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Introduction
Until very recently in Germany, studies have not been undertaken
on the theological basis of the International Society for Krishna
Consciousness (ISKCON). Prior to this, the task was mostly left
to the polemics of religious policy, and needless to say, the subsequent
consequences proved to be highly problematic. The combined forces
of active religious polemics against ISKCON, and the lack of scholarly
research into the theology of this movement has greatly diminished
the chances of producing an objective analysis. Moreover, it has
only succeeded in producing a barrier to creating an open atmosphere
in which dialogue can legitimately take place.
There has been some cause for optimism in Germany as the freedom
to practice religion as a basic human right has gained increasing
respect. Recently, the alliance of aggressive forces against religious
tolerance has ended, leaving room for a public and differentiating
discussion between the participants, reinforcing a freer and more
competent inter-civil dialogue about spiritual matters.
The rejection of an inter-civil dialogue on spiritual affairs however,
undermines an effective democracy, which subsists on the continuous
confrontation of free citizens with their common culture, and this
is especially important with the ultimate questions of human existence.
Moreover, the success of an inter-civil confrontation can be guaranteed
if the participants in the dialogue respect their mutual freedom
as citizens, and take the mutual dialogue among citizens as a basic
starting point. This is the only way to attain a reasonable range
of solutions to a changing society.
A constructive discussion in society about the new religious situation
in Germany has been impeded by suppressing the science of religion.
Today, the study of religion in Germany has a surprisingly more
liberal impetus in the universities, enabling a broader theological
research. There is a clear indication, not only of reform within
ISKCON, but also in the churches that are setting about discussing
multi-religious topics on a higher level.
As a contribution to this inter-civil dialogue, the following is
a theological analysis of the religious culture practised by German
citizens involved with ISKCON and their impact upon our culture.
1. Subject and Aim of Diacritical Theology
There are many understandings of theology and for this reason
it is necessary to explain what it is and where it should and should
not be engaged. Theology is not a religious ideology of a particular
community that argues the interests of social organisations, but
is a universal science. It is not limited to a certain religious
culture or form of society, but is committed to its specific subject.1
Such an autonomous theology has the task of discrimen inter legem
et evangelium-the diacritical analysis of Law and Gospel according
to the description of its function by Martin Luther. We will follow
these basic categories of diacritical theology and explain them
here.2
The Law: man's relationship to God and to his neighbours
In traditional theological ethics, Law is described as the absolute
demand to love one's neighbour with all one's heart. This definition
presupposes that which Martin Luther calls the human possibility
of free love.3 This freedom of
loving God and man is not the subjective freedom of making a decision
to love, but rather its objective natural quality of absoluteness
and self-esteem- its actual ability to satisfy human existence.
According to theological ethics man owns the natural force to love
unconditionally and to experience in it the perfection of his existence.
Perfection is nothing but the pure effulgence of natural energy.
The continuous task of religion is to liberate love to allow it
to be experienced as a fulfilment in life. The enforcement of charitable
work, whether done from free or conditioned motivation, however,
is the task of politics. But the only means to realise religion
and policy is through the mind, that is, by means of the universal
wholeness of all human faculties.
The fact that Law is manifested as a claim in man's social and
individual existence is due to the factual dominance of the idea
of conditional love, the righteousness by work. Law in the sense
of theological ethics does, however, not just demand the realisation
of love, but also its free realisation; or in other words it demands
the renunciation of the existential determination of the righteousness
by work. Law contradicts the realisation of free love by challenging
its claim.
The Gospel: God's relationship to man
The Gospel, however, does not contain any claim or aim. No human
condition is meant other than, theologically speaking, for God's
reality: God's free love of His creation, and the Gospel, the subject
of theological dogmatism, transfers this internal Divine reality.
By the agency of the Gospel God states that He was free, is free
and will be free in His love to the world. The Gospel reveals its
power in that way by revealing the paradox of the use of human works
to reach perfection in God's relationship to man, who by no means
can neither reduce nor enforce this relationship.
