The other day I met five gentlemen (four elephants and a tortoise, actually) and asked them what they thought of Vedic cosmology in general and the idea that the world is a disc supported by them in particular. This was their reaction:
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| EARTH SUPPORTED BY TORTOISE AND ELEPHANTS |
If I were still a Hare Krishna devotee, I would have been scandalized by their blasphemy and reported them to the cult's authorities for immediate corrective action. Imagine questioning the literal reading of Vedic literature promulgated by our guru and the founder/acharya of the ISKCON cult, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada! How offensive! What guru-aparadha!
As one of his earliest disciples, I remember hearing how a dear godbrother left the cult ("blooped") rather than accept Prabhupada's notion that the Sun is closer to the Earth than the moon. At the time, these cosmological beliefs of our guru were little known outside of his inner circle of followers. Had he informed the rest of us about this nonsense, few new disciples would have been recruited and many initiated devotees would have simply walked out the door.
However, it soon became apparent that intellectual inquiry was actively discouraged as a condition of becoming a Hare Krishna devotee, with humility and sincerity equated with blindly following everything our guru taught us. This attitude so permeated our thinking that we were not in the least surprised when we heard that Prabhupada praised the submissive attitude of another one of his first disciples, an earnest young man, by stating that he would drink boiling ghee if he asked him to do so.
Today, under the impression that ISKCON is a bona fide Hindu religion, Indians throng to its grand temples throughout the world and provide crucial logistical and monetary support. Few know anything about the history of the cult nor of its philosophical underpinnings. This ignorance is exploited to the full and is the primary reason for the inroads the Hare Krishna leadership has made among many affluent and educated Hindus. Politicians have also fallen under its spell, with ISKCON aligning itself since the 1990’s with Hindu Nationalist nativist sentiments. A more foolhardy tactic by a cult that makes no secret of its contempt for Swami Vivekananda (whom the Hindutva movement has adopted as it spiritual godfather) is hard to imagine.
GANESH'S HEAD & INDIAN SCIENTIFIC ADVANCEMENTS
Before I continue with more on ISKCON's lunar lunacy and related matters, I would like to bring to your attention the demands Indian Prime Minister Modi made during his meetings with the Secretaries of Scientific Departments on Tuesday, July 18th in New Delhi. While admitting that he lacked the expertise to offer recommendations himself, he was disappointed with their progress in finding "solutions to societal problems." Having just returned from visits to the U.S. and Israel (in June and July, respectively), Modi's impatience was understandable. So too was his example of the air pollution in New Delhi, a health menace that requires urgent remediation.
On the other hand, India has justly achieved renown in the scientific community with its Mars Orbital Mission ("Mangalyaan") launched on 6 November 2013, which has been orbiting Mars since 24 September 2014. What you might not know is that just a month later, in his October 2014 inaugural address at Sir H.N. Reliance Foundation in Mumbai, the newly elected PM declared that the elephant head on the human body of the god Ganesh is the work of an ancient plastic surgeon, whose successful grafting technique "started off plastic surgery."
ISKCON'S SUPPORT & GLORIFICATION OF JUNK "SCIENCE"
For the Hare Krishna (ISKCON) cultists, it has been
a goldmine: their leaders have exploited Hindu sentiment to such an extent that
its status as a marginal New Age cult has been forgotten in the presence of
their opulent temples. This success, however, was built on a shoddy foundation of
their guru’s literal reading of the literary epics such as the Bhagavad-Gita
and the Srimad Bhagavatam (the English translations of which he cheerfully
plagiarized). In order to keep the whole ISKCON enterprise from toppling over
from the simplistic, pseudo-scholarship of its founder—what to speak of the
social disasters his experiments in communal living brought upon his
followers—current disciples of his disciples turned gurus themselves have
worked overtime to give his ideas a veneer of legitimacy. Although Prabhupada
was reliably strident in his denunciation of Hinduism, today ISKCON temples
market themselves as Hindu mandirs and observe festivals he never would have
considered necessary.
