In a comment on Kaunteya’s book elsewhere, I mentioned “distance” but I think it deserves a little more attention. The book is almost 700 pages long and the title is not settled yet. Originally it was “Racism Sexism & Homophobia in Srila Prabhupada’s Teachings?” but now he changed it to something less provocative. Perhaps someone else will eventually produce a comprehensive review, but for now let’s look at this “distance” thing. “Distance” in this book is a verb and it’s used in the meaning of “distance ourselves from Srila Prabhupada”. Here are all the nine times it comes up, which I think is enough to qualify as “again and again”:
“Some statements by the Founder-Acarya are misinterpreted or misrepresented because of being taken out of context or filtered through questionable ideologies. Other affirmations are indeed inaccurate and ISKCON should distance itself from them.” p 31
“As a simple step in the way forward (one, I believe, that would please Srila Prabhupada), ISKCON should distance itself from inaccurate or unnecessarily inflammatory statements.” p44
“ISKCON should recognize the danger of such assertions and negative generalizations – which are technically antisemitic in nature – and firmly distance itself from them.” p 153
“the International Society for Krishna Consciousness would still do well to distance itself from some of the things Srila Prabhupada said” p 359
“Because many of our devotees do not have the same mental and cultural development, we should be careful to distance ourselves from those remarks by Srila Prabhupada that appear stereotyping or condescending toward women…” pp 434-435
“Yes, I do strongly encourage ISKCON to distance itself from some of the expressions Srila Prabhupada used..” p 468
“… I believe the International Society for Krishna Consciousness should firmly distance itself from certain things he said.” p 620
“which I paraphrase as “ISKCON, distance yourself from certain statements!” p 651
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Doesn’t it look like this is the main thrust of his book – “we should distance ourselves from Srila Prabhupada”? All the words in between these quotes simply explain which statements exactly we should distance ourselves from and why. Explanations look mostly convincing, too – if one searches deep enough in the recorded conversations one can find plenty of Srila Prabhupada’s statements that are simply repetition of what he had heard in popular culture or news or books and so should not be taken as absolute. Kaunteya does a good job of researching them and of finding counterexamples for them, too. In that sense his book is like an encyclopedia of controversial statements, and they undeniably have been made. Okay, but “distance”?
Why do we have to distance ourselves from Prabhupada? Why not use the same statements to bring ourselves closer to him? “Close” in this case would be “if I was in the same situation and had the same information I would have said the same”. “Close” would mean “we think alike”, and there was nothing wrong with Srila Prabhupada’s thinking, was there? The data might have been erroneous but his thinking was always perfect. Why can’t we learn to think like him? Why do we have to “distance” ourselves?
Another danger, and a very real one, is that we dismiss some of Srila Prabhupada’s statements which we shouldn’t. On what basis do we reject them in the first place? On the basis that we believe we have the correct data but he didn’t. How do we know our data is correct, though? If it’s a measurement of something, like female brains, we can easily check by using the same measurement method, but what if it’s a judgement on moral values? What gives us the right to claim we have correct morals and Prabhupada had the wrong ones? Claims about racism, sexism, and homophobia are mostly moral ones, aren’t they? Okay, we can contest claims about existence of homosexual behavior in animals but not whether homosexuality is repulsive or demoniac, and that’s what really triggers people nowadays. That’s what we are told to distance ourselves from Srila Prabhupada *for* – not to offend or provoke other people into attacking us. We want to be safe from their reactions, and Kaunteya thinks that to stay safe we need to disassociate from Srila Prabhupada.
“Let them think he was a toxic racist women-hating homophobe, we are not at all like him.” That’s Kaunteya’s solution, isn’t it?
There are plenty of devotees who would take great offense simply at associating these words with Srila Prabhupada. Never mind the original title had a question mark at the end – we should never ever put these words and Srila Prabhupada’s name in the same sentence. I just did and I feel dirty already, but I think it’s necessary to illustrate Kaunteya’s thinking. I might be wrong but that’s what it looks like to me.
His other solution is not to publish these statements at all so that no one would ever have grounds to think of Srila Prabhupada this way. Too late for that, however, and censoring Srila Prabhupada is a dangerous idea in itself which I don’t want to discuss right now.
Anyway, introducing “distancing ourselves from Srila Prabhupada” is stepping on a slippery slope. First – who will get to decide which statements need to be rejected? How to make sure their decisions are free from mistakes? What would be the ultimate authority on this? After Srila Prabhupada has been put aside as an object of our study, can we even have any ultimate authority other than ourselves? Sastra as the ulimate authority has been rejected by Kaunteya as “neo-smartism” already. What else is left?
And then one can have a field day with practical applications of this “distancing”. We can have killer arguments like “You haven’t sufficiently distanced yourself from Srila Prabhupada yet, Prabhu”. Will there be a distancometer? Will there be “distance certificate”? Will it become part of our sadhana – “ten minute prayers for creating sufficiently safe distance from Prabhupada”? Will devotees ask “have you done your distancing today”? “Do you do your distancing before sunrise or do you leave it until bed time?” Because everyone knows the farthest distance from Prabhupada is created during brahma-muhurta.
