Meeting Mother Teresa:
ISKCON’s Descent into Mundane Welfare Activities
Since the leaders of ISKCON not only tolerate but promote The Journey Home, a book that is infested with impersonalism and half-truths from cover to cover, we must wonder if there are any genuine Vaishnavas left.
Radhanatha must be in the crowd somewhere …
Our undaunted wanderer writes beginning on page 154 of The Journey Home, “From Bodh Gaya I traveled north to Sarnath. It was in the Deer Park that Buddha inaugurated his preaching mission. There I studied the Bodhi Sattya vow, in which one follows in the Buddha’s footsteps by making one’s life a sacrifice of compassion for those who are suffering from the illusions of the world …”
I find this passage particularly humorous. Simply by “studying” this Bodhi Sattya vow for a few days, how can one “sacrifice his life for those who are in illusion”? The Bodhi Satya is also in illusion. So the illusioned Buddhists, the shunyavadis who are so illusioned that they think they have become “void,” are feeling compassion for those who have not become so lucky to dissolve into thin air? Pardon me?? What sort of ridiculous nonsense imitation “philosophy” is the American Swami trying to cram down the throats of his gullible readers anyway? Even the Buddha would have a good belly laugh at this one.
Then the American Swami continues. “While contemplating this virtue, I decided to travel to Calcutta to seek the blessings of a selfless soul of whom I’d heard so much about, Mother Teresa …”
Note: Incidentally, Dear American Swami, you have misspelled her name. There is no “H” in her name, she does not spell it like you Americans. It is spelled “Teresa.” To help you out, I shall correct your error throughout Chapter Nineteen. There are also a few other mistakes in your book that I’ll include at the bottom here in Part Nineteen, so please read right through to the end. Thanks in advance.
“… I arrived at the convent of Mother Teresa, a simple one storey building where a Catholic sister received me with a modest smile. “Welcome to the Missionaries of Charity,” she said. “How may I serve you?”
Joining my palms in respect, I appealed, “Is it possible that I may have the honor of meeting Mother Teresa?”
“Follow me. We’ll see if it’s possible.” She led me into a simple chapel. “This is our prayer room. Mother Teresa and the nuns perform worship here.” I knelt down and offered a prayer. When I stood up, she led me out of the chapel and down the hallway. As we passed a dimly lit room, she exclaimed, “There is Mother performing her daily chores.” I looked in and saw Mother Teresa scrubbing a large charred cooking pot with her own devoted hands. My heart melted.”
“Mother,” my guide said, “This is Richard, an American sadhu. He would like to meet you.”
Mother Teresa greeted me with folded palms, “I pray to be forgiven for keeping you waiting, but first may I finish my service?”
“Of course, Mother,” I replied.
The sister then led me into a small room, offered me a seat and told me that Mother would come after washing the pots. In a few minutes Mother Teresa entered the room and sat on a chair a few feet from mine. Although her aging form was shrunken and frail, I could feel her indomitable presence. Her face was furrowed with wrinkles from a life of austerity, yet her eyes twinkled with childlike innocence. From her tender voice emerged the words of her heart …”
Photo-op: His Holiness Radhanath Swami has emerged as ISKCON’s leading celebrity guru collector, But he wasn’t the only one: several other “leaders” have positioned themselves alongside Mother Teresa for the right effect.
Since the departure of Shrila Prabhupada—and strictly against his orders—ISKCON’s GBC has thrown much of the society, at least in India, into an ongoing love affair with mundane services for the poor and the sick. These include ISKCON’s Midday Meal Programme, the Bhaktivedanta Hospital at Bombay, a hospice in Vrindavana. Even though there are mountains of evidence against converting the Hare Krishna into a mundane charity, efforts remain at the highest level of ISKCON management to see that mundane activities flourish. After all, to raise charitable contributions, the three strong points that should be emphasized are poverty, ignorance and disease.
For those who have any doubts about the actual teachings of His Divine Grace the Founder-Acharya, the following conversation of 23 December 1975 in Bombay. It is excerpted from A Transcendental Diary (vol. 1) by Shriman Hari Śauri dāsa:
Prabhupāda asked Saurabha about a dentist interested in opening a clinic in the new temple compound. Saurabha explained that the man had seen the floor plan, which includes a room for medical use, and immediately proposed that he use it to give free treatment to the devotees.
Prabhupāda did not approve. “No, there will be no medical service in the building.”
Lokanātha Swami asked if medical facilities should be set up on another part of the land.
Prabhupāda replied, “That we shall do at our convenience. It is not very urgent. When there is spare room, then. Medical service is to cure the material disease, this temporary headache and stomachache. There are so many medical services for these things, but where is the medical service for curing bhava-roga, material disease? That is wanted. Medical service does not give any guarantee that there will be no more disease. Our service is to guarantee that there will be no more birth, death, old age, and disease. That is the difference.”
Pausing for a moment, he recalled his recent trip to Africa. “In Mauritius I was suffering so much from dental pain. I never went to the dentist; I invented my medicine and it cured.”
Everyone smiled in admiration. Prabhupāda seems to know nearly everything. He was referring to his own toothpaste recipe: a combination of ground mustard seed, salt, calcium carbonate, eucalyptus oil, camphor, menthol, and oil of wintergreen. Many devotees are now eagerly making it for themselves, and Prabhupāda asked if they like it.
He grinned when Harikeśa assured him, “Oh yes! The best!” Lokanātha Swami voiced what we all felt, “You are perfect in all respects. You are your own doctor.”
Prabhupāda humbly responded, “I am not doctor, but I created many doctors.”
In his book Renunciation Through Wisdom, which he wrote in the 1940’s in Bengali, His Divine Grace Shrila Prabhupada comments:
“The mahātmās are always ready to render such service to the Lord with great determination. In this regard His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura once made this comment in a lecture, “The neophyte Vaiṣṇava devotee ringing the bell even once during worship of the Deity of the Supreme Lord is a million times more valuable, spiritually and otherwise, than the charitable fruitive workers building many hospitals, feeding thousands of the poor, or building homes, or even the empirical philosophers' Vedic studies, meditation, austerities, and penances.”
Read this official ISKCON blurb on Radhanatha (from ISKCON Desire Tree dated 2 February 2012) to see if the American Swami is following Shrila Prabhupada’s directions given above:
His Holiness Radhanath Swami Maharaj is one of the world's most prominent exponents of Bhakti Yoga and also the author of the best-selling book, The Journey Home: Autobiography of an American Swami, which traces H.H Radhanath Swami's path from his middle-class Jewish upbringing in a Chicago suburb as Richard Slavin; to his participation in the civil rights movement in the '60s in USA. It captivates the reader with experiences of his apprenticeships with Himalayan yogis, the Dalai Lama, Mother Teresa and several other known spiritual masters that he experienced and and finally how he developed real spiritual understanding.
H.H.Radhanath Swami is one of the inspirations behind the Mid-day Meal Project, which provides more than 3,00,000 free school lunches a school working day in Maharashtra as a way to persuade impoverished parents to educate their children. He was instrumental in founding Mumbai's charitable "Bhaktivedanta Hospital", which offers free treatment to the underprivileged and runs free medical camps, including the Barsana Eye Camp that performs about 800 free cataract operations each year.
When will the leaders take seriously the instructions of Shrila Prabhupada to give the full attention of the Society they are supposed to lead to purifying the consciousness of the world through the Holy Names of the Lord rather than wasting time, money and manpower on mundane charitable activities?