Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur Prabhupada

What is the History of Preaching in Gaudiya Vaishnavism?

That was a question put to me recently. So I did another of my lists. I invite readers to write to me with their suggestions of what I’ve missed out.

Preaching is the compassionate activity of reaching out to others with wisdom and guidance, in order to help them advance further along the path of spiritual life. The first objective is to help someone come to the point of choosing to walk the path of spiritual life; the second is to help them stay on the path they’ve chosen.

Vaishnavas throughout history have almost always been preachers. They have visited villages and towns, urging all they met to hear about God and to chant His many names. They have empowered their followers to create fellowships and ashrams, places where people could come to listen and be inspired. In more modern times they have used every modern invention to broadcast their message of love to as many as possible.

Here is a short synopsis of the history of those innovations, the means by which the Vaishnavas delivered their message and preserved the spiritual strength of their followers.

First the Traditional Ways Spiritual Life Begins:

• After the visit of a saint to one’s home or village
• During a public address or talk on some holy topics
• While at a festival to celebrate some holy day
• After a visit to a holy place and experiencing the atmosphere of devotion there
• After experiencing a mystical dream or personal revelation
• Inspiration upon reading a holy text

And How Spiritual Life is Traditionally Maintained:

• Small temple in the village
• Periodic visit from a teacher or a group of wandering sadhus
• Supportive community of spiritually progressive people
• Songs
• Literature
• Theatre performances
• Religious observances in the home
• Collective scripture recital or story telling
• Temple building

Our Greatest Preachers:

• Lord Nityananda Prabhu
  • Toured northern India under the orders of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu
  • Took many Vaishnavas with him, under the leadership of twelve who settled in different regions and established ashrams there, providing local inspiration, guidance and support
  • Emissaries sent further off to different places
  
  
• The Six Goswamis of Vrindavan (16th Century)
  • The immediate followers of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu
  • They wrote books of his teachings under his order in Sanskrit, the language of the scholars of the day
  • Those books went on to become the standard texts of the new movement
  • They held vigorous debates with the famous philosophers of the day
  • They recovered the lost holy places of Lord Krishna in Vrindavan
  • They built temples for people to visit
  • They organised a society with various departments and areas of responsibility—known as the Vishva Vaishnava Raja Sabha
  • They left behind them a huge community of Gaudiya Vaishnavas
  
  
• Srila Bhaktivinode Thakura (19th Century)
  • Travelled as a magistrate for the British Raj in eastern India
  • On his travels, met up with associates and held large sankirtan celebrations in the villages
  • Created 500 'Nama-hatta' groups in those villages, many of which still meet today.
  • Wrote new songs to old tunes, and printed and distributed those songs
  • Wrote many books of philosophy carefully outlining what was—and wasn’t—pure devotional service to Krishna
  • Used the Bengali language to attract local people to his message
  • Wrote in English to share the teachings with the British and the Bengali intelligentsia.
  • Personally defeated the pseudo-Vaishnavas of his day, and others who threatened the devotee community
  • Created a regular magazine—The Sajana Tosani
  • Revived the publishing of Caitanya Caritamrita—the life of the Lord.
  
  
• Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Prabhupada (20th century)
  • Followed Bhaktivinode Thakura’s example in his vigorous teaching and writing
  • Created and guided an organisation expressly for the purpose of preaching
  • Set up a pyramid-shaped care system for all his 10,000 disciples
  • Preached in Burma, the furthest the message of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had been
  • Sent preachers to Germany and London
  • Started 64 ashrams
  • Wrote books in English, Bengali and had them translated into various Indian languages and scripts
  • Started both a daily newspaper and a monthly magazine
  • Used a travelling show of diorama ‘waxworks’ to preach at community shows
  • Was the first to take kirtan onto the radio
  • Employed a steamship for preaching
  • Recreated an order of saffron-clad sannyasa monks for disciplined preaching to the public
  
  
• Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (20th Century)
  • Although Srila Prabhupada’s techniques of preaching are well documented and will be known to readers, it might be worth summarising them here. He brought with him not only the practises of the Gaudiya Math, but also his own ideas. He also accepted some innovations from his disciples and welcomed some aspects of modern technology.

Srila Prabhupada's Early Preaching

• Correspondence
• Writing and personal distribution of Back to Godhead newspaper—a newspaper offering spiritual commentary on the news of the day
• Kirtans and public speaking in homes and halls
• League of Devotees organization and a membership scheme
• Personal writing for greater authority in preaching

His ISKCON Preaching—the Early Years

• Public classes three times weekly in publicly accessible premises
• Daily sacred meals for all
• Sales of Srimad Bhagavatam to bookshops
• Personal conversations
• Kirtan and public address in local parks
• Compilation of new version of Back to Godhead magazine sold by first students and disciples
• Sending out disciples to new locations
• Establishment of Deity worship
• Rathayatra and large hall events
• Regular chanting parties in public places

Later Years

• Illustrated literature profusely distributed in hundreds of millions
• Gaudiya Vaishnavism established worldwide
• Chanting parties in major cities
• Sunday Feasts and Festivals
• Rapid proliferation of new centres in all parts of the world
• More colourful festivals developed, with profuse distribution of sacred food
• Modern musical recordings
• Stage plays
• Films and slide shows
• Systematic training of new devotees
• Annual India pilgrimage
• World headquarters established in the birthplace of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu

How he Maintained his Followers' Spiritual Lives

• Devotees in small communities, often in same building
• 'Temple president' given responsibility for ensuring spiritual standards
• Stretched his disciples to their maximum potential, thus facilitating their spiritual experiences
• Creation of GBC to supervise spiritual standards and temple administration standards
• Made himself accessible by correspondence for philosophical questions and service instruction
• Handbook on Deity standards, Educational System, and Marriage ceremonies compiled
• Schools for children developed
• Personally attended GBC meetings and occasionally corrected 'mission drift'
• Conflicts repeatedly resolved
• Fashioned policies that would remain after his physical disappearance.
• Established himself as the acarya – the head of the institution
• Ensured that Sannyasis remained travelling

From this list we can see that the ISKCON of the 21st century has more than enough information to conduct its preaching activities. Most things we do will never change; how we do them might. Information technology has given us access to digitisation and rapid transit of the message of Krishna, to film, satellite television, and to the Internet. But it also means that atheism uses the same techniques. Ultimately, it will not be our means of transmitting information that will help the mission in the 21st century, but the oldest technique of all: making friends.

The current demographics of ISKCON tell the story that we now have many more people and many more centres in countries where ISKCON’s presence would have been unimaginable before. But out of the quarter million more people that ISKCON has since the day that Srila Prabhupada stood under a tree in a New York park, hardly 5% of them live in the communal way that he envisaged as being most helpful for spiritual life.

What this means for ISKCON today is that new forms of community are required. Devotees do not conveniently live in one suburb of one city. Half of them don’t live in cities at all. So perhaps maintenance of spiritual community for ISKCON in the 21st century means exactly what it meant for Bhaktivinode Thakur: travelling, establishing in each village a network of Vaishnavas who agree to have weekly or fortnightly kirtan and readings, offering support and guidance and safeguarding the correct understanding of Krishna consciousness by vigorous discussion of what is, and what is not, progressive spiritual life.