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Q & A session with Athens devotees | HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj | ISKCON Athens, Greece | July 13, 2025
1.) What does it mean that Srila Prabhupad is the Founder and Acharya of ISKCON?
So, Srila Prabhupad gave the title to himself. And he also insisted that whenever we use the word ISKCON, when we have letterheads, when we have signboards, we have to put Founder, Acharya, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami.
So when we think of founder, of course, the founder of our Sampradaya is, of course, Brahma at the top and then we have Madhvacharya. But though we trace our lineage through Madhva Sampradaya, Lord Caitanya’s method and philosophy is somewhat different. Now we have Lord Caitanya’s movement. And then Prabhupad is the founder of this particular movement, ISKCON, in Lord Caitanya’s group.
However, Srila Prabhupad is not introducing some new philosophy, some new tattva or whatever, new siddhanta. It’s actually the same as Caitanya Mahaprabhu in those days. So, he’s not a founder of philosophy, he’s the founder of this particular organization called ISKCON. So, in this organization, we will have particular ways to preach. We’ll have particular ways for managing. So, Prabhupad is the founder of this particular way of preaching Lord Caitanya’s philosophy. So, Srila Prabhupad desired that this particular movement ISKCON be continued for thousands of years. So, therefore, Srila Prabhupad is the founder of this movement which will last thousands of years. And all those within the movement of ISKCON, they should be familiar with the very principles of ISKCON that Prabhupad established.
So, now the word acharya, of course, means teacher and one who sets a good example. So, in this case, it means, of course, the one who is teaching the very same philosophy as Caitanya Mahaprabhu and the Goswamis. Of course, we could also ask, well, other Gaudiya groups, Gaudiya matts and whatever, they are also preaching the same philosophy of the Goswamis. What’s the difference? So, the philosophy should be the same. However, Srila Prabhupad emphasizes certain aspects of our philosophy. For instance, Prabhupad in the Bhagavad Gita would emphasize, you are not the body, you are the soul. Other groups would emphasize the rasa of Radha and Krishna. So, philosophy is the same, emphasis can be different and how we practice may be slightly different. So, by studying Srila Prabhupad’s books which are quite wonderful we can get an understanding of philosophy and Prabhupad’s approach.
Sometimes, due to, time changing, circumstances changing, we may want to change something. For instance, in Prabhupad’s time, it all began with preaching by going out with drum and kartal on the street and distributing back to Godhead magazines. That was preaching. And then we discovered during Covid that some of our devotees, they began preaching on internet and just a few devotees could make 100,000 followers chanting Hare Krishna just on Internet. Just a few devotees.
So, of course, money is always a problem. Where are we going to get the money from? So, we have various schemes for getting money in the early days, it was distributed books.
But then in India, they discovered that making life members was an easier way of making more money. But then during Covid, one devotee preaching, he was able to get donations without even asking. So, he could purchase land and build a whole temple in India.
In the business world, innovation is the key to success. A company must be aware of its surroundings, and the surroundings change every year, every 5 years, every 10 years. If the company doesn’t change, they crash. Yes, in the business world, it is known that innovation is always necessary. If a company flourishes, it doesn’t mean that in 20 years it will flourish. If a company doesn’t adapt to the changing times, doesn’t innovate, it crashes.
So, the message for ISKCON is also that we have to be aware of the world at the moment although everything has changed from 5 years ago, 10 years ago, 12 years ago, 4 years ago, it’s not the same world and we have to adapt our preaching accordingly. So, certain things we have to change in order to survive and expand. But certain things, we cannot change at all, otherwise it’s no longer ISKCON. So, sometimes it becomes very difficult to decide what we can change, what we cannot change. So, we have to think very carefully on what to change and what not to change. And that is one of the functions of the GBC, to try to decide what is permissible to change, what is not permissible to change.
So, we cannot change the philosophy, we cannot change certain aspects of devotional conduct. But there are some areas, some aspects, that create controversies, some arguments. For instance, we have, what is the role of women in ISKCON? So, in the early days, in Prabhupad’s time, generally, it was more or less the Varnashrama attitude towards women. However, since the 1970s, 80s, 90s, whatever the emphasis has been on giving women more independence. So, there is movement of giving more places governments everything..so we have women prime ministers’, women leaders, women businessmen, women soldiers, everything becomes more prominent with women. And of course in ISKCON that has taken the form of can we have Vaishnavi diksha Gurus? So, of course, the traditionalists will argue that no, Srila Prabhupad had a very particular way of dealing with women and the women’s position. And we’ll see in Bhagavad Gita and in Bhagavatham, the woman has a very secondary role. But then the counter-argument, why we couldn’t have women Diksha Gurus is that one, Prabhupad may change his idea in the modern world when he sees the position of women changing. And then Prabhupad wrote some letters, he says all my boys and girls should be initiating in 1977. So, again, this is an example to show that society changes and some things we want to change, but then we always have to see would Prabhupad do this or not. So, therefore that is where the GBC has the role to play in the society plus and minus.
