archives

Last night at Krishnafest we had a "Tribute to Richard Dawkins".

Throughout history the Vaisnava brahmanas have faced different competitors to provide the metanarrative of life to human society. In the past they have faced the Karma-mimasa school, the followers of Buddha, the followers of Shankaracarya, and more recently sahajiya followers of Caitanya Mahaprabhu who mix bhakti with tantra, and proponents of a vitiated system of entitlement to spiritual position by virtue of birth alone (caste system).

Today one of the most prominent of our honored opposition comes in the form of scientist and culture warrior Richard Dawkins [wikipedia entry] and followers of his ideological narrative, based on science and especially evolutionary biology.

He weaves a powerful metanarrative around religion in general, using it to encourage people to believe in science and the scientific method. This is part of his function as the sitting chair for the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University.

I believe that Mr Dawkins has many valid points and identifies many of the failings of current religious systems and their adherents. However, I feel that he misses an important point and overstates his case. In this way he fails to distinguish between religious extremism or fanaticism, and bonafide spiritual experience leading to transcendental realization. His aggressive preaching leads to the general public missing out on the opportunity to experience this.

At the same time the system that he promotes as an alternative, rational empiricism, while in some aspects superior to religious extremism, especially in today's global community with advanced technology, is still not sufficient to bring about the global harmony and personal satisfaction that he hopes to achieve.

For these reasons, I have studied his presentations and will over the next period present to you some of my findings and conclusions. If, as I have, you find yourself in a public discussion with someone who holds these ideas, you will find these thoughts useful. Being a practical person, I'll give you the breakdown of how he powerfully presents his ideas to a general public audience, and how we can present our ideas to combat them.

I received this letter from Praghosa Prabhu, the webmaster of Dandavats.com:

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Dear Prabhus,

Dandavats. Srila Prabhupada ki jai!

I am suspending comments on this subject now as I am getting an increasing
number of unpublishable contributions. If I keep publishing other comments
on this subject it will keep the 'fire burning' and I will have to answer
many letters explaining why I am not publishing certain comments.

As the key points have now been made on both sides of the argument, on
balance, suspending further comment is what I have decided to do.

Your servant, Praghosa dasa.
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My last three comments on the matter were disallowed. I'll publish them here in due course. Today I am MC'ing at the wedding of Madan Gopal and Asi Kunda, so that will keep me occupied. Photos and a report of the wedding to follow.

There are terrorists threatening our country! We must legislate to give the government unprecedented sweeping powers to deal with the threat as it sees fit!

There are critics threatening our movement! We must legislate to give the GBC unprecedented sweeping powers (unilateral annotation of Srila Prabhupada's books) to deal with the threat as it sees fit!

Can anyone else see a parallel here?

Although the proposal is constructed to look like it is about annotating that one straightforward and uncontroversial point, what it does is give an unprecedented sweeping "power to annotate" in response to some perceived threat in the environment.

It's not about one annotation, as the proposal seeks to portray it. It's about the GBC legislating into existence a power it has not had up to this point. The power to address internal cultural issues and external PR issues through the mechanism of annotating Srila Prabhupada's books.

This unprecedented landmark change is being done with no public discussion of the pros and cons, no brahminical position papers, no explanation from senior devotee thought leaders such as Ravindra Svarupa prabhu, etc.

Those who give up their essential liberty for temporary safety will find themselves with neither.

Those who give up the inviolable sanctity of Srila Prabhupada's books for temporary convenience will find themselves with neither.