```json
{
    "title": "Monday Morning Greetings 2026 #28 – Deities: The HONEY that Attracts Indian Hindus",
    "url": "https://wavesofdevotion.com/2026/07/13/deities-the-honey-that-attracts-indian-hindus/",
    "datePublished": "2026-07-13",
    "dateModified": "2026-07-12",
    "language": "en-US",
    "description": "The title comes from an interview someone sent to me from the Easy Bhakti podcast by Chandrashekar Acharya dasa.[1] He was interviewing Yasodeva dasa, a successful preacher at Penn State…",
    "author": "Dhanurdhara Swami",
    "publisher": "Waves of Devotion"
}
```

# Monday Morning Greetings 2026 #28 – Deities: The HONEY that Attracts Indian Hindus

The title comes from an interview someone sent to me from the

*Easy Bhakti*

podcast by Chandrashekar Acharya dasa.

[\[1\]](https://wp.me/p2zwwk-1n4#_edn1)

He was interviewing Yasodeva dasa, a successful preacher at Penn State University in State College, Pennsylvania. In the interview Yasodeva coined the term that I have used for the title of this post.

 

Yasodeva’s presentation was thoughtful. I liked some of his ideas, but the interview was brief. Perhaps he didn’t have time to fully refine his conceptions. For this week’s

*Greetings*

, I will briefly summarize and support his idea and then comment where I am not in agreement, or at least feel the presentation needs to be refined.

 

Yasodeva started his interview with a radical suggestion: For ISKCON to be successful, it must move the Deities out of the temple and make some practical arrangement elsewhere where the devotees can worship Them and take

*darśana*

.

 

The Deity attracts Indian Hindus, he argued. When the congregation of ISKCON becomes predominantly Indian, it becomes unattractive for Westerners (non-Indians).

[\[2\]](https://wp.me/p2zwwk-1n4#_edn2)

And even where there is not a predominantly Indian congregation, he continued, the Deities Themselves create a cultural barrier for Westerners, making it difficult for them to consider the community of ISKCON as their home. Better the devotees worship

*nāma-rūpa*

, the Lord in the form of his holy name, he concludes, which is more universally accessible. There is no need in the West for big temples.

 

Disclaimer

 

Before I continue with my analysis of the podcast, I want to really frame the issue properly. It can too easily be misunderstood as prejudicial against Indians. The Indians joining ISKCON have been a blessing and an asset. Their growth should continue, but that calls for in many places a parallel preaching strategy to ensure that the temple also continues reaching all sections of society in the West to fulfill Śrīla Prabhupāda’s mission. Back to my examination of the podcast.

 

Where I concur:

 

Śrī Krishna is all-attractive. Success in preaching should be simple. Just remove the barriers that we self-create that impede people from having that experience of the all-attractive Śrī Krishna. One major barrier would be a minority-based ethnic congregation where others don’t identify or feel they belong.

 

Therefore, why should ISKCON build or promote Indian temples in the West, and thus

*de facto *

advertise us as a Hindu religion, rather than a center of Eastern or spiritual thought?

 

The first temple I ever visited was on Watseka Avenue in Los Angeles in 1970. Śrīla Prabhupāda was staying there at the time. The temple room was just a podium with church pews. After a lecture and

*prasādam*

, we were invited to the room behind the main hall for an

*arati*

to the Deities if we wanted to continue our visit.

 

Yasodeva’s point should be obvious. ISKCON temples in the West are not attracting many Western devotees (non-Indians) to join their temple congregations. And one of the major reasons is that our temple congregations have become predominantly Indian.

 

I find that being a monk, and presenting myself as such, is an asset in my outreach activities. But when the “lay people” of ISKCON dress that way in outreach events, I don’t find it helpful. It creates a barrier for people coming to Krishna by suggesting that to become a devotee one must undergo a radical external change. That is not our core message.

 

Where I don’t concur:

 

My experience of preaching in over fifty years in the West is that neither the Deities nor the culture Śrīla Prabhupāda brought to the West is the problem. The problem emerges when these are used exclusively to target Indians as a “low hanging fruit” for building a congregation and financial base. That can distract an ISKCON center from the more difficult work of attracting Western devotees (non-Indians). Unlike Indians, Western devotees won’t come simply because it is their religion and traditional culture, as it is not.

 

When I used to visit the Bhakti Center five years ago, the temple was packed to the rafters with Westerners on special occasions for festivals worshipping the Deity.

