->

Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #23 – AI and the Dumbing of Vaiṣṇava Learning and Scholarship

June 2nd, 2025

AI and the Dumbing of Vaiṣṇava Learning and Scholarship[1]

 

There is a very interesting concept in Bhāgavatam philosophy (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 7.9.43) called māyā-sukhāya, illusory happiness. Śrīla Prabhupāda would sometimes explain māyā-sukhāya in terms of material advancement. It temporarily gives the appearance of happiness but ultimately ushers in misery.

 

One example would be the advancement in our modes of transportation. Where would we be in today’s world without air travel? But have we truly advanced when in old age instead of being surrounded by family and community in the same village or town, one’s own children often reside in different states, or even continents, thousands of miles away?

 

New technology always starts off with promises for a better life. Didn’t the Internet and social media promise a more broad-minded, educated society with enhanced feelings of community? But in fact, as a result are we not more divided and lonelier than ever?

 

AI promised to give us the facility to think faster and better and increase our knowledge. But will it?

 

A good way to foretell the impact of technology on the whole of society is to see first how it plays out in schools. Are students equipped with AI deepening their knowledge? Or are they discouraged from learning by never having to use their intelligence to struggle to understand things or even to read a book?

 

My thought this week is to examine how this technology will play out in the Vaiṣṇava world in terms of learning and scholarship, where directly engaging with the text is not just an intellectual exercise, but a revelatory one, a direct communion with God.

 

Śrīla Prabhupāda said his books were written by Krishna. Those who deeply study and write on śāstra know something of what he means. The texts talk to those who serve them with prayer and deep thought. Will there be something lost in terms of the depth of our realization, and our nuanced and creative understanding of our philosophy, to the extent we turn the struggle of learning over to an artificial third party? Will there come a time when our minds become so atrophied that the Vaiṣṇava society never again produces geniuses in wordcraft like the Six Gosvāmīs who could write volumes of the most brilliant philosophy and poetry in perfect verse with just the tool of their minds?

 

Of course, with any technology there will be a minority of people who know how to selectively use the technological advances in communication and learning without withering their intellectual, creative and devotional muscles. And certainly there are devotees who will be able to do that effectively in the service of Krishna. I am not denying that.

 

What I am doing here is just raising some concerns based on the history of technology and this principle of māyā-sukhāya. Have we not seen played out again and again in history, including within the Vaiṣṇava world, the initial excitement and happiness in engaging in a new technology turning into misery, amplifying the worst in us by dumbing down our intellect and feeding our self-centeredness and taste for distraction?

 

So what will be the effect of AI?

 

Sādhu beware! “The medium is the message” was a phrase coined by the renowned late Canadian philosopher and media theorist Marshall McLuhan. He argued strongly, based on his extensive research, that the form a medium of communication takes has always had more effect on society than the content it carries, and the effect is not always pretty. We therefore need to be thoughtful on how we bring AI into our lives.

 

Will AI, despite our initial euphoria, result in amplifying our communication of spiritual teachings, or will it weaken Vaiṣṇava learning and scholarship and deteriorate our intellectual and devotional prowess?

 

Has history already spoken or will time tell?

 


[1] Many of the ideas I got for this article on the effects of AI came from a debate on the subject https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHMxDKPa_BQ

 

Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #22 – Should we trust Dandavats.com?

May 26th, 2025

Should we trust Dandavats.com?

By Jayadvaita Swami

 

Where is Dhanurdhara Maharaja? Why has this week’s Monday Morning Greetings been written not by him but by one of his readers—that is, me? Dhanurdhara Maharaja is alive and well, but something has happened that deserves to be told, and he shouldn’t have to be the one to tell it.

 

Two weeks back, as you may recall, Maharaja published a Monday Morning Greeting about the first Russian devotees to come to Vrindavana, back in 1991. He entitled the piece “Queen Kuntī was right!”

 

Two days later, the article appeared on Dandavats.com, an official ISKCON website that offers ISKCON news and teachings. Apparently Dandavats had thought the article would be an inspiring read for a wider devotee audience.

 

Only one thing: They stripped off the author’s name—Dhanurdhara Swami—and replaced it with the name of one of our godbrothers, Suresvara Dasa.

 

What?

 

When another of my godbrothers, a natural peacemaker, asked what had happened, an editor explained: Suresvara Dasa had read the article in a recent class, the editor had transcribed it from there, and since “Suresvara did not mention the author of the material he was reading from,” the editor attributed it to Suresvara.

 

Honest error?

 

When we listen to Suresvara’s class, here’s how he begins his reading:

 

This is a story. . . I have a godbrother—maybe you. . . . Dhanurdhara Swami. Or is it “Dhanurdhara Swami,” right? [Perhaps noting an issue in pronunciation.] So he has a blog, and he just shared a story, and the moral of this story is “Queen Kunti Was Right!” Listen to this. . .  This is Dhanurdhara Maharaja: [Begins reading the article.]

 

Suresvara mentions Dhanurdhara Maharaja three more times—twice in the middle and once more at the very end.

