Why Srila Prabhupada rejected modern Hinduism

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On the spiritual platform, one does not unnecessarily care for the body. Śrīla Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura has said, deha-smṛti nāhi yāra, saṁsāra bandhana kāhāṅ tāra. One who is spiritually situated does not think that he is the body. Therefore he can transcendentally execute severe penances in the renounced order of life. CC Antya 6.314, Purport by Srila Prabhupada


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http://www.ambedkar.org/ambcd/22C.Untouchables%20or%20the%20children%20of%20India%27s%20Ghetto%20PART%20III.htm

THE HINDU AND HIS BELIEF IN CASTE. To the Hindu, caste is sacred and caste is eternal. If caste cannot vanish what hope is there for untouchability to disappear?

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[PADA: In the article above (and there are many others like this one) we find that there are many comparisons of (a) the former classes of slavery of African folks in the USA, with (b) the modern Hindu "caste system," both of which make permanent "under classes" such as slaves and untouchables. 

And in India Srila Prabhupada blamed the false (smarta) BRAHMANAS for creating this society of "lower position by birth." Indeed, its not hard to find many CURRENT news articles from INDIA about the horrid conditions that the modern "slave class" of people have to endure in India (and as are described somewhat in the article). 

One of the reasons Srila Prabhupada said he supported Mahatma Gandhi in the 1930s is because Gandhi supported the idea that these so-called untouchables / de facto slaves are also "God's children." [Hari-janas] Now the article above says the untouchable class was supposedly created in the Manu Samhiti, which by the way is mainly a current Hindu document and is not a mainline Vaishnava literature. Of course we find in Hindu literature many classes of men described such as: Brahmanas, Vaishyas, Shudras, and of course Yavanas, Mlecchas, and so on. And modern movies such as "Slum Dog" also indicate these classes and divisions in still current modern Hindu culture.     

In fact, the article above says that modern Hinduism is like the former USA slavery situation with permanent "underclass by birth" people. Oddly, some of my opponents in Australia say they are going to write to the USA's NAACP (Colored people's society) to "legally prove" that modern India's culture of Hinduism is a racist and violent cult because the modern Hindus STILL promote this "underclass by birth idea." Umm, well if you are determined to undermine your own religion and "legally prove" Hindu culture has "lower classes by birth," what can I say in this regard? Of course I never said I agreed with the modern Hindu caste system because for one thing Srila Prabhupada opposed it, so does Gandhi, and for that matter Jesus did not seem to mind what "caste" a person belonged to. 

Simultaneously, my opponents are saying they are Hindus themselves because they say I am a Christian and hence -- a bogus "Christian redneck." And they also said I was bogus for over-emphasizing Jesus, ummm, now they are saying Jesus is a racist? Except, even if this is true that I am a Christian, we Christians have given up on racial discrimination since the 1870s? So, my opponents are telling me they going to "prove" that Hindus are bogus / racists for supporting the idea of "underclass at birth" by showing the NAACP  the many quotes from Hindu scriptures like Manu Samhita etc.? 

Well, all my opponents are going to do is make life difficult for the Hindus living in the USA, that's all. I do not think modern Hindus living in the USA are inclined to follow these ancient quotes from Manu Samhita, they probably think its better to keep birth, class and so on, in the background.     

Sorry, the idea of the modern Christians, Srila Prabhupada and even Mahatma Gandhi's idea is -- that these classes can be elevated to the higher platforms, because birth is not the consideration to be made since all beings are spiritual souls. Its more or less the modern Hindu society that is still dragging its feet in this regard, hence Srila Prabhupada sided with Gandhi -- that this "underclass by birth" idea is not a good process to have, i.e. underclasses by birth is what slavery was all about here in the USA.    

    

Srila Prabhupada wanted to break the barriers of contemporary Hinduism and indicate that all beings are equal "spirit souls." Thus he made "Krishna devotees" out of all classes of men. In essence, Srila Prabhupada wanted to break the barriers of modern Hindu caste-ism, and he did so by preaching to the "lower classes" of all countries, including India. In any case, if these Australian "Hindus" (?) want to write to the NAACP saying the want to expose the "lower class by birth idea" of modern India and its untouchable class and so forth, they may simply make a problem for the Hindus living in the USA. Hindus may be targetted as being "racists."

Of course never mind the problem of India's "harijanas," even us Westerners are not allowed into Hindu temples in places like Puri, I know since I was there. So there is clearly an "underclass by birth" stigma going on in modern India, lets face it. 

I am not sure how saying that modern Hindus are still in this "class by birth" society to the NAACP is going to help the modern Hindus? Maybe someone can explain this to me? In any case, people can do whatever they like, if they want to say they are Hindus, and their own religion is making modern day de facto slavery by birth, its their choice. Srila Prabhupada did not agree, he said we need to see all beings as spiritual, and of course that is what Jesus said. 

If some Hindus in the USA are given grief or attacked from these Australian folks creating a sort of race war, as our opponents apparently want to do, its their karma and not mine. If my friends in Australia want Hindus to be painted as modern day de facto slave keepers because of their caste system and so many abuses of people due to their "low birth," what can I say except -- whatever results from that is all on their heads.  

I am also writing to some contacts about these matters in AUS by snail postal mail, since its better they have hard copies so they can read this material carefully. Some Christians, even the NAACP, might be interested to know they are are being branded as "Christian racist pigs" as my friends have called me and apparently all the members of the NAACP as well,  because I and they do not support this "underclass by birth" program as Hindu society is now doing in India, and my opponents say they are Hindus (supporters of the underclass by birth program)?

