Question: How do you see ISKCON in the next 50 years?

Author: Devotee
Date: 2023-12-05
Jayapatākā Swami: Interesting question!
Since I have been in ISKCON, over 50 years,
when I came to Māyāpur there was a grass hut,
now there are 7,500 devotees.
What will happen in 50 more years?
Śrīla Prabhupāda said, we should have 50,000 devotees here!
When I joined ISKCON I had visited every temple in ISKCON –
all three!!
San Francisco, New York and Montreal.
But now I don’t think it is possible,
there are 600 or 800.
I don’t know if they count all the outposts and Nāmahaṭṭas.
In India, I know there are 5,000 Nāmahaṭṭas.
Because we have over 5000 Nāmahaṭṭas in Eastern India
and now we want to expand that to the rest of India.
We have Bhakti-vṛkṣa groups –
in Chennai I think they have more than 115.
Similarly, in Kolkata about 200.
In Delhi they have Nāmahaṭṭas for the cities.
They are called āśraya group,
to have an āśraya group you need to have a hall which would hold at least 100 people.
Anyway, they are not counting the Nāmahaṭṭas, Bhakti-vṛkṣas or the āśraya groups.
And in Russian speaking countries they have 535 Bhakti-vṛkṣa groups,
that was the last time that I heard.
Russians are very good for Bhakti-vṛkṣa groups.
I don’t know why but if you have two or three Russians, your Bhakti-vṛkṣa group will be very successful!
So, I don’t know, it is a purely speculative answer.
But Lord Caitanya, He wanted that in every town and village the holy name would be sung.
In the Brahma-vaivarta Purāṇa, Lord Kṛṣṇa told the holy rivers that
after 5000 years in Kali-yuga,
there would be a 10,000-year golden age
and that people would generally be Kṛṣṇa conscious.
So, with all these predictions in the Purāṇas and by Lord Caitanya, so we are looking at a very positive period.
But I am too busy to speculate on the future,
being in the situation that I am confined to.
But, we hope that in the next 50 years, we fulfill all these predictions of Śrīla Prabhupāda and Lord Caitanya.
Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura had predicted during the British Rāj
that the Westerners, they would go on Navadvīpa parikramā
and they will see their brothers from India
and they would be chanting “Jaya Śacīnandana!” together
and embrace each other,
not thinking about any caste, creed, nationality.
Can you imagine in the British Rāj
he was saying such a thing!
I personally saw it come true.
I saw we had a Bengali and Indian party
and an International party.
They came together
and they were chanting together, “Jaya Śacīnandana! Jaya Śacīnandana!
Gaurāṅga!”
So what happens in the next 50 years is in your hands!
What you are going to do to make happen!
I am already at the end of my life,
you are at the beginning,
so you have all the future.
You will see the next 50 years, I won’t see it.
Not in this body anyway.
So that is why we want you to take this up very seriously.
We have like 800 temples, thousands of Bhakti-vṛkṣas, thousands of Nāmahaṭṭas.
How did this happen?
It happened one after another after another.
So, Lord Caitanya said that:
bhārata-bhūmite haila manuṣya-janma yāra
janma sārthaka kari' kara para-upakāra
(Cc. Ādi 9.41)
Those who are born in India they have got a special facility
to perfect their lives
and to help others.
So, now we find that many of our Indian brothers and sisters have gone to the West for IT.
And we are trying to encourage them to distribute Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books,
to be active in their spiritual life.
We don’t know what Kṛṣṇa’s plan is
but we have some windows to the future.
But if you work hard then there is no reason why we cannot achieve those goals.
People are seeking for some spiritual purpose of life
and they are not getting it,
except in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
So, Śrīla Prabhupāda went to the West,
he said that people in the West are dying, burning in the modes of passion, and ignorance
and he wanted to save them.
He made a 108-temples,
I think we should have a special status for these 108 temples.
Just like in Śrī-sampradāya
they have a 108-temples called Divya-deśas.
They say that if you can visit all the Divya-deśas, you can go back to Godhead.
