The Fanaticism of Gaudiya Vaishnavites

Each one of us sometime or other would have came in touch with fanatics which may be from various beliefs or faiths of different religions. The major problem with them is that they only believe in their respective religions and think that all other faiths prevalent in the society are wrong or baseless.  This type of attitude make them very narrow minded and a hardcore fanatic! Normally these fanatics are present in many religions but it seems they are mostly existing in the modern societies of Vaishnavites or more specifically the Gaudiya Vaishnavites!!  Our Holy Gurudev have always instructed us to give proper and due respect to all the holy saints from all other religions and this post is not meant to offend them in any way!! This is just to discuss about the attitude or thinking of fanatics from all beliefs and subsequently dealing with them in accordance with the teachings given by our Holy Gurudev!! The major problem with most of the followers of Gaudiya Vaishnavism is that they think that the devotion of Lord Sri Krishna has become wholly and solely their copyright only and it is only they who can show to the world about the correct & authentic way of doing bhakti/sadhna of Lord Sri Krishna!!  Here I would like to draw all yours attention is that Lord Sri Krishna came to our planet earth some 6000 years back and Gaudiya Vaishnavism existence has started some 60-50 years back only!! How can they claim their authenticity?? And moreover, Krishna bhakti is not anybody’s copyright!! If we look back in our history of some of the great saints of Lord Sri Krishna & Lord Sri Ram like Meera, Surdas, Kabir, Tulsidas, Ravidas, Tukaram, Namdev etc. the list is endless most of them who even had darshan of their respective Lord’s and they used to converse with their deities also, did they all were under the initiation of Gaudiya Vaishnavism??  Did they all followed all the strict guidelines as laid by the Vaishnavites?? Moreover, I doubt whether these modern age vaishnavites can ever reach to that state of devotion of those devotees of our history.  Another problem with the Gaudiya Vaishnavism is their various strict rules and regulations being followed in their daily life style!! Sri Sri Ramthakur used to say that God is beyond such all types of  rules and regulations of Vedas and is unachievable through those means instead God can only achieved through the innocence of a child!! Further, if anybody enrols in their community, the vaishnavites very often scare them by informing them about various types of sins!! Sometimes I wonder that these modern day vaishnavites would be knowing more about different variety of sins instead of virtues!! If you don’t follow their prescribed guidelines then you may commit various sins from which no court of law can save you!! Recently, I happened to visit the ISKCON temple at New Delhi and while coming out of the main sanctum I found that they were offering the holy charanamrit of the Lord. There it was written on the wall that if anybody takes one drop of this holy charanamrit his endless sins would vanish but if by mistake if you drop this charanamrit on the ground then eight types of different sins would attract you!! See the height!! Already due to too much of modernisation of our daily lives people are not very much inclined towards spiritualism and if you keep on scaring people like this tell me who will take interest in spiritualism??  If you talk with them about their beliefs and rules they will tell you about different types of sins which you are committing by not being their member/follower and here goes the list of sins!!  Further, it has been also found manyatimes that these Gaudiya Vaishnavites while claiming their authenticity about Krishna Consciousness continue to blame & show disrespect to other communities and even spread many negative ideas about other religions which is very much contradictory to their spiritual mission!!  It feels very painful when you see a modern day saint saying ill words and even using abusive language against a holy saint from our history whose devotion is known worldwide!! This is called arrogance at its peak & this cannot be called Krishna Consciousness!!  You are abusive, scaring people by your rules, nullifying other dieties and beliefs, claiming your copyright, shouting on others and yet you claim to be a Saint or a Vaishnavite???  Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had once clarified as to how to identify a true Vaishnavite which is that to whom immediately upon seeing, you remember Lord Sri Krishna or whose presence helps you in remembering the Lord is a true Vaishnavite!!  Dear Guru brothers/sisters! Now the question comes how to tackle or deal with them!! I would tell you about my experience. Years back from 2001 to 2008 for some 7 years, I was in Chennai and there one Gaudiya Vaishnavite would regularly visit my residence. I would pay my respects as afterall he was a holy figure and because of him I used to get many prasadams from various pilgrimage places like Sri Mayapur, Sri Jagganath Dham, Sri Vrindavan Dham etc. He would always told me to take diksha from their Gurudev to which I would just smile and say nothing yes or no! Many times due to his preaching some mild confusions also came into the minds of my family members.  Once it so happened that I was not at home and this Vaishnavite came to my home and started talking with my mother. My mother always regards all the saints with very high respect and suddenly she asked him to see our Puja room which I always used to avoid to show him. But that day he went into our Puja room.  I must tell here that my mother always keep Sri Sri Kaivalyanath portrait on the altar alongwith a small portrait of Goddess Lakshmi.  The Vaishnavite immediately enquired about our Gurudev and asked my mother to remove the portrait of Goddess Lakshmi as she cannot be with Guru etc.. When I reached home I came to know about the dilemma of my mother and asked her to not to worry and explained that what the Vaishanvite had understood is correct and what we are doing is also absolutely fine. He understood our Gurudev only to be a Guru but he doesn’t know that He is also Sri Sri Satyanarayan and so Goddess Lakshmi has to be with Lord Narayan!! Another incident once happened is that this Vaishanvite came and as usual was pestering us to be strictly vegetarian and I would also just as usual would smile and say nothing!! But that day he started asking me are you eating vegetables? Are you eating vegetables? I said yes! We are!! When he left my wife asked why did you lied to him? You know we are not vegetarian, we eat fish also, then? I smiled and said what I said is correct as he was asking are you eating vegetables? And I replied him yes because that is also correct because apart from eating fish we also eat vegetables and so I confirmed that only!! Now this was the time of my wife smiling at me!! My policy is this as there is not point in arguing with them and moreover, I would strictly follow the instructions given by my Gurudev only!! Now after 7 years suddenly I received an order for transfer to New Delhi and one day when this Vaishnavite happened to visit my home I informed him also about my transfer. He asked to keep in touch with the delhi branch of their ashram and to take diksha from their Gurudev with sure before leaving Chennai. That day I don’t know what happened to me I revealed before him the actual truth of my Holy Gurudev Sri Sri Ramthakur which I never did in these 7 long years!! That fellow became totally quiet and was dumb struck and slowly left my home!! My Gurudev have given one very great teaching in Vedvani and which I always believe and follow which goes like this Dekhbe Sunbe Koibe Na, Shaar Bostu Charibe Na!! (See or Listen to everybody, don’t say or argue about anything with anybody,  inside know the actual truth and stick to it firmly). I think this mantra given by our Gurudev is the best one to deal with the fanatics of modern day society!! Jai Ram!!