Of course Kaunteya can say that he is concerned for ISKCON’s reputation, for Prabhupada’s reputation, and for success of our preaching mission. Okay, this is kinda obvious, but why does he think that “distancing from Prabhupada” would actually help? Why not put the same amount of energy into explaining how Srila Prabhupada’s thinking was perfect on all these subjects and into formulating easy to remember responses if they ever come up? If people do not accept our explanations our preachers should simply move on. Because endlessly arguing with skeptics is one of the first mistakes of a rookie preacher. They can’t convince the skeptics and they can’t accept their inability to do so either, so they keep on arguing about Christ or Siva or racism in our books. So now there’s another rookie solution – distance yourself from what you are trying to present, that way you can avoid the argument in the first place.
The only solution that WILL work is coming closer to Prabhupada and learning how to deal with critics from that elevated platform. Every other solution will necessarily fail, no matter how inventive we become.
A few months ago I was in a Srimad Bhagavatam class given by our visiting GBC and prominent ISKCON guru saying in so many words that the purport by Srila Prabhupada regarding homosex was due to his cultural conditioning. I was so shocked that I commented during the question period afterwards, “But I thought Srila Prabhupada’s books are the law books for mankind for the next ten thousand years!”
It was a dark depressing moment, but after reading articles on this website and the ISKCON Indian Scholar one by devotees such as Jaya Nityananda prabhu and Srivasa Srinivasa prabhu and of course Krsna kirti prabhu and Sitalatma prabhu herein, I feel calm and peaceful and hopeful once again and the quote by Krsnadasa Kaviraja Goswami in CC Adi about how controversy strengthens the mind is being remembered with new enthusiasm.
Also I find it interesting I don’t see women devotees writing articles with such depth of knowledge as I have seen written by these men devotees and others. All I can do as a soul encased in a woman’s body is say thank you with folded hands, thank you for protecting Srila Prabhupada’s movement and Srila Prabhupada As He Is. It must not be easy, but at the same time, the harder the struggle, surely the sweeter the victory must be!
Hare Krishna
Sorry, I meant to say Sridhara Srinivasa prabhu. I put his name incorrectly
I wish to apologize for my previous comment regarding this article in which I criticized my diksha guru (JPS). Especially the words “borrowed plumes” were disrespectful, considering all the service he has rendered Srila Prabhupada for decades. Anyone who comes in contact like he had with a pure devotee like Srila Prabhupada is no ordinary person. Of this I have no doubt. It therefore behooves me to hold him in high regard, even though over the years some issues he has been involved with (or neglected) have been troubling me because I feel that, considering his status he could have done something in the past or still can do something at present, especially in regard to defending Srila Prabhupada from attacks by his disciples such as Madhusudhani Radha or Kaunteya. And, in my limited understanding at least, when it seems he did not or does not, my dissatisfaction has come out in this way. Please therefore overlook my hasty words written in anger due to great love for HDG Srila Prabhupada.
I’ve never heard of Madhusudani Radha’s book either, but I suspect it’s not the one from Columbia. I suspect it’s the same devotee from Sweden who in the 90s stirred old COM discussion boards with her brazen attacks on Lord Ramacandra’s character and then was implicated in framing “conservative” devotees there in some sort of anti-feminist plot which she then proudly busted.
Now there’s a book?
Yes, Madhusudani Radha dd, aka Maria Ekstrand, is the Swedish woman who criticized Lord Rama among other offensive statements directed at Srila Prabhupada and his disciples after the publication of her book back in 2003, “The Hare Krishna Movement, The Post-Charismatic Fate of a Religious Transplant” that contained many scholarly contributions from various devotees of good standing but was otherwise marred by two chapters written by former ISKCON members -Nori Muster and Ekkehard Lorenz. More detail may be found in an online review by Braja Sevaki dd that reveals the intention of the editor Ekstrand questionable.
I wrote to my spiritual master ‘(JPS) about this, he replied:
“I didn’t see or remember seeing the letter about Kaunteya’s book but I would assume the book that he was engaged to write by Anuttama Prabhu and Hrdayanada Maharaja about the things that Srila Prabhupada said which are confusing to the modern people. I asked him, are you criticising Srila Prabhupada? He said no, I am trying to defend him but I didn’t read the book and someone said the way the book is written, it’s not so clear that it’s defending Srila Prabhupada. The manuscript is ready but far as I know the book has not been published.
“Regarding Madhusudani Radha devi dasi, no one ever showed me, I never heard about her book and I don’t know which Madhusudani Radha dd you are referring to, One from Colombia? Does she know English? Anyway, I have not read the book so I don’t know anything about it. This is the first time I heard about the book.”
I agree with the writer. And that this so-called disciple of JPS cannot even give Srila Prabhupada the benefit of a doubt regarding any controversy is telling. I for one have implicit faith in the words of our founder Acharya and after continuously studying his books, etc for over 4 decades, I never once doubted his authority or even his insights. Only an envious person can misconstrue like this. Srila Prabhupada is all good, the representative of the Supreme Good, Lord Sri Krishna. Only fools deride them. And therefore I reject anyone who does or maligns my savior and master. If JPS continues to allow this person to go on without any serious correction or condemnation, just like that woman, MR. (Madhusudhani Radha), then i’m done with the JPS also. This is the icing on the cake of iskon’s mission drift. And because he has so much power and influence (borrowed plumes), I hold him responsible.
Hare Krishna AGTSP
Excellent write-up. This is just common sense and why Kaunteya prabhu suggest that this not so common sense and distance devotees away from Srila Prabhupada’s mercy?