{"id":156,"date":"2007-06-24T23:28:15","date_gmt":"2007-06-24T23:28:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/?p=156"},"modified":"2013-10-06T23:33:24","modified_gmt":"2013-10-06T23:33:24","slug":"part-2-being-focused-cont","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/part-2-being-focused-cont\/","title":{"rendered":"Part 2: Being Focused, cont."},"content":{"rendered":"

Being focused-June 24, 2008-Split Croatia<\/span><\/p>\n

Those of us who were around when Srila Prabhupada was on the planet remember
\nthat the movement and its members were extremely focused on the mission. The
\nmission was also very very clear to us (becoming Kcon and bringing others to
\nKcon). Why were we so focused and how have we lost that focus.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some people explain that it is due to the fact that Srila Prabhupada is no
\nlonger with us and we have lost the spiritual energy that he brought with
\nhim. I don’t buy that argument as we see (as I mentioned previously) that
\nthere are millions of individuals and groups focused on their missions
\nwithout any spiritual impetus. There are millions of successful businesses
\nand individuals in this world.<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course we do see that Prabhupada kept us focused by his Vani. If one
\nreads his letters and personal instructions to devotees one will see that
\nPrabhupada was really focused on a really clear agenda. Prabhupada’s Vani
\nthough is still with us.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, what happened?<\/span><\/p>\n

There are a number of factors. Perhaps the most significant is what I would
\ncall “mission creep.” This means that in the beginning the mission was very
\nclearly defined and over time other missions which were somehow or other
\nconnected to the original mission and supportive of the original mission,
\nbecame more prominent than the original mission, and we were left with many
\nconfusing objectives instead of one or two clear ones.<\/span><\/p>\n

I will give some examples of this.<\/span><\/p>\n

Let us take rituals for example. Prabhupada minimized the various rituals
\nwith the idea of streamlining the preaching process, adapting Krishna
\nconsciousness to various locales with the idea of packaging Krishna
\nconsciousness in such a way as it was attractive to all.<\/span><\/p>\n

On the other hand we have brought in so many rituals and procedures so that
\nmany of the activities of the Krishna conscious movement are practically not
\nrecognizable to those of us who joined in the early days.<\/span><\/p>\n

Take fire sacrifices for example. Srila Prabhupada did a very simple
\nattractive fire yajna that was easily understandable and performable.
\nNowadays these sacrifices go on for hours and hours and require specialized
\ntraining to perform. This would be fine in India where the technicalities
\nare very important to impress people, but in the west this sort of thing has
\nthe opposite effect of giving people the impression that we are very very
\nritualistic.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hence the rituals become important and we forget that the purpose of the
\nrituals is to glorify Krishna and above all get people to the point of
\nchanting the Holy Names of Krishna. Prabhupada himself said that the actual
\nDeity installation in Vrindavan (Krishna Balarama Mandir) was accomplished
\nby the Hari Nama Sankirtana rather than by the rituals.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yes, the chanting of Hare Krishna is the Yuga dharma and everything else is
\nmeant to be supportive of this. It is easy to forget this.<\/span><\/p>\n

Two days ago I was in our preaching center in Split and outside the altar
\narea there was a list of the acaman mantras that should be performed before
\none could do the worship. I was astounded to see 24 mantras there. Remember
\nthis is a small preaching center (located in an old shed) without installed
\nDeities not a large temple in India where rituals are part of the preaching.<\/span><\/p>\n

When I joined the movement, we had a nice picture of the Pancatattva on the
\naltar things were so simple that anyone could learn the procedures of
\nworship within a day. In this temple we were introducing so many new people
\nto Krishna consciousness that we could not even keep up with the influx.<\/span><\/p>\n

Have you ever wondered why the amount of new people (westerners) coming to
\nKcon is inversely proportionate to the sophistication of worship and the
\nsize of the buildings? In India of course the size of the buildings is part
\nof the preaching strategy.<\/span><\/p>\n

Also the morning program has increased in length and complexity. Classes are
\nmuch longer. If you examine the recordings of Srila Prabhupada’s classes you
\nwill see that they are really focused and generally no more than 35 minutes
\neach, with some shorter.<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course in places like Mayapur it may be useful to have a long morning
\nprogram as people come there (hopefully) to immerse themselves in hearing
\nand chanting and that should be the focus. In other places however to be
\ntaking breakfast at 10 AM means practically to lose 50% of one’s focus as
\nthe early morning time is most effective for accomplishing things.<\/span><\/p>\n

Previously we would be out preaching by 9AM at the latest. Now it is
\nstandard procedure to be going out after lunch (and the accompanying nap).
\nNo wonder our focus has been lost.<\/span><\/p>\n

While Prabhupada was present and for sometime afterwards we were really
\nfocused on reading his books (which also focused us on the mission). After
\nsometime many other books became introduced in the society as standard fare.
\nSome were about the higher aspects of Bhakti and others dealt with other
\nsubject matters. Some were written by the acaryas and some were written by
\nour present devotees.<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course Prabhupada did want translations done of the acarya’s works and he
\nalso encouraged his devotees to write. However for these books to supplant
\nPrabhupada’s own books was not his objective. When this occurs the mission
\nbecomes confused.<\/span><\/p>\n

When Prabhupada was on the planet there was much opportunity for upward
\nmobility in the society. For example, I was able to open a preaching center
\nafter 6 months in the movement, and after 7 years I was traveling as a
\nsannyasi taking more and more responsibility.<\/span><\/p>\n

Without room for upward mobility people will not perceive a career path in
\nKrishna consciousness.<\/span><\/p>\n

The society becomes rather stratified in this case and the hierarchical
\nstructure becomes dominant and domineering so that people tend to lose their
\nindividual incentives to accomplish more for Krishna focusing on the goals
\n(mission). Hierarchies are useful but when they supplant individual growth
\nand initiative they need to be toned down. Prabhupada wanted independently
\nthoughtful individuals in his society (brahmanas) not simply “company men.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Hierarchies are also connected to cult like dynamics. That is we find that
\nin many locales the establishment of different personality cults, where
\nthere is a prominent personality who others are emotionally dependent on.
\nThis further takes the focus away from the mission. Srila Prabhupada was a
\ndynamic personality and a charismatic one but he never permitted the
\nformation of a personality cult around himself.<\/span><\/p>\n

I will continue later with more observations and recommendation how on a
\nsocietal wide basis and personal basis we can regain our focus<\/span><\/p>\n

——————————-to be continued————————————————
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Being focused-June 24, 2008-Split Croatia Those of us who were around when Srila Prabhupada was on the planet remember that the movement and its members were extremely focused on the mission. The mission was also very very clear to us (becoming Kcon and bringing others to Kcon). Why were we so focused and how have read more>><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[50,17,13,47],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":157,"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156\/revisions\/157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atourcity.com\/bkgoswami.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}