The Distinction
The distinction between both verba dei, concepts of theology,
is necessary because otherwise in the human mind the idea of the
freedom of love would be suspended. Martin Luther calls this suspension
'righteousness by work'. This is the fundamental idea that the sense
of human life may be constituted by works alone. The result of this
imagined self-made dependence on one's own works, results in a transubstantiation
of free love into religious prostitution in the human mind. This
commercial loving relationship relegates God to free love, and makes
man capable of freely loving only the goddess of commercial righteousness.
Thus God becomes an agent of this righteousness, and man either
its beneficiary or its victim.
The existential catastrophe of this concept of man and God is that
because God's free love is distorted, consciousness is deprived
of the only opportunity of overcoming the lack of freedom. Using
human works for un-natural purposes represents a closed system of
views from which there is no possibility of escape. It is through
this system of irreducible, contingent revelation of the absolute
freedom of God's love and its unconditioned truth, that the determination
of living life without changing the actual living practice may be
overcome. Whereas the Law wants to change man's possibilities, the
Gospel shows him that God's love remains free and unconditioned,
even if man holds on to the concept of conditional love and righteousness
by work (and according to that criterion should have lost the sense
of his existence).
The functional distinction of these two Divine words guarantees
that the final value of human existence is not determined by the
realisation of conditional as well as free love. According to the
Gospel, the value of existence is protected in the sacred realm
where it remains taboo. Law then properly serves as stimulation
to a perfection that is irrelevant for eschatology. Thus the essential
discrimination between Law and Gospel is that one shows human creative
abilities and the other Divine reality.
If Law challenges the general human ability of love, yet at the
same time the universally valid Gospel is free for every culture,
it becomes urgent for theology to reckon with the universal research
project of discriminating between Law and Gospel. The religions
of the world can act as research teams, studying this thesis from
various perspectives. However, without a free exchange with mutually
examined inter-religious criticism, this inter-religious dialogue
and research will be incomplete. In this sense, inter-religious
research is a touchstone of universal theology.
2: The Religion basis of ISKCON
Preamble
What is the significance of the contribution of ISKCON to the
relationship and formation of both Law and Gospel? ISKCON is not
a substantially new religion or a mere product of modern mind detached
from the human quest of the utmost truth. ISKCON is a branch of
the millenary Krishna religion of Hindu culture in its Bengali form.
The Gaudiya Vaishnavas appeal to the Vaishnava Saint, Krishna Caitanya,
who is Martin Luther's contemporary. It therefore belongs to the
broad bhakti movement in India, which receives an immense
impetus in the regions influenced by the Hindu culture today.4
ISKCON is doubtlessly a Hindu denomination-it is ISKCON that uniquely
propagates the Hindu culture as a universal and modern form of constructing
the world. The particular character of ISKCON is not its religious
enthusiasm, but rather that it is the first Hindu missionary movement
outside of the Indian subcontinent. Against this background it should
be asked how ISKCON may appear in the above mentioned theological
perspective.
Law : the essence of religion is bhakti
First, the influence and construction of Law in ISKCON needs
to be examined. One central question needs to be asked: how does
ISKCON understand and confirm service for God and charitable work
for our neighbours, is it conditioned or is there a free choice
for people?
There is no doubt that the development of Law is extremely strong
in this religion; it may rightfully be said that this religion represents
a highly differentiated judicial piety. The concept used and highly
appreciated in Vaishnava religion (and not only by it) is bhakti.Bhakti
(service to God) is the highest form of human existence. Bhaktivedanta
Swami, the founder of the ISKCON mission in the western world, describes
this bhakti in a purport of Bhagavad-Gita with the
words from the eight verses of prayer by Krishna Caitanya as follows,
'O almighty Lord, I have no desire to accumulate wealth, nor do
I desire beautiful women, nor do I want any number of followers.
