What kind of deity is Krishna? Who are Hare Krishnas? Don't be afraid of a man with shikha! A famous psychologist conducted a psychiatric examination of Hare Krishnas Famous Hare Krishna stars

Hare Krishnas propagate the teaching that all people are part of the universal consciousness that is God. Like most adherents of Hindu cults, followers of Krishna are convinced that there are numerous reincarnations of a person, which successively replace each other.

Hare Krishnas consider Krishna to be the same God as the Jews recognize him. Salvation comes to people through the divine consciousness of Krishna. To join this consciousness, adherents of this teaching traditionally chant the name of Krishna. It is believed that this ritual serves as a touch to Krishna and a kind of sacrifice to him.

The appearance immediately catches the eye: they wear colorful clothes with Indian motifs. Men traditionally shave their heads, sometimes leaving only a braid. What is special about the life of a Hare Krishna is the right thing. As a rule, true ones are vegetarians. Each meal has ritual significance as it is seen as a union with the deity.

Features of Krishnaism

Hare Krishnas can often be found in crowded places. Gathering in groups, they sing their songs, sell religious literature, and sometimes simply collect donations. The Hare Krishna movement is very widespread in North America, where they form one of the many Hindu groups.

Since the early 70s of the last century, divisions of the so-called “International Society for Krishna Consciousness” began to operate in the Soviet Union, and then in modern Russia. Adherents of this sect claim to follow the traditions of Hinduism, but experts consider the teachings of the current Hare Krishnas to be pagan.

The most ardent adherents of the Hare Krishna society are convinced that salvation is guaranteed only to those who devote their entire lives to Krishna and strictly follow a daily routine and strict diet. Worship of the deity is also expressed in countless repetitions of mantras, which often leads Hare Krishnas into a state of ecstasy and can lead to complete unconsciousness.

The Orthodox Church condemns the cult and traditions of the Hare Krishnas, believing that this teaching brings out the dark and demonic forces hidden in man. Adherents of the Christian faith, not without reason, believe that the Hare Krishnas are just one of many destructive sects, the purpose of which is to suppress personality and control human consciousness.

Lately I've been hearing some words "Hare Krishnas", "Hare Krishnaism" and the like. And just recently, a friend suddenly announced that he had also become a Hare Krishna and tried his best to persuade me to follow his faith. Naturally, I became interested in what this religious direction and not is it dangerous?

Who are the Hare Krishnas and how did they appear in the West?

IN Western culture Krishnaism came along with his spiritual master Srila Prabhupada in 1965. It spread to the Soviet Union later, in 1971, when Prabhupada came to Moscow for five days and initiated the student- Anatoly Pinyaev. And, despite constant persecution by the authorities, this religious movement has been preserved in our area to this day. Hare Krishnas are trying introduce to the masses principles vegetarianism, abstinence from intoxicants, gambling and “illegal” intimate relationships, that is, outside of marriage.

It would seem that Krishnaism does not bring anything bad - on the contrary, it helps people take the righteous path. After all, the first followers of Krishnaism– hippies, drug addicts, alcoholics and other antisocial elements of society, after becoming familiar with this movement gave up your bad habits. Yes, and to other Hare Krishna beliefs are tolerant. However, they now have a firmly attached stigma "sect", and that's why:

• There are widespread rumors about the alleged use of Hare Krishnas psychotropic drugs;
• Indians themselves for the most part do not recognize Krishnaism and ban his followers from entering most Hindu temples;
• One of the principles of service is maintaining loyalty to the guru and unquestioning submission to his will as if he were Krishna himself;
• in the West the Hare Krishnas acquired notoriety related to illegal activities, methods of suppressing and controlling the will of others;
• ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness) is very actively cooperating with other recognized sects, like Scientology, followers of Moon and others.

In addition, very strange, for me personally, is the fact that Prabhupada somehow got a visa in the “closed” USSR and with an exotic appearance, he could calmly walk the streets and attract people to his faith without attracting the attention of the special services. And this is when total persecution of all religions!

How do Hare Krishnas themselves feel about their movement?

Followers of Krishnaism believe that he incompatible with the concept of “sect” as they promote nonviolence and toleranceb to everyone and therefore do not eat animal food, do not wear natural leather and fur. And also their culture is built on serving people and their god. In a word, everyone is free to decide which religion to follow. The main thing is to do this wisely, so as not to fall into the trap of sectarians.

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Throughout its existence, the Holy Church has more than once defended the Truth of the Gospel, the fullness and purity of the Evangelical faith, and has more than once defended itself from all kinds of religious doctrines that exist near the church walls. Founded by the Savior Himself, supported by the Holy Spirit, preached by the Apostles, the Holy Church, testifying to itself and fighting for its existence, tried even during periods of severe persecution to preserve the integrity of biblical teaching, despite the influence of various kinds of opposing religious ideas.

The apostles had to defend the Gospel Truth from occult interpretations of the Good News, the apostolic men, apologists, and first teachers of the Church had to resist the efforts of the pagan world, which did not want to accept the Savior. Faith in Christ is the life-giving heritage we received from our ancestors, passed down from generation to generation, gained through the suffering of thousands and millions of people who throughout the history of Christianity gave their lives for Christ and his Holy Church.

The essence of the witness of Orthodoxy in the world is that Jesus Christ is the Son and Word of the one true God and that only He is the Way, Truth and Life of all people, God's wisdom and power in the world. He is the God who is Love (1 John 4:16).

Living according to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Orthodox Christians should not allow themselves to turn Orthodoxy into some kind of ideology among other ideologies, but should talk about life itself and reality from the point of view of the Gospel and the Orthodox tradition.

To be true to what we, Orthodox Christians, are called and chosen to do, we must be free and respect the freedom of others, proving that true freedom is found only in freedom from sin. Freedom is a Divine gift. No ideal or idol is more visible and powerful in modern societies than freedom, and perhaps nothing is more misunderstood and misused than it. In conditions of freedom, the Church’s opportunities for its mission in the world increase, but the activity of its opponents also increases, and therefore the danger that each of the faithful children of the Holy Church must face increases.

Today, in conditions of democratic freedoms and pluralism, those who push believers onto the path of error with “different and alien teachings” (Heb. 13:9), who preach a way of life incompatible with the moral standards of Christianity, have become very active. Hare Krishnas are also among the preachers of such teachings.

