare Krishna in every town and village of the world.<\/p>\n Before leaving India in 1965, he had written three books. In the next twelve years he wrote over sixty. Till the age of seventy he had only one disciple in India and then by 82, he had over five thousand disciples and many thousand more admirers and followers. He had nothing materially worthwhile before he embarked on this spiritual mission but by the next decade he built and managed a worldwide organization that had over hundred centres all over the world. He had never been outside India till the age of seventy, but by the time he left this mortal world, he had travelled across the globe over ten times.<\/p>\n Isn\u2019t it obvious that he was indeed a revolutionary, enterprising individual? As Dr. Harvey Cox<\/strong>, a leading Christian theologian and professor at the Harvard University admitted, \u201cAt a very advanced age, when most people would be resting on their laurels Srila Prabhupada harkened to the mandate of his own spiritual teacher and set out on the difficult and demanding voyage to America. Srila Prabhupada is, of course, only one of thousands of teachers. But in another sense, he is one in a thousand, maybe one in a million\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \n<\/p>\n Disinterest<\/strong><\/p>\n Srila Prabhupada had to also initially face an audience of old men and women in New York who had little interest in what he spoke or did. Undaunted, he intelligently spoke on Krishna \u2018consciousnesses\u2019. The word \u2018consciousnesses\u2019 had a popular appeal in the American society then. That\u2019s when \u2018consciousness expansion\u2019, \u2018cosmic consciousness\u2019 and \u2018altered state of consciousness\u2019 was often spoken about in spiritual circles. And Srila Prabhupada spoke on dovetailing individual consciousness with Supreme consciousness!<\/p>\n Most Indian gurus before Srila Prabhupada spoke about the presence of the Lord in the heart, referred to asparamatma<\/em> in the Bhagavad Gita, as an \u2018overseer\u2019 or \u2018head God\u2019 or \u2018God soul\u2019. Srila Prabhupada introduced the concept of \u2018Supersoul\u2019 a soul that is superior to all of us ordinary souls. That was the time when the mythology of Superman had caught the imagination of the public in America. Although the fictional character of Superman was created in early 1940\u2019s he rose to popularity during mid 1950\u2019s -1970. People could relate to Srila Prabhupada\u2019s presentation of the principle of \u2018Supersoul\u2019 as \u2018Super\u2019 man had already acquainted them with a magnificent and extra ordinary person.<\/p>\n \n<\/p>\n In contrast to the alien crowd that Srila Prabhupada faced in America, Indians were already aware of Krishna and topics of Bhagavad Gita. Dr Harvey Cox admits he visited Vrindavan, the land where Srila Prabhupada stayed before going to the West. And he realized that Indians, unlike the westerners are in no hurry to rush off to do something else when spiritual subjects are discussed. Srila Prabhupada however preferred to take on the risk of a disinterested audience rather than settle to a crowd of pious Indians. Dr Cox also admires Srila Prabhupada\u2019s creative tenacity in presenting the age old traditions of Krishna consciousness to the modern audience in a language and culture they were familiar with.<\/p>\n Distraction<\/strong><\/p>\n Thirdly Srila Prabhupada presented Krishna consciousness during the most turbulent period in world history. In the early and mid 1940\u2019s when the world was in the grip of a devastating world war, and Indians obsessed with the independence movement, Krishna consciousness had few takers. Besides, India was also ravaged by a famine; the holocaust and bloody aftermath of partition had distracted Indians from the spiritual path. That\u2019s when Srila Prabhupada launched his \u2018Back to Godhead\u2019- a periodical through which he addressed world news from a spiritual perspective.<\/p>\n Later in the mid 1960\u2019s the Vietnam War was vehemently opposed by the American youth. As the young men were drafted into the army, the anti-war movement grew with the youth and intellectuals openly decrying America\u2019s involvement in it. Srila Prabhupada presented the war of Kurukshetra and the discussions between Arjuna and Krishna as the panacea. Many young men being disillusioned by war couldn\u2019t accept Krishna\u2019s imploring Arjuna to fight the war as reasonable. Although they were distracted by the war, Srila Prabhupada emphatically declared the Vietnam fighting would soon be history, but human life is rare and he appealed to all men and women to surrender to Krishna.<\/p>\n Srila Prabhupada was a creative genius in helping people connect to Krishna consciousness. When someone asked him how the spiritual world was like, he smiled, \u201cThere are no draft boards there\u201d. On another occasion a group of hippies wondered how Krishna consciousness happiness would feel like. Knowing their addiction to LSD, a popular drug of the hippies during the 1960\u2019s counter culture movement, Srila Prabhupada described with wide eyes, \u201cKrishna consciousness happiness is like an ocean of LSD\u201d<\/p>\n Thus one who closely observes Srila Prabhupada\u2019s life and the challenging situation, in which he presented Krishna consciousness, would have no doubts about his ingenuity, and determination to give the sacred message of Krishna consciousness in a way the moderns could understand. And at the same time, he never compromised on the principles of Bhakti that his predecessor teachers had carefully passed on since centuries.<\/p>\n Source: http:\/\/yogaformodernage.com\/srila-prabhupada-boring-refreshingly-original\/<\/a><\/p>\n