culture

[henrikhankhagnell]

Hare Krishna! Pax et Bonum!

Why do many people from the Western world go to ISKCON instead of Christianity that is apart of the Western culture? Could you please explain this?

[Divine Kala]

Because their souls are crying out for something more, something which cannot be found in Christianity. There is no truly personal relationship with God in Christianity merely obedience and fear whereas ISKCON offers people a personal relationship with God and several different ways of approaching it - the love of a parent for a child (non-judgemental and unconditional), the love of a friend, the love of a child for a parent, the love of a good servant for a good master and the love of a lover. Christianity gives you one way and one way only; you are the servant and God is King. You MUST listen to what God 'says' and never think about anything else.

...in a way ISKCON is similar to Christianity in that way. It does not encourage looking outside of its little box or reading anything that is not written by Prabupada and a select few others. Those who do so are told that what they're doing is foolish, all the answers they need can be found in Prabupada's works. But that is not to say ISKCON is bad. It has brought Krsna to the west and if that means other traditions had to be stepped on in order to do so than so be it. Perhaps it will work to everyone's advantage by working as a stepping stone. Those who are unsatisfied with what ISKCON has to offer can spread their feelers and discover its sister traditions.

[Eastern Mind]

Hare Krishna! Pax et Bonum!

Why do many people from the Western world go to ISKCON instead of Christianity that is apart of the Western culture? Could you please explain this?

Vannakkam henrik: I think it's hard to make sweeping generalisations. I'm guessing if you interviewed 100 different ISKCON people, you'd get a lot of different answers, and yet again, form an onlooker's perspective, you might get even more. Here are a few that come to mind.

1) Rebellion. For a time in life in adolescence especially, youth love to go against their parents, so doing something radically with religion works for that.

2) First encounter with religion, period.

3) Psychological need for acceptance in a group.

4) Krishna finds them.

5) The artwork, the dancing, all of it brings about a sense of inner peace.

6) An inner drive to discover, to search, and when Hindu culture is encountered, it meets this need.

But as Divine Kala alluded to, ISKCON may be about the closest thing within the vast array of SD to Christianity, so perhaps its less of a jump philosophically than one might think. Certainly the concept of proseltysing isn't dropped, for example.

Why did you pose this question?

Aum Namasivaya