The newest secular pluralist worldview supports the belief that a diversity of religions, movements and cultures can and should produce their own truths and live according to their own interests and goals. Hare Krishnas benefit from this opinion of secular society, because in Hinduism, every guru, in his proud exaltation over others, considers himself a representative of God on earth. We, Orthodox Christians, are commanded to pay special attention, demand and the ability to distinguish the Spirit of God from the spirit of error. The Apostle John, addressing Christians, writes: “Do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1).

The Church treats all sinners with love and patience and calls them to repentance, but when those who are rooted in sin do not heed this call, the Church is forced to take strict measures and firmly declare that Christianity and neo-paganism are incompatible. Seeking to help people acquire a truly free way of action and seeing attempts to use the authority of Orthodoxy to preach pagan doctrines, the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church, following the apostolic tradition, testified that “new religious movements” are incompatible with Christianity, and “people who share the teachings of these movements , and even more so those who promote their spread, have excommunicated themselves from the Orthodox Church."

Nowadays it is impossible not to notice the fascination of many people with theosophical systems and Eastern teachings of all kinds. The point of these systems and teachings is to make the divine reality the subject of study, and this in reality means rejecting faith in God or misunderstanding the essence of Divine existence and the meaning of human life.

It is not difficult to notice that the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita are absolutely at odds with the Christian Revelation, and the creed of ISKCON is not so much the creed of classical Hinduism, but rather a kind of modernistic surrogate, designed mainly for Europeans.

Reading in detail Prabhupada’s comments to the Bhagavad Gita, one cannot help but notice that he derives many of his religious constructs not from classical Hinduism, but, guided by the knowledge gained while studying at the Scottish Anglican school, using the ontology of the Anglicans, he creates some kind of his own religious system, adapted for modern Westerners.

Krishna, as the Hare Krishnas teach, is the supreme deity from whom all other gods and demigods (including Vishnu) come. Krishna, according to the Bhagavad Gita, is not a created being, but the creator of creation. However, Krishna does not create the cosmos out of “nothing,” like God in the Bible, but, as it were, exhales the cosmos from himself.

Hare Krishnas believe that Krishna is the “life” of all living beings and that “the energy of Krishna includes all living beings” (358), including numerous demigods.

Calling themselves monotheists, Hare Krishnas nevertheless recognize the existence of demigods, who are the creation of the energy of Krishna himself, worship them and make sacrifices to them in their temples. In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna does not at all object to the worship of other deities and demigods. On the contrary, he says: “I am the root cause of the demigods... I am the transcendental syllable Om, of sacrifices I am the chanting of the holy names (japa)” (; 514).

Thus, calling themselves monotheists, Hare Krishna Vaishnavas adhere to the monistic pantheism traditional in Hinduism. Even the gods of the Hindu triad are considered by the Hare Krishnas to be the incarnation of Krishna.

The human soul, according to the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita, is co-natural with Krishna, but since it consists of his lower energy, it cannot independently achieve salvation. Salvation of the soul occurs when the supreme energy of Krishna is poured into the world. Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita is a personal deity (Bhagavan), and not an avatar of Vishnu, as classical Hinduism teaches. On the contrary, Vishnu is an avatar of Krishna. In Krishna the energy of the deity receives its full development. He is endowed with three types of energy: the first creates and destroys material worlds; the second is the basis of living beings; the third - the highest energy (para-shakti) includes both previous ones. Parashakti in turn has three aspects: existence, consciousness and bliss. The desire for pleasure binds the omnipotent Krishna to souls, and the role of the link between Krishna and human souls is played by jivas (souls) from Krishna’s inner circle, who from time to time come into the world to become a guru. The Bhagavad Gita says that the best method of spiritual improvement is devotional service to Krishna (bhakti yoga). Success in such service is determined not only by the “grace” of Krishna, but also by the presence of a guru, who is recognized as being able to maintain a constant connection with Krishna himself and the ability to guide the “devotee” through the “defilements” of the material world. Hare Krishnas are instructed to revere their gurus as much as Krishna himself, and accepting initiation from a guru is considered the beginning of spiritual life and a necessary condition for success in serving Krishna. Prabhupada, in his commentary to the fifth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, writes: “The representative of the Lord never claims to be the Lord, yet he should be given the same respect as the Lord because he has knowledge of the Lord.”

According to the teachings of Krishnaism, the soul, having entered the material world, finds itself in the grip of various forms of illusions, which are called maya. Maya influences the soul and makes a person identify himself with the material world and his own “gross” body. Having taken the path of self-awareness, which is described in the Vedas, a person, according to the teachings of the Hare Krishnas, gradually realizes his true position in his relationship with Krishna and with the world around him. To realize such relationships means, as the Hare Krishnas say, to gain true knowledge. All activities other than serving Krishna reduce a person to the level of an animal, and he is deprived of the opportunity to escape from the cycle of birth and death (the consequences of karma). Not everyone can overcome the law of karma, but only those who managed to become a “pure bhakta,” that is, managed to enter into “Krishna consciousness.” For others, after death, reincarnation of the soul awaits in accordance with the inevitable law of karma. At the same time, the soul, receiving retribution for various earthly bad deeds and thoughts, is embodied each time in new forms: not only human, but also animals, insects, plants, and not only on earth, but also on different planets.

According to the teachings of Bhaktivedanta, Krishna, the "Supersoul", created an infinite number of individual souls (jivas). Jiva is the real self of a person, not the material body. Jiva does not die, but is reincarnated into another body after death. The main problem of people, from the point of view of Hare Krishnas, is that they identify themselves with material bodies, and fall into the illusion of material existence (maya) and sin. This process of delusion and self-deception is “karma”. Until a person frees himself from the shackles of “karma,” his soul will be reincarnated again and again; the soul will go through the four sacraments of life: birth, illness, old age and death.

Hare Krishnas believe that the soul needs liberation from the endless cycle of reincarnation. One who achieves "Krsna consciousness" is liberated and given an eternal, spiritual body. The spiritual body lives in the eternal effulgence of knowing Krishna in his abode of Krishnaloka. This is the journey of the soul, the "return to the Divine." If a person who has dedicated himself to bhakti yoga does not have time to complete the process of “finding himself in Krishna,” he is given another chance. In the next incarnation, the Hare Krishna will be born into a rich family belonging to a high caste.

Thus sin (“debt of karma”) is the result of self-deception and ignorance. The only path to salvation is selfless service to Krishna; a person is spiritually born when a mentor initiates him into a member of the Hare Krishna community, and then gradually achieves the consciousness of the “Highest Incarnation of the Divine.” Followers of the Hare Krishna movement believe that all other religions are wrong and wrong. They often quote Krishna's statement from the Bhagavad-gita (18:66): "Give up other religions and surrender yourself to Me."

