The genius of Srila Prabhupada

INDIAN/AMERICAN/HARE KRISHNA

I am a devotee of Krishna and have been one for the past seven years. I am also of Indian origin, and my story is a typical one.

I have been living in North America since I was nine years old. My parents came here to complete their higher education, and upon completion of their doctorates, they decided to settle down in this, their adopted country. As the family grew, came careers, households, mortgages, etc. Along with this material, success came several perplexing questions: How to relate to a materialistic western society without losing Indian values; how to bring up children here and yet protect them from the excesses of this culture; how to teach children something of their cultural background, and finally, to decide what’ goals to follow themselves and what to transmit to their children.

For us, the second generation, the questions were just as perplexing. How to balance the clash of cultural boundaries =: we were expected to behave in a certain way by our parents, but in another way by friends, teachers, and colleagues. This clash of cultures would lead to some hilarious situations, and to some tragic ones, but always to conflict. How much loyalty were we to give to our cultural origins, and how much were we to imbibe from the culture we were living in? And finally, what values were we to take form our parents, and what were the ones to establish in our lives?

I believe that ISKCON can play a valuable role in resolving these questions, for both parents and children, because of the nature of ISKCON, and because of the genius of Srila Prabhupada.