In2-MeC

ISKCON Chowpatti, Mumbai, Maharastra, India
27 April 2004

Of Camels in Germany, Jesus in Bombay
and Reiki in Riga

Yesterday a young man (thankfully not initiated by any ISKCON guru) came to see me. He likes my lectures but has a problem that he considered is not appropriate to present in front of everyone in the form of a question at the end of class. Our conversation went something like this.

Young man: Maharaja, I have a serious problem. Though I'm following ISKCON for some time now and chant 16 rounds daily, recently I met a man here in Bombay who is in direct touch with Jesus Christ. Through him, Jesus is speaking. I don't see Jesus myself. He sees him, and he tells me so many things that are the same as what Srila Prabhupada taught. He speaks about reincarnation, vegetarianism, and intelligent beings on other planets.

Me: And you believe him?

Young man: Yes, because so much of what he says is the same as what Prabhupada says. But my problem is I am losing faith in Krsna consciousness because when I asked him about Krsna, then Jesus, speaking through this man, told me, "I don't know any Krsna. "

Me: Well, then what you are trying to impress me with here is flawed by a very great contradiction. You've tried to validate what this man says in my eyes by telling me it is in agreement with Srila Prabhupada's teachings. Then you say he doesn't know Krsna, and this is harming your faith. But Krsna is the very sum and substance of Srila Prabhupada's teachings. How then can you transfer your faith in Srila Prabhupada to this man? Your reasoning shows no logic at all.

Young man: Yes, it is true, I am very confused. Maharaja, if I could just arrange for you to meet this man. . .

Me: I am not interested in meeting him. There is no reason for me to meet him. Actually, he is not the problem. You are the problem, or rather your mind is the problem. You've put your faith in this person for a reason that makes no sense at all.

Young man: No, but if it I find out it is really true that Jesus speaks through him. . .

Me: How will you prove or disprove that? You are simply hung up in this man's words. He speaks some words, you put your faith in his words. And the reason you've given for why you put faith in his words is unsound. So where does proof come into it?

Young man: I asked him to show me Jesus directly. He promised that very soon I'll see Jesus myself.

Me: Even if you see Jesus yourself, it doesn't prove anything. There are madmen locked in the insane asylum who have the subjective experience of seeing Jesus or Napoleon. To them their visions are perfectly real. But they are mad. Here in India one out of every tenth person will tell you he has directly seen Shirdi Sai Baba, or Samartha Maharaja, or Swami Gajanand, or some other departed mystic. Or some demigod. Or even Lord Krsna Himself! But the people who make such claims are common fools. So what if a pan-chewing, tea-drinking, bidi-smoking autoricksha walla wakes up in the middle of the night and sees Shirdi Sai or Sri Krsna standing over him? His life doesn't change. He remains what he is--a fool! What to speak of the world changing. We know who Srila Prabhupada is by what he did. He changed the whole world in twelve years, at a time of his life when most men are too feeble to take care of themselves. And you are telling me that you have faith in this person because of what Srila Prabhupada taught! How is he like Srila Prabhupada in his activities?

Young man: He does a lot of welfare work. . .

Me: That's mundane. That Nirankari Baba also does a lot of welfare work, and he tells people to eat meat on Ekadasi. Does his mundane welfare work mean I have to believe his nonsense teachings?

Young man: No, but if it turns out Jesus is really speaking through him. . .

Me: I'm sorry. This conversation is over. You are too mixed up in your head to follow what I am telling you. I don't think you've heard a word I've said, because you are too absorbed in your faulty thoughts.

Young man: No, I heard everything you said, Maharaja. I just. . . I mean. . . I'm very confused.

Me: That's it. You're very confused. You need help. You need steady spiritual guidance in your life. And you're not getting the kind of help you need from this fellow who tells you he speaks for Jesus. He's just leading you deeper and deeper into confusion.

Young man: Yes.

There are a lot of people in this world who share in the same flawed logic as exhibited by this young man. And some of them come into ISKCON and get initiated. A few years ago a Godbrother who is an ISKCON guru related to me how a lady disciple of his left his shelter to take reinitiation from a "rasika" Gaudiya Math sannyasi.

"I met with her to try to talk her out of leaving," he said, "but. . . well, you know her. "

I did know her, but I raised my eyebrows in an unspoken question, as if I did not understand what he was getting at.

So he had to admit it out loud: "She's not very intelligent. "

I knew this woman, and I knew what he said about her is true. She joined ISKCON at an old age, and thus was quite sentimental and settled in her ways. She didn't speak English, and at this stage of her life was unlikely to learn a new language.

I felt like asking him, "If you knew she was unintelligent, then why did you initiate her?" But that's a question I ask myself sometimes. Initiation reform should begin at home. And so for the past several years I've stopped initiating new disciples.

A couple days ago I received an email from Riga in Latvia. Apparently there's a big problem there because some devotees are getting too involved with Reiki. Half a dozen years ago I wrote something about Reiki, so this correspondent from Riga asked me to upload that to him. I don't seem to have a copy of that Reiki essay on file anymore. Besides that, I told him, I find the subject of Reiki too boringly stupid to get excited about. Someone who gets carried away from Srila Prabhupada's teachings by this sort of thing is suffering in his head from a crashed logic program.

In the 1930s, the developmental psychologist Alexander Romanovich Luria tested the logic of herdsmen of Uzbekistan by posing simple theoretical questions to them. The test went like this.

"There is a land far to the northwest of here called Germany. Its climate, conditions and people are different from Uzbektistan. You have camels here. But in Germany there are no camels in the whole country. Now, Berlin is a city in Germany. Are there camels in Berlin?"

The Uzbeki might ask, "Is Berlin a large city?"

"Yes, very large. "

"If it is a large city, then there should be camels. "

"But what do my words about Germany suggest?"

"They suggest that there are camels in Berlin, because if it is a large city then Khazaks, Kirghiz and Uzbekis will be there. "

"But if there aren't any camels in the whole of Germany?"

"If there are large cities, there will be camels. "

In ISKCON, the test might go like this:

"Srila Prabhupada says that Vedic knowledge must be received through guru-parampara in order to be bona fide. Reiki is a teaching that came from a cigarette-smoking Japanese man who had no connection to guru-parampara. Is Reiki bona fide?"

"Reiki teaches about ki, which is the Japanese equivalent prana. The science of prana is taught in the Vedas. So, yes, Reiki is bona fide Vedic knowledge. "

"But it comes from a Japanese man who didn't follow the regulative principles and had no connection to parampara. What do my words suggest?"

"They suggest that Reiki is bona fide, because in Srila Prabhupada's books there is mention of prana and subtle personalities in higher planes. Reiki teaches about these things, and so do the Vedas. "

This is what is called "marching to the sound of a different drummer. "

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