Prabhupada, in his books and sermons, constantly instilled that devotional service to Krishna is necessary in order to avoid the consequences of karma, and he also argued that the consequences of karma for people are inevitable. In the profane sphere of ordinary “devotees” such a contradiction is often not noticed, but in the sacred sphere it is one of the essential methods of attracting new adherents to one’s ranks. Such a frank ethical paradox is one of the main features of totalitarian sects.

Speaking about the teachings of the Hare Krishnas about karma and overcoming its consequences, one cannot help but recall that an attempt to introduce the doctrine of transmigration of souls into Christianity was made back in the 3rd century AD. The Christian teacher Origen, under the influence of the teachings of the ancient philosopher Plato about the pre-existence of souls before their union with the body, created his own doctrine about the soul and its pre-existence before birth. This teaching of Origen, preached by his followers, was condemned at the Local Council of Constantinople in 1543. Subsequently, the Vth (553) and VI (680) Ecumenical Councils confirmed this condemnation, excommunicating from the Church those who taught about the pre-existence and transmigration of souls.

The Holy Scripture says that after death there will be no reincarnation of souls: “It is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment” (Heb. 9:27). The idea of ​​endless reincarnation of souls contradicts the Christian teaching about man as the image and likeness of God. Thanks to the Savior, who took upon himself the sins of the world, Divine Grace and free will given to man by God, every Christian determines his own destiny. The prudent thief, in one instant of his conversion to Christ, inherited the Kingdom of Heaven.

Orthodox Christians know and confess that a person cannot acquire Eternal Existence through his own merits and efforts. Salvation is a gift of God given to us by the incarnation, suffering and resurrection of Christ. A person accepts this Gift in faith, opening his heart to the action of the Holy Spirit in him, given to him through the Sacraments of the Church. Accordingly, the conscious life of a Christian begins with the recognition of Christ’s saving sacrifice, repentance, and not with communication with an “enlightened” guru, as the Hare Krishnas teach.

The Holy Fathers of the first centuries of Christianity, defending Orthodox teaching from the attacks of pagans and heretics, left us a great legacy in the form of their writings. St. Justin the Philosopher ("Conversation with Tryphon the Jew"), St. Theophilus of Antioch ("Epistle to Autolycus"), and St. Irenaeus of Lyons ("Against Heresies").

Reincarnation

Many “teachers of truth” try to present reincarnation as a teaching that is directly reflected in the Bible. But so far their attempts to find at least some biblical arguments in their favor have been in vain. Hare Krishnas believe that the Bible contained the doctrine of reincarnation, which Christians excluded from Scripture, but it remains true to this day.

However, Christians have never believed in reincarnation, because... it is completely contrary to the word of God and was never mentioned in the Bible.

Transformation or reincarnation is the transmigration of the soul of a living being (jiva) from one body to another. As Swami Prabhupada teaches: “There are 8,400,000 forms of life, of which 900,000 species live in water, and 2,000,000 are plant species. We are representatives of only a small part of living beings who inhabit the many universes of the material world. Those who are in the material world and in the material body are condemned.”

“A living being forgets what to do. First it decides to act in a certain way, and then it becomes entangled in its karma. Leaving one type of body, it enters into another body, just as we put on and take off clothes. Traveling in this way from one body to another, the soul suffers the consequences of its past activities.”

As we see, reincarnation is the result of bad karma, a kind of punishment for what was done in past lives. Followers of the Society for Krishna Consciousness claim that the entire Christianity of the first centuries adhered to exactly the same confession on the basis of the Old and New Testaments, with which no believer in Christ can ever agree.

The Bible is quite clear about its attitude towards reincarnation. And yet there are such “teachers”, such as Satyaraja Dasa, who arrogantly instill in the little-understanding ordinary members of the Society for Krishna Consciousness that:

“In 553 AD, under circumstances that still remain a mystery, the Byzantine Emperor Justinian (at the Second Council of Constantinople) ordered the doctrine of reincarnation to be removed from Christian scriptures. However, there remain some references to reincarnation in the Bible. Although they are few in number, they are very convincing” and they are forced to believe it. Firstly, because they have no right to doubt the correctness of the words of such an “enlightened devotee”, and secondly, they do not have the opportunity to verify them, because to check again means to doubt their correctness. But let's still try to turn to history itself.

Unfortunately, the respected Satyaraja Dasa did not take into account the fact that at the moment there are reliable documents about the Fifth Ecumenical Council, in which we do not find a single mention of the discussion at this Council of the integrity of the Holy Scriptures, and especially the issue of reincarnation. It would be interesting to know exactly what source Satyaraja Dasa used to develop his point of view. The documents available to the history of the Council of 553 say the following:

“Here is the final part of the question: “...So, we anathematize three chapters, i.e. the wicked Theodore of Mopsuestia, and his blasphemous books, and what Theodoret wickedly wrote, and the blasphemous letter attributed to Iva. We anathematize them with all those who defend them, who consider the three chapters Orthodox, who want or will want to cover their wickedness with the authority of St. fathers or the Council of Chalcedon."

This is the final part of the document of the Fifth Ecumenical Council, convened by Justinian against the heresy of Monophysitism. And, as we see, there is no mention of changing the canon of Holy Scripture. (For more in-depth research on this subject, see A History of the Christian Church, Schaff, W.M. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1992, vols. 1 and 2.)

And the second important point I would like to make is that the Bible NEVER contained ANY teaching even remotely similar to reincarnation, since the very idea of ​​​​reincarnation contradicts the biblical doctrine of salvation. Knowing the immutability of the Word of God, it is simply impossible to combine two contradictory doctrines.

There are many arguments in the Bible that refute reincarnation. Thus, the Bible says that life is given to a person only once: “And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment ...” (Heb. 9:27). This verse shows that a person is given only one life, the word “attax” is translated as “once”, that is, once and for all (You can clarify the use of the word “once” in the verse above, where the form of its use is completely clear). Therefore, it is so necessary to accept Christ as Lord and Savior right now, because there will be no other life to try again.