I only want Your causeless devotional service, birth after birth.'5
Free love, the true way of Law-abiding piety, the true love of
God is rather perfectly expressed. Bhakti is pure worship
of God; it is not a self-constituent action as it is created by
God's mercy. Through the theory of a merciful gift the freedom of
God's love is confirmed. Bhakti, free love of God, is the
essence of our existence, the unique reason that Krishna Caitanya
claims for his existence; it is itself, the only purpose of life.
But this bhakti does not deliver man from the circle of reincarnations;
in no case is it a means of liberation; it is liberation in itself.
It is not from reincarnation that man wants to be liberated, but
from non-bhakti, from the senselessness of not realising
free love.
Liturgical ethics: love of God, bhagavata-prema, as puja and
liturgy
ISKCON doubtlessly belongs to the avant-garde of worshipping
God in our society. I might guess that this opulent and elaborate
religion has decisively pushed forward the ritualistic movement,
in that it is on its way to gradually becoming the dominant force
in the spiritual movement in Germany, a movement neglected so far
by theologians. It is not by accident that the so-called eastern
religions play a progressive part.
Since the Second Vatican Council, initiated by the hierarchy, the
destruction of the Holy Liturgy of the Western church, especially
of the ancient Latin Rite, has begun. The abolition of the sacral
language was not the only means of the anti-liturgical revolution
from above; it was the fundamental liturgical averting from serving
God, from the service to God, that was decisive, and the pseudo-liturgical
turn to the so-called people of God, serving the congregation which
then had become the object of cultivation, according to the proper
logic of liturgy.6 Consequently
the old altars are abandoned, new tables (without any liturgical
logic) have been forced into the churches, the priests turning their
backs to the Divine.
Liturgy and choirs direct prayers and songs to the people present
in the congregations. The pseudo-liturgical revolution of the Second
Vatican Council places man in the centre of the so-called liturgical
action, and the corresponding tendencies in the sister churches
transforming the Holy Communion into a sociable bread and wine supper;
this veritable profanation of the Holy Liturgy has continued the
anthropologisation of theology, of the science of God, on the level
of liturgy and service.
When the liquidation of the Holy Liturgy began in the West, at
about the same time a seventy-year-old Bengali Vaishnava monk arrived
in New York City and immediately began a liturgical counter-offensive,
with the construction of temples where the Divine is uniquely worshipped.7
The success of this revival of service is, in my eyes, based on
the fact that the traditional western mainstream churches yielded
to one-sided social moralism, without noticing the enormous need
for an intense immediate worship of God. The liturgical changes
of the nineteen-sixties were counter-productive-instead of acknowledging
this need for personal worship of God progressively, the traditional
service has become even more mutilated.
Puja is liturgy-service to the Divine and the Holy; it sustains
the hagio- or theo-centredness of human existence. ISKCON has reminded
us effectively of the necessity and the beauty of dedicating oneself
to preserving one's own inner existence and of cultivating it in
all conceivable forms. It reminds us of the fact that service to
God is the basis of the service to our neighbour.
A further contribution of ISKCON in re-establishing a rich culture
of serving the Lord, by placing an emphasis on the central importance
of glorifying the name of God in the cultural practice and in the
theology of worship. According to the general Vaishnava teachings,
the chanting of the Holy Name, the nama-sankirtana, is the
only possibility in this day and age to sustain the basis of one's
spiritual existence. For in this age of kali-yuga, when people
cannot surrender to an elaborate form of religion, the chanting
of the Holy Name is the direct method to attain perfection in spiritual
life (that is bhakti or devotion and bhagavata-prema
or love of Godhead)8 according
to Bhaktivedanta Swami, and it is viewed as the sole method: 'Lord
Caitanya has given the greatest boon: in this age one simply has
to chant the holy name of God to attain perfection in spiritual
life'.9 By emphasising the chanting,
ISKCON shows us that the function of Lady Music, who has been placed
immediately behind theology by Martin Luther, obviously is not only
to offer relaxation to the stressed careerists but above all to
prepare the way to love God-to bhakti. Who may believe in the power
of the chanted glorification of the name of God in order to awake
free love of God, and to one's neighbour, when listening to the
church songs today? ISKCON reminds us of the hidden power of hallelujah,
of the glorification of the Divine name.
