Krsna West, South, East, North…and what else?

As the ‘Krsna West’ movement finds enthusiastic followers, presenting themself in a ‘modern’ and ‘attractive’ way, starting with abandoning any sort of vaisnava dress, defining this to be a sign of fanatism, and its members declaring their ‘normal’ dress as a sign of their ‘individuality’, one may also wonder if along with this ‘updated version of Krsna Consciousness’, the very same basis of the founder Acharya, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami, may not be ‘updated’ as well.

Piece after piece the demolition of the very essence Srila Prabhupada gave us may likely turn, in the name of populistic ‘preaching", Krsna Consciousness into so-called Krsna Consciousness.

Taking the dressing code as something external, one may gradually abandon more substantial pillars of Krsna Conscious presentation as well.
Already in Srila Prabhupada's presence such attempts were made, and his response was instant and very firm:

So far the Road Show and this Yoga Village are concerned, these things should be stopped. Simply perform our kirtana. If we divert our attention in this way, the whole thing will gradually deteriorate. He is going far away. All these things are nonsense inventions. Such inventing spirit will ruin our this movement. People may come to see, some will become devotees, but such devotees will not stay because they are attracted by some show and not by the real thing or spiritual life according to the standard of Lord Caitanya. Our standard is to have kirtana, start temples. What is this ‘Road Show’ and ‘Yoga Village?’ It will be another hippie edition. Gradually the Krishna Consciousness idea will evaporate: another change, another change, every day another change. Stop all this. Simply have kirtana, nothing else. Don't manufacture ideas.

Letter to Sudama, November 5th 1972, Vrindaban

Innovative ideas going beyond the standards Srila Prabhupada gave were defined by him as activity of ‘fertile brains’, meaning brains with the ability to speculate ‘something new’. As the founder of the Krsna West movement demonstrated to us, he operates indeed with a big, academically polluted brain which is able to question even some statements Srila Prabhupada made in his books. It's an American brain, and as we know, American brains are specially big, spreading their hedonistic ideologies all over the world. :-)
So we heard.

But speculation is not confined to a certain geographical area; it's a global disease.

Srila Prabhupada loved devotees being dressed as devotees, especially when operating directly in the preaching field, which was, in times I joined, the standard for everybody in this movement. After all, everybody was a preacher one way or another. To present Krsna Consciousness while appearing like some drunkard who just came from the local pub was unacceptable. Krsna loves dhotis and saris, but it seems that the founder of Krsna West is not of the same opinion. He is special, he is distinct, and he is academically spoken, operating way above the standards of an ordinary devotee. So we may believe. Lowering the standards makes one, of course, attractive to the majority of conditioned souls, who are always planning to have the kingdom of God without God. And so the demolition of Vedic culture, human culture, goes on and on.

It should be noted that this article is written by somebody who spent most of his time in Krsna Consciousness, the last 54 years, not being dressed as a vaisnava. How is that possible? Well, standing on the street in constant danger of being detected and confined by police, distributing Srila Prabhupada's books in a country where a warrant was issued even for his imprisonment, surrounded by people who viewed even a shaven head as an anomaly and where Krsna Consciousness was defined as the ‘most dangerous terroristic sect after the Second World War“, certainly didn't give much room for presenting oneself in a vaisnava dress.

But these days are gone. Today, in cities where women walk in burkas and beardy men occasionally attack pedestrians with knives while screaming the name of ‘their’ god, devotees in their vaisnava dress look more like angels in the ghastly atmosphere dominating the Kali Yuga cities.

"First dress and then address,’ Srila Prabhupada told his secretary.
As we see in any photo of Srila Prabhupada, despite all his travels, he was always well dressed as a Vaisnava. But he also made clear that…

Regarding your dress, you should dress yourself as smartly as possible. Krishna Consciousness does not depend on the dress. It is consciousness. If by dressing yourself very nicely you get honor from your customers, then it is a great asset for business management.