In Christianity we see the direct opposite of reincarnation, when, unlike the law of karma, a person lives only one life, to which no one’s good or bad deeds are transferred. If Hare Krishnas consider these words of God to be confirmation of reincarnation, then what do they mean by reincarnation? Attempts to combine the concepts of reincarnation and salvation, karma and sin have never been crowned with success. This is explained by the fact that the meaning of reincarnation comes down to an endless circle of reincarnations of the soul, continuing until it is able to atone for its sins through some righteous deeds and return to God on its own. Salvation, as shown in the Bible, has a completely different meaning.

“A huge gulf separates the Christian doctrine of grace from the law of karma. Karma does not fit into the biblical concept of atonement. Redemption relies on the reconciliation of God and man.

The biblical view of atonement involves punishment that would satisfy the just wrath of God. In other words, God's holiness does not allow Him to be reconciled to sin. God would not be true and holy if He simply closed His eyes to iniquity. But in His mercy, God provided us with the opportunity to be saved from the punishment of sin, from His wrath. His wrath was poured out on the Other - this Other was so pure and sinless that he was able to fully pay for our sins. Scripture teaches that the atonement that Christ gave us is to be understood precisely as a punishment that fully atoned for our sin (that is, a punishment that satisfied the requirements of God's holiness). And since the atonement has already completely solved our sin problem, we do not need to pay off our karmic debt in some future life. If the death of Christ was sufficient for the punishment determined by the just law of God, what other payment can there be?

Christ has already atoned for our sin before God.” In the New Testament (Rom. 3:25; Heb. 2:17; 1 John 2:2; 4:10), the concept of atonement is expressed by the word “hilaskomai” (Greek “to appease, satisfy”). But the biblical doctrine of atonement is not based on this word alone. The New Testament presents Jesus as:

A ransom for us (Matthew 20:28)

Knowing no sin (2 Cor. 5:21; Heb. 7:26-27; 1 Pet. 2:24)

The suffering servant (Acts 3:13; 8:32; see Isa. 42; 49; 50; 53)

Who redeemed with his own blood (Acts 20:28).

The one who bore the curse (Gal. 3:13; Deut. 21:22-ff.).

The Sacrificial Lamb (John 1:29, 36; Acts 8:32; 1 Pet. 1:19).

Atonement is described as sacrifice, substitution, reconciliation, ransom, and justification. These basic images of the atonement and its fruits are also arguments in favor of the doctrine of the atonement of sins.

The main purpose of sacrifice is propitiation.

The substitution is that Christ gave His holy life for us and thereby appeased the wrath of God.

Reconciliation puts an end to the enmity between God and man. And since the cause of enmity is sin, which incurs the wrath of God, the essence of reconciliation is the satisfaction of this wrath of God.

Justification: If the punishment for sin is the wrath of God against that sin, then justification becomes liberation from human sin...

Theologian William J. T. Shedd distinguishes between two atonements, the so-called “personal” and “substitutionary.” He notes the difference between the biblical picture of atonement (substitutionary), and the atonement that supports the theory of reincarnation (personal atonement).

The Holy Scriptures tell us about the vicarious atonement of our sinful souls by Jesus Christ, but the Society for Krishna Consciousness turns to the personal redemption of a person through his own actions, which, as we see, is at odds with the biblical understanding and therefore cannot be accepted by Christians.

“In fact, everything written on the subject of reincarnation talks about salvation by works: someone must pay someone else's “debt of karma.” The idea of ​​salvation by works can be said to be more important for the theory of reincarnation than the doctrine of the reincarnation of the soul in subsequent lives: these subsequent lives are, as it were, the very fields on which work will be done...”30 It can be added that at the moment in There are more than ten models of soul reincarnation in the world, each of which is radically different from the previous one and is supported by its own theory.

Christ, being holy and sinless, came into this world as God and as a man to save sinful people. If eternal life could be achieved through endless reincarnations or one’s own righteous deeds, then Christ would not have needed to follow the Calvary path. God chose salvation through His own death and resurrection because this was the only way to save people, this is already evidenced by the enormous price God paid for it. We received the gift of salvation not because we were righteous before God, but because “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). ). The book of Ephesians also says, “For by grace you have been saved, through faith; and this not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not by works, so that no one can boast” (Eph. 3:8-9). Reincarnation, for its part, requires the fulfillment of certain rules and laws in order to achieve eternal life.

The respected Satyaraja Das cites in his work, as an example of reincarnation, Bible verses about John the Baptist, into whom the soul of Elijah, the Old Testament prophet, entered. Let me note that here Satyaraja Das is once again deeply mistaken and, without bothering to study the history of the beliefs of the Jews, he simply tries to cling to every little detail in the Bible, which at first glance confirms his theory. But if we simply turn to the text, we will immediately see that the Jews were not waiting for the reincarnation of Elijah, or any other prophets, but for their bodily resurrection from the dead (you can find confirmation of this in Matt. 14:2; Matt. 27:52 ; Luke 9:8; Luke 20:37; etc.) The Bible mentions the bodily resurrection of a person from the dead 105 times and never about reincarnation. I want to emphasize once again that reincarnation excludes resurrection and vice versa.

The Hare Krishna view of man comes down to the fact that the soul, clothed in any body, is doomed to suffer, since the body, in itself, is lower matter. According to the Vedic tradition, various bodies that do not have consciousness (the bodies of animals, birds, etc.) are equated with evil, and if a person incarnates in the next life, for example, in the body of a lion, this is considered a punishment for In his previous life, his soul, having a human body, did not come to Krishna consciousness, and its carrier, a man, was passionately eating meat.

The human body has great capabilities, it carries consciousness within itself, and at the stage of incarnation in a person, the soul can return to God. When considering this issue, it is necessary to constantly remember that in the Hare Krishna faith, the body is initially sinful and acts as a kind of instrument of punishment for a soul that has fallen away from God.

Let's look at this from a biblical perspective.

Let's turn to the first book of the Bible - Genesis. It talks about the very beginning of the world, when there was no power of sin yet. So, at the end of the entire process of creation, God created man “in His own image, in the image of God He created him” (Gen. 1:27). The first thing to think about is whether a Holy God could create an imperfect man in His image. God would hardly create a pure soul in a sinful body. The Bible clearly says that God created man beautiful both spiritually and physically, and this clearly does not agree with the statement of the followers of Krishna that Krishna created the body to punish fallen souls.

Let's consider another aspect of the Hare Krishna teachings about soul and body. The book “Sri Isopanishad” says that in the beginning perfect souls lived in the presence of Krishna on the transcendental (immaterial) planet. When some of them opposed the will of God, Krishna, as punishment, gave them different bodies so that the souls could realize their need for Him.

