ISKCON never was a place for wimps. Back in the day, maybe one in four could hack the program for long enough to get the "taste" that kept us "in" in the long run. "For those who are steadily devoted...", Sri Krsna says. Those who wanted Krsna stayed with Srila Prabhupada. Everyone sincere, we decided, either lived at the temple, or was basically there all day long. It was a hardcore urban non-violent but thoroughly revolutionary movement. We were determined with no doubt, to push on.
(first published at Sampradaya Sun, 2009)
Outsiders were karmis to us. There was no half-stepping. You were either totally with the program, or you couldn't stay long amongst such devotedly determined persons, who by mere juxtaposition exposed your maya. You would not complete boot camp, which consisted of dietary and sleep restrictions, as well as self-control, 16 wonderful rounds ( rounds are truly an adventure in concentration and awakening, and this kept us charged up and pure ), plus engagement in services which including cleaning the burned cooking pots, plus street preaching, almost daily. This was spiritual boot camp, and only the marines made it through.
We were the kings of the radicals, the hardest rockers of all. We were the most real. We were the ones who had actually found the formula for world peace and staying high forever. We are not about to give it up, either.
We had commitment, total and self-sacrificing, but also trusting, loving, and voluntary in full. There was no question of being a sold out yes-man or fool. We were able to discuss any darned topic, at least certainly amongst friends. Not like ISKCON nowadays, which make the restrictive Catholics look like loose altar boys. Their thuggish obsessive compulsive paranoia is astonishing, and it's leaking out into the ranks. "...as the Great Men do, ..." Sri Krsna says, "so does everyone follow" .
Pure loving persons with nothing to hide, who are sure of themselves and who represent Godhead, do not wholesale condemn and hate any of their Godbrothers for disagreeing about points of philosophy. They do not pay devotees to be their sycophants, nor scramble the true guru's orders in order to brainwash new followers. These new followers have no rightful claim to anything in Prabhupada's temples, but they act like they own everything. Only persons in doubt and with something to hide shun vehemently all advice or criticism by others, and with envy, lie and avoid discussion, then treat their ill-perceived opponents with disrespect, call them names, and make up tales. They create a straw man. I am your living straw man.
Similarly, country governments often set-up localized problems to distract everyone from the real issues. While you are hating the very devotees trying to serve their spiritual master in the temples, which your guru stole from the majority of them by force, your so-called gooroo is a playboy Jesus using you for personal advancement. Are you really that anxious to play cheaters and cheated?
But still, your names and your campaigns won't even slow me down! I shall gladly accept the poison, and I'll slap your smirking face with it! By this acceptance and use of whatever abuses the demons and Demon brothers and their slap-stick disciples toss out to hamper my determination to serve the pure devotees, specifically Srila Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, I easily enter the Kingdom of Vaikuntha. Their vanities ultimately serve the dreams of the devotees. Maya's tricksters cannot defeat a surrendered soul. Astonishment, dread, anger, devastation, anxiety for Krishna and Srila Prabhupada and the people in general who we are ultimately serving for Mahaprabhu; these are also bhakti-rasas. They cannot be purchased anywhere for millions of Federal Reserve notes. It is unobtainable, even in heaven or Vaikuntha.
So bring on your half-truths, your concoctions and insults. Tell us your imagined instructions from Supersoul. Call down Srila Prabhupada's books or instructions, but keep a good distance from our quick left hand. Because Baba, we are still chanting like a rock.
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