Letter to Gopala Krsna, July 31th 1969, Los Angeles

It should be here noted that this letter is written to a grhasta engaged in his business and not to a full-time preacher. As we see today, some rascals dare to climb the vyasasanas, presenting themselves as preachers, dressed in blue jeans, declaring a new age has come, the age of truly individual and democratically thinking spiritualists. One may wonder what's so individual and so free about dressing in blue jeans (originally created as solid working dress), a dress any sudra from any construction site and any cow-killing farmer may share.
Such a rascal, sitting on Vyasadeva's seat, is ignoring that Vyasadeva never wore blue jeans and wasn't American or English, nor did he represent East or West.

The issue is ultimately not the dress but the daring attempt to go beyond what Srila Prabhupada gave, inventing new standards and finally introducing new philosophy.
As the founder of Krsna West in principle abandoned Vaisnava dress and ridiculed sannyas asrama in ISKCON per se (offending the VERY FEW sannyasis still operating in good standing), we may wonder what else he may abandon on the way. Presenting himself as being very smart, beyond any doubt of any „intelligent academic“ person, he may impress many by his populistic presentation of „Krsna Consciousness“, but for those who still remember the solid base Srila Prabhupada gave us to stand on, his preaching is similar to hot air coming from an imploding balloon.

As Srila Prabhupada predicted, such preaching has no duration, and the founder along with his followership will simply vanish soon. As we try to please the public and assume its standards, the question arises, ‘Why bother to cultivate Krsna Consciousness at all?’ As we see ALL the original standards given by the founders of the main religions of the world being today compromised by the originally pious and later on sinful followers, Krsna Consciousness can also, and it is already, become a sad copy of itself, more and more moving away from the standards set by the Founder Acharya.

This tendency needs to be exposed and opposed. A half-truth is worse than a plain lie, as an open atheist is easier to detect than a pseudo-vaisnava preaching.

As one intelligent man said,

"The devil is not fighting religion. He’s too smart for that. He is producing a counterfeit religion, so much like the real one that good followers are afraid to speak out against it."

This is generally how Maya, the illusory energy of the Lord, works via her agents.

In my time of chanting and studying Srila Prabhupada's words, I had to witness many of the heroes of my youthful days in Krsna Consciousness become sad copies of themselves. Remembering the powerful dynamic lectures of the late very same founder of the ‘Krsna West’ movement, fiercely attacking the scientific community (quote: ‘There is no such thing as a “scientific theory”, as “scientific” means “proven” and “theory” means “unproven”’) and absolutely advocating the need of distributing Srila Prabhupada's books, it is of course saddening to see this well-fed and well-to-do man, coming from a rich family, becoming, due to association with atheistic members of the academic community, another ‘fertile brain’.

Krsna Consciousness, the original ISKCON, was always a small movement, conducted by entirely dedicated and hence empowered followers of Srila Prabhupada. Just studying his correspondence, we find the same names being repeated again and again.
With how many assistants did Srila Prabhupada spread Krsna Consciousness all over the world? Maybe fifty? Maybe a hundred?

‘We need only one good man in each country’, said Srila Prabhupada.
Quality was his priority, not quantity.
As many may come and contribute, those who truly spread Krsna Consciousness by means of book distribution and harinama are and always will be very few.
That's specifically applicable to Western countries where one has to spend ‘gallons of blood’ to attract one devotee, said Srila Prabhupada.

Those who truly changed and dedicated their lives to Srila Prabhupada's mission are very few, and if not followed in the same fashion, at least they deserve to be supported by any means available.

Then we will be able to enjoy the real Krsna Consciousness without any need to be fragmented into West, East, North or whatever.
It is an irony that in the name of love and unification we become even more divided when „fertile brains“ become prominent. There is no unity amongst fertile brains as they reflect the false egos of the individual soul revolting against Krsna's ultimate will and the ultimate instruction given by the Founder Acharaya and guru parampara he represents.

We can be united, regardless of coming from the West or East, North or South, by following the words of Founder Acharya only. Only a jungle filled with dangerous predators grows from the fields where fertile brains planted their seeds. We should avoid being cheated this way.