Ok, as far as the founder Acharya, Prabhupad being the founder Acharya, then GBC has actually made a statement that all members of ISKCON have a direct relationship with Srila Prabhupad. So, though Prabhupad is not physically present, still we have a relationship with him. Of course, the scriptures tell us that we should have a physically present Guru also, a living Guru. The scriptures tell us you have to accept Guru and worship Guru. Now, in these statements it does not say specifically, Diksha Guru. It just says Guru. Of course, most devotees who read the books and read those statements will then think, I have to take a Diksha Guru. Of course, it could be either or both, but ultimately we emphasize the Shiksha Guru more. All these quotations about surrendering to Guru coming from Upanishads are classified by Jiva Goswami as Shiksha Gurus. In Srimad Bhagavatham, Brahma speaks to Narada, Narada speaks to Vyasa, Vyasa speaks to Sukadeva, Sukadeva speaks to Pariksit. Vidura speaks to others, Shiva speaks to others. This is all Shiksha Guru.
And of course, if we trace our Sampradaya in the Bhagavad Gita introduction, there Prabhupad and Bhakti Siddhanta, they trace a Shiksha line, not a Diksha line. So, we can also accept Srila Prabhupad because he is the founder acharya, he is the Shiksha Guru also for all of the devotees in ISKCON. And he should not be put in a secondary position because he is not the Diksha Guru. And he should not be put in a secondary position because he is not physically present. The power of great Acharyas and Gurus is that they can extend themselves over long periods of time.
We should not argue that well I can worship only one Guru. Scripture says you can have many Shiksha Gurus, worship them all equally, and you can have one Diksha Guru also worship equally. So, you have many Gurus to worship. The scriptures say that we can have different Shiksha Gurus to worship and we can have only one Diksha Guru. And, of course, we are not only worshipping Gurus, we are worshipping Krishna, we are worshipping Radha, we are worshipping Gauranga, we are worshipping Nityananda, we are worshipping Narashimadev, we are worshipping so many people simultaneously. So, the purpose of saying all this is that we worship our living Guru, Shiksha Guru, Diksha Guru, etc., but we also worship Shri Prabhupad and put him in the most prominent position because he is the founder Acharya.
So, though in our Sampradaya we do emphasize the Shiksha Guru, we see that often, not just in ISKCON, but even in Gaudiya matt, and even in other groups, we see that they do emphasize the Shiksha Guru. So, one reason may be that Diksha is easier to quantify, and it also becomes a ritual. So, it becomes something like getting a degree from a university. So, it becomes easy to count devotees in terms of initiated devotee, non-initiated devotee. So, we tend to measure the potency of a preacher, or a manager, or a Guru in terms of how many initiations he gets. So, ofcourse nothing wrong when we measure things, but unfortunately it may become materialistic. It becomes an official title for a devotee. So, we have to be careful that it doesn’t become a materialistic goal for a devotee to get initiation.
2.) I found out from your class that when we go deeply inside of this relationship, we show ourselves not as we are. We want to show us from another point of view. But in order to have a true relationship, we should be as we are. And my question is, for example, I speak about myself. Because I feel that I’m not as I am when I’m in relationship, because we have many, many classes, many, many examples to take from spiritual scriptures. And we are always told how we should be. So for this reason, it’s very difficult for me to know how I am.
So in our relationship, usually I’m not as I am. But I’m as I want to be following scriptures and classes, etc. And I used to go sometime ago to one psychological group, like psychological training with materialistic people. And for me it was easy in this atmosphere to feel myself. But when I’m in group of devotees, for me it’s difficult because I’m scared that maybe somebody will not accept me as I am.
And my question is also about today’s lecture. Can we change ISKCON in such a way that we can reveal ourselves as we are, maybe not the best? Not as we should be. But if there is possibility that ISKCON accepts us as we are, and not as we should be. Thank you.
So, in modern psychology, we can say your natural state is at least a tolerable state by which you can manage yourself in this material world with not too much problem. That’s your natural state. But in society, especially modern society, we get imposed upon us all sorts of false ideals, what we should be.
And we also have negative impressions of what we think we are. However, according to scripture, even our natural state in this material world is also false. So, of course, this we understand from scripture. So based on that, that scripture gives us some solutions, methods. So, by this method, we completely get rid of all material identity. And we have to replace these false identities with our true spiritual identity.