Yet, for reasons perhaps due to the intellectual
equivalent of group hysteria, ISKCON has taken a collective leap into the deep
end of the pool of pseudo-science by dedicating two of their most ambitious
projects to date, the $45 million Vrindavan Chandrodaya temple and the $60
million Temple of the Vedic Planetarium in Mayapur, West Bengal, to a
celebration of Vedic and Puranic cosmological ideas that they insist are
factual. That the public is so thoroughly ignorant of their intentions is
showcased by PM Modi’s letter to them dated 30 March 2017, New Delhi, in which
he extols ISKCON for building the Vrindavan Chandodraya Mandir, crediting it
for “promoting ideals of compassion and brotherhood.” Explain to me how the
ISKCON cult’s attempt to promote ignorance of basic science and treating
mythology as true history is anything other than making fools of its donors and
devotees.
Proponents of “Vedic Science” have gained respectability
only by lecturing on their theories among Hindus who insist, as Meera Nanda
puts it, on “accommodating science and Hindu beliefs.”[ii]
For such believers, all scientific knowledge is in the Vedas and the Puranas,
making all subsequent discoveries strictly derivative. If you persist in any
delusions you might have about so-called “Vedic Science,” go to the source and
see for yourself!
For the next installment on this topic, please go to:
https://iskconcultunveiled.blogspot.com/2017/09/vedic-cosmology-bogus-krishna.html.
For the next installment on this topic, please go to:
https://iskconcultunveiled.blogspot.com/2017/09/vedic-cosmology-bogus-krishna.html.
If you still think the vimanas (flying machines of
supposedly Vedic original) really flew about, pre-dating the Wright Brothers,
please read:
https://newrepublic.com/article/121792/those-mythological-men-and-their-sacred-supersonic-flying-temples.
Deb, Siddhartha. “Those Mythological Men and Their Sacred, Supersonic Flying
Machines.” 14 May 2015. The New Republic.
[i] https://scroll.in/article/830319/preplanned-inhuman-collective-violent-act-of-terrorism-what-modi-got-away-with-in-the-godhra-case.
Mitta, Manoj. “’Preplanned Inhuman Collective Violent Act of Terrorism’” What Modi Got Away With In The
Godhra Case.” 27 February 2017. Scroll India
[ii] https://social-epistemology.com/2016/01/25/saffronized-science-rampant-pseudoscience-in-vedic-garb-in-the-indian-subcontinent-meera-nanda/.
Nanda, Meera. “Saffronized Science: Rampant Pseudoscience in ‘Vedic’ Garb in
the Indian Subcontinent.” 25 January 2016. SERRC:
Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this essay can be reproduced in any medium without the express written consent of the author.
13 comments:
Yeah it is like the 100 million dollar super stupid Noah's ark museum which is a total failure in every way......
Humans are imaginative, and after we developed words, we could start lying... now we also lie to ourselves.... this is why science and reality is so important.... we DO live in a real reality that can be counted on...
In one of his books, “life comes from life” (if I remember correctly) Prabhupada also called Darwin and his followers “rascals” and that evolution is a lie fabricated by him. Though in the very same book his own arguments against Evolution were enough to expose his own ignorance of evolutionary science;( all thanks to his allegiance to Srimad Bhagavata Purana). I guess he(and his followers) seriously believed that there was some time in the past where a Humongous dark boar(Vishnu’s Varaha Avatara) protected the earth from “sinking” in waters by hoisting it on his tusks! I have heard that in recent times, ISKCONITES have even started allying themselves with discredited creationists such as Michael Behe] and publishing books] by him. .. Don’t know how further these buffoons are going to go now…
wow... it is a heavy thought that some in the movement actually believe blatant conspiracy theories and vedic poetry as literal. In general it is hard to believe how uneducated even many college graduates are these days. Jay Leno on the Tonight Show used to have segment called "jaywalking" where he simply asks basic questions to pedestrians and it is super funny because they knew NOTHING. We certainly do not need religious leaders actively de-educating people on top of it.