The Bible sets out the facts completely differently: in the beginning, God created flesh, and then “breathed” life into it, that is, gave it a soul (Gen. 2:7). There is not even a hint that the soul was created earlier and was waiting for its incarnation in the human body.

The last and very important part of this question lies in the original meaning that Hare Krishnas and Christians give to the body.

“The body, according to Scripture, is not a “prison” for the soul, nor is it a place of imprisonment for fallen spirits, but belongs to the true essence of man (2 Cor. 5:3-4). And Scripture does not speak of deliverance from the body, but of the redemption of the body (Rom. 8:23). Therefore, the bodily resurrection of the Lord Jesus took place (1 Cor. 15).”

Hare Krishnas claim that the meaning of the incarnation of the soul in the human body (that is, the person himself) comes down to realizing, with the help of one’s mind, the need for Krishna and dedicating one’s life to devoted service to him, in order to come to God after physical death.

The Bible tells us about a completely different meaning that God put into human life (Gen. 1:28, Gen. 1:15). It says here that God dwelt with a man who had a pure soul and a perfect body. Then for man the body was not something sinful, much less God’s instrument of punishment. Man dwelt in the glory of the Lord, and therefore he did not need to be freed from the body in order to come into the presence of God: he already dwelt with God, being in his own body. So we see two completely different original approaches to human nature.

Contrary to the teachings of the Society for Krishna Consciousness, the hope of all Christians lies in the resurrection from the dead. As we have seen, the Hare Krishna view of man differs significantly from the Christian one in those aspects that cannot change depending on time and circumstances.

“Our citizenship is in heaven, from where we also await the Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body so that it will be like His glorious body, by the power by which He works and subdues all things.” Phil. 3:20-21.

Christ by His resurrection paved the way across the abyss of death, and now we have the great promise of resurrection from the dead in a new eternal body. “And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith is also in vain.” 1 Cor. 15:14. In addition, we can read in the Revelation of John the Theologian about how the resurrection from the dead will take place, and again we will not find a word about reincarnation. There can be only one explanation for this: reincarnation is not mentioned in the Bible, not because these verses were thrown out by “bad” Christians, but because it goes against the preaching of Christ and the entire Old and New Testament. It must be agreed that the doctrines of reincarnation and salvation are initially two diametrically opposed theories and in no case can exist together.

“Our citizenship is in heaven, from where we also await the Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body so that it will be like His glorious body, by the power that He works and subdues all things to Himself.” Phil. 3:20-21.

“He saved us, not by works of righteousness which we had done, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, being justified by His grace, we might become heirs according to the eternal hope. life." Titus 3:5-7.

“There is the same difference between the India of our Hare Krishnas and real India,
like between Zuko powder and the juice of a living fruit.”

Since 1971, the neo-pagan sect “International Society for Krishna Consciousness” (ISKC) has been active in Russia. ISKCON was founded in 1966 in New York by the hapless Indian traveling salesman Abhay Charan De (better known by the honorific title “His Divine Grace Srila Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada”). He began to propagate his theories among hippies, drug addicts and déclassé elements, who formed the initial core, and then, to a large extent, the leadership of the organization he founded.

ISKCON is a typical neo-religious pseudo-Eastern group, in many ways adjacent to the neo-pagan New Age movement. All statements by ISKCON about its belonging to traditional Hinduism are, to put it mildly, exaggerated, since traditional Hindu groups do not recognize it: ISKCON members are not even allowed to enter many Hindu temples (including the one where, according to legend, Krishna was born) .

Despite all the Hare Krishnas' claims about their "monotheism", their movement is undeniably pagan. They worship a god whom they call Krishna (In Sanskrit - “black”, “dark” or “dark blue” is a telling name. In the mythology of Jains and Buddhists, Krishna is a negative figure. Among Buddhists, he is the head of black demons, the enemies of Buddha. ), in their opinion, the creator and first cause of this world. “He maintains these universes and destroys them in due course, and all these activities do not affect Him at all” (Srimad-Bhagavatam, canto 1, part 1, chapter 3, commentary on text 36). “He alone creates, maintains and destroys the material world, and all this has no influence on Him” (Srimad-Bhagavatam, canto 1, part 2, chapter 10, text 24). Some other gods are his partial and incomplete avatars - incarnations. In particular, they claim that Christ, the God of Christians, is a later and partial incarnation of Krishna. Therefore, according to Prabhupada, people who worship other gods and ignore the original source itself - Krishna, are at best fools, donkeys and pigs, or even just demons.

The movement of worshiping Krishna as the only god began in India in the 16th century. Preacher and radical reformer of Hinduism Chaitanya. He declared: one can be freed from the evil of the physical world through communication with Krishna. Chaitanya himself is considered by Hare Krishnas as a joint incarnation of their god Krishna and his beloved lover Radha. Krishna decided to incarnate as Radha in order to understand the full power of her devotion to himself, and Chaitanya appeared as this incarnation.

The main goal of Krishna's devotees, as Chaitanya teaches, is to love him, just as Krishna was loved by his countless cowherd lovers. Historically, Krishna is a shepherd god, whose cult developed in the pastoral areas of India in the first centuries of the Christian era. In terms of his character traits, he most closely resembled the Greek god Hermes - a mischievous, playful and roguish shepherd. “Of scams, I am the gamble, I am the brilliance of the brilliant, I am the victory, I am the adventure, I am the strength of the strong.” COMMENT: There are many different types of scammers in the universe. Of all types of cheating, gambling is the highest and therefore represents Krsna. Krishna, being the Supreme, can be more treacherous than any common man. If Krishna decides to deceive a person, then no one can surpass Him in cunning" (Bhagavad-Gita, Chapter 10, Text 36, Commentary). “O Lord, no one can understand Your transcendental pastimes, which... are capable of misleading anyone” (Srimad-Bhagavatam, canto 1, part 1, chapter 8, text 29).

Krishna is often depicted as a blue-skinned, plump, effeminate youth (although Hare Krishnas are told that there is no one more beautiful than him: “Having accidentally seen the reflection of his beautiful body in precious stones on the floor, Krishna exclaimed: “I have never seen anything more beautiful!” - “Nectar of Devotion”), he had countless shepherdesses with whom he indulged in lovemaking. And the task of the devotees is to love him in the same way. Then they will come out of the wheel of samsara (eternal reincarnation), enter the heavenly palaces of Krishna on the Vaikunitha planets and indulge in eternal love joys with him in the heavenly forests. As it is written in the book “Nectar of Devotion”: “By developing conjugal love for Krishna, a devotee can go to Dvaraka, where he will become one of the Lord’s wives.”

