The Hare Krishna Movement : the Postcharismatic Fate of a Religious Transplant / Edited by Edwin F
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the hare krishna movement The Hare Krishna Movement ƒ The Postcharismatic Fate of a Religious Transplant edited by Edwin F. Bryant and Maria L. Ekstrand COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS NEW YORK Columbia University Press Publishers Since 1893 New York Chichester, West Sussex Copyright © 2004 Columbia University Press All rights reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The Hare Krishna movement : the postcharismatic fate of a religious transplant / edited by Edwin F. Bryant and Maria L. Ekstrand. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0–231–12256–X (cloth) 1. International Society for Krishna Consciousness—History. I. Bryant, Edwin. II. Ekstrand, Maria. BL1285.83.H37 2004 294.5’512—dc22 2003055557 Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent and durable acid-free paper. Printed in the United States of America c 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Designed by Lisa Hamm contents Contributors ix Foreword LARRY D. SHINN xv Introduction EDWIN F. BRYANT AND MARIA L. EKSTRAND 1 part 1 Krishna Consciousness in the Context of Hindu Theology 11 1. Krishna, the Intimate Deity GRAHAM M. SCHWEIG 13 2. The History of Indic Monotheism and Modern Chaitanya Vaishnavism: Some Reflections NEAL DELMONICO 31 3. Hare Krishna Mahamantra: Gaudiya Vaishnava Practice and the Hindu Tradition of Sacred Sound GUY L. BECK 35 4. Krishna in Mleccha Desh: ISKCON Temple Worship in Historical Perspective KENNETH VALPEY (KRISHNA KSHETRA DAS) 45 part 2 Bhaktivedanta Swami and His Predecessors 61 5. Who Is Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu? STEVEN J. ROSEN (SATYARAJA DAS) 63 6. Charismatic Renewal and Institutionalization in the History of Gaudiya Vaishnavism and the Gaudiya Math JAN BRZEZINSKI 73 7. Bhaktivinoda and Scriptural Literalism SHUKAVAK N. DAS 97 8. The Guru, Mayavadins, and Women: Tracing the Origins of Selected Polemical Statements in the Work of A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami EKKEHARD LORENZ 112 [vi] Contents 9. Bhaktivedanta Swami’s Preaching in the Context of Gaudiya Vaishnavism PAUL H. SHERBOW 129 part 3 Post-Bhaktivedanta Controversies of Lineage 147 10. Cleaning House and Cleaning Hearts: Reform and Renewal in ISKCON WILLIAM H. DEADWYLER (RAVINDRA SVARUPA DAS) 149 11. The Guardian of Devotion: Disappearance and Rejection of the Spiritual Master in ISKCON After 1977 SWAMI BHAKTI BHAVANA VISHNU 170 12. The No Change in ISKCON Paradigm KRISHNAKANT DESAI, SUNIL AWATRAMANI (ADRIDHARAN DAS), AND MADHU PANDIT DAS 194 13. The “Routinization of Charisma” and the Charismatic: The Confrontation Between ISKCON and Narayana Maharaja IRVIN H. COLLINS 214 part 4 Heresies 239 14. Doctrinal Controversy and the Group Dynamic CONRAD JOSEPH (KUNDALI DAS) 241 15. Heresy and the Jiva Debate HOWARD RESNICK (HRIDAYANANDA DAS GOSWAMI) 264 part 5 Social Issues 271 16. Airports, Conflict, and Change in the Hare Krishna Movement E. BURKE ROCHFORD JR. 273 17. Healing the Heart of ISKCON: The Place of Women KIM KNOTT 291 18. Life as a Woman on Watseka Avenue: Personal Story I NORI J. MUSTER 312 19. Child Abuse and the Hare Krishnas: History and Response DAVID WOLF 321 20. Fifteen Years Later: A Critique of Gurukula: Personal Story II GABRIEL DEADWYLER (YUDHISHTHIRA DAS) 345 21. Race, Monarchy, and Gender: Bhaktivedanta Swami’s Social Experiment EKKEHARD LORENZ 347 Contents [vii] part 6 Reevaluations 391 22. On Leaving ISKCON: Personal Story III STEVEN J. GELBERG 393 23. On Staying in ISKCON: Personal Story IV MICHAEL GRANT (MUKUNDA GOSWAMI) AND ANUTTAMA DAS ADHIKARI 404 24. Re-Visioning ISKCON: Constructive Theologizing for Reform and Renewal THOMAS HERZIG (TAMAL KRISHNA GOSWAMI) AND KENNETH VALPEY (KRISHNA KSHETRA DAS) 416 Concluding Reflections EDWIN F. BRYANT AND MARIA L. EKSTRAND 431 Glossary 443 Index447 contributors anuttama das adhikari is the current Director of Communications for ISKCON and was appointed to the Governing Body Commission in 1999. He is editor of the Hare Krishna Report, a bimonthly media newsletter. He is a trustee of the ISKCON Foundation and a board member of Children of Kr- ishna. He is the president of the Washington, DC chapter of the Religion Communicator’s Council and a member of that interfaith group’s national Board of Governors. sunil awatramani (adridharan das) was until recently the president of ISKCON Calcutta and is now chairman of the ISKCON Reform Movement (IRM). He is co-author of The Final Order (available online at <http:// www.iskconirm.com/tfo.htm>) and No Change in ISKCON (available online at <http://www.iskconirm.com/no_change_in_iskcon.paradigm.htm>). guy l. beck received his Ph.D. in South Asian religion and his M.A. in mu- sicology from Syracuse University and is currently an assistant professor at Tulane University in New Orleans. He is the author of Sonic Theology: Hin- duism and Sacred Sound (University of South Carolina Press, 1993) and per- forms on his CD, Sacred Raga. swami bhakti bhavana vishnu is the “co-acharya” of Shri Narasingha Chaitanya Matha, a Gaudiya