Lord Krishna Forum - Krishna Talk

fryskenfry · Joined: 11 Jan 2006 Posts: 3

Hare Krishna

i posted this question somewhere else, where it was slightly off-topic, but thought it would be to the benefit of us all if everyone could read the answers to it.

maybe you will be so kind as to answer a question that has come to my mind recently: i think we consider all religions equal, that is, if a muslim is pious and listening to a good teacher of his scriptures, then he will advance.
but i cannot help noticing, that most religions that elevate their profets (christianity, islam) to deity, in due time become hostile towards others. once Jesus is your new demigod, you will start preaching to others, serving the same god, but a different profet / demigod. If preaching won't work, then a crusade probably will. and the new age of crusades has certainly started recently.
i have never experienced any disrespect in this direction from hare-krishna preachers, but i wonder whether it is a wise thing to elevate Prabupada to the level of a demigod. and i fear this will happen once his desciples have left this world. has Prabupada ever said anything about this risk? or did he simply not see it coming?

you cannot simply answer, that the hare-krishna movement will always stay the same, as history has already proven you wrong. for instance, the gurukula (is that school? don't remember the word exactly) system has already been changed. and a lot of more subtle changes could be added, if you wish.

the answer is also not, that Prabupada's words are very easy to understand. i helped a devotee a few years ago on a translation from english into dutch and he experienced some problems on interpretation. on the one hand Prabupada's mastery of the english language was not perfect, on the other hand some words simply cannot be translated, especially not if they are metaphorical in any way or refer to a symbol in a certain language.
any translation of his teachings will be easy to understand, but will refer to symbols that the original language did not foresee.

so i say, the more the world changes, the less we understand the literal word of Prabupada and the greater the risk that he becomes the next God and the greater the risk that his words will be interpreted.

i sure hope, history will be our teacher.

Haribol

cherry · Joined: 19 Jan 2006 Posts: 47 Location: australia

the vedas never change, there may be slight changes to different things due to time place circumstance, but the philosophy never changes.
Prabhupada should never be considered God. There has been many great spiritual masters before Prabhupada, in the vaisnava line, none of them are ever considered God. Prabhupada, in all his books, declares clearly who is God, how to confirm, give details of the incarnations of God, when they will appear, it is all in Bhagavatam. No doubt, he will not be considered God by any sane person.

radha damodara · Joined: 03 Jan 2006 Posts: 7

Hare Krsna!
Srila Prabhupada is something like demigod, yes. He's a saktiaveys avatar and look what he has done -he made the most sublime spiritual knowledge available all around the world. We should never minimize his position, if we do that the whole movement is finished. It becomes an apasampradaya.
All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

bhakta · Joined: 28 Feb 2006 Posts: 5

radha damodara wrote: All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

I bow deeply to Srila Prabhupada.

Srila Prabhupada ki JAI!!!