Now if you can visit all the 108-temples that Śrīla Prabhupāda established,
that will be a wonderful thing.
The airline companies will like us!
Because you will have to go to Fiji, Australia, South America, Europe, America, Japan, all over.
Śrīla Prabhupāda established 108 temples, amazing!
He left in 1977 and since then now, we have like 600 or 800 temples
and thousands of Nāmahaṭṭas and Bhakti-vṛkṣas.
What will happen in the next 50 years?
Some of you can calculate.
I am busy in making it happen!
Category: [Gauḍīya History / ISKCON]

Related Questions

In certain places where we have ISKCON temples, there would be another group of devotees having their own centers. Even if the ISKCON temple is very close by, what is your opinion on this?
Questioner: Devotee
Date: 2023-12-19
Jayapatākā Swami: You see when I was a new devotee,
I visited every temple in ISKCON.
San Francisco, New York and Montreal!
Three!
And there were no other devotees in these temples, nearby.
But right now, we have about 800 temples, more or less.
And there is this one temple I know, mostly there are no other devotees.
In India, we have one place we have a few temples
but in other countries you don’t see.
Of course, in some places, there is the Gauḍīya Maṭha and other devotees.
It is alright.
They are making devotees around the world is good.
But it is very rare, most they are ISKCON devotees.
Category: [Gauḍīya History / ISKCON], [Sādhanā / Preaching]
Many devotees have a desire to join ISKCON full time and dedicate their lives for Śrīla Prabhupāda. However, because of the situations in the world or in the family or personal life, they are sometimes on the borderline wondering whether I should or I should not. So what is your message to them Mahārāja so that they can freely develop that faith and courage that if I simply serve Kṛṣṇa and Śrīla Prabhupāda, nothing else is to be taken care, everything Kṛṣṇa will help. Can you give them that courage and help? Hare Kṛṣṇa!
Questioner: Devotee
Date: 2023-12-05
Jayapatākā Swami: As the co-minister for congregational preaching,
naturally I would like to see
not only the temple devotees but other devotees who are in congregations,
that they are all working to help the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement.
And of course, when I joined there was really only – either you are a temple devotee or you are …!
I don’t think it is like that now.
You be a temple devotee or a married devotee or whatever,
you can still help, you can still be a very significant force.
I mean, the person who is repeating me,
his name is Acintya Caitanya dāsa,
he is a gṛhastha.
His wife is very active in preaching.
He has two sons.
One of them is already very fixed up in book distribution.
In 1973 in the lecture that Śrīla Prabhupāda gave at his Vyāsa-pūjā in London,
he said that his guru, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura who was the son of Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura,
and he wanted all the gṛhastha devotees that you should have ācāryas as your children.
You should all become paramahaṁsas.
So, rather than thinking this devotee can become a full-timer, others too bad!
Use everybody,
naturally I was a full-timer and the advantage that I have is can give all my time to Kṛṣṇa.
But, there is a lecture by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura
where he says that a man should accept a wife who is more spiritual advanced
and a woman should accept a husband who is more spiritual advanced.
That is not what people look at today.
They see if she is a beautiful woman,
what education she has
and other things.
But spiritual advancement, we don’t think about that.
But that is the thing that Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura said.
In the 8th canto of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam,
there is the fight between Gajendra and the crocodile.
Because Gajendra was a land animal,
when he was in the water,
the crocodile was winning
and gradually the elephant was getting weaker.
So in the purport, Śrīla Prabhupāda said
that Kṛṣṇa consciousness means
we are declaring war against material nature
and to fight in the war,
one needs to be very strong,
sensually strong.
It is not the same for everyone.
Someone may be better as a vairāgī,
someone may be stronger as a gṛhastha.
The real thing is that we should be fighting to establish Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
So, maybe people are sitting on the fence,
they should see what is their nature?
So they should think whatever it is, if their nature is to be married, or their nature is to be a vairāgī,
they should fully engage in Kṛṣṇa’s service.
If they are married, their partner should be equally enthusiastic to preach,
otherwise what is the use?