Vaishnava mission headquartered in Shri Ranga- patna, Karnataka. He is the author of numerous articles and the book Our Af- fectionate Guardians: A Historical Perspective (New Delhi: Gaudiya Vaishnava Society, 1996; available online at <http://www.gosai.com/tattva/>). edwin f. bryant received his Ph.D. in Indology from Columbia University in 1997 and is currently an associate professor at Rutgers University, where he teaches Hinduism. His publications include The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture: The Indo-Aryan Migration Debate (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001) and Krishna, the Beautiful Legend of God: Srimad Bhagavatam Pu- rana Book X (London: Penguin, 2003); he is the editor of the forthcoming [x] Contributors Sources of the Krishna Tradition (New York: Oxford University Press, forth- coming). jan brzezinski has a Ph.D. in Sanskrit from the University of London (SOAS). His most recent publication is Mystic Poetry, a translation of Rupa Goswami’s messenger poems, Hamsaduta and Uddhava-sandesa (San Francis- co: Mandala Media, 1999). He works as a Sanskrit translator in Laval, Quebec. irvin h. collins received a B.A. in sociology and psychology from the Uni- versity of California-Berkeley in 1999. He was a full-time member of ISKCON for two decades and is now associated with the organization of Narayana Ma- haraja. He currently works as an elementary school teacher in the San Fran- cisco Bay area. gabriel deadwyler (yudhisthira das) was born in ISKCON and at- tended gurukulas in Dallas, Pennsylvania, and Vrindavan. He holds an under- graduate degree in Diplomatic History from the University of Pennsylvania and is currently pursuing further studies in music and intellectual history. william h. deadwyler (ravindra svarupa das) received his Ph.D. in religion from Temple University. He has been a member of ISKCON’s Gov- erning Body Commission since 1987 and is the president of ISKCON Philadel- phia and an initiating guru. He has written extensively on Vaishnava philoso- phy and ISKCON reform and is the author of Encounter with the Lord of the Universe: Collected Essays 1978–1983 (Washington, DC: Gita Nagari Press, 1984). neal delmonico received his Ph.D. in South Asian Languages and Civiliza- tions from the University of Chicago in 1990. He has taught in the Religious Studies Program at Iowa State University and in philosophy and religious stud- ies at Truman State University. He is the author of First Steps in Vedanta (New york: FID Global Scholarly Publications, 2003) and is collaborating on an online text repository for Sanskrit and Bengali texts at <www:granthamandira.org>. maria l. ekstrand received her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Auburn University in 1986. She has counseled devotees for more than twenty years and has been active in ISKCON’s child protection efforts. She currently is assistant professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, conducting AIDS prevention studies, primarily in Mumbai and Bangalore, India, and teaching at the School of Public Health at UC Berkeley. steven j. gelberg has an M.A. in comparative religion from Harvard. He was a staff writer for the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, the publishing arm of ISKCON. He is the author of Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna: Five Distinguished Scholars on the Krishna Movement in the West (New York: Grove Press, 1983). Contributors [xi] michael grant (mukunda goswami) joined ISKCON in 1966 and served on the Governing Body Commission from 1984 to 1999 as the ISKCON Minister of Communication. He accepted the renounced order of sannyasa in 1982. He is the author of Coming Back: The Science of Reincarnation (Los An- geles: Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, 1982) and the co-author of Divine Nature (Los Angeles: Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, 1995) and Inside the Hare Krishna Movement (Badger, CA: Torchlight, 2001). thomas herzig (tamal krishna goswami) joined ISKCON in 1968 and served on its Governing Body Commission from its inception in 1970 until his death in March 2002. He accepted the renounced order of sannyasa, and at the time of his death, he was enrolled in the doctoral studies program at Cam- bridge University, England. His publications include Reason and Belief: Prob- lem Solving in the Philosophy of Religion (Dallas: Pundits Press, 1997); Science of Yoga: The Story of Li Kuang Shi (Los Angeles, California: Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, 1989); Prabhupada Antya-lila: The Final Pastimes of Srila Prabhupada (Washington, DC: Institute for Vaishnava Studies, 1998); Jagannatha-Priya Natakam: The Drama of Lord Jagannatha (Cambridge, MA: Bhaktivedanta In- stitute of Religion and Culture, 1985); and Servant of the Servant (Los Angeles: Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, 1984). conrad joseph (kundali das) was affiliated with ISKCON for twenty- three years before severing ties with its management structure in 1996. He has written numerous books on the social dynamics of ISKCON, including the four-volume series Our Mission, published by Abhaya (New Delhi: Rakha Printers Pvt.