Pastoral Ethics: guru and confessor
The religious changes in the Catholic Church produced by the
adherents of the Second Vatican Council have reversed the liturgical
order and de facto liquidated private confession. Thus the
last remains of a millennial spiritual authority, the confessor
or spiritual father, the serious individual guide, the critical
and committed companion of the spiritual and moral life of a person,
disappears. The demand for spiritual advice and guidance has shifted
to social work or therapy, caused by the pressures of modern lifestyles.
Thus more and more priests consider themselves primarily therapists
and social workers, or they escape from their original task as spiritual
guides by turning to policy and administration. It is the spiritual
guide's business to support the individual according to his own
capabilities, and by turning to the faith. For these reasons an
immediate reform of our clergy is necessary. Their duty is to guarantee
a durable and responsible spiritual guidance that links the two
aspects of people's lives - this does not seem to be fulfilled today.
It is no wonder that the ancient institution of the personal, often
lifelong spiritual teacher, the lama or guru, meets with much sympathy.
The institution of a guru is self-evident in many religions and
consequently well accepted. Teacher and disciple know what each
of them might expect, and the incorporation into the traditional
culture secures the effectiveness and reliability of that relationship.
There are, however, public scandals again and again with such teachers
in India, for example just recently with a Jain-Digamber monk,10
but this scandal shows us that teachers are not allowed to get away
with criminal activities. If they are convicted of illegal behaviour,
as a rule they are defeated. In the Hindu-Buddhist tradition gurus
are, however, well respected and searched for, without people submitting
blindly to the authority of spiritual teachers.
It is known that in the west ISKCON gurus misused their authority;
this came about however, as a result of the actions and motivations
of both the gurus and the diciples. Based on my own observation,
I may say that often a disciple's exaggerated wish to surrender,
together with the guru's overestimatation of the disciple, sometimes
resulted in irregular behaviour. The inadequacies of the guru and
the disciples might in most cases be due to a mutual weakness of
personalities if there is no criminal intention. The number of western
people that leave ISKCON is high in Germany, because many new converts
can not adhere to the strict moral regulations of the society. Regardless
of these problems in ISKCON's history, there is no doubt that the
guru system has a future, especially for the development of a spiritual
culture.
It is said that the territorial or congregational pastoral system
is being made obsolete by the spiritual sensitivity of the modern
individual. The local priests are left with the life cycle of stiff
and shortened casual exchanges with their congregation. Vivekananda
Swami, the Bengal Hindu reformer, has clearly realised this new
pastoral situation rather early. He saw the duty of a spiritual
father, the guru, to help the disciple discover and cultivate just
that kind of religion which corresponds to the disciple's svadharma,
not his own. According to him, the mere adoption of generalised
standards leads to the destruction of every spirituality.11
The only way that a guru or spiritual father will survive in the
long run is if he can adjust to the highly sensitive disciple, and
to respond to the singularity of the disciple in a creative way.
To my eyes, here the traditional ISKCON guru has reached a limit.
His patriarchal self-understanding as well as the transmission of
standardised patterns of a generalised religious culture, does not
allow the sensitivity that is required today. Nevertheless, the
modern guru's free and sensitive practice of caring for the disciples
is a lesson especially for modern urban societies. The polemics'
attack against the guru's authority is a genuine attempt to obstruct
the spiritual way of those people who want and need spiritual advice.
Ministerial ethics: brahmanas and priests
ISKCON itself does not present a perfect social counter pattern.
