Back to Content

 

Hindus & Hare Krishnas (HK’s) Unity
- by “Madhav”

Background:

The Current Time:

This is post 9/11/2001 WTC attack time and early 2003. 9/11 attack on WTC has made the world know the barbaric nature of Islam. The Hindus have many times suffered genocide over 1200 years from Islamists in Bharat. Therefore, the Hindus, being the victims, know the barbaric nature of Islam since a long time. The current barbaric acts of Islamists towards Hindus are: The destruction of Bamian Buddha statue in Afghanistan , attack on Akshardham and Raghunath temples in Bharat. The web page http://www.hinduunity.org describes many such acts towards the Hindus.

The jeehaad or Islamists’ holy war against all the non-Muslim people of the world is an asymmetric war of terrorism. (They do jeehaad as described in their Holy Book, Koran and Hadith.) No government alone can fight terrorism and win it. Everyone (or most of the) citizen needs to fight it in whatever small or big way one can fight it, violently or non-violently. For Hindus, violent war is the last choice. When all have to fight, then unity of purpose, organizing, planning, manning, funding, and executing is required. Therefore, the Hindus and HK’s can unite for this purpose. However, the way Sri Prabhupada has presented KC, it makes difficult for HK’s to unite with the Hindus. When many Hindus see that Hk’s do not understand them, then they turn away from HK’s and sometimes become hostile to HK’s. Still many Hindus do support HK’s. This article aims to discuss it with the hope that it will help HK’s unite with Hindus. Once properly understood, it would be seen that unity is already there but not realized.

Now the Article:

Some points (facts) are described below.

a) Sri Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada who came to USA in 1965 and preached KC for 12 years all over the world was a Hindu. He was born and raised in Bharat (although that is not a condition to become a Hindu.) He practiced and preached KC or Vaishnavism or Krishna bhakti or Bhagavat dharma that is a major part or sect of Hinduism or Sanatana Dharma. He preached Bhagavad Gita and Srimad Bhagavatam. Gita is the Book of Hinduism. Krishna is known as God Vishnu among Hindus and in the Vedic literature.

b) Hare Krishnas are Hindus. This is clear when they practice and preach KC. The Hindus clearly see it this way. If some one who follows Jesus is no doubt a Christian, then one who follows and worships Krishna is no doubt a Hindu. If a bird says it is not a bird, that does note make it a non–bird.

c) Prabhupada said to his followers that he is not preaching Hinduism, so HK’s are not Hindus, he said. So the question is why he said so in light of paragraph a) above. Some answers are as follows:

c1: Many Hindus have malpracticed Hinduism, and Hinduism is more than Vaishnavism. The malpractice is going away now, but is still there somewhat. Most non-Hindus incorrectly think that Hinduism is what the most Hindus practice. Rather than telling about the malpractices to the followers who mostly hated Hinduism because they do not know it correctly, he told he is not preaching Hinduism. This was to avoid the discussion about the malpractices and different sects’ principles of Hinduism. This was a lie, but for good reason, just like parents sometimes lie to a child to take a medicine that ultimately will make the child healthy.

c2) The Islamists and the Christians have introduced Hinduism to the world incorrectly and defamed it for selfish reasons. Consequently most non-Hindus do not know what Hinduism really is, and hate it for what they know about it. If Prabhupada had said, ”I am teaching a part of Hinduism,” most would have turned away from him before listening him any more. So, it helped him teach pure Vaishnavism to them by telling it is not Hinduism or a sect of it.

c3) When he said he is not preaching Hinduism, it became attractive to all, even who hated Hinduism. So, he got more followers, as he wanted.

d) When the Hindus hear that Prabhupada said he is not preaching Hinduism when in reality he is, they (especially those who follow Hinduism correctly) feel that Prabhupada stole Hinduism and did not give due credit to the Hindus who kept Hinduism alive despite many Hindu genocides by the Muslims. This is like a mother (even a prostitute) will feel really bad, upset, and hurt when her son says, “I am not your child.” Although Hinduism is for every human being, it is the Hindus who kept it as their treasured heritage. So, when some one takes this heritage and spreads it, they feel good about it. However, when no credit is given to the Hindus for carrying on the culture for future generations, they feel bad about it. Similarly when the Hindus see that yoga and Aayurveda are silently stolen from Hindu heritage and commercialized, and no credit is given to the Hindus, they feel bad about it. The Hindu nationalists want to understand this heritage correctly and practice it well, especially in Bharat.

e) Prabhupada preached pure Vaishnavism but packaged it wrongly to make it attractive to his western audience. Removing this false package does not change his preaching subject (Vaishnavism) at all. Vaishnavism still can be preached as Prabhupada taught it, but saying that it is a major sect of Hinduism. No harm can happen to the KC movement if this is done.

f) When KC is recognized by HK’s as a part of Hinduism, millions of the Hindus will feel good about it and support the movement. Note that even without this correction, many Hindus do support KC movement. Hindus have no problem with others if others want to worship only one god exclusively. However, HK’s should not look down to the Hindus just because they worship many gods. They do it because there are many gods (devas/ devis). When they understand dharma correctly then they worship only one god.

g) Currently HK’s are not supporting Hindu nationalist movement but the Hindus are supporting KC movement. Thus there is no mutual support that is needed when Islamists have declared war on all the kafirs (HK’s included). If the Hindu nationalists do not keep Islam and Christianity out of Bharat, then over some time not far, there will not be any Hindu temples or pilgrimage places like Vrindavan and Jagannath or Dwarika. It all will be just mosques, and burqa for women and cow slaughters every where. Islam is very intolerant, and Koran and Hadith and Sharia are the books of religion as well as the government. Sure HK’s do not want this, and therefore they need to support Hindu nationalist movement as the Hindus support KC movement.

h) Hinduism (Vaishnavism included) has four divisions of society. Ideally, the Brahmanas are the spiritual guides of the society. Kshatriyas are the protective class, the police and military to keep law and order so that every one can practice their dharma without any problem from any one. Vaishya are farmers and traders and merchants, and shudras are the labor class. Every society has these four classes. Without kshatriyas or the Hindu nationalists, the Hinduism will be run over by the Islamists in Bharat. Hindu-HK unity is desirable to avoid this and keep Hinduism alive and well for future generations on this earth.

Bottom line:

Vaishnavism the HK’s practice and preach is a major sect of Hinduism. It is a subset of Hinduism. Therefore, HK’s are Hindus and they need to accept this truth just as a Californian will not say he is not an American. The Hindus have no doubt about it. The HK’s should thank Sri Prabhupada for telling them (even incorrectly) he is not preaching Hinduism and thus making them Krishna devotees. Hinduism is just a recent new name for Varnasrama dharma or Sanatana dharma. The word “Hinduism” should not be used to mean all the malpractice the Hindus did in the past. Rather Hinduism needs to be presented to the world as it actually is given by Krishna in Gita. HK’s need to be sympathetic to the Hindu nationalist movement called Hindutva in reciprocation of the fact that Hindus do support KC movement. The current HK preachers need not say any more that they are not preaching Hinduism because now they know KC is not bad as malpracticed Hinduism was. It is very true and correct to say Vaishnavism is a sect of Hinduism and they are preaching that only in its pure form, and practice it correctly. The purpose of the article is to cause unity that is beneficial for HK’s as well as the Hindus.

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

--END--

 

 

Hosted by www.Geocities.ws

1