One person, an Indian Hindu raised in a non bhakti tradition, visited an ISKON temple in Boston.
She reports that it gave her valuable new insight to re-read the Bhagavad Gita from a bhakti perspective, which supplemented the Jnani (Hindu intellectual
tradition) of her family.
She did note this:
She reports that it gave her valuable new insight to re-read the Bhagavad Gita from a bhakti perspective, which supplemented the Jnani (Hindu intellectual
tradition) of her family.
She did note this:
Quote
[people.bu.edu]
I saw the vigor with which the devotees sang the chants. I heard how they had all read the Gita numerous times. I listened when they spoke of their love for Krishna. When I put all these pieces together, I was shown a new picture. The Hare Krishnas were not necessarily rooted in something “un-Hindu.” They were just rooted in a different vein of Hinduism than I had been exposed too. The temple visit was successful in altering my philosophical view of the Hare Krishnas. But my social impression of the Hare Krishnas remained unchanged.
While it may be true that the Hare Krishnas have the right idea about Hinduism, there is still something about the movement that makes me feel that it is less than religious. The movement attracts a certain type of follower. In the case of the Boston temple, the majority of the devotees were young males under the age of twenty-five. They had one thing in common however, and it was that they were previously part of a social scene called “straight edge.” The straight edge scene was characterized by the cliché “sex, drugs, and rock and roll”, but without the sex and the drugs. They liked punk music, but refrained from drugs and sex. Most of the young men who were now living in the ashram, had been members of the straight edge scene. Another commonality between these young members was that many of them had previously been addicted to drugs. One devotee mentioned how he had almost overdosed, but then he found Krishna.
It is the air around the Hare Krishnas that is still unsettling to me.
ISKCON seems to attract the wandering and lost. The devotees have an idealized version of India, and instantly thought that I was pure just because I was Indian. They were fascinated with my heritage and instantly felt a bond to me because I was from India. They believe that Americans are crazy, money hungry, and have lost the true purpose of life.
These generalizations make me feel that the Hare Krishnas are living in a deluded world.