HDG’s Folly: Disrobing Draupadi

Summary:

In this video, Bhakti Vikasa Swami (BVKS) critiques the preaching trajectory of Hridayananda Dasa Goswami (HDG), acknowledging his significant early contributions to ISKCON in Latin America but asserting that his approach changed detrimentally after he received a PhD from Harvard. BVKS argues that HDG’s subsequent “Krishna West” project, founded in 2013 on the premise of removing “Indian cultural baggage” (like Vaisnava attire) to attract Westerners, failed to make new devotees and instead only influenced existing members to abandon traditional practices.

The core of the criticism, however, focuses on Swami’s accusation that HDG is “injecting doubts” about shastra (scripture) and Srila Prabhupada’s teachings. The primary example given is HDG’s 2013 paper where he claims the disrobing of Draupadi is “bogus” and likely never happened, citing the Mahabharata as “corrupt.” Bhakti Vikasa Swami spends the majority of the video refuting this specific claim, demonstrating that Srila Prabhupada, Madhvacharya, and numerous previous acharyas all confirm the incident, concluding that HDG’s position undermines the very foundation of faith in Guru and shastra.