How is the life of a person who regularly offers services at ISCON?
The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISCON) is known for its Hare Krishna movement. Concepts in Bhagavad Gita is the central theme of education to the disciples who worship Krisha as the highest form of God. The practice of mantra meditation also known as the Kirtan is a prominent part of worship. Founded in 1966 in New York by Swami Prabhupada, ISCON has received a wide audience appeal with 800 centres in India and many centres located all over the world.
My first experience with ISCON came when I was in Bangalore. A beautiful temple located on the hilltop serves as a tourist location offering tasty Prasad. Every Bangalorean would have visited the place at least once. Entering the place, subconsciously I could sense that I was being subtly requested to enrol to their programs. Being a staunch atheist back then, I figured that ISCON was not the place for me to visit.
Many years down the line, during my all-India cycle tour, I got to meet Ankush Sunny a devotee of Krishna who offers services at ISCON temple, Hubli. What I was mostly blind to back then, I wanted to see now and spent quality time with Ankush and learnt a great deal about ISCON and the nature of the devotees there.
So how exactly is the life of a devotee of Krishna and a person who offers services at ISCON?
Reason to start offering services at ISCON
I asked Ankush what propelled him to ISCON and not any other place. His answers were well out of the ordinary. Born to a Sabji maratha family, Ankush is a well-trained dancer who used to teach dancing to kids in a local academy at an early age. He mastered the art of freestyle breakdancing. Noticing his genuinely gifted ability to dance, his dance teacher allowed him to head a group and teach dancing to the group of students in the academy.
Ankush enjoyed his role and out of respect for his teacher carried out his role religiously. He said when completions took place outside, they would go out and perform. Here, he saw his teacher consuming alcohol and misbehaving with a couple of people. As this happened one too many times, once at Dandeli during a group outing, Ankush asked his teacher to quit alcohol consumption. This led to a rift between the two leading Ankush to pull out of the academy.
Until then, Ankush said he had considered the academy the temple and his teacher his God. When he entered the stage, he was performing cause he derived pleasure from dancing and nothing more. Enraged by the injustice that had happened to him, he decided to pull out of dancing completely. He said that it felt like he had lost a limb. It was only when he visited ISCON only a couple of years back did he feel he got the limb back. It didn’t come in the form of dance but it came in the form of spirituality.
ISCON’s teachings on Bhagwad Gita and the lessons on spirituality fed his soul. He felt like returning there time and again. Ankush said that he is a fish out of the water without spirituality. He even dances there during Keertans. On asking him why he decides to dance there as it can be considered an act of performance, he said he dances for nobody. He dances for God.
Lifestyle of an individual who offers services at ISCON
I had been a guest at Ankush’s house and got to meet his family and take a look at his life up close. The very first thing I noticed about his life is how he has caught hold of the term and idea of ‘cruelty’.
Born to a hardcore Non-vegetarian family, he has turned into a vegetarian who disallows cooking non-vegetarian food at home. The teachings he has received at ISCON seem to have major influences on his lifestyle. When a mosquito once stung the leg of his mother, he denied killing the mosquito. When his mother caught rats at the home in a glue may, his mom said that he cried that day. I even saw him carefully brooming the floor in such a way that the ants wouldn’t be harmed.
I asked Ankush how he looks at cruelty. He said even plucking a leaf or flower from a tree is cruelty. Just because they can not sense it doesn’t mean it isn’t cruelty. If any living being is disturbed from its native state (the state that God has designed it in and the way it is meant to be) through us, we turn cruel. We live cruelly as human beings.
He quoted ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’. Meaning the world is one family. We have to live in harmony with each living thing on earth.
Teachings at ISCON preach that when vegetables, fruits, and milk, are offered to God and the had as Prasad, Karma gets neutralized. There is no good or bad Karma there. Unfortunately, we thrive on our desires. The desire for food is omitted by consuming it as Prasad from God and thanking him for allowing us to have the sensual pleasure of food through him.
The Sabji Marathas usually marry at a young age. Ankush has his elder brother who married at the age of 19 and has a 5-year kid today. He claims that all of these people live a life of sensual pleasure. Their desires for food, sex, and other pleasures, rule their lives.
