Obstacles to Recruiting

By Kalakantha Das

Obstacles to Recruiting

During his amazing eleven years of personal worldwide preaching, Śrīla Prabhupāda proved Krishna consciousness could transform everyone into Vaishnavas, regardless of their birth. People today can still be transformed, regardless of how social externals have changed over the years. However, in many parts of the world, today’s ISKCON constituencies have changed. In this chapter we will look at three principle obstacles to local recruiting and a solution for each.

Obstacle #1: Complacency

Many ISKCON temples outside of India are supported and led primarily by devotees from the Hindu diaspora. With such a pool of sincere and capable devotees, the temples are stable. What need is there to reach a wider audience?

The Indian diaspora is the largest in the world, roughly 20 million people, 16 million of them Hindu. Overall, Hindus make up 80% of India’s population and about 15% of all humanity. However, outside of India, the Hindu diaspora accounts for only 0.3% of the world’s population. If ISKCON outside of India focuses on the Hindu diaspora, the great majority of humanity stands to be overlooked.

In addition, there are many long-term drawbacks to ISKCON resulting from focusing exclusively on the Hindu diaspora.

– ISKCON leaders will not learn how to reach non-Hindus.

– ISKCON will become increasingly irrelevant to most of the world’s population.

– Due to losing its unique international appeal, interest in ISKCON will dwindle in India and elsewhere.

– As a minority ethnic religion, ISKCON may become more vulnerable to social and political change.

Tens of thousands of wonderful devotees of Hindu heritage have sustained and expanded Śrīla Prabhupāda’s temples. But ISKCON cannot afford to complacently depend on them alone.

Solution #1: Appropriate Outreach

ISKCON temples with large Hindu congregations naturally offer programs, food and classes designed to meet their needs. To reach non-Hindus, the first step is to make targeted programs they will find relevant, attractive and convenient. In addition to kirtan and prasādam, such programs may include yoga exercises and a vegan menu as ways to attract today’s youth. If conducted properly and regularly, these programs often result in a few bright young people taking serious interest in Krishna consciousness.

To further advance, these newcomers will then need deeper education in Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books. For this purpose, they need regular, stimulating morning and evening spiritual programs, just as Śrīla Prabhupāda offered at 26 Second Avenue, first with his M-W-F evening kirtans and Bhagavad-gītā classes and later with his morning lectures on Śrīmad Bhāgavatam and Caitanya-caritāmṛta.

While presenting Krishna consciousness at his first storefront temple, Śrīla Prabhupāda gave philosophy in small doses and used examples relevant to his audience. He did not even introduce the regulative

principles until after his first initiations. Although today the regulative principles are known to all but the newest guests, Śrīla Prabhupāda’s gentle approach can still attract and engage many young Westerners.

The combination of appropriate outreach and regular opportunities to hear and chant at the temple will attract and prepare some sincere people to take the step into Vaishnava life. What then?

Obstacle #2: Incomplete Marketing

Suppose you were marketing a product but had no inventory. Suppose you were marketing a service but had no one to do it. What would be the point?

In the same way, preaching Krishna consciousness without an ashram and an ashram leader means that when we succeed in awakening interest in a conditioned soul who wants to experience bhakti immersion, we are unprepared.

In ISKCON’s early days, when Śrīla Prabhupāda saw young people taking serious interest he quickly established ashrams and leaders. All forms of ‘marketing’ Krishna consciousness—lectures, harināma, book distribution—resulted in young newcomers moving into ashrams and, in turn, contributing to the marketing. This win-win cycle made Krishna consciousness spread like wildfire.

Without ashrams and dedicated caretakers for newcomers, sporadic attempts at Western outreach rarely bring active new devotees to Krishna consciousness.

Solution #2: Create Ashrams

Temple leaders who want to round out their marketing to non-Hindus need to arrange living facilities for serious students. It is important to shrug off the “I’ll figure out a room when someone asks to move in” attitude and establish ashram rooms prior to students asking. When the spider is hungry, she does not chase insects—she builds a web.

Making devotees is up to Krishna, but making ashrams is up to us. Once there is an ashram in the temple, recruiting and training can begin. Just as the consciousness of the parents attracts a certain spirit soul to the womb, so Krishna inspires certain spirit souls to turn to Him when we as spiritual parents are ready to accommodate them.