My opponents say I am offending Hinduism, yet it is currently Hinduism that supports "lower post by birth," so they are opposed to me opposing Hinduism, umm what? Anyway, I can also write to the NAACP myself and say these people in Australia told me they are Hindus, i.e. they support the "lower by birth" program in India, and they are angry I am not joining them, and worse, they think anyone who does not support them is "a Christian racist pig" as they called me.

In any case, devotees of the Lord can be from any class or birth, and that is what Christians and Vaishnavism does. My opponent says I have sneaked into Hinduism but I am still a Christian. Suppose that is true, suppose I came in to help Hindus like him give up the idea of "lower post by birth" and agree with the Gita that all beings are Krishna's parts and parcels, and my opponent does not like that, he wants the "lower post by birth" idea to continue?

As for the NAACP, they do not sue people for being racist, because there are so many divergent racist organizations in the USA like the Aryan Brotherhood and so on. Sorry, in America openly public racists are allowed freedom just as much as anyone else. My opponents are also still running a web site supporting Srila Prabhupada on the poison case, and saying Srila Prabhupada is a pure devotee, so we can see they are STILL the number one supporters of Srila Prabhupada themselves. And we can "legally prove" the Australian group have been all along his supporters since we still have all sort of their own writings legally defending him, of which we have ample copies. They want me to apologize for supporting Prabhupada, when they are his biggest supporters for the past 20 years? And they still are supporting him on their site? Hee hee, this is what happens when you think you are "better by birth." As for my apology, here is it, I apologize for supporting a site that supports Prabhupada, which simultaneously supports "lower post by birth" Hinduism, my mistake! ys pd 

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Thanks for your question Bhakta Charles. Yes my opponents in Australia are saying that they support the idea that Srila Prabhupada is a pure devotee, as per legal documents found on their site, of which we have ample copies. At the same time, they seem to be saying, anyone who agrees with them -- that they support a pure devotee and his statements -- is racist? That means "legally" they are the ones saying they are racists.

Now as for their idea of writing the NAACP that Hindus are racist for their caste system of untouchables etc., well I am not sure what that will accomplish except having Hindus look bad in the eyes of colored people? Most of the current Hare Krishna temples in the world right now are 99.99 percent filled up with Hindus, including the biggest temples in India. Thus saying all these Hindus "hate blacks" will perhaps get some elderly Hindu couple beaten up for some racial profiling in East LA. That's about all that will be accomplished by saying Hindus are racists? The Hindus as a group might suffer racial attacks themselves. And this is the apparent goal of our opponents in Australia, they want to see elderly Hindu couples targeted for racial violence should they walk around East LA. So their whole idea is to have Hindus attacked as racist "haters of blacks." OK the Australian group are trying to make a racial war and have Hindus everywhere perhaps assaulted and beaten for "hating colored people." Wonderful program they got there, lets get old Hindu ladies beaten up!

Meanwhile our opponents in Australia are also saying: I am not really a Hindu, but a Christian fanatic posing as a Hindu. OK, so lets say they finally get me into court at their behest and I say, "OK my opponents are correct, I am not Hindu, but a Christian posing as a Hindu." Well guess what? Being a Christian who is posing as a Hindu is not illegal, even if I am guilty of doing that! Hee hee!

This has got to be among the most foolish thing I have heard to date, someone wants to have me attacked "legally," because they want me to admit I am a Christian posing as a Hindu, when this is not illegal anyway? OK suppose I agree with them in court, "OK you got me there pardner, I am a Christian posing as a Hindu, guilty as charged" and then everyone would laugh their heads off in the court because this is not an actual crime. For example Republican people pose as Democrats to get into political events and so forth, this is not a "legal" crime.  Of course no sane court would probably take a case where someone was trying to prove that another person was posing as another religion, its too silly for the courts.

What I would be more concerned about in Western society is calling Christians "racist red necks" as our opponents are doing, when these Christians are the ones who freed their "lower class by birth" slave folks. There was a big CIVIL war here over this, and the slaves were freed. Guess what, the "lower class by birth" folks in India are not yet freed. To say these brave Christian fighters for equality are racists will not be popular in Western culture either here or Australia.

And to say that Hinduism is fully correct, simultaneously there is a permanent lower class by birth, is not good. And then again there are other problems in Hindu culture such as Christian nuns being raped and tortured to death and so forth. So there are problems in all these cultures, none of them are perfect. I have to apologize for all these anomalies in Hindu culture that are apparently supported by my opponents?

But targeting all Hindus for racial violence is what our opponents are REALLY after because they know the average person thinks Krishna's and the Hindus are the same thing, because Hindus are the number one supporters of the Krishnas and they are filling up the temples of the Krishnas. So if our opponents want to see Hindus targeted  for race, perhaps racial violence, what can we do? I am not too worried about it, if our opponents get Hindus targeted for racial violence, perhaps this will lead to our opponents being investigated for instigating all this, its not my problem at all.

I do not support any of the either Western or Hindu "lower class by birth ideas" nor is there any document saying I do. We do have legal documents from our opponents saying they support contemporary Hindu culture, i.e. "low class by birth." Christians are not going to approve of this form of exploiting based on "low birth" either here or Australia or anywhere else. But don't worry too much Charles, the NAACP has much bigger problems to deal with then (Hindu?) folks writing them that Hindus are racist for having a "low class by birth" system. And if the NAACP ever gets in touch with me, I will say the people who started all this are saying Prabhupada is a  pure devotee on their web site, at the same time anyone who agrees with their pure devotee is a racist, and these opponents are also saying they support Hindu culture of "lesser by birth." So even the NAACP will wonder, what is this anyway? Have a good nite! ys pd

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