It is rather a brahminical society. What is new is that participation
in this class organisation is enabled not by birth or child baptism,
but by free decision and public initiation. Hence ISKCON is a branch
of the neo-brahminical movement in modern Hinduism which decisively
rejects Gandhi's physical conception of maintaining the castes.12
ISKCON does not share the conception of physical birth determining
man's religious dignity, such as the Sayyids in Islam, the Cohanim
and Levites in Jewdaism. It is rather a society of people committed
especially to spiritual practice by dedicating their lives to an
intense worship of God through puja (offerings made to the
Lord) and sankirtana (the congregational chanting of the
names of the Lord), and helping other people engaged in worldly
affairs by giving them spiritual advice and instructions.
Such spiritual communities may be found in all religions: the monk
and nun-orders, the Sikh-khalsa, the community of Taizé, and the
Sufi-order, are some examples. ISKCON is not self-centred, but altruistically
directed to its counterpart, to God or the world.
Consider the members that dedicate their lives to devotional service,
and intensely care for those working in material jobs. As a rule
the priests are only able to do this if they are backed up by a
brotherhood, or, if necessary, live together in a community (vita
communis). The fact is that more and more Christian communities
are founded using this method of operating, living to preach-as
they say- and to live their faith. This shows us that ISKCON has
been drawn into the pastoral vacuum left by the previous general
ecclesiastical culture for the aim of propagating the worship of
God.
It has been observed, however, that the vita communis is
declining more and more in ISKCON and that in its place a community
of more independent brahminical families is being established, inevitably
pushing forward the pluralisation of ISKCON.
Inter-religious ethics: the universal glorification of God or
ISKCON and other religions
Let us turn to a further question about the position of ISKCON
towards Law. Is it ready and capable of overcoming theological barriers
for the increase of God's praise? The Roman Catholic Church has
made tremendous changes in the last few decades. On the subject
of freedom of religion, the Second Vatican Council announced that
every human being and every religious community has the right to
freedom of religion, and that Christians have a duty to respect
the freedom of their neighbours.13
On the occasion of their Ramadan fasting the Holy Father has sent
greetings to the Muslims in the world for several years. He does
not address them as fundamentalists or cursed followers of a cheat,
but as religious brothers and sisters who adore the same God together
with the Catholics. The Pope has declared that 'With great respect
the Church considers the Muslims who adore the only God, the Living
Being existing by Himself, the Merciful and Almighty Creator of
heaven and earth who spoke to the people . . .They (also) appreciate
a moral attitude of life and worship God by prayers, alms and fasting'.14
But Hinduism also endeavours for the sacred. It is said of Hinduism,
to which ISKCON is affiliated, that 'In Hinduism, people search
for the Divine secret and express it in an infinite number of myths
and in profound philosophical attempts and seek liberation from
our narrow and restricted condition15
by living a life of renunciation, or deep meditation or by lovingly
taking shelter of God'.16
This acceptance of love of God, of bhakti, or other efforts
for the sacred made by other religions, is based on the idea of
God's truth transgressing the limits of the church. 'Everything
that is true and sacred in other religions is not rejected by the
Catholic church.' For 'not very rarely they let us see a beam of
the truth which enlightens all men'.17
Thus the Catholic church no longer denounces and blasphemes the
love of God in other religions but tunes them into the choir for
the genuine glorification of God.
Considering the newly acquired religious openness in Rome the question
arises whether ISKCON, with the single aim of worshipping and loving
God, is able to acknowledge a multi-religious worshipping of God,
or to even support it. We will see whether ISKCON will be able to
integrate into their movement all those who want to praise God,
or whether it has given up its Hindu character in favour of the
older Christian sentence: extra ecclesiam nulla salus!
Evidence points ISKCON to the latter direction. In the Bhagavad-gita
(9.23) it is said: 'Those who are devotees of other gods and who
worship them with faith actually worship only Me, O son of Kunti,
but they do so in a wrong way'.18
Bhaktivedanta comments on his translation as follows, 'The demigods
are, so to speak, different officers and directors in the government
of the Supreme Lord . . . In other words, Krishna does not approve
the unnecessary worship of the demigods'.19
In my eyes, Bhaktivedanta Swami has inadmissibly sharpened the sentence
from the Bhagavad-gita; for the clue in the sentence is that
even wrong worship ultimately reaches Krishna, the true God.