[\[3\]](https://wp.me/p2zwwk-1n4#_edn3)

They never saw the Deities as a distraction. The temple was just never employed as its main preaching strategy, as it is in many ISKCON temples. Conversely, they developed many quality outreach programs besides the temple to attract Western people. The temple, however, still served to nourish those wanting to go further in their devotional life. In New York it proved to be an attractive aspect of what we represent, not a barrier. Our connection to India was used thoughtfully, especially in bringing people there, which proved to be a very important element in helping people fully commit to a life of devotion. And it is not the only place in the West where this strategy has proven successful.

[\[4\]](https://wp.me/p2zwwk-1n4#_edn4)

 

I think therefore the real issue in impeding the preaching in the West occurs when those representing Śrīla Prabhupāda lack realization. I am using the term realization in the way Śrīla Prabhupāda has defined it — as the ability to communicate our philosophy and traditions effectively by changing the language (the way people understand things) to suit the frame of reference of the audience, but without losing its original meaning.

[\[5\]](https://wp.me/p2zwwk-1n4#_edn5)

 

In other words, there is not one language for everyone. The realized preachers gear their presentation according to the audience, both how they present the philosophy and the culture in which it is couched. Even in North America, I don’t think you can prescribe one language for everyone. The expert preachers will communicate in a way to get the message across. They will gauge to what extent the use of the Indian culture supports their mission.

 

I can say from my own experience in New York that aspects of the Indian culture, more accurately Vaiṣṇava culture, that Śrīla Prabhupāda brought, is welcomed by most people, both in attracting them to Krishna consciousness and in helping them cultivate it. But I also respect realized preachers who feel they need to use less or more of it for the audience they are targeting.

 

I think the greater challenge today for realized preachers is speaking the language of the newest generation, but that is another story.

 

It is clear, however, that what is not successful for attracting Westerners to Krishna consciousness is projecting ourselves as a Hindu religion. That by no means excludes the thoughtful use of the Vaiṣṇava culture that Śrīla Prabhupāda brought us, especially the Deities.

 

 

[\[1\]](https://wp.me/p2zwwk-1n4#_ednref1)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKAfMtpQpy8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKAfMtpQpy8)

 

[\[2\]](https://wp.me/p2zwwk-1n4#_ednref2)

This doesn’t discount the fact that Indian-based temples are an effective way to bring many qualified Indian devotees to Krishna consciousness who can and do effectively serve Śrī Caitanya’s mission in many key ways. As mentioned, it just must be accompanied with effective preaching outposts that can reach the rest of the population.

 

[\[3\]](https://wp.me/p2zwwk-1n4#_ednref3)

In their podcast, to prove the point that Indian culture is a barrier to people becoming part of ISKCON, they used the example of the Bhakti Center. They argue that the temple and the Deities have now attracted a prominently Indian congregation and thus the formerly burgeoning Western community there has significantly declined. I have been away from the Bhakti Center for many years, but I have some connections there. I therefore question to what extent this is fully accurate. What I do know is that the Deities have never been an obstacle in their preaching, and that whatever decline is there in the Bhakti Center is more due to a leadership crisis than anything else. Many of the key leaders with their families have moved away from New York to places more conducive to raising their families. It seems it has taken time to develop the proper leadership team to replace them and consequently some of the preaching momentum has stalled.

 

[\[4\]](https://wp.me/p2zwwk-1n4#_ednref4)

I see several successful programs today that effectively communicate Krishna-consciousness to Western (non-Indian) people by expertly removing the philosophical and cultural barriers that impede people from coming to Krishna consciousness, while at the same time not shying away from the careful use of Vaiṣṇava culture to attract and train people. I am most familiar with Wisdom of the Sages and the Bhagavad-gītā University. I think my audience is familiar with the style and success of Wisdom of the Sages, so let me mention something about the Bhagavad-gītā University, which is taught primarily in the Russian language, but also with groups in German, English, Latvian, Lithuanian, and Italian. So far more than 30,000 people have come through the Bhagavad-gītā University and have been moved by its teachings. Hundreds have become fully committed devotees. Every year they also bring several hundred people from the Bhagavad-gītā University to Vrindavan and train them there in Gauḍīyā Vaiṣṇava philosophy and culture. It’s a great example of introducing others to Krishna consciousness in a way to which others can relate, while still carefully introducing people to the culture Śrīla Prabhupāda brought from India. Here is a video of their most recent outreach. It’s impressive:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zqZ785VzVw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zqZ785VzVw)

 

[\[5\]](https://wp.me/p2zwwk-1n4#_ednref5)

*Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam*

1.3.44