 

Meanwhile, the editor wrote, the article had “gone viral.” And since the peacemaker had now kindly let him know who the author was, “I’ve updated the article to more clearly present it as a narration from Suresvara Prabhu.”

 

When the peacemaker gently suggested that this wasn’t quite honest, Dandavats just took the article down.

 

When it comes to light that a responsible publisher has plagiarized, is taking down the offending article all he does? Or does he issue a correction and apology?

 

Well, having plagiarized the article in public, the editor now wrote to Dhanurdhara Swami privately. Offering his “heartfelt apologies,” he wrote:

 

It was never my intention to misrepresent or cause any disturbance to you or those close to you. I deeply regret this oversight.

The origin of the mistake lies in a class I recently listened to by Suresvara Prabhu, in which the story of the Russian devotees was shared. I found the narrative inspiring and wanted to make it available to our readers. To that end, I downloaded the automatic transcription from YouTube and used ChatGPT to extract and format just the story for publication. At the time, I did not catch that the story was actually being relayed by Suresvara Prabhu as originally told by you. I thus mistakenly attributed the story to him.

 

And so, the editor wrote, he had now removed the article “to avoid further misunderstanding,”

 

and am now writing to offer my apology and an explanation. I understand this may have left you wondering about how the article was handled, and I hope this message helps to clear up any confusion or ill feeling.

 

So this offense would never have happened were it not for the sins of YouTube and ChatGPT. To test the credibility of this story, we used a feature of Microsoft Word to compare Dhanurdhara Maharaja’s original article with the version published on Dandavats. Miraculously, apart from some editorial intrusions, the two versions matched, even down to the sentence and paragraph divisions and down to the very punctuation marks.

Among the editorial intrusions: It seems that at Dandavats we can’t say good things about anyone Officially Out of Favor. So not only had the editor replaced Dhanurdhara Maharaja’s name. He had also obscured the name of Kesava Bharati Goswami. And even Sannyasa Dasa and Kamala Mala Dasa—the two Russian devotees whose glories the article had celebrated—came in for similar treatment. No longer officially blessed. Names replaced.

 

Bringing all this to the editor’s attention, Dhanurdhara Swami wrote to him:

 

Dandavats is an ISKCON GBC sponsored publication. Overt plagiarism therefore puts them in a terrible light. No respectable institution does this and if it is done, they correct it.

Please don’t unnecessarily carry this controversy on. Own the mistake and rectify it, for my readers, Suresvara Prabhu, ISKCON and myself.

 

Dhanurdhara Maharaja made three requests:

 

First, Dandavats should publish “an article whose headline clearly says it’s a correction and (should you choose to apologize) an apology.” Maharaja didn’t ask that his own name be mentioned, but Dandavats should admit the wrong attribution, put a link to Maharaja’s original post, and properly identify the three devotees whose names Dandavats had changed.

 

Second, “I also request you to contact some of the major ISKCON blogs where the plagiarized article was shared and ask them to publish your apology. I found the plagiarized version on Desire Tree, for example.”

 

Third, “I also request you to arrange a zoom call to speak to me personally.”

 

Maharaja wrote that if Dandavats did this, that would be the end of the issue. And if not, then in the next Monday Mornings Greetings “I will use my experience with Dandavats to highlight an important message—the challenges institutions face in adhering to even the most basic ethical guidelines.”

 

Maharaja ended, “Ultimately, for your sake, I pray you correct this egregious mistake that hurt many Vaisnavas.”

 

Well, Dandavats did reach out to “Desire Tree.” And Dandavats did publish an apology (https://www.dandavats.com/?p=115718). The apology admits the misattribution, expresses regret, credits the original author, provides the link, tells all the real names—and once again assigns the blame to YouTube and ChatGPT.

 

Oh, and one thing more: Dandavats published their apology on May 20 but dated it May 16, so that when published it lay buried under three or four days of intervening articles and news.

 

Should we trust Dandavats.com? It’s up to you. But this isn’t the first time I’ve seen Dandavats pull this kind of trick. So they and I have for many years had an understanding: They are not to publish any of my classes or any of my writings on Dandavats.com.

 

 

Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #21 – The Pope and Reincarnation

May 19th, 2025

I was intrigued by the papal conclave. I was happy the new pope looked and acted saintly, a pastor to the poor and not just a prince of the church. I also looked at it through the lens of my own tradition. I had a few insights.

 

A reporter asked his older brother, also a devout Catholic, about the pope’s youth:

 

“He always wanted to be a priest from the earliest age. Even at five years old he would get my mother’s ironing board and have us cover it with a white cloth. He would call the rest of the family, and he would imitate the Eucharist by handing out the small Necco wafers that my mother provided him. Many of our neighbors seeing his saintliness would joke that he would one day be the pope.”

 

The reporter followed up his first question by asking if the pope was like this from birth:

 

“No, I think maybe he just picked up something from my parents who were devout Catholics.”