@Paul T. Harrison.
As an Indian, It is indeed disheartening for me to see that students from even the most prestigious colleges of India – like The IITs(Indian Institute of Technology) are falling for the Hare Krishna delusion.(https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=iskcon+iit+students) .
Mind You! IITians are some of the brightest minds of the country who make it to that position by cracking one of the toughest entrance examinations of the world. (https://www.askiitians.com/iit-jee/advanced/news/iit-jee-amongst-15-toughest-exams-in-the-world.html ).
If the modus operandi of The Hare Krishnas is successful in brainwashing even them, what to speak of ordinary graduates then? Instead of being top notch scientists, engineers and freethinkers , they are all reduced to being puerile evangelists of the gaudiya vaishnava theology.
All thanks to the widespread approval of the naïve hindu public which ISKCON has gained by marketing itself as a ‘genuine’ proponent of the sanatana dharma and conducting the so-called feed-the – poor programs, and crowd attracting Rathyatras; these views of mine if indeed are expressed in some public forum would very likely be berated and bashed as the outpourings of a jealous ‘anti-hindu’ or maybe as a “material monger”( who is ‘deluded’ by Krishna’s “maya”) . . All the while the Hare Krishna apologists are gleefully going turn a Nelson’s eye to all the misogynistic, casteist and anti-science crap uttered by the great ‘rishi’ Known as Srila Prabhupada.
Moreover, If you indeed interpret their puranic/vedic stories allegorically, instead of accepting them on face value, they will label you outright as an atheistic demon for considering "transcendental pastimes of the lord" as fiction . which according to them are "beyond" the comprehension of "material mongers" . (This is actually one of the criticisms, which Iskcon books hurl on the Mayavadis).
Is it any wonder that apart from being the foremost “hindu” creationists, they are also the foremost historical revisionists? Meet Stephen Knapp aka Sri Nandanandana Dasa. (http://nirmukta.net/Thread-Debunking-Stephen-Knapp-s-Revisionism )
Thank you Mr. Harrison and “Anonymous” for your incisive comments on this essay. I’m in the process of writing a blog essay on the ISKCON brainwashing technique, so I don’t want to give everything away here, but I will say that it damages the integral humanity of its targets, replacing it with a diametrically opposed body/soul relationship. It begins by inducing a gross and immature revulsion for normal bodily functions and replaces it with an idealized spiritual state which can only be achieved by blindly following the dictates of an all-knowing guru. Consequently, it treats all relationships between family and friends as outgrowths of “material attachment” that need to be discarded in favor of a “spiritual” relationship with other devotees, who effectively replace the discarded family. I have witnessed generations of youths lured into the Hare Krishna trap and have often wondered why even those who have long since left ISKCON rarely openly criticize the cult. The answer seems to be found in the brainwashing technique itself, particularly in the way it damages early childhood conditioning such as what normally occurs when toddlers realize that some unpleasant aspects of life such as cleaning up after yourself after going to the bathroom are mere inconveniences and nothing to focus on. There is no body/soul dichotomy as the ISKCON cultists would have you believe, but simply our uniquely endowed brains developing the willpower and decision making that will gradually lead us into productive adult lives. Unfortunately, some people take the easy way out when confronted with the challenges and risk-taking that are part of life. Cults step into this situation and like an addictive drug that initially provides relief and proceeds to overwhelm your reasoning powers, soon everything and every relationship is reduced to what you are told are their elemental components: love doesn’t exist, just animal lust, the body is shit because your food causes you to defecate, and your love for family is a bodily snare that must be overcome. A spiritual fantasyland of after death frolicking with the blue Krishna and his cows and girlfriends
Is proffered as the ideal substitute. Newcomers are assured that this can be easily achieved by repetitive chanting and frantic group singing as well as by adhering to a literal reading of the preposterous cosmology and other fantasies of the books by Bhaktivedanta Swami. In other words, they now live in an alternate universe where the human faculty of reason has been suspended in favor of a Krishna and Radha-themed fairytale universe.