According to Bhagavad-Gita, Krishna loves fun, jokes, pranks and entertainment. He has 16,108 wives, each of whom has a palace and 10 children and, accordingly, countless grandchildren. Krishna is no stranger to love affairs with other people's wives. The Bhagavad-Gita tells how Krishna once unleashed a six-month night on the earth and had fun all this time with a hundred women, and their husbands did not notice anything.

However, Krishna has other faces that are more consistent with his nature. This, for example, is the multi-armed, merciless and bloodthirsty man-lion Narasimha, surrounded by cobras, gnawing bloody human bodies and hanging human entrails on his body. “...With his nails he tore in two the mighty body of the atheist Hiranyakasipu” (Srimad-Bhagavatam, canto 1, part 1, chapter 3, text 18).

But this is not yet the real face of Krishna. This is what the Bhagavad-Gita says about his real face: “I see in your body many, many hands, wombs, mouths, eyes, extending everywhere without limit... I see how You spew out flames and burn the entire universe with your own radiance... All the planets and their demigods are thrown into confusion by the sight of Your great form with its many faces, eyes, hands, thighs, legs, wombs and many fearsome teeth... Your gaping mouths... All people will rush into Your mouths, like moths flying to the fire to perish in it... I see how You swallow people from all sides with Your flaming mouths... I cannot maintain my balance at the sight of Your flaming deadly faces... Our main warriors rush into Your terrifying pharynxes. And I see how the heads of some, stuck between Your teeth, are crushed by them” (“Bhagavad-Gita As It Is”, Chapter II, texts 16, 19, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 29, 30).

And here are Krishna’s words about himself: “I am Yama, the God of death... I am the all-consuming death... I am time, the great destroyer of the worlds, and I came here to destroy all people” (“Bhagavad-Gita as it is”) is,” chapter 10, texts 29, 34; chapter 11, text 32). And finally the main characteristic: “...death is the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself” (Srimad-Bhagavatam, canto 1, part 2, chapter 13, commentary on text 19). How can one not recall the words of the Savior about the devil, who was a murderer from the beginning.

According to ISKCON teachings, salvation occurs through dedicating one's entire life to Krishna, following a strict daily schedule and strict dietary regulations (vegetarianism and avoidance of certain plant foods), repeating a mantra at least 1728 times a day, worshiping idols and devoting all food taken to them and bringing oneself during services to ecstasy with erotic overtones and unconsciousness. In order to promote “leaving the body,” tympans, tambourines, drums and joint ecstatic dancing while chanting a mantra are practiced. The purpose of all this is to make a person stop feeling his own body, to make him believe that he is going into the astral plane and merging in ecstasy with Krishna. After this he is declared to be a realized soul. Signs of ecstatic love for Krishna, in particular, include the following phenomena: rolling on the ground, loud screams, yawning, salivation, mad laughter, heavy breathing, belching, etc. Prabhupada also described the successive stages of a person falling into an ecstatic state.

All these symptoms are classic signs of a person being possessed by unclean spirits (demons). It is clear how these “phenomena” act on the human mind.

Prabhupada lists 64 services to Krishna, the main one of which is to remain faithful to the guru, who should be obeyed unquestioningly and served as if he were Krishna himself. At ISKCON, the role of the guru is emphasized and elevated to extraordinary heights.

Here is what one of the main leaders of modern Krishnaism, Harikesa Swami, writes about him (Russian Hare Krishnas write about him like this: “We want to glorify our dear spiritual teacher, the unusually generous messenger of Lord Krishna, for his sublime qualities and amazing deeds” (Prabhupada-sumedhasam, first issue, page 1)). “The instructions of the guru are exactly one hundred percent consistent with the instructions of Krishna... Surrender to the guru and surrender to Krishna are the same thing... The spiritual master is the embodiment of Krishna's energy... We should give everything that we have to the spiritual master eat and at the same time be very humble... The spiritual teacher is forced to take a stick and beat this thick-headed student... The spiritual teacher connects us with Krishna, and if we break the connection with the spiritual teacher, then we lose the connection with Krishna" ("Prabhupada- sumedhasam", first issue, pp. 19, 35, 36, 40). “Glorifying the devotees of the Lord is the same as glorifying the Lord Himself. In a sense, glorifying the devotee is even more important... The student should want only one thing - to satisfy the spiritual teacher,” his students echo Harikesha (Ibid., pp. 1, 15).

The very existence of guruism - that is, essentially, divine indisputable power emanating from an ordinary sinful person, corrupts the soul of both the “teacher” and his subordinates and leads them to terrible falls. In the case of ISKCON, we are dealing with precisely this phenomenon, when yesterday’s homeless people and losers, embittered by the world that pushed them to the margins, suddenly received at their disposal absolute, unlimited power over the lives and destinies of thousands of people.

The history of ISKCON has shown that this sect is an extremely rigid destructive organization with a total system of subordination, using methods of personality suppression and mind control. In the West, the sect has gained notoriety for its illegal criminal activities, ranging from extortion and forgery to trafficking in drugs and weapons; very high-ranking Hare Krishnas were accused of murders. Some ISKCON leaders were killed, including during intra-sectarian “squabbles,” while others were sentenced to various prison terms. And of course, by and large, the pathological proud and ambitious man who founded the sect, who elevated and made unlimited rulers of people absolutely unsuitable for this, bears moral responsibility for all these crimes.

The “400 relatively honest ways of taking money from the population”, widely practiced by the Hare Krishnas, have become the talk of the town in Western countries.

In our country, the Hare Krishnas are not too different from their Western co-religionists and leaders: there are few Russians who have never encountered their intrusive trading and aggressive begging on the streets of our cities (Any visitor to the Moscow center of the Society for Krishna Consciousness will notice with the naked eye signs of the presence of Societies with enormous funds. Naturally, the question arises: where does such a “poor and small” religious organization (as the Hare Krishnas themselves attest) get funds for construction, for 24-hour radio broadcasting, for expensive office equipment, for extensive publishing activities, etc. Is this connected with the persistent desire of the Hare Krishnas to be present in the so-called hot spots with their enormous, unaccounted for trade turnover (meaning very specific goods) and financial flows?). All the much advertised “charitable” activities of the Society for Krishna Consciousness (SKC) ultimately boil down to the distribution of food sacrificed to idols. Moreover, according to the testimony of a number of witnesses, Hare Krishnas go around Moscow markets and dedicate all the products put up for sale there to Krishna. Let us remember that this is exactly what Emperor Julian the Apostate did in order to force Christians to taste, out of ignorance, something sacrificed to idols and thus become desecrated.