In a conversation with P. Emmanuel Jungclaussen, a Benedictine
monk of Byzantine rite from Niederalteich, Bhaktivedanta Swami said,
'"Christus" is a different way to say "Krishto"
and "Krishto" is another way of pronouncing the word "Krishna"
the name of God'.20 In this statement,
Bhaktivedanta Swami makes a distinction between the different types
of worship between the other faiths, for now the object of worship
is identical and the difference in worship are considered equal.
This is similar to the founder of this movement, Bhaktivedanta Swami
says when the Pope says, 'Jesus Christ means Jesus, Christ's or
Krishna's son. He has called himself Son of God. Therefore, whether
they call God "Krishto" or "Krishna" or "Christos",
there is no difference.' 21
Bhaktivedanta Swami declaring Jesus the son of Christus / Krishna
is an interesting annotation to Christology but does not impede
the basic idea of a positive integration of the Christian worship
of God into ISKCON, for he adds, 'There is no difference, Krishna
or Christus, there is the name, and, according to the Vedic scriptures,
we recommend to chant the name of God in this age'.22
Then Bhaktivedanta Swami develops his multi-religious theology
of the names comprising many religions, 'We are limited, but God
is unlimited, absolute, He has infinite names and energies, and
every name is God. We can understand His names as far as our understanding
reaches'.23 If this is true-that
is, if worshipping other names of God means worshipping the unique
true God-it begs the question why did Bhaktivedanta Swami come to
the West for his mission? The answer is surprising; it is not that
worshipping God was wrong here, but that He was not worshipped at
all.24 Thus it is the duty of
the 'Krishna-conscious movement . . . to teach people to revitalise
their forgotten love of God'. 25
Bhaktivedanta Swami does not want to replace an existing religion
with a new one, therefore he can claim to revitalise love of God
in other religious traditions, ' "Christo" or "Krishna"-there
is no difference. Let us co-operate and chant, and if you are prejudiced
to chant the name "Krishna", then chant "Christo"
or "Krishto"'.26
Obviously Bhaktivedanta Swami is open to other names of God and
worshipping them, and to other religions, because the actual practice
of glorifying God is the highest aim of religion, not the abolition
of one religion to expand another religious organisation, he says:
'I think the Christian priests should co-operate with the Krishna
consciousness movement. They should chant the name Christ or Christos
and should stop condoning the slaughter of animals. This programme
follows the teachings of the Bible: it is not my philosophy. You
have your Christian teachings, follow them . . . !'27
The essence of ISKCON is the all-embracing awakening of love of
God. Considering the lack of motivation to love God in western societies,
this reminder from our Hindu friends for revitalising the first
sentence of the Law-of free love of God-is of great benefit to us.
Social ethics: institutionalised charity as policy and diaconate
Charity as part of Hindu culture is not well recognised in the
west. In general it is believed that charity is not the business
of Hindu culture and their religious communities. This belief is
doubtlessly a product of colonial self-justification. As in every
society, the Indian society has a sophisticated system of political
organisation and diaconate help. In this respect, ISKCON is in the
Hindu tradition of Vaishnavism. It should also be mentioned that
the Bhagavad-gita is accepted as a source of religious truth
in which the institution of authority, as executor of justice, is
theologically founded by God Himself. Thus the politicians have
the necessary duty to assert justice even against their own interests,
for example by laws of solidarity of the clan and the caste.
