Why ISKCON is wrong..? I Srinivas Shenoy; personally being a Practicing Brahmin and studying Vedas have explained it below. It's A detailed & lengthy explanation; I sincerely apologize if any of the points I have mentioned are against you faith and belief. International Society of Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) is a religious society – society – or or CULT, started by A.C Bhaktivedanta a.k.a Prabhupada who is a Gaudiya Vaishnava. They are different from other societies or schools of Hinduism by the fact that ISKCON acts like a marketing corporation. While other schools of Hinduism focuses on inner peace and other philosophical elements, ISKCON goes around saying ‘JOIN HERE! JOIN HERE! “Be our devotee”.. Their intentions are no different than the Facebook pages you devotee” see around – around – to to make people join their venture so that they get enough publicity and money. What do the devotees gain from this? A shortcut to Nirvana, eternal peace; and so on regardless whatever acts they do in their daily life. What do the Prabhujis of ISKCON gain from this? Money, lavish life styles, respect from devotees, free trip to tourist places and many more. Bhaktivedanta Swami a.k.a Prabhupada began ISKCON under the philosophies of Gaudiya Vaishnavists. A school that is just 500 years old which whi ch was found by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. There weren’t much people following this sect until Prabhupada started ISKCON some 50 years ago. Why? The philosophies and ideals of this sect are in stark contrast with the core philosophies of Hinduism/ Sanatana Dharma. It is clear from his speeches that Prabhupada had no philosophical or psychological knowledge and his statements were hollow. He delivered statements such as “Women have less knowledge than men” and “Love Krishna or love vagina”. He failed to attract philosopher p hilosopher and scientists, people with rational thoughts and skeptics. Such people bowed down to the words of Swami Vivekananda. No people spoke against the philosophies of Swami Vivekananda. However; only desperate people seeking ‘eternal happiness’ who believe in heaven and hell, follows Prabhupad Prabhupada a and his society blindly.
ISKCON calls Lord Shiva an “Anti-Vedic God” stating that he is not present in the Vedas. Ironically, ‘Rudra’ is present in all 4 Vedas and the case is different. What is the sacred text of Hinduism? It’s the four Vedas- Rig Veda, Yajur Veda, Sama Veda and At harva Veda. They are ‘shruti’ (revealed). They are the words of almighty himself while every other texts such as puranas and ithihasas are ‘smriti’(remembered) are written by sages after studying the Vedas. If you didn’t get what I mean, Here is an equation: 1+1=2 Here is an illustration of the equation: Dev had 1 apple. Maya gave another apple to Dev. Now, Dev have 2 apples. While the equation is difficult to understand by the common people, the sages drew the illustration to make the ideas of Vedas be understandable to every single person. This is why there are many versions of Ramayana, Puranas, and different stories of creation. I.e. it doesn’t make any difference if Dev was Ray and it was Orange instead of apple. The idea of ‘1+1=2’ is the same. This is the Vedas. The supreme sacred book. If any other book of Hinduism contradicts with the Veda then Vedas are given priority and the latter idea is ruled out. So, what is the sacred book of ISKCON? It’s ‘Bhagavad Gita AS IT IS”. When you hear ‘as it is’ you think it’s the original Bhagavad Gita. It’s not. It’s just the version of Prabhupada who gave it the title ‘as it is’ to fool people all over the world. The devotees of ISKCON never read the Bhagavad Gita commented by other sages such as Shankaracharya, Dayananda etc. They are arrogant and consider Prabhupada’s version as the final word of God and consider even the Vedas as inferior. The deity ‘Radha’ which the followers of ISKCON worship is not even present in Bhagavata Purana. ‘Radha’ was just a character introduced by Jayadev in his poems. In Prabhupada’s version of Bhagavad Gita, Krishna is the supreme God, the ultimate one and every other Gods of the Hindu pantheon bow down to him. This is absolute stupidity, The Vedas proposes the Advaita philosophy; Proposing that all Gods are one and equal. And the formless
God Parabrahma is the supreme God. When someone says this, the ISKCON devotee or prabhu would take down the “BhagvadGita As it is” and points the verses were Krishna says he is the supreme one. This is the behavior of the followers of ISKCON. Let’s say I write a book stating that I’m the most handsome guy in the world. How do you like if I say “I’m the most handsome guy in the world….and if you don’t believe me …see…its written this book”. How about the fact that. Superman exists because it is written and shown in comics. The views of ISKCON are written by their own people. It’s like some American write a poem saying Nelson Mandela bowed down to Obama and 500 years later followers of Obama would say ‘see….it’s in this poem. Nelson Mandela worshipped Obama’. "People often confuse that, “As it is” means true, without own interpretations. But it is not really so. It is just from 'Gaudiya perspective' only. Such things are called COMMENTARIES (Bhashya) only. Adi sankara ( Advaita) , Ramanuja (Vishistadvaita) Madvacharya (Dvaita)etc have written Bhasyas only. They didn't call their Bhasyas as 'Bhagavad Gita “ AS IT IS”. They are very humble. But Prabhupada showed his stupidity in the Very TITLE itself. This shows his arrogance and hedonistic attitude towards other Vedic schools. They have presented Krishna as someone like some God who wants people to worship him only and calling others as Demi-Gods. This is filthy and foolish as well. If this continues, people may develop wrong concept against Bhagavad Gita. Infact Bhagavad Gita teaches equality of all paths like; Gnyana, Karma, Bhakti and Rajayogas. Here words of Krishna should not be understood like words of 'Monopolist and Dictator God who seeks sadistic pleasure by ordering his creation to worship him otherwise they will not be liberated.' "- Courtesy the blog - ISK'CON' The 'Maha' Mantra - "Hare Krishna Hare Rama" is considered to be the most powerful and greatest (Maha) mantra by the ISKCON devotees. However this mantra itself is distorted. People have their own favorite mantras. Some like to chant the Gayatri Mantra and some prefer the Mrityujnaya Mantra. Yet, the Vedas or puranas never even once said any
mantra was the greatest. The Vedas don't have a note below the mantra saying "this is the best one". By the way; this mantra doesn't even exist in the Vedas. Every other sacred texts of Hinduism, every other sects and schools, every single one are all opposed to the ideas of ISKCON and the gaudiya vaishnava cult. The ‘Brahma Samhita’ which also states that Shiva worshipped Krishna was also written by the gaudiya vaishnavas 500 years ago. The ISKCON prabhus fail to point out any other sacred text apart from the distorted ones of their own in support of their views. They are indeed Anti-Vedic. How did the ISKCON succeed? It’s the Marketing skills, of course. Let’s see how it is established. Emotionally sensitive people are in desperate need for a superior figure to bow down to. The Christians have the Christ; the Muslims have Allah and so on. While in Hinduism there are 33 Crores Forms of Gods and everyone is a single force – the Nirakara Rupa Parabrahma. Parabrahma doesn’t have a form so can’t be worshipped. People take their favorite God; Some Shiva, some Vishnu, some Ganesha etc. Krishna is one of the popular Gods and is a heroic figure in Hinduism. Instead of doing things mysteriously up in the sky, he came down to earth and lived like a human. ISKCON picked Krishna labeling the ‘Gaudiya Vaishnava’ way. Ok, Krishna is been worshipped for ages. There are thousands of temples in India for Krishna. People all visit them without any biased view. What do the ISKCON have to do to bring all those people exclusively inside their temple? Make people believe that every other God in Hinduism are inferior and Krishna is the only supreme God. This is a difficult job because the Puranas and Vedas have a different view. ‘Let’s distort it’, ISKCON thought. Trimurti - the three ultimate Gods of Hinduism- Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. Nobody worships Brahma apparently. Vishnu? Let’s just say that Vishnu is only an avatar of Krishna and Krishna is the supreme one. WOW! Nobody ever did such a distortion to Hinduism. Check out every single book of Hinduism and try to find if any one of it (apart from the one written by Gaudiya Vaishnavas) which
supports this blasphemy. They made Krishna their 'Father' and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu their 'Ideal figure '. They said, “Shiva is a Demi-God." "Ganesha is a Demi-God." All gods are Demi-gods except Krishna. He cannot grant wishes. He only has the control over material elements. He can’t help you attain Nirvana. Shiva is the best Vaishnava and the greatest devotee of Krishna. The worshippers of Shiva are brute, alcoholic womanizers. They don’t have artistic sense and they behave like barbarians. Shiva once said to Yashoda “Give me at least the chance to eat the remnants of Krishna” in Mathura. Shiva and his consort Parvati sought permission from Krishna in order to give birth to Lord Ganesha. Shiva is a barbaric God. He needs human sacrifices, blood and skulls of people to be pleased.” "Adi Shakti" A collective form of female deities in Hinduism is the "Maya" or illusionary powers of Krishna. Such are the preaching of The so called ISKCON. Whereas Vedic philosophies provide an individual to follow or worship any god or goddess he /she want to and have no compulsion. Those who are exposed to the views of ISKCON find it difficult even to talk about Lord Shiva. Thus they all focus their attention to the only supreme God, Krishna. However; only common people seeking the short cut to ‘eternal happiness’ follow ISKCON. They say, "Your soul will be liberated only if you worship Krishna, if you worship other gods your soul will be tortured in hell." While the ‘Karma’ law of Hinduism is of different nature. There is no heaven or hell. Only Life after Death or Niravana. That life depends upon the acts you do in this one. Karma states every action has its consequences; which is scientifically proven. Every intellectual believer of Hinduism even atheists believe in this philosophy. ISKCON proposes a shortcut to happiness. No wonder why selfish people blindly follow them- they just need a prosperous life regardless whatever sins they do.
