8-06-98 SWAMI PRABHUPADA

This great sage was responsible for the creation of the Hare Krishna movement and its Bhakti oriented devotees. The Hare Krishna movement has been the butt of many jokes due to the way that its members used to engage in proselytizing during the sixties. They would go to airports, train stations and virtually anywhere where large groups of people congregated, and would try to engage people in dialogue and then hand out books on their movement and its teachings. They would also chant Hindu bhajans, wear weird eastern garb, enter ecstatic trances and do other things that tend to make suit and tie business people, running off to work, highly uncomfortable. In time they stopped these practices probably because they decided that they were counterproductive and now go about their work more quietly.

I visited their temple in Denver, Colorado partly to try out their vegetarian restaurant and partly to meet some of their people. What I found was a dedicated group of individuals devoted to the teachings and practices of their founder. However, I also found many individuals there who are not meant to use the practice of Bhakti Yoga as their primary tool for God-Realization and who therefore suffer the problems that stem from blindly following a so-called universal teaching. I had a chance to work with a few of these people and helped bring them into greater alignment with their individual spiritual natures. Whether they stayed with this organization after that I do not know.

One of Swami Prabhupada's great contributions was his translation of the eighteen major Puranas into English. He was a prolific writer and made commentaries on much of the Vedic literature, always, however, from the perspective of Bhakti Yoga.

When I find a person of the Bhakti path, I sometimes refer them to this organization, but only if the person has a strong affinity for eastern approaches to God Realization and is also somewhat spiritually immature. For anyone else this association is likely to be counterproductive.

A person can be great, he can even be a spiritual giant, and still be out of touch with the times and, therefore, inadequate in how he serves society. Such was the case with Swami Prabhupada many might argue. My perspective on the matter is somewhat different. The various streams of spiritual evolution must all be maintained even during times when they seem impractical or foreign to the mainstream population. Great sages take on this role even when it is a thankless task.

In our age the only approach to spiritual development that is likely to receive broadscale public recognition is a scientifically based one. Even this will fail if such an approach appears to be a marketing add-on rather than a genuine method of approach - witness the Transcendental Meditation™ movement!

Even The Art of Multi-Dimensional Living® is handicapped, when it is measured by this scientific standard, largely because of its loose association with the field of astrology. Conventional astrology is rightly deemed unscientific in its present form by most academics. And yet, I know that I must uphold this new form of the Gyana Yogic stream even if the masses fail to recognize it's worth. In this sense Swami Prabhupada's life's work and my own share much in common.