That is an interesting thing.
Of course, if you want your parents and everyone to agree,
it may happen.
But in my case it did not happen
and I said yesterday in my talk that my father said he would turn me over to the American Army,
and let me die in Vietnam.
India was not for this war.
And so I asked Śrīla Prabhupāda, “What I should do?”
He said, “Better you join Kṛṣṇa’s army”
and that is what I did.
I am still a member of Kṛṣṇa’s army!
So here, I have seen many families, where the father and mother are initiated, the children are initiated.
But, still I guess they are a minority.
But in India some are like that.
But generally, it is like one airliner crashed in the Northern Pacific.
One who passed, the parents said, “Oh, we spent so much money on our son trying to go to America for education,
now who will take care of us in our old age?”
That was their concern!
You see, it is like a business,
they paid for the education of their child,
and they want the child to give them money.
So some parents are like that.
Some parents are very affectionate,
I don’t say everyone is like that.
I mean, of course, some people would feel very bad.
But ultimately, we have to make our own choice.
This is like, mother and father of Lord Caitanya, Jagannātha Miśra and Śacī Mātā,
the older brother of Lord Caitanya,
He took sannyāsa.
They were feeling, “Oh!” rejected.
“Our son, He left the family and would not get married and all that.”
Because of your son taking sannyāsa, unlimited members of your family got liberated.
Of course, they were all liberated souls.
And they realized that what he did was for their benefit.
But then they were worried that their other son would also take sannyāsa.
So He promised,
“I have no such intention!”
Anyway, I hope that everybody in this room, no matter what, are going to preach Kṛṣṇa consciousness fully.
How old are you?
73 years (Ṣaḍbhuja Prabhu)
So what do you want to share with all these young leaders?
He helped build this Temple of the Vedic Planetarium!
Ṣaḍbhuja Prabhu: Looking around me here seeing all these wonderful, young devotees, fresh looking actually,
reminds me when I was young, but not anymore!
All I can say to them is that you just practice Kṛṣṇa consciousness to the best of your ability.
Some of you will be temple devotees, some of you will be gṛhasthas on the outskirts,
but still under one umbrella of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
So whichever works for you in the beginning accept it.
In the future, you probably will all be in the temples,
but for now just don’t let go of Kṛṣṇa consciousness at all.
Stick to this wonderful program that you are having
and continue preaching and spreading Kṛṣṇa consciousness just like Mahārāja said.
Hare Kṛṣṇa!
Jayapatākā Swami: Ṣaḍbhuja Prabhu, he is a gṛhastha,
but has dedicated his life for Kṛṣṇa consciousness
and you can see
what a beautiful building this is.
He has done many services.
And if you have seen the samādhi temple
he has designed some of the artwork of the samādhi temple.
He was the builder of the samādhi.
So, the question is not if you join full-time or you get married.
Even if you are married, you should not give up Kṛṣṇa consciousness
and the advantage of course of being a brahmacārī or whatever,
is that you don’t have any other thing
to think about.
But as I said,
it depends on what each person’s nature is, it may be different.
We should be committed to serving,
no matter what.
Category: [Emotions / Faith], [Gauḍīya History / ISKCON], [Sādhanā / Sevā], [Varṇāśrama / Brahmacārī]
Should one try to make more devotees or try to absorb oneself in other devotional activities such as chanting, reading and serving Deities?
Questioner: Devotee
Date: 2022-08-27
So, the point is that there are two devotees, the bhajanānandīs and the goṣṭhyānandīs.
So, the bhajanānandīs want to see their own personal liberation.
The goṣṭhyānandīs want to take many devotees with them
back home back to Godhead.
So, our disciplic succession is goṣṭhyānandī.
We practice Kṛṣṇa consciousness, at the same time we try to expand the number of devotees.
So, our business is practicing Kṛṣṇa consciousness and we also try to outreach.
Category: [Gauḍīya History], [Gauḍīya History / ISKCON], [Sādhanā / Preaching], [Sādhanā / Sevā]
Categories