Hare Krishnas love to boast that they managed to “suffer for their faith” under Soviet rule. However, the history of their appearance in the USSR is full of mysteries. How could such a notorious foreign religious figure as Swami Prabhupada not only get a visa to the locked-down Soviet Union, but also, despite his exotic appearance, walk the streets, communicate with people, convert several people - and all this is beyond intelligence control? How, a few years after this, did a group of foreign Hare Krishnas manage to receive an invitation to the Moscow Book Fair and a whole stand to exhibit the products of their publishing house, Bhaktivedanta Book Trust? And this was during the years when transporting even one Bible across the border was fraught with very serious problems!

Unfortunately, the answers to these questions are locked in the KGB archives for a long time.

The sect, which has enormous material resources, makes extraordinary efforts (24-hour radio broadcasts, loudly advertised “humanitarian” missions, an active media campaign, etc.) to improve its image in the public consciousness. And this is intended to contribute to the widespread dissemination of sectarian teachings in our country (“There are at least 30 thousand of us in Russia,” writes the president of the “Center for Krishna Consciousness Societies in Russia” Vaidyananda (Vadim Tuneev). “In Moscow alone we have thousands of adherents thanks to our active preaching activities on radio" (Hare Krishna World. Vol. 6, No. 3).) and, ultimately, the establishment of an “ideal Vedic” regime with total Brahminical control and executions of dissenters. USC actively cooperates with such “human rights” organizations as the Adventist-controlled “International Association of Religious Freedom” (the Russian Orthodox Church left it two years ago), Yakunin’s “Committee for the Defense of Freedom of Conscience,” and is engaged in political lobbying.

In recent years, the ISKCON leadership, in an attempt to create a completely new image of its sect, has made a series of sensational confessions, declaring that in the past they made many mistakes, but now, they say, they have already corrected themselves: now they are no longer a cult, but a legitimate religion that contributes to the democratic development of a modern pluralistic society. This means that you need to treat them accordingly. Hare Krishnas constantly appeal to public conscience, citing freedom of religion and other human rights and claiming that they are being persecuted in Russia for their religious beliefs.

At the same time, ISKCON maintains close contacts with other well-known destructive sects, such as Moon’s “Unification Church,” Hubbard’s “Church of Scientology,” the “Family” sect, etc., as well as with the neo-pagan movement in Russia. For example, the Russian USC is one of the founders of the so-called. “World Russian Council”, whose leaders take openly anti-Christian, anti-Orthodox and anti-Semitic positions, declaring that the adoption of Orthodoxy (in their terminology – “Judeo-Masonic-Christianity”) has distorted the Russian path of development and that our country should return to the “multi-thousand-year Vedic tradition" - that is, to outright paganism.

At the same time, USC is aware that contacts only with marginal groups are not enough. The sect strives for “official recognition” as a legitimate historical world religion, traditional also for Russia. But to truly take root in Russia (and the USC is well aware of this), the sect needs to gain recognition from the Russian Orthodox Church. That is why recently the Russian USC has been making extraordinary efforts to force the Russian Orthodox Church to recognize it as an equal partner for interreligious dialogue and enter into official relations with it. A necessary condition for this, the USC sees a change in the definition of the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church (December, 1994) “On pseudo-Christian sects, neo-paganism and occultism,” which states that people belonging to such organizations (to which the USC is included) have excommunicated themselves from the Church of Christ.

In its numerous letters to various church structures, the USC demands that the definitions of the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church be canceled and that Krishnaism be recognized as an ancient religion with which the Russian Orthodox Church would enter into an official dialogue. The USC is using all means to enter into negotiations with various church structures, including synodal institutions, hoping in this way to win supporters who would represent its interests in the Russian Orthodox Church and become its “agents of influence.” It must be said that all these attempts were completely fruitless. The USC was not accepted in any of the official structures of the Russian Orthodox Church; none of its official representatives entered into dialogue with it. I think there is no need to say that a dialogue with the “Society for Krishna Consciousness” would play into the hands of not only the USC, but also all anti-Orthodox, anti-Christian and destructive movements in our country.

Hinduism

According to historians, Hinduism appeared in India around 1500 BC. And although its literary heritage can only be traced back to 1000 BC, evidence of an earlier existence of this phenomenon can be found in archaeological sources, studies in comparative philology and comparative religion.

***

Colorfully dressed Hare Krishnas: in reality they have nothing to do with traditional Hinduism: “Trying to fit the Krishna consciousness movement into the appropriate historical and cultural context, many people identify it with Hinduism. But this is a misconception... There is a misconception that the Krishna consciousness movement represents the Hindu religion... Sometimes Indians, both inside and outside India, think that we are preaching the Hindu religion, but this is not so... The Krishna consciousness movement has nothing to do with Hinduism or any other religious system... People must understand that the Krishna consciousness movement does not preach the so-called Hindu religion" (Sri Srimad A. Ch. Bhakgivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Krishna Consciousness: Hindu cult or divine culture? // Science of Self-Consciousness. 1991 . pp. 135, 141).

***

“Hinduism” can hardly be called a belief, much less a religion - in the real sense of the word. It is rather a civilization that arose in Southeast Asia.

The use of the word "Hinduism" in Indological literature in general and in particular in this work requires some clarification. Hindus do not use this word itself, calling their religion “Hindu-dharma” (“the law of the Hindus”) or “Hindu-samaya” (“the faith of the Hindus”). Vaishnavites and Hare Krishnas call themselves “Vaishnavas,” which means “servant of Vishnu.” The word "Hindu", from which the term "Hinduism" is derived, appeared in the works of Muslim authors in the early Middle Ages to designate those phenomena of Indian culture that differed from Islam, as well as from the Buddhist and Jain traditions. But long before the emergence of Islam, this word, as a geographical name, is found in the Bible: 2 Ezra.

3:2; Esther. 1:1; 3:13 b; 8:9; 8:12 b. In the Hebrew biblical texts it was read as "hoddu"; in Aramaic "hindya". This vague term was subsequently adopted in the form "Hinduism" (Hinduism) by Europeans. For them, it began to mean the entire set of phenomena in the religious, cultural, social, and everyday life of India, visibly different from Christian and Muslim religious views and cultural traditions.