 

I thought my tradition explains such phenomenon much more clearly through the concept of reincarnation.

 

“The unsuccessful yogī, after many, many years of enjoyment on the planets of the pious living entities, is born into a family of righteous people, or into a family of rich aristocracy.” Bhagavad-gītā 6.41

 

It seems that his desire to be a priest was the result of a pious past life, or many such lives. In other words, he was just continuing his spiritual evolution in this life from a past life. Therefore the transmigration of the soul is the best explanation for why a child without prompting develops such a strong desire to be a priest from the earliest age and never wavers in that commitment. In that sense, I am proud of the insights of my own tradition.

 

Everything concerning the conclave intrigued me. I watched as about thirty young seminarians (priests in training) were glued to their seats after seeing the white smoke bellowing from the chimney of the Vatican awaiting the announcement of who the new pope would be. When his name was finally announced, and they realized that the pope would be American, I was shocked and amused by their reaction.

 

Like young “middle Americans” at a MAGA rally they wildly pumped their fists in the air again and again and in a type of euphoria shouted for some time:

 

“USA! USA! USA!”

 

Strange! I couldn’t understand how a limited nationalistic expression came from their hearts after such deep theological training.

 

“One who identifies his self as the inert body composed of mucus, bile and air, who assumes his wife and family are permanently his own, who thinks an earthen image or the land of his birth is worshipable, or who sees a place of pilgrimage as merely the water there, but who never identifies himself with, feels kinship with, worships or even visits those who are wise in spiritual truth — such a person is no better than a cow or an ass.” Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.84.13 [emphasis mine]

 

Two seminarians in Rome were interviewed after Pope Francis died. They were impressed:

 

“He told us not to give up playing sports and our taste in music.”

 

There was a controversy about the new pope. Was he a Chicago Cubs fan or a Chicago White Sox Fan? He was for the Sox! In the same regard, it was mentioned that Pope Francis was a lifelong and passionate fan of soccer, particularly his hometown team, San Lorenzo de Almagro. He was even a card-carrying member of the club.

 

I don’t get it. Shouldn’t the pope or an ācārya, especially as renunciates, exemplify a higher level of transcendence? I like my tradition’s definition of pure devotion:

 

Bhakti, or devotional service, means engaging all our senses in the service of the Lord, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the master of all the senses. When the spirit soul renders service unto the Supreme, there are two side effects. One is freed from all material designations, and one’s senses are purified simply by being employed in the service of the Lord.” From Nārada-pañcarātra quoted in Bhakti-rasāmta-sindhu 1.1.12 [emphasis mine]

 

My tradition is bhakti. Although, I may see the universality of religion, what I attempt to show here is that I trust the tenets and metaphysics of my tradition over others. That’s natural for any adherent of a tradition. But what I also want to make clear is that if one has allegiance to a tradition, that doesn’t mean one is more spiritually elevated than an adherent of another faith, even if one feels that other faith is philosophically less comprehensive. Substance is more important than allegiance. One must do the work of the tradition, not just belong to it.

 

When I visit Colombia, I am in awe of the depth with which the general populace accepts Jesus. I often don’t see that degree of piety in my own tradition, which was transplanted in the west.

 

By cable car and hiking I visited Monserrate, a sacred place and shrine 10,000 feet above sea level in Bogota. When I ascended the steps and reached the shrine I was huffing and puffing. I was therefore shocked when I saw people up there who were much older and very frail. When I entered the church, I saw so many ordinary people deep in prayer at the various shrines within the church, almost in trance. As I sat in one of the beautiful shrines in my brownish tinted robes with a matching hoodie, one old lady came up to me to offer respects and seek my blessings. She mistook me for a priest! I humbly indicated with my hands that I wasn’t a Catholic priest, but I still put both hands up in the air to give her blessings. She smiled reflecting a humility and devotion of heart that I can only pray to obtain in this life.

 

I was surprised that some of the things expressed during the conclave seemingly lacked the depth of philosophy of my tradition, including the explanatory power of reincarnation. I was also left, however, with an admiration for the depth of their tradition and the power of the Catholic Church to inspire love for Jesus.

 

I wish the new pope well and pray that his mission to spread love of God succeeds. My deep personal prayer is that I develop in substance the ideals of the profound spiritual tradition gifted to me by our divine master.

 

Śrīla Prabhupāda ki jaya!

 

Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #20 – Queen Kuntī was Right!

May 12th, 2025

When I grew up in Krishna consciousness, we were very sympathetic to the Vaiṣṇavas in the former Soviet Union. After all they were persecuted, jailed, and tortured by the KGB, but they were seemingly indomitable and couldn’t be broken. In 1991, however, the Soviet Union disbanded and we soon received word that the first group of Russian devotees would come to India.

 

Kesava Bharati Maharaja was one of the Vaiṣṇavas who greeted them in Calcutta when they first arrived. He told me a touching story:

 

“When the devotees from the Soviet Union came, we offered them a big feast. I sat next to one humble soul. He looked at his plate and picked up a piece of papaya in his hand raised it up and turned to me and asked, ‘A fruit?’ I nodded. He bit it and cried. I was shocked that his previous existence was so seemingly deprived.”

