Vasu Murti's blog

Why are devotees suddenly afraid to preach to people of other faiths?  My own observations have shown a reluctance on the part of Vaishnavas in the West to engage in interfaith preaching.

Back in the late '90s, my friend Anantarupa dasa, an Irish Catholic devotee, once pointed out that we (Vaishnavas) really have no quarrel with Christianity.  Srila Prabhupada merely said the Christians should properly follow the commandment "Thou Shalt Not Kill" (i.e.,extend their precepts of nonviolence to animals) and chant the names of God or Christ.  Muslims, too, can follow a vegetarian diet and chant the names of Allah.

Perhaps by chanting the holy names found in their own respective traditions and refraining from violence against animals, then at the time of death, instead of being punished in hell by the Yamadutas and taking birth in lower species, they'll take birth as Vaishnavas, and have the opportunity to progress further in spiritual life.

Back in 1984, one Prabhupada disciple, Sarva-drik dasa told me that Srila Prabhupada said the Christians are already Vaishnavas—they are going to their churches and sing hymns in praise of God.  Srila Prabhupada had that broadness of vision:  he could see that the Christians are Vaishnavas, too.

In The Path of Perfection, Srila Prabhupada describes the Vaishnava understanding of Christ and Christianity in greater detail: "Bhakti-yoga means connecting ourselves with Krishna, God, and becoming His eternal associates. Bhakti-yoga cannot be applied to any other objective; therefore, in Buddhism, for instance, there is no bhakti-yoga, because they do not recognize the Supreme Lord existing as the supreme objective. Christians, however, practice bhakti-yoga when they worship Jesus Christ, because they are accepting him as the son of God and are therefore accepting God. Unless one accepts God, there is no question of bhakti-yoga. Christianity, therefore, is also a form of Vaishnavaism, because God is recognized...However, where there is no recognition of a personal God...there is no question of bhakti-yoga." 

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Devotees who are into interfaith preaching would enjoy reading Krishna, Israel and the Druze, by Dhira Govinda das.  It came out around 1994. I first read it a few years ago. It says that when devotees performed harinama on the streets of Jerusalem, the orthodox Jews would come out and harass them. The Druze, a mystical Arab sect, on the other hand, respond favorably. They believe in reincarnation, and have a concept of their religious leader or sheikh, being similar to a saktyavesa-avatara, or empowered representative of God. Dhira Govinda writes that the women are allowed to be college-educated, but he also writes (favorably) that they are still chaste and protected, like in Vedic civilization. 

There are some similarities between orthodox Judaism and Krishna Consciousness; a 5,000 year old ethnic religious language and food based culture, with all kinds of rituals meant to keep its adherents conscious of their religious nature. When my friend R.F. (a former Missionary Baptist minister) and I wrote a paper on temple congregations in 1990, we quoted a conversation between Srila Prabhupada and Allen Ginsberg from 1969, where Allen observes: "The orthodox Jews also have a very heavy, complicated, moment by moment ritual..." 

We also quoted Asher Ginzberg as having written: "When the individual values the community as his own life and strives after its happiness as though it were his individual well-being, he find satisfaction and no longer feels so keenly the bitterness of his individual existence, because he sees the end for which he lives and suffers." (I got this quote from a book on Judaism I was reading at the time.) 

And in 1992, in correspondence with Bhakta Vic DiCara (later Vraja Kishora das), I noted that perhaps because of the scandals involving Kirtananda Swami at New Vrindavan, devotees are reluctant to engage in interfaith preaching with Christians, openly acknowledging the already existing theological similarities between Vaishnavaism and Christianity... instead, they are choosing to focus on our similarities with Judaism.

"In some ways, more accurate," I observed. But I also said, "We'll see how long this lasts." Morris Yanoff didn't find any similarities when he wrote his anticult book, Where is Joey? Lost Among the Hare Krishnas, and was disturbed at the thought of his grandson Joey worshipping another human being (Srila Prabhupada). A friend tells him, "If Jesus Christ were to return, don't you think a lot of people would be bowing down?" 

Oddly enough, the one (admittedly superficial) "similarity" between Judaism and Vaishnavaism which Christians focus on ad nauseum is the word "dog"; the fact that Srila Prabhupada said that if one can't follow the four regulative principles, "then, he is a dog, and should not accept initiation." Dogs, like swine, were also considered foul and unclean by the Hebrew people. (Deuteronomy 23:18; I Samuel 24:14; II Kings 8:13; Psalm 22:16,20; Matthew 7:6; Luke 16:21; Revelation 22:15) These words were used by the children of Israel to describe the neighboring heathen populations. 

Jesus began his ministry by teaching the multitudes not to "give what is sacred to the dogs, nor cast your pearls before swine." (Matthew 7:6) When sending is disciples out to preach, Jesus instructed them not to go to the gentiles, but to "go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." (Matthew 10:5-6) When a Canaanite woman asked Jesus to heal her daughter, he replied, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel...It is not fair to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." (Matthew 15:22-28)

Jesus regarded the gentiles as "dogs". His gospel was intended for the Jewish people.  Even the apostle Paul admits that the gospel was first intended for the Jews, and that the Jews have every advantage over the gentiles in this regard.  (Romans 1:16, 3:1-2) 

The fact that Srila Prabhupada used half a dozen different animal words (dogs, hogs, crows, cow, camels, asses, etc.) to describe sinners (and with reincarnation in mind!) seems to elude these Christians, as does the fact that St. Peter also compares sinners to irrational brute beasts. (II Peter 2:12) 

I'm not sure what it is these Christians are trying to prove by focusing solely on the word "dog". Animal activists don't take offense at being compared to animals. Srila Ramesvara once called the Christian misconception of "human dominion" a "master race theory," similar to that of the Nazis. I feel like I'm battling a religious cult. (And it isn't ISKCON!)

You'd think they would be more alarmed by some of our other beliefs and practices. Back in 1990, my friend R.F., as a former Missionary Baptist minister, said he had a conversation with a Christian clergyman who found out about his involvement with Krishna Consciousness, and was worried, saying, "I've seen what Hinduism has done to India." R.F. replied by comparing the monastic life of bramacaris, sannyasis, and other full time devotees living in the temple, with that of Jesus and the apostles living in voluntary poverty without personal possessions. R.F. told me the clergyman got very offended at this comparison! 

Similarly, in 1987, my friend from college Barbara Lloyd said that when she and her boyfriend (and later husband—they were "married" in Krishna Consciousness) Scott Penrose moved into the San Diego temple together in 1986, they were warned by a graduate student from India, Ishvar Puri, not to do this: "They (devotees) believe in a 'caste system'!" he warned. Barbara told me she didn't take Ishvar seriously, because she had read Srila Prabhupada's books, and knew the real truth. 

Even my friend Gangeya ("it's really nice") dasa (Glen Smith) once commented that because the philosophy of Krishna Consciousness is all-encompassing, there isn't any single religious tradition one can argue it most closely resembles. 

Again, my own observations have shown a reluctance on the part of Vaishnavas to engage in interfaith preaching.