In his purport to the Bhagavad-gita (2.32), Bhaktivedanta
Swami quotes a sentence from Parashara concerning this topic, 'The
kshatriya's duty is to protect the citizens from all kinds of difficulties,
and for that reason he has to apply violence in suitable cases for
law and order'.28 If the holder
of authority did not fulfil his duty he would go to hell. 29
The reason for Arjuna's proposal not to fight was based on sense
gratification. Forgetting his prime duty, he wanted to cease fighting
because he thought by not killing his relatives and kinsmen he would
be happier than by enjoying the kingdom after conquering his cousins
and brothers, the sons of Dhritarashtra'.30 At a closer look, Arjuna's concept of happiness
does not appear selfless, 'Happiness derived from conquering them
and happiness derived by seeing kinsmen alive are both on the basis
of personal sense gratification, even at a sacrifice of wisdom and
duty'.31 The administrator must
fulfil his duty, 'Everyone has his proprietary right in regard to
prescribed duties, but should act without attachment to the result'.32
That is, the administrative actions ordered by the respective svadharma
must not be done or not done as a means for a different end. The
Law of justice is to be upheld which is to be enforced in free love
among people.
This political theory approaches the Lutheran doctrine of authority
very closely, when, according to the reformer, the individual conscience
must not triumph over the official duty. The office requires free
love not bound to interests outside of the general welfare.
As to Bhaktivedanta Swami, charity towards one's neighbour is implied
in the love of God, when he says that a mystic yogi practising yoga
with half-closed eyes strives for any kind of self-interest or some
personal satisfaction, but a Krishna conscious person, a devotee
is free from every desire of personal satisfaction because his criterion
of perfection is the satisfaction of Krishna, that is love of God.33
In this passage, Bhaktivedanta Swami directly connects free love
of God with free love of one's neighbour. As free love of God is
the final fulfilment of human existence, free love is the only solution
for social relationship. What sense should a selfish motivation
make? According to Bhaktivedanta Swami dharma (religion),
whatever worldly function it may have, can only be properly fulfilled
if it is fulfilled in the state of bhakti. Thus, every secular
action of dharma becomes an act of serving God. An idea we
know clearly from the Reformation.
Diaconate is an essential element of ISKCON; it is extensively
practised world-wide.34 The foundation
of Christiane Rückert's charitable society 'Golden Lotus' in the
1980s, has proved the charitable power of ISKCON, and in-between
the somewhat normal diaconate work, 'Food for Life', was registered
in Germany.35
ISKCON is by no means restricted to the propagation of the first
part of the Law; to love one's neighbour as an expression of love
of God is rather an integer constituent element of its religious
programme. Worldly accomplishment of duty should not be evaded,
for, 'Such disinterested obligatory duties doubtlessly lead one
to the path of liberation',36
that is, to love of God. That is that Bhaktivedanta Swami may say
that love of one's neighbour is the basis of the existence of genuine
love of God, and that not only a mere monastic application may bring
it about.
If we confirm a clear theological connection of accomplishing worldly
duties and spiritual love of God, it seems that due to circumstances,
the strength of ISKCON is mainly shown in the re-cultivation of
love of God.
Gospel
From the perspective of a Protestant theology of a traditional
origin, the most relevant question is, whether a difference can
be found between Law and Gospel in the theology of ISKCON. Our question
is whether the ISKCON religion realises that the sacred exists before
and independent of every work, even of free love, and turns to people
in free love.
To a large extent, ISKCON has developed the Law. This cannot be
denied. To describe its evangelical aspect, however, a more profound
inter-theological hermeneutic is required.
The main reason for the unwillingness to co-operate on an inter-theological
level, is not only the fault of the dialectic theology but also
of the anti-Lutheran understanding of the science of interpreting
the Bible, which today is mostly understood as that which Luther
considered as settled: as a better Law. Consequently Law differing
from Gospel cannot be found in other religions because it is no
longer known in one's own religion.
Nevertheless I would like to make an attempt to identify evangelical
aspects in ISKCON. In ISKCON texts, it is said again and again that
God turns to those persons who practise bhakti, and that
love of God is the condition for God's love to a human being. Or,
in other words, that God has implanted the possibility of free love
in man who does not realise it.
In my eyes, this view of the relationship between God and man is
widespread, reflecting a generally moral attitude in modern society,
which is also shared by the religious culture of ISKCON.