 

When the first contingent of devotees from the former Soviet Union visited Vrindavan, we met them at Bhaktivedanta Gate on Bhaktivedanta Swami Marg and then ushered them into the temple for kirtan. As they approached the front entrance to the temple, we showered them with rose petals from above.

 

Sivarama Swami and Govinda Swami were especially eager to honor them, and Govinda Swami, a gourmet Hare Krishna cook among his many talents, made them an amazing feast which they served in Tamal Krishna’s house. They had a plan to honor them for their sacrifice. When I describe it, it may seem strange, but their plan represents how much we honored these devotees’ courage, and the sacrifice they underwent to spread the mission of Śrī Caitanya. Their plan was as follows.

 

The two maharajas would serve them so much prasadam that their plates would be piled with their remnants. They also placed sand in front of the doorway so that when they left “the dust of their lotus feet” would mix with that sand. After the Russian devotees left, they would eat their remnants and bathe in the dust of their lotus feet. And they did!

 

As for me, I was housing arguably the most persecuted and toughest of the Russian devotees, three Armenian brothers—Sannyasa Dasa, Kamala Mala,  and a third brother whose name I forget. After the feast at Tamal Krishna’s house, Sannyasa, who was tortured in prison, started to complain to me. He was disturbed when he found out that the maharajas had eaten their remnants and bathed in the dust of their feet. In general, the high level of respect he received since coming to India upset him. In broken English with a heavy Russian accent he expressed his feelings about it.

 

“I think it is even more dangerous here than in prison. In prison they can only harm your body, but here with all this worship they can kill your bhakti!

 

Just as he was griping about the worship he was enduring, Kamala Mala, a very tall imposing person, was walking by and overheard what his brother was saying. He, stopped and turned his head to me and in a very heavy tone commented:

 

“Queen Kuntī was right!”

 

For those unfamiliar with that reference, he was referring to the famous statement by Queen Kuntī. She lamented that Krishna was leaving because the horrible war which called for His presence, and caused her family untold suffering, had now ended.

 

“I wish that all those calamities would happen again and again so that we could see You again and again, for seeing You means that we will no longer see repeated births and deaths.” Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.8.25

 

We generally feel closer to God in times of tragedy, but how many of us value God’s presence and shelter to that degree?

 

Dear Śrī Lord Krishna, I pray that one day I can value your presence in my life so much that I too may proclaim:

 

“Queen Kuntī was right!”

 

 

Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #19 – Is Forgiveness the Most Important Quality of an Aspiring Yogi?

May 5th, 2025

Recently I gave a talk on forgiveness titled “How to give up justified hate?” While giving the talk it dawned on me how important it is for one on the path of yoga to be forgiving. My reasoning, which connected yoga with forgiveness, was based on a quote that connected the two:

 

“The shadows of resentment keep our spiritual light from shining through, never allowing us to fully experience who we are.”[1]

 

Yoga means to bring the mind to sattva, literally the original state of being. The mind is like a lens or mirror. Its original state of being, the state of sattva, appears therefore when it’s clean and not distorted. This is accomplished by meditation which means concentrating on one thing, usually a mantra. By doing so, the other disruptive thoughts emerging from the ego, which distort or sully the mind, are quelled. The mind then naturally moves toward sattva, its natural state, where the lens of the mind is clear and we can perceive or experience who we really are.

 

Meditation means controlling the mind. It begins with rules or instructions on how to control the mind’s activity in relationship to others. Such rules are called yamas. The first and most important yama is ahi, nonviolence, and it takes precedence over all other rules and regulations. For example, one can even lie and transcend the second yama of satya (truthfulness) if the intention is to protect another from violence. In that way ahi takes precedence over every other yogic ethical rule and is thus the foundation of yoga. If you can’t control the mind to the extent that violence against others physically, verbally, or even in your thoughts, is restrained, you haven’t even attained the most rudimentary platform of yoga.

 

Forgiveness means “to give up resentment against, to give up desire to punish, stop being angry with, pardon, to overlook.”

 

What about a situation in which someone has done something horrible to you or others? There is certainly a discussion to be had about when it’s appropriate to drop one’s resentment, or if there is a psychologically needed period of moral outrage required for one who has faced or witnessed such abuse. That is a deep subject beyond the scope of this post. Still, any type of hate, even “justified hate,” “keeps our spiritual light from shining through, never allowing us to fully experience who we are.” A yogi must therefore be forgiving and rid the heart of resentment.

 

There are many good reasons to forgive. A thorough discussion of the topic would certainly cover many of them. The ultimate reason to forgive, however is simply spiritual. Resentment deters our movement towards a clear mind and the realization of the self. It’s often a great challenge. But a yogi must forgive, even when our hate is “justified”!

 

“Forgiveness means to give up all hope for a better past!”

