The Interfaith Movement of New Vrindaban
A paper presented at the annual meetings of the Communal Studies Association, Nauvoo, Illinois, 1992.
copyright John M. Bozeman
Author's note in 2003: This was my first public presentation as an aspiring scholar of new religious movements. It is presented here primarily for historical interest, as I am not aware that the interfaith activity of New Vrindaban was ever really examined in any sort of scholarly fashion other than by myself. I have been told that New Vrindaban has now returned to the ISKCON fold and abandoned most of its interfaith activities, though some of the individuals involved may have left to pursue interfaith efforts elsewhere.
Imagine, if you will, the following. You are in a large room, panelled with dark wood. Ahead of you and to each side are clusters of ornate figurines and statues, many trimmed in gold and draped in sumptuous apparel. A pungent incense is in the air. Around you are men and women dressed in monastic cowls in various shades of saffron and ocher. Accompanied by a pipe organ, all are singing:
All creatures of our God and king,
Lift up you voices, let us sing,
Hare Krishna! Hare Krishna!
It is noon in the temple of New Vrindaban.
The 1960s witnessed the emergence of a number of new religious movements. On of the most conspicuous of these movements was that of the Hare Krishna movement, founded by A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabupada. This group grew to include several thousand fully initiated members, plus a large number of lay followers.
By the 1980s, however, the movement was experiencing internal tension over what was the most appropriate form of polity for maintaining the group's high ethical standards.(1) These disagreements eventually led to a schism within the movement in 1987 when the ISKCON GBC and Kirtanananda Swami Bhaktipada, the leader of the large New Vrindaban community, parted ways.(2)
One source of disagreement was Swami Bhaktipada's incorporation of Christian elements into community life. Western physical and intellectual culture has generally been avoided by ISKCON devotees. Members have instead prided itself on its efforts to transplant Indian culture, which at times came to be seen as archetypal and paradigmatic.(3)
Bhaktipada, on the other hand, had begun to question this doctrinal stance in his 1985 book, Christ and Krishna. In this work Bhaktipada continued to maintain that the Hindu Vedas and Bhagavad-gita are the most complete revelation of God.(4) However, he also recognized the authority of the Christian scriptures. Bhaktipada recognized Jesus as a shaktavesh-avatara, or an avatar of God empowered to carry out a special mission, a mission to save the world from sin by preaching devotional love of God. The swami also commended a number of specifically Christian practices, such as the Catholic rosary and Gregorian chants, and Protestant hymnody.
Some of Kirtanananda's specific interpretations of Christian doctrine did not exactly square with traditional Christian theology.(5) However, I think that for our purposes here the most significant point is Bhaktipada's conclusion that other traditions besides that of Indian Vaishnavism could readily contain and convey divine truth. As one community member put it,
Bhaktipada happened to notice that there were self-realized souls in other traditions as well . . . so essentially we became a little more open to other ideas . . . .
To Bhaktipada, this openness was not a mere dry intellectual assent to the validity of other faiths. In 1986 he encouraged a musically-trained disciple to form a choir performing Western-style music, including a number of "Krishna Carols." This group, the Krishna Chorale, produced two record albums before disbanding.
An even greater change came in 1987, when the worship services were translated from Sanskrit to English. This was accompanied by a change in music as well, with traditional Christian hymns being modified for Krishna usage, as in the case of the case of "All Creatures of Our God and King." The New Vrindaban hymnal now includes songs such as:
Blest Be the Tie that Binds/Our hearts in Krishna's Love
Blessed Assurance, Krishna is Mine
How Great Thou Art
Krishna, Krishna, We Adore Thee
Holy Gita, Book Divine
How Great Thou Art
Trust and Obey
In the Garden
Hare, Hare, Hare, Lord God Almighty
Krishna, Joy of Man's Desiring
By 1988 a pipe organ had been installed in the Temple, and soon a small orchestra of some twenty chairs developed.
Between 1986 and 1988, and number of other changes occurred as well. Traditional Indian saris and dhotis were exchanged for unisex, hooded saffron and ocher monastic robes reminiscent of the Franciscan cowl. Liturgies were revised to resemble those of the Catholic Mass, with Gregorian chants, antiphonal prayers, and creeds.
These moves toward ecumenism have snow-balled. In June of 1988 the community held its first interfaith conference, with delegates from the Church of Scientology, the Church Universal and Triumphant, the Unification Church, Swami Sachidananda's Integral Yoga Society, and the Padanarama Community attending. Since that time, the community has held ten more conferences, with programs examining Native American sweat lodges, Mariology, Christian guided mediation, psychic phenomena, and creation spirituality.
Furthermore, the community has begun working on its ambitious City of God project. The goal of this project is the construction of a small interfaith city, centered around a 300-foot-tall Cathedral of Holy Name.
And at a more concrete level, Swami Bhaktipada has begun to initiate women into the order of sannyasa, the highest level of initiation in Vaishnavism and one traditionally closed to women. Bhaktipada's decision in this matter was influenced by both the significant role that women play in Western religious and secular society, in combination with the Hare Krishna doctrine, "you are not your body, but a spirit-soul." Presently, half of the community's sannyasis are women.
All of these changes have been predicated upon two core beliefs. One is, "you are not your body; you are [instead] a spirit soul." This soul, at its core, is identical to all other spirit souls, is considered to be similar to, though of course vastly smaller than, the soul of God. This doctrine allows the community to maintain an egalitarianism that crosses gender, race, and species boundaries.
