Back To Prabhupada, Issue 37, Autumn 2012
n an interview with a reporter dated 5/3/1975, Srila Prabhupada presented the following analogy:
"The dress... dress is not very important thing, but still, in the material field, this girl is dressed in a different way, you are dressed in a different way. […] But just to draw a particular... Just like the policeman, he is differently dressed. One can understand that he is policeman. Similarly, we are also differently dressed so that people may understand we are Hare Krsna people."
As can be seen, this analogy specifically draws upon only one similarity between a policeman and Hare Krsna devotees - the fact that each dresses differently and that this different dress may assist others in identifying them.
This analogy is perfect because:
a) Policemen and devotees do dress differently from others - FACT.
b) The dress that devotees wear may assist people to identify them as being devotees, just as the dress of a policeman assists people to identify him as being a policeman - FACT.
Thus, Srila Prabhupada's words are perfect, and do not require any "correction".
Yet, his supposed disciple, ISKCON guru HH Hridayananda Dasa Goswami, has felt the need to try to do just that. Within the shaded boxes below are statements from Hridayananda Dasa Goswami, reproduced from "Istagosthi: Q & A with Srila Acharyadeva, 7/7/2012", wherein Hridayananda Dasa Goswami attempts to "correct" Srila Prabhupada's policeman analogy presented above.
"He analogizes our dress to a police uniform. In fact, Prabhupada appreciated intelligent feedback on material issues, and in that spirit, I would have suggested to Prabhupada that in two ways, the police analogy does not apply to us:
A) The police are already recognized as authorities. People simply need to know who the police are. People in the West do not already accept us as spiritual authorities and thus do not merely need to know who we are."
As demonstrated above, Srila Prabhupada does not compare devotees to the police on the basis of being accepted as authorities, or on the basis of already being known, or on the basis that others "merely need to know" who they are. Rather, his comparison is made only on the basis that both the police and devotees wear different dresses (FACT), and that this different dress may assist others in identifying them (FACT).
"B) A police uniform is carefully tailored to fit in with the existing culture and to inspire respect for the office. Our "uniform" does not fit in with existing culture and for most people does not inspire submission to devotees as spiritual leaders. As the reporter below said, most people find our uniform "strange" and "odd"."
Çréla Prabhupada does not make the comparison on the basis of how aptly the dress fits in with the culture, or how much respect it inspires for the office. Srila Prabhupada makes it very clear that he is making the comparison only on the basis that a person's dress may assist others in identifying them - and on that basis, as already demonstrated, the police analogy does apply to Hare Krsna devotees.
Thus, in making comparisons between the dress of a policeman and the dress of a devotee that Srila Prabhupada did not make; that Srila Prabhupada did not claim were the basis for his analogy; and that Srila Prabhupada specifically excluded by stating the actual single basis for his analogy; Hridayananda Dasa Goswami is simply desperately trying to find fault where none exists. Hridayananda Dasa Goswami unnecessarily rebuts points that Srila Prabhupada does not make to try to find fault with Srila Prabhupada's statements, whereas the analogy that Srila Prabhupada actually used is correct.
That certain persons have taken it upon themselves to try to "correct" Srila Prabhupada's words should not be surprising given that they have already impudently usurped Srila Prabhupada's position as the diksa guru for ISKCON. Indeed, in Hridayananda Dasa Goswami's case, we can see that this is a recurring pattern. In BTP 22, we already documented how Hridayananda Dasa Goswami declared that Srila Prabhupada may be wrong on so many subjects, and that Hridayananda Dasa Goswami considers himself empowered to judge when Srila Prabhupada's statements are correct and when they are not - please visit this page: www.iskconirm.com/hdsp.htm
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