 


[1] I had been careless taking notes and as a result I often there have forgotten to put the attribution to the citations I collected. Therefore, in my posts occasionally I list a citation without citing its source. I have two such instances in this post.

 

Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #18 – Perception, Contentment and Fake News

April 28th, 2025

Perception, Contentment and Fake News[1]

 

The black snake was still sitting on the last step of the ghāṭa. It hadn’t moved one inch since I initially saw it when descending the stairs for my bath. A little fearful, I stopped suddenly and walked fifty meters to a safer spot. I didn’t have my glasses, so I had to squint to see why the snake was seemingly motionless. Oh, it was just a ripped black tire! I had an epiphany.

 

All problems are perceptual and not actual. I felt threatened by the black snake, but what was my problem? Was it a matter of what was actually there or rather something perceptual—what I thought was there?

 

The best example of a perceptual problem is death. When we lose what we are attached to, we suffer. At death we seemingly lose our very existence. We are, however, eternal. Therefore, death itself is only the illusion of non-existence and, in that sense, not an actual problem.

 

Every school of spirituality and self-improvement is based on overcoming perceptual or illusory problems. For example, the focus of the yogic process is to conquer distress and invoke contentment by purifying one’s perception, which is distorted by the static of thoughts born of ego.

 

Yoga corrects one’s vision by bringing the mind to sattva, which means the true nature of being. The original nature of the mind, which is like a mirror or lens, is one that is not distorted or dirty. The yogic technique for cleaning the mirror of the mind and bringing it to its true state is called meditation. By concentrating on one thought, the thoughts which distort the mind are quelled. The lens of the mind thus gradually moves to the platform of sattva, a higher level of perception and contentment, which are the main symptoms of sattva.

 

Similarly, in its own way, modern psychology seeks to help solve one’s mental problems by giving one a higher perspective to encounter them. Traumas, phobias, and anxieties, for example, are distortions of one’s thinking and perception. An expert in psychology may help one to identify the irrational patterns of thought that skew one’s perception and cause distress. He or she then helps one to change those patterns of thought hoping to bring one to a higher level of perception and contentment.

 

The purpose of the law of karma is also to elevate our vision by putting us in situations that teach us lessons to help us better understand ourselves. In that way, all spiritual schools of thought serve a singular purpose: to enlighten us or to elevate our perception to make us content or happy.

 

I was initially inspired to write this Monday Morning Greetings highlighting how all problems are perceptual not actual by reflecting on the perils of the internet. It skews people’s perception, forcing them to live in polarized views imbued with hate and misery. When it is used in this way it is certainly not a pramāṇa, a valid means of knowing meant to help us increase our perception and contentment. And it is surely not the world where the saintly reside. Śrīla Prabhupāda therefore condemned such media strongly:

 

“To read ordinary literature and books or newspapers is compared to the pleasure place of crows. The crows, they are very much attached to the rejected refuse, garbage.” (Lecture on Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 2.3.17, Los Angeles, July 12, 1969)

 

 


[1] This is an edited reprint of February 24, 2020.

 

Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #17 – The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Preachers Part III

April 21st, 2025

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Preachers Part III[1]

 

4. Is Pro-active

 

Intelligent leaders don’t just react to problems. They understand the problems that may arise in the future and make the appropriate adjustments to prevent them before they arise. In the talk I gave to a gathering of almost eighty “preachers,” I noticed that the audience was at least two-thirds women. I pointed that out and asked, “Don’t you see the problems that will arise in establishing a community if there is such gender disparity in it?” I think the answer was obvious. After my talk one of the teachers belonging to a Bhagavad-gītā university asked my blessings to start a Gītā class just for men. It seems their leader, being pro-active, had already understood the problem. An effective preacher must be pro-active for even today’s success may be tomorrow’s challenge as the world and how people understand things rapidly change.

 

5. Gives Vrindavan

 

Good experiences create our objectives or goals. We therefore initially develop faith in the goal of bhakti by a sublime devotional or “religious” experience. To move forward in bhakti with determination, however, especially during life challenges and the doubts that may arise, it is essential that such powerful experiences be renewed. I think that is why Śrīla Prabhupāda established centers in Mayapur and Vrindavan. It is in those places, in my experience, that pilgrims can most readily have the sublime devotional experiences that can deepen and renew their faith. A leader on the path of devotion must be expert in giving Vrindavan. If visiting Vrindavan is not possible, leading deep devotional retreats can also renew our faith, especially if they are based on the teachings, stories, songs and prayers of our lineage, which are based on Vrindavan.

 

6. Imbibes and teaches the culture of bhakti

 

I like the following definition of culture, “an environment that is organized to give impressions in consciousness to effectively relate, learn and communicate.”[2] Culture is thus essential on the path of bhakti. Without understanding how to relate appropriately to other Vaiṣṇavas, including elders who should receive natural respect, it is not only hard to learn and develop a sense of community, but more importantly it is difficult to avoid misunderstanding and offense. It is the duty of preachers to embody and teach how to properly relate, communicate and learn. The Caitanya-caritāmṛta is a guidebook for such behavior.

