‘The Hare Krishna Movement’ – ‘The Post Charismatic Fate of a Religious Transplant.’

The first time I came across references to, ‘The Hare Krishna Movement’ – ‘The Post Charismatic Fate of a Religious Transplant’, edited by Edwin F. Bryant & Maria Ekstrand, was in ‘Forty Years of Chant and Change’, a book published last year by Iskcon UK. I checked it out on Amazon at that time, but only managed to order it just over a week ago. Since then I’ve been absorbed in reading the many fascinating, informative and sometimes challenging essays that have been collected by the editors, to create this unique compendium, that focuses on the fate of ‘The Hare Krishna Movement’ after the passing of A.C.Bhaktivedanta Swami in November 1977. The editors have gone to great lengths to ensure that as many sides and voices of the complex Krishna phenomena as possible could be covered in a 430 page scholarly volume.

Over the last three years I’ve been working on my own autobiographical project ‘Between Worlds’ – ‘The problem with being Mathura das’, with a major chunk of it concerning my personal involvement with Iskcon between 1973- 80, and my passionate interest in general with the historical, philosophical and sociological Krishna phenomena that I have been a part of and am still inextricably involved with as a major contributing factor towards me being ‘Mathura das’.  I therefore desperately needed to read this comprehensive volume for my personal research needs, as many of the contentious issues and anomalies raised in this unique compendium are the same as, or similar to the ones I’ve had to face, or that have come up through writing my own persona account of things, and also through my interest in general with exploring the broader historical context of the modern Krishna Movement.

The scope and range of issues attended to by the twenty nine authors in ‘The Hare Krishna Movement’, is so vast that I will not attempt at this stage to give a comprehensive review but rather just some short comments to possibly inspire others to get hold of a copy via Amazon and read it for themselves.

The editors have divided the book into six sections;

• 1. Krishna Consciousness in the Context of Hindu Theology. incl. four essays.
• 2. Bhaktivedanta Swami and His Predecessors- five essays.
• 3. Post- Bhaktivedanta Controversies of Lineage- four essays.
• 4. Heresies- two essays.
• 5. Social Issues. six essays.
• 6 Re-evaluations. with three essays and a final essay, ‘Concluding Reflections’ by the editors.

Even though all the writers are not academics, the articles are backed up by extensive references listed at the end of the articles. What makes the majority of articles interesting is the level of specialization each writer brings to their respective topic of interest. Everyone evolved in the volume has had extensive experience with the Krishna Movement either as insiders, some extending back over forty years, or as academic outsiders who’ve studied it for more than twenty years, such as :-

Larry D. Shinn who writes the foreword;

Burke Rochford Jr. who reflects on Airports, Conflict and Change in the Hare Krishna Movement;

Kim Knott on Healing the Heart Of Iskcon; The Place of Women.

The rest of the articles are by a mixture of Iskcon or ex Iskcon members who are either academics, scholars or at least reasonably articulate. Some ex Iskcon members who are are now academics, have chosen to write their essays without revealing the diksha names they received from A.C.Bhaktivedanta Swami in the late 60’s and early 70’s, but three of those authors are curiously quoted in other articles by their Iskcon names.

With the advent and rampant spread of the internet over the last decade most of the issues discussed here are not new and have already been addressed before in Iskcon or the other various Vaishnava related forums, but this book brings together in one volume many of the differing or specialist views and voices of opinion, which helps in focusing the reader through the multiple perspectives. My personal favourites are Jan Brzeznski dealing with, ‘Charismatic Renewal and Institutionalization in the History of Gaudiya Vaishnavism and the Gaudiya Math’; Kundali Das on, ‘Doctrinal controversy and Group Dynamic’; Irvin H. Collins on The “Routinization of Charisma” and the confrontation between Iskcon and Narayana Maharaja; & Subhananda das (Steven Gelberg), ‘On leaving Iskcon’.  I especially resonated with Subhanada’s sense of acceptance of the human condition and his well articulated sense of frustration with having dealt with endless years of Iskconisms, and the sense of empowerment and liberation he and his wife felt upon finally leaving the confines of the claustrophobic Institutional bubble. (Gabriel Deadwyler) Yudhisthira Das’s story; ‘ Fifteen Years Later’: A Critique of Gurukula’, is a fascinating and quite balanced account of a boy who was brought up during the 70’s and 80’s in Iskcon schools (Gurukula’s), and who also happens to be the son of Ravindra Swarupa (William H Deadwyler), one of  Iskcon’s senior leader’s and reformers and a contributor to another article in this engaging book: ‘Cleaning House and cleaning hearts: Reform and renewal in Iskcon’.

There are quite a few challenging articles for followers of Srila Prabhupada, especially the two essays by Ekkhard Lorenz. 1. ‘The Guru, Mayavadins, and Women: Tracing the Origins of Selected Polemical Statements in the Work of A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami’. 2.’Race, Monarchy and Gender: Bhaktivedanta Swami’s Social Experiment. I have to admit I felt bit wobbly after reading his well researched articles, as they raised all sorts of hard hitting questions and issues regarding source statements from Srila Prabhupada that have had an effect on some of the root belief structures of Iskcon and It’s members both past and present. I was shocked at how shocked I felt when considering some of Prabhupada’s controversial ideas and statements that have been selected by the author to make his critical points. Then the next day I went on Facebook for the first time ever and discovered an internet forum initiated on former Iskcon Guru, Bhagavan Das’s Blog site http://bhagavandasa.blogspot.com, that funnily enough is attempting to address the very same controversial statements of Prabhupada mentioned in the articles by Ekkhard Lorenz. It seems that certain statements of Srila Prabhupada that have recently been unearthed and rubbed in our faces are very important issues that are plaguing the devotee community and hopefully many such forums will arise from the Vaishnava collective and that such forms of communication may help shed light on the major Sociological and Theological issues that we as lovers of Radha Krishna, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu & Srila Prabhupada are all concerned about.

The final essay, ‘Concluding Reflections’ by the editors is well thought out, and gives the reader an opportunity to see a summery, synopsis and review of all the issues raised through the eyes of a sympathetic but detached academic perspective.

For those interested in the well fare, development and preservation of Srila Prabhupada’s and the Gaudiya Vaishnava legacy, I also recommend the the recent article by Prof. Thomas Hopkins, ‘Iskcon’s search for Identity’ published by Iskcon in ‘Forty Years of Chant and Change’.

I have just touched on some of the points raised in ‘The Hare Krishna Movement- The Post Charismatic Fate of a Religious Transplant’ edited by Edwin F. Bryant & Maria L. Ekstrand, and hope that more devotees get around to reading it as way of broadening their horizens and educating themselves on the often perplexing and paradoxical nature of the modern ‘Krishna Movement’.

Peace & Love

Mathura das.