Creating a residential space, however simple, is an essential step to bringing young Westerners to Krishna consciousness. This is what Śrīla Prabhupāda did with his tiny storefront on 26 Second Avenue. He held public programs there, allowed students to live there, and even shared the bathroom in his small apartment with his fledgling disciples. At first Śrīla Prabhupāda accommodated men only, but after two years he instructed his ISKCON leaders to accommodate women as well. In July 1968 he wrote to the ISKCON Boston temple president:

“A brahmacārīni ashram is certainly a great necessity because there are so many girl devotees who are attached to our Krishna consciousness movement. Those who are married couple, there is nothing to be said—simply to live together as husband and wife. But those who are not married certainly such brahmacārīs and brahmacārīnis should not live together. That is a special restricted term of our cult. But because in your country there is no distinction between boys and girls, or man and woman, they can freely mix without any restriction, I did not give too much stricture on this point because by such stricture they might be annoyed, and whatever Krishna consciousness they are trying to develop might have been checked. But factually if you can organize a brahmacārīni ashram, it will be a very nice idea.”

Under Śrīla Prabhupāda’s direction, the young men and women living in ISKCON ashrams created temples and congregations that grew around them. Ashramites created ISKCON congregational members. Now, can ISKCON congregational members “pay it back” by saving ashramites from extinction?

Some congregational members have reservations about supporting ashrams in ISKCON temples. They may feel that ashrams attract people who are material failures and not deserving of support.

At Krishna House we keep the ‘lazies and crazies’ from crashing our ashrams by establishing a supervised spiritual school, the Bhakti Academy. Our ashrams are not merely residential quarters; they are dormitories for registered students. Applicants must sign a document stipulating the requirements for enrolling in the school and certifying that they understand that violating these requirements is grounds for dismissal and loss of residence. If a student becomes disqualified, they have no grounds to continue staying in the ashram.

Those from cultured Hindu backgrounds usually do not require an ashram to become devotees, so they naturally question the need for them. “Ᾱtmavat manyate jagat;” in this world we generally think that everyone sees things as we do. However, we have experienced that those from non-Hindu backgrounds almost always require an ashram experience to deeply embrace Vaishnavism. Once transformed into Vaishnavas by the touchstone of bhakti, these young men and women become enthusiastic representatives of the disciplic succession and contribute far more to ISKCON than the modest investment required to accommodate them. Their enlivening presence also uniquely inspires the children of devotees about the value and viability of ISKCON as a movement that can change the world.

Obstacle #3: Lack of Commitment

Running a temple requires capital and manpower. Lacking the ability to convert local people, ISKCON leaders in wealthier countries often bring in qualified devotees from other countries to worship the Deities and perform other services.

However, Śrīla Prabhupāda wanted temples to cater to local populations. In England, Kenya, Hong Kong and elsewhere he directed his representatives to uncover local devotees and train them to perform brahminical services. The same can be done today if we are willing to make a commitment. Being short on manpower is all the more reason to invest in attracting and training new devotees.

Solution #3: Establish a Human Resource Director

We would not think of having a prasādam program without a cook or a Deity worship program without a pujari. Similarly, a serious recruiting and training program requires a committed, qualified leader.

New devotees, particularly those new to the Vedic tradition, require a lot of care and attention. Who will care for them? Nearly any sincere and experienced devotee can provide this care, regardless of their age, nationality or background. However, with so much to do and often so few people to do it, we may choose to assign newcomer care to someone with many other responsibilities. This shows low commitment to attracting newcomers and as a result, the cycle of lax recruiting and lack of manpower usually continues.

Experience has proven that the devotee in charge of newcomers care must undertake this service as their main engagement. If there are no newcomers for the leader to train, he or she prepares everything for the new arrivals and prays earnestly to Krishna to please send them. For many years at Krishna House we have observed that when we provide them with a place to stay, a training routine and a person to care for them, Krishna sends newcomers again and again and again.

If we can’t delegate devotee care to another qualified devotee, it is still possible for a temple president to organize a recruiting and training program on a small scale. However, the temple president must be able to lead the morning program most days and be prepared to invest many hours of training in the newcomers.

When leaders focus on newcomers, they feel protected and naturally imbibe a service mood. Śrīla Prabhupāda personally established this mood of selfless service, first in New York and then in San Francisco. Then his students caught on and carried it to ISKCON centers around the world.

Once these three prerequisites are in place—programs, facilities and an attentive leader—the Bhakti Habitat infrastructure is in place and a sweet Vaikuṇṭha mood of selfless service can manifest. That mood itself becomes a powerful tool for attracting newcomers, changing the lose-lose cycle (low commitment/low manpower) to a win/win cycle (newcomers attracting more newcomers).

This is from Section Two: Creating a Bhakti Habitat of the book “Endangered Species: ISKCON Ashramites in the West” which is 90 pages and available for free download in either PDF or e-book formats at iskconashramites.com.