 

7. Empowers the Next Generation

 

The main way devotional movements expand is through families that inspire their children to naturally follow their path. Often spiritual movements become enthusiastic about new people but lose focus on inspiring their children in bhakti. They fail to create the appropriate environment and programs for children to grow in devotion. A successful leader never loses sight of the importance of serving the needs of the families within their tradition in a way that ensures that the tradition’s teachings are carried forward by generations of devotees and not just new converts.

 

 


[1] I can’t claim that these are “the” seven habits of highly effective preachers. I was asked to share my realization to a gathering of devotees dedicated to teaching and sharing bhakti. They already had many seminars on the subject. These are what I thought I could add to the gathering by my experience.

[2] I found that definition of culture in my notes, but it wasn’t cited, and I don’t remember where I got it.

 

Monday Morning Greetings 2024 #16 – The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Preachers Part II

April 14th, 2025

2. Empowering

 

A person who wants to widely communicate an important message needs people to assist in that work. It is therefore important to also empower others as preachers. That was Śrīla Prabhupāda’s example. Even though his followers were young and inexperienced, he inspired so many of them to effectively carry on his teachings, even in his lifetime. In other words, he was expert at seeing devotees’ potential, encouraging them, and then engaging them to actualize their potential, even though they were immature in so many ways. Perhaps today we can afford to better prepare and train devotees before we empower them to fully represent the mission. Of course, Śrīla Prabhupāda had no choice but to quickly put his fledgling disciples on the front lines, but he did demonstrate a powerful point—as an effective preacher, he did not hesitate to empower others to expand his mission.

 

When I traveled and preached in south India in the summer of 1978, everywhere I went the people would tell me that “we have heard of your Acyutananda Swami.” He was so impressive—a young Vaiṣṇava in his mid-twenties who spoke their language, could sing their songs, and expertly presented the philosophy. I remarked at the time that those people, although they had heard of Acyutananda Swami, didn’t seem to know who Śrīla Prabhupāda was yet. I saw, however, no fault in that. Powerful teachers empower students and are happy even if the students surpass them.  Of course, Acyutananda achieved influence in just one part of India, while Śrīla Prabhupāda was preaching all over the world. He was also planting the seeds of an extraordinary preaching mission that would continue after he left. Unlike most missions started by a charismatic leader and carried into the next generation by a single appointed successor, Śrīla Prabhupāda’s plan was to inspire countless devotees, men and women, to take up the mantle of his mission and even manage it after he left.  There were challenges that appeared after his passing, which could be expected. But one cannot deny that Śrīla Prabhupāda’s movement inspired innumerable devotees who have successfully carried his legacy in an unprecedented way, establishing almost 1,000 temples of Krishna worldwide. A preacher must be empowering.

 

3. Nonsectarian

 

A preacher should respect all senior Vaiṣṇavas and as far as possible welcome their help as long as they can properly respect and represent one’s lineage. This sometimes can be misunderstood to mean that a saṅga should have an open-door policy, and that one is therefore sectarian if one doesn’t give a seat in their saṅga to any powerful Vaiṣṇava who requests a visit. The term sectarian, however, has another definition. It is also sectarian to enter another saṅga with one’s own agenda rather than serve the place which has welcomed one. It is therefore not sectarian to keep such people out. I try to be non-sectarian and welcome advanced Vaiṣṇavas to enlighten my saṅga and also serve their mission wherever I am invited to theirs. I will relate my experience in this regard.

 

Too often, I am disappointed. I have welcomed others that request to visit my saṅga and speak but found out their only intention was to serve their own mission. For example, I hosted one mahārāja and some of his followers, only later to be shown text messages sent to one young lady in my saṅga from our guests proclaiming this visiting sannyāsī was the real “rasikā” guru and others were less qualified. Obviously, that person or his followers will never be welcomed again.

 

We had several good experiences also with welcoming sādhus. I arranged a program in New York City for the respected Vaiṣṇava author Simon Haas (Sundar Gopal), a disciple of Śrīla Nārāyaṇa Mahārāja. It soon became clear that his only objective was to nourish our faith. He not only refused to accept any donations but left the proceeds from the sale of his own books and any donations he got personally with us. Later I co-hosted several retreats with him in Colombia and our experience was the same—his single intention was to serve us. A preacher should be intelligently nonsectarian.

 

Next week I will cover the other four remaining qualities of a highly effective preachers—being pro-active, giving Vrindavan, transmitting culture, and preparing the next generation.

 

As a good leader is one
who can achieve
many great tasks,
much better is one
who can empower others
to also perform great tasks,
and even better is one
who can inspire others
to simply love Krishna!