It’s also terrible to hear about the top-notch university students who achieved so much and then threw it all away to join a stupid cult. As far as I can tell and judging from the many people who have contacted me regarding the fate of their children, it appears to me that these brilliant Indian youths are targeted by ISKCON management to use as props for their high stakes fundraising operations that in turn target wealthy Indian donors. Tragically, those once promising scholars will walk away from the cult in a few years, their hopes and dreams blasted by a bunch of opportunistic thugs.
Thank you for the post Planetaryeyes. :-) I agree that it is important to speak out as cultism is running rampant is many areas of society now, where alternative facts are becoming popular.
Iskcon is in the identity theft business.
The idea is that you are not who you think you are, but you are actually someone else, a soul in an original eternal body, who made a bad decision to leave your body and pursue different temporary bodies while also deciding to live in constant amnesia.
Incidentally, you and also your bodies and money do not belong to you. Nothing about you, including you, belongs to you but to the Person I represent, so I will hold it for you in the meantime and use it properly so you don't have to suffer the hell consequences of trying to be the "owner" and the "doer". I am doing you a big favor by taking your money and having you work for free because this way you will not be incurring karma. As far as Iskcon's bad karma for taking your money, do not worry because Iskcon is authorized by Krishna and Krishna is above karma or responsibility.
Question: If you (soul) were in an original permanent spiritual body, they how could you leave it? Sounds like our destination and original body is also temporary.
Reading this essay ,I remember that Hare Krishnas also consider the Moon Landings to be a Hoax because according to their Vedic scriptures, the moon is a 'planet'which exists further away than the sun, and in order for a human to exist on another world, they have to leave their body and adopt one made for that world. Therefore (according to them) the astronauts could not have landed on the moon.
https://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/facts-are-not-anti-religious/#more-851
I think the literal approach is not only phony, but it is a form of bullying in itself. Why would anyone want to make modern people believe in nonsense? The same reason why con men do most of their con right in plain view. They are literally challenging your suspension of disbelief and trying to eradicate your critical thinking so they can control you. ......Planetaryeyes is so right that had we thought, except for the ones still on LSD, lol that the idea was to go literal fundamentalist we would all have left immediately.
Thanks again, planetaryeyes :-) As the puzzle of Krishna consciousness is starting to fill the whole jigsaw with only a few last pieces remaining, I can already start seeing the picture coming together. :-) I notice that the philosophy is based on the idea that truth is somehow connected to ego and to intelligence. It is provably not.......... It is interesting that like a 3d chess game or algebraic equation that the sub context of iskcon, is quite interestingly the opposite of what they say. They say the original sin was to take God's worship, but they are the only ones having people worship them here. LOL They say to be humble and their greatness multiplies their humility. lol They say that God is the cause of everything but He takes zero responsibility, so who caused responsibility? lol .................
Another point that makes devotees feel "above it" is because their entire premise is based on a false and very unequal equivalency. Imagine scheduling a debate where one side has to stick to facts and references, and the other can simply make stuff up and be waived of any accountability for logic or reality? LOL
Had a debate with an ISKCONite lately.
When I questioned him on this Puranic conception of the world being held up four elephants and a turtle, the guy literally defended it claiming those elephants and turtles to be fourth dimensional entities undetectable to human senses.
Thank you for your work planetaryeyes. I just finished watching Krishnas: Gurus. Karma. Murder and decided to come back to your blog. Working under an abusive self aclaimed guru for about a decade, I know that this is the reality they keep pushing. The people engaged in this organization believe all this with their hearts. I have seen folks I'm Chicago mandir floor talk about this BS all day long. They have arguments with each other about which BS is correct according to which books. Felt like flat earther's conference or even worse.
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