Ankush said that the whole idea of life has to be to abstain from materialism and sensual pleasure. He wishes to take Bhramacharya someday and completely offer his services to God. That is the way he looks at his life to be.
The other shades of ISCON
The Akshaya Patra is a non-profit trust of ISCON that operates a midday meal scheme for students in schools. Founded in 2000, Akshaya Patra has been offering free food to underprivileged and rural students. Ankush showed me the place where the largest kitchen is located in entire Asia and one of the largest kitchens in the entire world at ISCON, Hubli.
From my previous experience of meeting a naturalist (Read this article), I had heard him say that building temples on hills is a crime. Temples are the major source of deforestation. The lack of strict regulations when it comes to temples has led to the acquisition of forest land and misuse of the same.
I wanted to have my mind cleared on this front. on Asking Ankush where I could have my doubts cleared, he took me to a poster containing all the details. A huge budget had been put forth for the excavation of land. Precisely 20% of the temple construction expenditure. Pictures there also showed the hill being cut down during the foundation. Excavation of land which costed 58 lakh rupees must have been much more than procuring the land from farmers. This pinched my heart. What is God without nature?
I told Ankush about my previous experience at ISCON, Bangalore. I have also heard through multiple sources that ISCON indulge in practices of conversion.
According to the Sanathana Dharma, unlike the Abrahamic religions, conversion doesn’t exist. Many ISCON members are seen selling the Bhagwad Gita by the street. I also saw a person in the temple at Hubli constantly busy on call speaking with other people convincing them about ISCON’s ideologies.
A kush said there are two forms of conversion. One is horizontal which is forced, and the other is perpendicular which isn’t forced. In the perpendicular direction, one is imparted the knowledge, enough for them to choose what is right. He said brainwashing isn’t a bad thing when the right thing is being taught. As the term itself says washing is more like cleaning. Sometimes members of ISCON will have to do it.
I completely begged to differ on his opinion here. When nobody knows what is right or wrong, we are no one to claim what we know is right. Even worse implement it on others.
Individuality of a person who offers services at ISCON
Speaking with Ankush on topics about his life, I learnt a great deal about the influence of religion on the mindset of a person.
Justifications
Ankush said that the only reason he is pursuing Bcom is to show it as a validity to society that he is educated. He said there is way more to learn from the Bhagwad Gita than the education he receives for his certification. He is also an avid traveller who has hitchhiked all across South India. He said he does that for spiritual reasons. In doing this is where he finds his missing limbs.
Validations
Ankush said that he doesn’t have too many friends. The only friends he hangs around with he sympathizes with them for their lack of knowledge and understanding about the world. That desires drive them. He constantly keeps helping them learn about the nature of life. He says he is patient with people as people can change any day. He has to do his duty of teaching people what he has learnt. He said Krishna is happy with the ones who spread his message. This didn’t seem very different from Christianity – ‘It is God’s will to spread the Gospel’.
Complains
Ankush thought long and hard. He said he can’t think of any complaints. He said that God has provided him with plenty to be happy in life. Complaining would be an extremely wrong thing to do.
Materialism
Right from the time I interacted with Ankush, I knew he wasn’t materialistic. Money didn’t seem to appeal to him. When I asked him what he would do with a large sum of money if given to him, he told he will keep only as much as he needs and donate the rest. That answered it all.
Here I saw a correlation between a religious person and selfless behaviour to a small extent (read this article to know more).
I am a 31 year young PhD graduate who has decided to travel the length and breadth of India on my cycle, to document the journey of meeting a vast array of people. In my journey, I intend to understand the characteristic features of the people of this nation and categorize them based on their demographics, age, profession, gender, traditions, and cultural differences.
Interesting person. This reminded me of a fried of mine who joined iscon after bachelors only to quit few years later. People change and change can happen with Ankush too. Only time will tell. I might seem biased against what Ankush believes but cant ignore the similarities of mindset when compared to people who are on the way to become fundamentalists
I am not sure whose side to be on here. If he lived by his families principles he should be married by now. His grandma believes that a good grandson is one who marries, ‘settles down’, and earns a lot of money!
Not sure which is more delusional.