—Jamuna Jivana Baba (dedicated follower of Śrīla Prabhupāda)—Radha Kunda Harinam Saṅga

 

Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #15 – The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Preachers Part I

April 7th, 2025

A group of devotees gathered to hone their skills in communicating krishna-bhakti, and I was asked to give a talk based on what makes a preacher effective. I thought about it deeply. This is what I came up with:

 

1. Personal Realization

 

Most importantly, a preacher must have personal realization in order to effectively communicate Krishna consciousness. Śrīla Prabhupāda defines personal realization:

 

“Personal realization does not mean that one should, out of vanity, attempt to show one’s own learning by trying to surpass the previous ācārya. He must have full confidence in the previous ācārya, and at the same time he must realize the subject so nicely that he can present the matter for the particular circumstances in a suitable manner. The original purpose of the text must be maintained. No obscure meaning should be screwed out of it, yet it should be presented in an interesting manner for the understanding of the audience. This is called realization.” Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 1.4.1, purport

 

But how does one get personal realization? It is obtained by a depth of understanding of the philosophy of krishna-bhakti as taught in one’s spiritual lineage and the sincere practice of what one has understood.

 

Without such personal realization, preachers will do one of two things. They will either keep the subject in the language in which they received it, even if their audience has a different frame of reference for interpreting that language. Or they will reformat the message for the understanding of the audience and lose its original meaning. An expert preacher, however, must be able format the message for a particular circumstance, as Śrīla Prabhupāda said, without losing its original intent. There is no doubt one of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s most important assets in successfully sharing krishna-bhakti around the world was his personal realization.

 

Eleven days after Śrīla Prabhupāda left the world, the traditional ceremony to commemorate the passing of a great soul was held at the Krishna Balarama Temple. Customarily, the most senior Vaiṣṇava present is chosen to preside over the function. In this case, a sannyāsī godbrother from an aristocratic brāhmaṇa family, who had gone to the West before Śrīla Prabhupāda, was chosen. Although he was highly lauded for bringing back two Germans whom he had converted to krishna-bhakti, Śrīla Prabhupāda’s accomplishment in preaching in the West far exceeded his own and this seemed to disturb him. That became apparent when he gave the invocation and appeared to minimize Śrīla Prabhupāda in his talk. “I could have done what Śrīla Prabhupāda had done, but I didn’t have the mentality to preach to the hippies.” Although it appeared to be an insult, at the time I somehow was able to reinterpret what he said as a compliment. I considered “What is ‘the mentality to preach to the hippies?’ It’s the deepest level of personal realization that enabled Śrīla Prabhupāda to communicate Krishna consciousness, a very high subject couched in a foreign culture, to those, possessing very little frame of reference to comprehend it.”

 

Although I think deep personal realization is essential for preaching krishna-bhakti carefully, we must also be careful not to make an absolute correlation between one’s ability to communicate Krishna consciousness and one’s level of spiritual advancement. There are devotees fixed in Krishna consciousness who simply lack the personal nature, communication skills, or emotional intelligence to effectively speak as a preacher to all people. One’s generational, gender, ethnic, or social experience may also be a factor in relating to certain groups. While Śrīla Prabhupāda could transcend that, not all preachers can. However, they may be able to effectively communicate to those groups that are more suited to their characteristics and experience. Still, a level of personal realization is still essential.

 

Because I consider personal realization as the most essential quality of a preacher, I have spent a whole post on this one quality. Next week I will discuss my experience of the six other habits of highly effective preachers—empowering, nonsectarian, proactive, giving Vrindavan, transmitting culture, and preparing the next generation.

 

 

Monday Morning Greetings 2025 #14 – Mahābhāva Dhāma

March 31st, 2025

Mahābhāva Dhāma[1]

 

Mahābhāva Dhāma may be Govardhan’s best kept secret. It’s simply a room in the house of a humble devotee who lives near me here in the dhāma, a happily married man with three children from somewhere in the former Soviet Union.

 

Gauranga Nam has deep affection for the Vaiṣṇavas. Besides hosting Śrī Śrī Radha Shyamsundara in his temple room, his altar is home to over 150 finely hand-crafted deities of Vaiṣṇavas in the Gauḍīya tradition. They include both contemporary devotees and all the eternal associates of Śrī Caitanya going way back to His līlā. And that ocean is constantly expanding. The last time I visited him nineteen new deities had just arrived. Words just can’t describe their beauty.

 

Indeed, the deity one chooses to worship first manifests within one’s heart. Gauranga Nam’s heart is very big. While the heart of a kaniṣṭha (neophyte) barely has room there for God, and certainly not for His devotees, Gauranga Nam’s heart is filled with devotees. Isn’t that the bhakti philosophy?

 

A devotee is one who takes the mood of his guru. And what is that mood? It is the energy of pure devotion. That sentiment is personified in Śrī Radha and Her expansions, embodied in the heart of Śrī Caitanya and His dear associates and finally carried to the present day by His lineage of pure devotees. Mahābhāva Dhāma materializes that history of gaura-līlā in the exquisite mūrti forms of the devotees who have carried the waves of devotion to this world.

 

The special treat for me in visiting Mahābhāva Dhāma is association with Gauranga Nam. With deep devotion he explains his altar. He traces the bhāva-rūpā (the form of devotion) and how it flows in waves throughout the world from one generation of devotees to the next, culminating in “the final tsunami of prema inundating the world through Śrīla Prabhupāda and his followers.”