ISKCON theology, however, transmits an alternative conception which
is found in the basic document of the Gaudiya Vaishnavas, the above
mentioned 'eight stanzas' of Krishna Caitanya. There He demonstrates
his trust in Krishna being and remaining His Lord even if He, Krishna
Caitanya, cannot feel 'ecstatic love' and has fallen 'into the ocean
of birth and death'; that is, He has not realised free love of God,
bhakti, but is obsessed by selfish motives. This confidence
of transcending into that quality of faith leading to free love
of God is present when Krishna Caitanya confesses His lack of bhakti,
'I am so unfortunate that I have no attraction for Your name', although
Krishna reveals His name in various ways, fills them with all His
shakti, and does not give prescriptions how to worship His name.37
Having fallen into the ocean of reincarnation, by this He means
having become a prey to selfish desires He cannot realise free love
of God; bhakti being so easy to attain, I believe Krishna
Caitanya draws an evangelical conclusion, 'I am Your eternal servitor,
yet somehow or other I have fallen into the ocean of birth and death.
Please pick me up from this ocean of death and place me as one of
the atoms at Your lotus feet'.38
This faith in Krishna's mercy is the utmost horizon of the existence
of bhakti freeing itself from the hallucination that the
Supreme Reality attaches the sense of human existence to the achievement
of Law and righteousness. Through Krishna Caitanya's verses the
evangelical logic of Law permeates that man's free love of God is
only possible with the presupposition of God's free love, in that
God's free love is given to a person regardless of his or her achievements
and works.
There are hints of an evangelical character as well as in the monistic
psychology of the teachings about Krishna.
The verse from the Bhagavad-gita quoted by Bhaktivedanta
Swami receives evangelical value if it is clear that Krishna cannot
hate Himself, 'All living entities are minute parts of My energy'.39
Whereas the living entities feel separated from God due to Maya's
energy and believe that they have to win God's love back, the devotees
know that they can never be separated from Him, and can never get
lost because they belong a priori to Him as any other living
entity. If Bhaktivedanta Swami decisively emphasises that God and
man are different, that man even may become a demon through attachment,
the con-substantialised God's love to man is a real existing fact.
Persons aware of this fact are happy, and those who do not know
this do not have a different nature.
The strongest expression of Gospel may be, in my eyes, prasadam
(food offered with Love and devotion to the Lord), distributed unconditionally
to all men. These material elements do not require the adherence
to a certain religion, a certain moral standard or theological insight.
When a farmer with his family from Rajasthan surrounded by a swarm
of flies enters the ISKCON Krishna-Balarama temple in Vrindavan
and opens his hands for prasadam, he is not asked whether
he has fulfilled this Law or that Law, by the priest distributing
prasadam. The distributor does not care for the outer appearance
of the farmer. The Lord's mercy is distributed to everyone, when
they come to offer their respects to the Lord at the temple, regardless
of their social position or faith.
3: Summary and result
A diacritico-theological analysis of ISKCON comes to a conclusion
that it does not only know free love as prescribed by Law but places
it into the worship of God to a high and exemplary extent and calls
it the essence of charitable love.
Krishna Caitanya transmits the consequence drawn from the concept
of free bhakti, God's free love to man, the Gospel, as an
alternative for human existence. This motive has, however, not yet
been systematically and theologically developed because of the pressure
of modern moralism.
Nevertheless, Law and Gospel, as well as their distinction are
to be found in the Vaishnava religion of ISKCON, but they are not
equally represented there.
It can be said with full confidence that ISKCON has made, and continues
to make an obvious contribution to the topic of God's love and man's
love in both religion and politics, both on a theological and practical
level. However, a stronger profile is necessary with that, concerning
the theological explanation of the Gospel and the distinction between
the two verba Dei (the two words of God) because the cultural
and herneutical barrier between the eastern and western way of understanding
the two theological issues is self-evident even today; however,
these could be overcome with a little effort.
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