The Meeting of Opposites?. Andrew Wingate
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or Buddhism, all stemming from a Hindu background, but again clearly other faiths, sometimes called Indic faiths. We should also clarify at the beginning that Hare Krishna is a popular name, derived from the beginning of their distinctive mantra, while the official name is ISKCON, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, the Hare Krishna movement. Put simply, this is a Krishna-orientated bhakti movement.
As we may know, Hinduism as a concept, as a religion, was only named in the colonial period. But its traditions go back thousands of years, often estimated at 5,000 years. ISKCON’s origin is much clearer. It began in Bengal, where its centre remains, though Vrindavan, the birthplace of Krishna, has become equally important, and Puri in Orissa. It centres on Gaudiya Maths – ashrams, spiritual, missionary and educational in intent. And its founder was named Chaitanya. He was a highly charismatic devotee of Krishna, with what has been called a ‘theistic intimacy’ with God as the beloved. He is from the Vaishnavite tradition, a tradition where the Supreme has personal attributes, expressed in the avatars of that tradition, who include Krishna, always associated with his consort Radha, his Shakti, who is worshipped passionately and lovingly by devotees. He is seen as a divine child, divine lover, a charioteer who helps those in need who turn to him. He is both cowherd and divine lover. The Gita centres on him. The greatest intimacy with Krishna is called rasa lila, the dance of divine love, and the flute symbolizes God’s beauty. It calls the worshipper back to Krishna, who is the God of Love, who meets the eternal longing within the human heart. We can compare here the place of the reed, the Sufi flute, as found in Rumi’s poems. Here Krishna is both one of the incarnations of Vishnu, and also the intimate supreme deity, beyond Vishnu.
Chaitanya lived from 1486 to 1543. He personified the above bhakti so strongly, moved so closely with God, that he became seen as God in his lifetime, not just after his death. He began to chant the mantra, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare, which means ‘O Lord, O energy of the Lord, please engage me in your ceaseless service.’ A Christian theologian, John Moffitt, has written, ‘If I were asked to choose one man in Indian religious history who best represents the spirit of devotional self-giving, I would choose . . . Chaitanya.’3 He attracted a strong personal following, and this became a movement, as he went round the above places preaching and teaching, and above all chanting and dancing. The movement was open to all, across castes, including women. It was known as Gaudiya Vaishnavism. Chaitanya’s guidance for chanting was: ‘Be as humble as a blade of grass, and tolerant as a tree; demand no respect from others, and give respect to all.’ At first it was free and unorganized. As time went by, as usual in India, Brahminic hierarchical tendencies came in. But the founder, and his writings, remained the inspiration in the following centuries.
The movement came to the West from 1965, when it came to the USA through the missionary leadership and spiritual guidance of the founder of ISKCON, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. He came for the first time to London in 1969. Interviewed on TV then, he said, ‘My mission is to teach how to love God. People have forgotten God, and I am come to remind them.’ And ‘I am speaking of the same God as the Christian God. There is one God whom we all worship, Christians and Hindus alike, and he has many names. One of his names is Krishna.’ ‘I have come to teach anyone how to see God. It is possible to talk with God. Just as we are talking to each other now, you can talk with God.’ He went on to initiate, called ‘taking diksha’, 300 men and women in the UK. The story of the early years of the movement in the UK is found in a major book, When the Sun Shines: The Dawn of Hare Krishna in Britain, by Ranchor Prime.4 In a very readable way, the author takes the account through to Prabhupada’s death in 1977. Martin Palmer writes of the book, on the back cover:
I can’t remember when I saw my first chanting, dancing Hare Krishnas. They were simply there in the late ’60s and early ’70s, like the pied pipers of the alternative worlds, drawing us away from what we thought we knew. Ranchor Prime tells how those who danced and thought and developed made this country a different and better place.
The book tells the story of Prabhupada’s meeting with a nun, Sister Mary, who asked him, ‘How do we know who is a lover of God?’ He quoted Chaitanya describing his love for Krishna: ‘Every moment is like 12 years. I am crying torrents of rain. I find everything vacant without God.’ Prabhupada went on to the sister, ‘Like Jesus Christ, Sri Chaitanya sacrificed everything. That is the love of God. You may follow any religious path – it does not matter. The method is simple: chant the holy name of God. We don’t say you chant Krishna. If you have any name, God’s name, then chant that. I chant, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.’ Prabhupada asked her about her prayer. She replied, ‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon us.’ He commented, ‘That’s nice, very good’, particularly when she explained that the mercy of God is the love of God. To another Christian he said, ‘Jesus said, “Hallowed be thy name, my Father.” We are hallowing the name of the Lord. We don’t even ask you to say Krishna. You can say Jehovah or Yahweh. Just chant the names of God, purify your heart, and develop love of God. Then you will stop killing and slaughtering each other.’5 Here we see the centrality of non-violence – both between human beings, and also of animals. Vegetarianism is a central tenet of ISKCON. It is there to varying degrees in Hinduism, but absolute in ISKCON.
In the USA, in the meantime, there was a rapid expansion of the movement, and at the same time acute problems of leadership, and major issues in residential schools, which gave the movement a bad name. There was a real fear of a family member getting involved with what was seen as a potentially dangerous cult. Selling of products, books, CDs and so on had been the main way of financing the movement, but profits dropped greatly as devotees were no longer welcome to chant publicly in city centres, and they were largely confined to marketing in airports. The crisis of leadership came with the death of Prabhupada. He had established a Governing Board Commission (GBC), but few on it were reliable. There were also splits in the movement. A major question was the authority of Prabhupada after his death. There has now been a recovery, and essentially, ISKCON has become a congregational movement, rather than one based on the monks living in temples and seen on the streets. It has settled down to become a denomination (see the case study on the USA (Chapter 8) and the section on ISKCON in the USA today; see also Chapter 9, on Sweden).
In the UK, the history has been much less stormy. The undisputed centre since Prabhupada’s time is Bhaktivedanta Manor, near Watford. This is residential, and registered as a kind of theological college. There are then centres around the country, including one in Leicester. The majority of members are now married. Many have been celibate monks for some time, and then moved out of community. Some remain in the community and are married there. There is a relaxed feel about this. Sex is expected to be primarily for the procreation of children, necessary for the future of the movement, and indeed of the human race!
Study is important in ISKCON and in particular the study of the Gita and of the writings of Chaitanya – the Chaitanya Bhagavata – and those of Prabhupada and others. Chanting is compulsory, whether privately or in congregation (kirtana). This should be done using beads, a 108-bead rosary given at initiation (diksha). Sixteen rounds should be chanted each day. The small book describing its use says: ‘Chant and be happy.’ It is done to evoke transcendental consciousness and ecstasy, in love of God. It is to anticipate not only release from the material suffering of rebirth, but also an eternal life of bliss and devotion to Krishna.
Two important developments for our purposes are involvement in schools, and interfaith dialogue. There has been a fee-paying school at Bhaktivedanta Manor. But now there are two state-aided schools. One, in Harrow, was established some years ago and has had a very good early record. The aim is to have a Hindu ethos, and food served is always vegetarian. But it has an open atmosphere, and others are welcome. There is now opened in Leicester, since September 2011, a Free School, one of the first of such schools in the UK, and I record here some dialogue I have had there with its founding inspiration, Pradip Gajjar. The aim here is eventually to have 50 per cent