 

His appreciation for Śrīla Prabhupāda and his disciples is profound. In the modern world, we often get hung up on the failings of those whom we trusted and the hurt they caused. There is certainly a reason for that. Gauranga Nam, however, never sees the faults of dedicated devotees as their whole person, and especially not in the case of those who had dedicated their life to Śrīla Prabhupāda’s mission. A small deity of Harikeśa Mahārāja (now Hari) just arrived. He is sitting before the stacks of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books that he gave his life to publish. Resting on them there is even a facsimile of the microphone he famously would hold to record Śrīla Prabhupāda’s words when he served as his secretary.

 

I also like the deity of Aindra dasa with his harmonium right behind the deity of Nāmācārya Śrīla Haridāsa Ṭhākura with both seemingly chanting for Śrī Radha and her intimate devotees, the aṣṭakasakhīs and their mañjarīs, who are also on the altar in their deity forms. I could go on and on. There are so many beautifully done figures of profound devotion. The deity of Yamuna devi is stunning.

 

Gauranga Nam is quite creative. Another deity that caught my eye is the new deity of Nṛsiṁha Brahmacārī before the beautiful path of jewels and flowers that he manifested in his mind for taking Śrī Caitanya to Vrindavan. I also loved the newly arrived deity of Rāghava Paṇḍita sitting before the bags of prasādam that he would bring to Puri for Śrī Caitanya, expertly cooked by his sister Damayantī, whose deity is also there.

 

Gauranga Nam has deep loyalty to Śrīla Prabhupāda and his lineage. That is reflected in the way his altar flows from Radha-Krishna to gaura-līlā culminating in over fifty deities of Śrīla Prabhupāda disciples, including prominent grand-disciples like Kadamba Kanana Swami, Chaitanya Chandra Prabhu and others. He bursts with devotion as he describes the waves of gaura-līlā flooding the world through the members of ISKCON. But Gauranga Nam is nonsectarian. Śrīla Prabhupāda has commented in his books that there are many pure devotees of different lineages wandering in Vrindavan. Gauranga Nam has also a small section for those, whom he reveres also as the modern-day protectors of prema-bhakti. He knows several of them.

 

The deity of the famous Braja saint Vinod Baba is a masterpiece that not only reflects his saintly form but seems to perfectly express his bhāva. “How did you do that!?” Even that great saint of Varsana was amazed when Gauranga Nam showed him a picture of his own deity.

 

Nava Kisor Baba took a type of kṣetra-sannyāsa. It seems he vowed never to leave Radha Kunda or at least was reluctant to do so. Somehow Gauranga Nam had befriended this saint, and they seemingly became close. Still, when Gauranga Nam would beg him to come see Mahābhāva Dhāma at his residence in Govardhan, he would refuse. Finally, out of frustration Gauranga Nam told him that if Baba would not visit his kuṭira, then he would no longer visit his. Out of affection for Gauranga Nam, the humble Vaiṣṇava relented and came. When Nava Kisor Baba saw the ocean of devotees all united in the service of gaura-līlā including Śrīla Prabhupāda’s followers and a small group of contemporary saints, including his own form and that of Prana Krishna Baba, his revered guru, he fainted on the spot.

 

Where to stop? Each deity has a story which Gauranga Nam shares. He joyfully describes the qualities of the devotees on his altar and how each is profoundly connected to the waves of Gaura-līlā that flood the world. Each time you visit him he highlights different devotees as he spontaneously moves from one deity to another. What stays the same, however, is his deep regard for all the Lord’s devotees. And isn’t that our philosophy?

 

“‘The Supreme is present in every living entity.’ We should better take note of this particular verse from the Vaiṣṇava ācāryas like Jīva Gosvāmī and Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura instead of following the interpretation of unauthorized persons who deride Kṛṣṇa. Jīva Gosvāmī, commenting on this verse, says that Krishna, in His plenary expansion as Paramātmā, is situated in the moving and the nonmoving entities as the Supersoul, so any neophyte devotee who simply gives his attention to the arcā-mūrti, the form of the Supreme Lord in the temple, and does not respect other living entities is uselessly worshiping the form of the Lord in the temple. There are three kinds of devotees of the Lord, and the neophyte is in the lowest stage. The neophyte devotee gives more attention to the Deity in the temple than to other devotees, so Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura warns that this sort of mentality should be corrected. A devotee should see that because Krishna is present in everyone’s heart as Paramātmā, every body is the embodiment or the temple of the Supreme Lord; so as one offers respect to the temple of the Lord, he should similarly properly respect each and every body in which the Paramātmā dwells. Everyone should therefore be given proper respect and should not be neglected.” (Gītā 9.11, purport)

 

 


[1] I am not sure Gauranga Nam has a name for his temple, other than perhaps Radha Shyamsundara Mandir but one time he told me he likes to call it Mahābhāva Dhāma.

 

Next »