Waves of Devotion

Dhanurdhara Swami September 16th, 2024

As important as speaking the truth, is having the truth understood. To accomplish that you must understand the language of your audience. When I say the language of your audience, I am obviously not talking about the vernacular of a country or people, but how people according to their culture or experience understand different words and concepts within the same vernacular. In other words, the same word may be impregnated with different meanings according to that person or group’s culture and therefore when a preacher/teacher uses a word, it is necessary to understand what that word or concept means to that audience. The most difficult challenge in communicating therefore is when there is a mixed audience where the attendees understand the words and concepts in different ways. I discussed this challenge previously in terms of how various cultures react, some positively and some negatively, when they hear the word or concept “surrender.” As Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books were addressing a very mixed audience, I think communicating effectively to them was one of his greatest challenges.

 

And just consider how varied his audience was. His listeners were everyone from non-devotees to neophyte and advanced devotees, from progressives to conservatives, and from those foreign to Vedic culture to those immersed in it. We could go on and on.

 

His teachings also needed to be time tested, as he would be speaking to people through different epochs, and he wanted his books to be the standard books of knowledge for thousands of years in a rapidly changing world.

 

Another challenge exists because bringing the teachings of Sri Caitanya into modernity is not always popular, no matter how well you try to accommodate the frame of reference of your audience.  Although his aim was to reach everyone, he wasn’t going to water down his teachings like many who came from the East before him.

 

Was he successful? If so, how did he do it?

 

In terms of success, it is fact, and he would often point this out, that despite so many translations of the Gītā that came to the west before his own, no one fully imbibed its message and surrendered to Krishna. Thousands became devotees after reading Bhagavad-gītā As It Is. It’s hard to question his success.

 

My interest in this subject was sparked by preparing for my recent lectures about Sri Radha to honor Her appearance day. While conducting my research, the nature of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s challenge dawned on me. I envisioned his concern while writing his books. If he didn’t restrain immature readers from prematurely dwelling on the pastimes of the gopīs, his movement could be cheapened and lose its reputation. In fact, that had happened previously just a few generations after Sri Caitanya left the world. At the same time, I envisioned him being equally concerned that he offered his followers what Sri Caitanya came to give, “the most sublime and radiant mellow of devotional service, the mellow of conjugal love” (Caitanya-caritāmṛta Ādi-līlā 1.4). What did he do?

 

He chastely presented the main teachings of Sri Caitanya, by translating the two main foundational teachings of the tradition, the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and the Sri Caitanya-caritāmṛta. Everything is there from the beginning teachings to gopī-bhāva while through his purports the strong restraint from taking the more esoteric teachings cheaply is presented in no uncertain terms. In my preparation I especially marveled at the Kṛṣṇa Book which is basically a straightforward rendition of the verses and commentaries of the Tenth Canto presented in story form. Still, when it came to the five chapters describing the gopīs he added just enough of his own commentary to inoculate one from projecting their own mundane sense of eroticism onto the page. In that way those qualified to go deeper have the essence of Sri Caitanya’s teaching while those with less qualification are protected from abusing it. It looks so simple but that’s the point. That it was done so seamlessly shows Śrīla Prabhupāda’s genius in meeting one of his greatest challenges—to speak the truth to a mixed audience but have that the truth understood by all who are sincere.

 

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