The second belief is the conviction that deep down, we are all worshiping the same thing. While the group now accepts that God has revealed him/herself through myriad cultures and religions, the community's intelligencia are convinced that the various great faiths of the world are variants of a primitive monotheism that existed throughout the world some 5000 years ago. This monotheism is thought to have been based in a pietistic devotion to God, as well as a source of religious unity for the nations of the time.
We thus come to the central paradox of the community. The group's ordination of women and acceptance of other faiths, including other New Religious Movements, makes the group appear quite progressive. At the same time, however, the group has a fundamentalistic preoccupation with a mythic past, a past that is seen as normative. This stance has placed the community into some awkward positions, both doctrinally and practically.
One set-back occurred when the group could not accept homosexuality as an alternative
lifestyle. This resulted in strained relations existing between the group and a Unitarian minister
whose faith freely accepted such practices.(6)
While the group has tried to get representatives from
other faiths to set up adjacent communities, results have so far been mixed. A Taoist center open
and closed within a year, and it appears that a local Catholic missionary couple are about to
leave. The community is continuing in its interfaith efforts, however. Within the past four
months the community has opened a new interfaith center based in Native American spirituality,
though participants also display Christian and New Age influences. Furthermore, four of the
groups 16 sannyasis are now dedicating a substantial amount of time to the interfaith effort. One
of these is a Catholic woman; the other is able to harmonize simultaneous beliefs in Vaisnavism,
Catholicism, and two forms of Pure Land Buddhism. One the whole, has the New Vrindaban been successful in making its faith more
accessible to a pluralistic American audience with a cultural backdrop of Christianity? I would
argue that, on a socioanthropological level, New Vrindaban does in fact address important
religious issues often overlooked in America. The group claims to be rooted in the past, while
also looking toward the future. Philosophically, New Vrindaban offers a universalistic
philosophical monism that can reconciled, to some degree, with Christian ethics and morals.
Thus, participants often feel that their new faith does not replace, but instead extends and
integrates, their childhood faiths. The group is also able to incorporate persons with commitment levels ranging from
extreme devotion to occasional participation. It also encourages a variety of devotional styles,
with both physical and intellectual form of worship readily available. Thus building a wall,
reading a book, meditating quietly, and chanting ecstatically while jumping up and down are all
acceptable forms of devotion. The trick, of course, is going to be keeping it tied all together. The group is now united
by religious fervor, the interfaith projects, and Swami Bhaktipada's incarceration. However, over
the past four years the group has shrunk somewhat.(7) Whether the size with rebound or not
remains to be seen. The disciples, though, are not worried about this. The city of God continues to be built,
slowly--much as, the devotees feel, medieval churches once were. They feel that the community
is through a time of purification as Lord Krishna allows the less devoted disciples to leave; in
this they recall Swami Prabupada's statement that he would rather have a eight pure disciples
than many apathetic ones. The devotees are heartened by the interfaith process with which allows them a greater
sense of connectedness with other persons of faith, while continuing to reach out to those still
seeking. At the most basic level, however, they know that their efforts are a manifestation of the
God's will.
REFERENCES: 1. A conflict grew up how the group could best remain true to both the principle of disciplic
succession and also Prabupada's wish for a coordinating Governing Body Commission (or GBC).
2. See Steven J. Gelberg, "The Fading of Utopia: ISKCON in Transition," Bulletin of the John
Rylands University of Manchester 70:3 (1988): 171-183; Steven J. Gelberg, "The Call of the
Lotus-Eyed Lord: The Fate of Krishna Consciousness in the West," in When Prophets Die: The
Postcharismatic Fate of New Religious Movements, ed. Timothy Miller (Albany: State
University of New York Press, 1991) 149-164; "International Society for Krishna Consciousness
of West Virginia," in Encyclopedia of American Religions, 3rd ed., ed. J. Gordon Melton
(Detroit: Gale Research Inc., 1989) 868-9.
3. As one former participant pointed out,
Our food was not "Indian," but rather favored by Krishna, God. Our dress was not
that of Indians but that which liberated beings in the spiritual world . . . had
always worn--the natural dress of the soul. . . . Our chant was intoned to the God
of gods and Lord of the Universe--the divine author of the Eternal Religions of
which the historical religions of the world are but dim and imperfect reflections.
To our way of thinking, then, we had not moved from one culture to another but
had transcended culture altogether.Gelberg, "Call," 155.
4. Kirtanananda Swami Bhaktipada, Christ and Krishna: The Path of Pure Devotion (1985;
Moundsville, WV: Palace Publishing, 1987) 9.
5. Members of the League of Devotees are quick to point out the ways in which Christianity and
Krishna Consciousness are similar. Many Christians may have doctrinal conflicts with
Bhaktipada's understanding of Christianity, which includes the belief that Christ's saving power
is in enabling people to quit sinning; similarly, the crucifixion is seen as exemplary, rather than
as possessing sacramental qualities. Hell is considered to be a region of temporary purification,
and Jesus is seen as one of many avatars. Some League members active within the group's
interfaith movement some hold more traditional views of Christ, frequently if not always in
conjunction with Vaisnavan tenets.
6. Note also that the Vaishnavan proscription against the eating of flesh prevents Bhaktipada
from accepting a literal interpretation of the Catholic Eucharist.
7. The size decreased from 400 to 200 residents.