Iskcon on Light of Dharma Publishing

The Krishna West Controversy

Tue, 02 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Raghava had been chanting for three years when he first heard about the controversy. A senior devotee in his temple mentioned it casually over prasadam: “That Krishna West thing. You know, where they don’t wear dhotis.” The tone suggested everything. Raghava felt immediate relief. He’d been struggling with the cultural aspects of devotional life, wondering if his discomfort with Indian dress made him a bad devotee. But if other devotees felt the same way, maybe there was hope.

The Internal World of the False Guru: Why Charlatans Fear Authentic Saints

Sat, 29 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

There’s a revealing pattern in spiritual circles that repeats across traditions and centuries: false gurus invariably oppose, undermine, and attack genuine spiritual teachers. This isn’t coincidental—it’s psychologically inevitable. To understand why, we need to enter the internal world of the spiritual charlatan and examine the peculiar prison of their own making.

The Con Artist’s Fundamental Assumption

The non-bonafide guru operates from the same materialistic consciousness we explored earlier, but with a dangerous twist: they’ve discovered that spirituality itself can be commodified and exploited.

The Bureaucratization of Sacred Language

Wed, 26 Nov 2025 22:01:14 -0500

In 1972, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada completed his translation of the Bhagavad Gita, opening each of Krishna’s speeches with a phrase of striking intimacy: “The Blessed Lord said.” Twenty-two times throughout the text, this warm invocation appeared—a literary choice that, whether consciously or not, echoed the devotional warmth of the bhakti tradition Prabhupada represented.

By the 1980s, after Prabhupada’s passing, his disciples began revising his translations. “The Blessed Lord said” became “The Supreme Personality of Godhead said.” The change was technically accurate—Bhagavan in Sanskrit does mean the Supreme, Almighty God. But something ineffable had shifted. What was once an invitation to relationship had become a statement of metaphysical hierarchy.

Demanding Humility, Avoiding Accountability

Mon, 17 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Sarah joined the temple at twenty-two. The philosophy made sense. The community felt like family. Her teacher seemed genuinely wise. He’d helped her understand texts that had confused her for years, guided her through grief when her father died.

Three years in, she noticed something odd. Money was tight for the community kitchen, but leadership had just bought new cars. She asked about it at a meeting. Not accusingly, just curious about the budget.