Actually, Krishna is an avatar of Lord Vishnu. In every age, when evil becomes dominant, Vishnu will incarnate on earth to defeat it. In the Dwapara Yuga, Vishnu incarnated as Krishna in human form. He did his Karma and died. Even there is a story behind that. Rama, the previous avatar of Vishnu killed Vanara King Bali by cheating. Knowing that what he did was wrong, Rama said, “you will kill me the same way, while I’m not aware of your attack, in our next life”. Just as he said, Krishna was the reincarnation of Rama and while he was sleeping in a jungle, a hunter (reincarnation of Bali) shot Krishna with an arrow thinking that he was a deer by just seeing his feet. Thus the law of Karma is even applicable to Gods in human forms. Krishna died, but Vishnu still lives, because he is timeless like Lord Shiva. ISKCON have been doing whatever they can to degenerate other Gods of Hinduism. An ISKCON Prabhu’Ji’ once said ‘I was a Shiva devotee when I was young. Wanted to offer my skull to Shiva Lingam but didn’t find the courage or sword to do it.’ What an imprudent scenario! Search the whole sacred texts of Hinduism and you’ll never see an instance where anyone offering his skull to Lord Shiva to make him pleased. How can it be? The person will die after he cuts his head, how can he take that to Shiva Lingam after his death? This statement of the Prabhu’JI’ was intended to give a wrong impression of Lord Shiva to the people. They will misunderstand Shiva as some demon barbaric God like that of the Mayans or Celts who seeks sacrifice of humans. “It is better to worship Krishna”, they’ll think. People with lesser knowledge on Hinduism, who never read any Puranas or Vedas are prone to believe such distorted ideas of these fake prabhujis. While, people who know what Hinduism is, the reality of the Gods in it and the significance of Lord Shiva will only spat at ISKCON. That is why ISKCON have better success in countries other than India. Indians know the truth about Hinduism but a person new to it would believe whatever distorted philosophies the bogus prabhujis propose. ISKCON have established their luxurious temples in the continent of
Europe and America to receive infinite funds from lost souls and depressed individuals who want spiritual upbringing. They brainwash singles, divorced individuals to accept celibacy and follow their concepts, eventually the person in the fit of devotion would offer all his wealth to ISKCON as the person has no heirs to his or her property. The motive of providing luxurious temples & free delicious food is to attract funds (a marketing policy). I have seen several pictures of foreign ISKCON devotees wearing sacred thread around their shoulders like a practicing Brahmin. I got furious as it requires a Vedic lineage to do so. Intact they don't even perform the Sandhyavandanam (daily rituals and rites of a Brahmin). One has to follow rules to gain the benefits of the sacred thread. I have seen Shaligrama (a divine stone) in ISKCON temples which are kept in the temple alter. I have observed that they have painted a face on it which is obviously wrong. They don't even offer necessary sacrifices to the stone; which is a mandatory thing as per Brahma Sutras. None of the Hindu rituals begin without the prayers and remembering the lord Ganesha while the ISKCON never mentions to do so. I have observed that the devotees are expected to chant 16 revolutions of a rosary made of 108 beads; 1,728 every day. The so called Maha Mantra of ISKCON is chanted while performing daily chores and activities even while walking on the streets wearing leather footwear and even while staring at the women. The mantra has no Nyasa & Dhyana. ISKCON is an organization that provides wrong knowledge about Hinduism. If someone for an instance joins ISKCON he is been restricted to ask doubts and clear his concepts, restricted to read and gain knowledge from the materials written and published by ISKCON, compulsion in not consuming particular food products etc. The most idiotic thing is that ISKCON notifies their members to perform fast on particular days and mention that if one does it his soul would directly reach “Go Lok” (the Abode of Lord Krishna). I seriously busted out in laughter when I heard this for the first time. Not even; The Garuda Purana doesn’t mention it. A man receives his rewards on the bases of his behavior and not by performing fasts. The Karma system is not a local railway transit to take you directly to the last railway station by not halting in between. Another fact is that they
consider Chaitanya Mahaprabhu as one of the 24 incarnations of Vishnu which is totally wrong.
ISKCON are known for their frequent filing of lawsuits, sex scandals and money handling. The prabhujis and their followers find ‘inner peace’ by dancing around “ding dong” and speaking against Vedas and other Gods of Hinduism. After reading this detailed analysis of ISKCON; if you still feel to join them and spoil our culture; then it’s your choice.
