Can We Stop the Paparazzi Kirtan?

[PADA: We were told that the Sadhusangha retreat cost $250.00 per person. Maybe that is why they only had 1400 people attending. ys pd] 

ANON: Another one of my offensive opinions that will secure a spot for me in eternal hell.

Can we stop with the paparazzi kirtans? What's a paparazzi kirtan? It's when a few charismatic leaders take over the central kirtan space, and everyone is cordoned off into an observers area where they take out their cell phones and start filming the celebrities in awe like the TMZ crew. Put down the cell phones and be part of the kirtan.

And for the leaders, stop dominating the kirtan and just be a part of it. Stop being the focus of everything. Let Krishna and the holy name be the focus and give up your false distinction. Become one of the devotees, and let everyone partake of the kirtan together as equals.

ISKCON has become a personality cult, where the focus is now on a few charismatic leaders. These same leaders who are now the celebrities of ISKCON will be gone in a few years. I have seen different groups of celebrities over the decades. In the 80's the celebrity group was different, in the 90's the celebrity group was different, and in both cases I can't see a single one of them left remaining today. The present batch of celebrities will also disappear just like the previous batches of celebrities disappeared. It happens through a variety of ways - old age, disease, death, or some just leave the movement.

The present group of leaders and celebrities in ISKCON were completely unheard of in the 80's and 90's. Even though the ISKCON history has been rewritten to make them appear as though they were very prominent in ISKCON from the beginning, the fact is they simply filled the void when the previous batch of celebrities left. They were not prominent before that in ISKCON and played little role in leading ISKCON.

In the same way, history will repeat itself, and this present batch of kirtan celebrities will fade out and new people will fill that void, and again the history will be rewritten to make it appear as though the new celebrities had led ISKCON from Srila Prabhupada's times. This is the system of paparazzi kirtan, and for the benefit of the Hare Krishna movement, it should be stopped.

[Achievement unlocked: Purchased ticket to eternal hell.]