The scriptures say that this is our natural identity, that’s our real dharma. So, if we accept, OK, I am the eternal servant of Krishna, I can’t realize it perfectly, at least I’m theoretically trying to do that and I think it’s a good idea, then we can start the process of bhakti. But if we think, oh, being the servant of Krishna, that’s a big artificial imposition upon me, I don’t like this, then we’re not ready to start bhakti at all. So, once we accept, then we accept the process of bhakti, then we have lots of choices. Lots of options that we can adopt. We have 64 angas of bhakti, different types of bhaktis. We can choose which one do you want to emphasize. We can choose the form of God we want to worship, powerful form, small form, informal form, intimate form, whatever. And with Krishna we can choose the type of relationship, Dasya, Sakhya, Vatsalya or Madhurya. So, we have some choice of which is more natural for us in terms of when I am the servant of Krishna, we’ve got all sorts of things which may be more natural for us than other things.
But in arguing for being individual or whatever, we can’t make up our own form of God, we cannot make up our own roles, we cannot make up our own new rasas for Krishna.
3.) And I want to understand, so this negative part of me that anyway, anyhow is situated inside of me. So, should I close my eyes, I mean close my eyes for this negative part of me? What should I do with this negative part of me that anyhow is inside of me? Yes, and should I wait when this demon will die, and some demigod will come out?
So, the process of bhakti destroys all anarthas. It destroys karmas, it destroys all desires, anger, whatever. And ultimately, it will destroy ahankara. But the basic principle behind everything to destroy all of the anarthas and false identity is unconditional love for Krishna.
4.) So, we know that we should be always happy, we should dance and chant holy names, and to try to be near Krishna, to be His eternal servant. But at the same time, how can we identify ourselves? Because in any case, every part of us is different. It’s not the same. This small particle of God, represented by all Jivas, is not the same. So, it means that we will lose our individuality. Right?
So, each Jiva who is a devotee in the spiritual world has a choice of a particular relationship. So, everybody does kirtan. Mother Yasoda in Vatsalya Rasa does a particular type of kirtan. Cowherd boys do kirtan, but different kirtan from what Mother Yasoda does. Gopis also do kirtan, but different kirtan. Of course, among Gopis and Cowherd boys there are also different varieties. So, each type of Gopi is going to have a different type of kirtan. And of course, they have all sorts of choices of other activities. So, each devotee serves individually to please Krishna.
5.) Please accept my Dandavat, dear Bhanu Swami. Please accept my Dandavat, dear Dainitli Prabhu.. My name is Sudarshan Das. We met with Bhanu Swami at the Altai Festival
Okay. So, which is the connection between the scientific knowledge that we find many times Srila Prabhupad is telling about scientific knowledge in his scriptures and Acintya. So, something that we cannot understand by our mind. Acintya of Krishna. So, which is the connection between these two notions? Not only acintya, but mercy of Krishna. Acintya and mercy.
So, for example, when we speak about spiritual knowledge and we are in association with devotees, so everything that is happening we are always telling this is all mercy of Krishna or acintya. So, something that we cannot understand by our own brain. But if we speak about one laboratory, for example, and this laboratory is doing some tests. So, this laboratory doing this present test will seek the previous tests. And it will base the actual result on previous experience.
So, which is the connection and in which case we should understand this is mercy of Krishna or Acintya or this is scientific knowledge?
So, of course, ultimately everything about Krishna is Acintya, because the Jiva is limited and the Lord is unlimited. Nevertheless, we can describe certain things about Krishna. For instance, he is very affectionate towards devotees. So, though Krishna is affectionate towards devotees, even then we get unpredictable things. For instance, Krishna also is affectionate to demons. He will deliver Putana, put her in the spiritual world. So, Krishna has… Krishna promises, and His promise should be fulfilled. He promises to return to Vrindavan after three months. But he doesn’t. So, if Krishna breaks his promise to the greatest devotees, the Gopis of Vrindavan, who can believe anything that Krishna says?
Now, of course, some things are predictable. We do bhakti, we go through Anarta-nivirtti, Nishta, Ruchi, Bhava, Prema, so that’s predictable. So, in science, you carry out an experiment in a certain way, you get a predictable result. So, we do Bhakti and we go through the different stages, ultimately, we get Prema. So that’s why we can say it is scientific.
But then in the middle, Krishna may do something unpredictable. So, Naradha muni got Bhava and saw the Lord, and the Lord said, I am not going to show Myself for the rest of the life. On the other hand… So Dhruva did mix Bhakti. But in five months, then after five or six months, he saw the Lord. So, certain things are predictable in general, but then we have the unpredictable mercy of Krishna.
Thank you very much.
Grantaraj Srimad Bhagavatham ki jai!!! Srila Prabhupad ki jai!!!