***

Also, along with the word “hindya”, another designation for Hindustan is found in the Bible, this is the word “ophir” (1 Kings 9:28; 1 ​​Kings 10:11; 1 Kings 22:48; 2 Chronicles 8:18 ; 2 Chron. 9: 10; Perhaps it comes from the name of Ophir, the son of Joktan, from the family of Shem (Gen. 10:29; 1 Chron. 1:23).

• However, the coincidence with the name of Joktan’s son can only be external here. According to biblical tradition, Indians descended from Madai (Sanskrit - Manu), the son of Japheth, son of Noah (Gen. 10:2).
• The complexity of this term is due to the fact that one of the fundamental differences between Hinduism as a type of religiosity and the Abrahamic (biblical) tradition is the conglomerative syncretization of various manifestations of human existence, which excludes the very possibility of drawing any line between strictly religious and secular phenomena of life. Hinduism did not have the European polarity of religious and secular principles. Read also on the topic:
• "Society for Krishna Consciousness" (Hare Krishnas) The fate of 11 Hare Krishna "apostles"
• - Tatiana Chekhova. A Hare Krishna woman testifies: how I was treated and worked with Torsunov, and what I saw - Stavros Center
• How a bird grew to become the god of the whole world (about the god of the Hare Krishnas)- On the topic of the day - Maxim Stepanenko
• Another “great people” brought up on the Bhagavad Gita The fate of 11 Hare Krishna "apostles"
• Do Hare Krishnas preach the God of Christians?- Deacon Andrey Belous
• Monkey on a pole - murders, madness and Hare Krishnas- John Hubner, Lindsey Gruson
• Christ and Krishna. Light and darkness- Alexander Novopashin, Archpriest
• Krishnaism as a tradition of worshiping deception and death- Vitaly Pitanov
• Little Lies of the "Great Teacher" Prabhupada(on the issue of the permissibility of eating animal meat) - Deacon Andrey Belous
• World order according to Hare Krishnas- Professor Alexander Dvorkin
• Christ and Krishna, are they the same thing?- Pavel Stolyarov
• Jesus Christ in the Hare Krishna faith- Priest Pavel Feoktistov
• Getting rid of divinity- Eric Pement

***

Starting from the 18th century, the term “Hinduism” began to be actively used in the works of European scientists to designate temple and everyday religious practices, ethical and legal norms, as well as to describe the social structure and spiritual culture of members of various Hindu communities. This use of the term has become traditional in European literature. Thus, the etymology and practice of using this concept already show that Hinduism is not an integral religious system and cannot be classified according to confessional or doctrinal criteria. Questions of the genesis and evolution of Hinduism largely remain unresolved in modern domestic and world Indological literature.

Such a mundane, geographical scope of the term “Hinduism” is also explained by the fact that initially various races, nationalities and ethnic groups lived on the territory of modern India. The bulk were made up of nomadic tribes of Indo-European Aryans (Aryans) - carriers of Sanskrit and the ancient Vedic religion. However, the proportion of Arabian peoples who had previously settled in Hindustan turned out to be quite high. In the Sanskrit tradition they are called “vratya,” that is, “unrighteous.” The Arabians were carriers of agamic cults, which were widespread in the local ethnic environment.

The ancient text Srimad Bhagavatam describes the history of Indian civilization differently. Initially, there was a single state throughout the world, which was called “Bharata-varsha”, all the inhabitants of which were pious. In those days, Bharata-varsha was ruled by a holy king - "rajarshi", who was obliged to monitor the observance of the religious principles of the Vedas by citizens. However, later, the king's sons refused to inherit the throne. For disobedience, the king sent them into exile. Subsequently, the sons of this king created their own states, but lost their religiosity. This is how the ungodly “gaters” arose.

The two main nationalities of India are like two hairs, white and black, who, according to myth, tore Vishnu from himself and placed them in the womb of Rohini and Devaki, who respectively gave birth to a white boy, Balarama, and a black Krishna.

Both ancient and modern Hinduism, in all the diversity of its movements and cults, is characterized by the diversity of mythological and doctrinal principles. Not only does Agamic and Vedic cult and ritual-ceremonial practice defy precise differentiation, but every revered place, every temple is surrounded by local mythology, which is the source of original ethical and conventionally dogmatic views.

It is no coincidence that ideas about two main features of Hinduism, formed by different religious and philosophical schools, have taken root in the minds of Hindus - sadhana and dharma. The word "sadhana" in the Vedic era (XV - I centuries BC) meant "leading straight to the goal, good leadership, following forward", and in the period of Brahmanism and later (from the 4th century BC) - “productive path, mastery, subordination, execution.”

In the minds of ordinary members of the Hindu community, this word seems to cover the entire “theoretical” side of religion, everything that teachers of Hinduism do - gurus, preachers, priests (brahmins). Sadhana is the property of brahmin theorists, experts in the “holy scriptures.”

Each of the 3,333,333 gods and goddesses, demigods and tribal spirits of Hinduism has its own ethical connotation. Hindus believe that the source of evil, from the point of view of Vaishnava Vedanta, is not the Lord, but the individual soul, endowed by God with freedom of choice. In the very intricacies of the mythological labyrinths, Hindus are looking for ethical guidelines for themselves, and everyone in this kaleidoscope of “laws” and beliefs can find what will most correspond to their idea of ​​​​sin and morality, truth and lies.

We will find a similar concept in one of the largest neo-Hindu interpreters of Vedanta, S. Radhakrishnan: “He who has subordinated his mind (to the Divine) discards both good and evil. Therefore, strive for yoga; yoga is an art in action” (translation of verse 2.50 ). “He reaches a level higher than the level of ethics with its inherent distinction between good and evil” (commentary on the Bhagavad Gita).

The most ancient cults with their own mythological circle are associated with the Indo-Iranian gods Dyaus, Varuna, Ushas and Mithra. Radhakrishnan connects the origin of the Dyas cult not only with the Indo-Iranian, but also with the Indo-European tradition. He sees in it echoes of the cult of Zeus-Jupiter (as the heavenly father). Analyzing the meaning of the word “deva”, he writes: “God is a deva, for he gives the whole world. A knowledgeable person who communicates his knowledge to his neighbor is a deva. The sun, moon and sky are also devas, for they give light to all created things. Father, mother and spiritual mentors are also devas."

The predominance of ritual and everyday customs over the moral and religious principles makes it fundamentally impossible to create a single legislative code, because the diversity of forms determines the diversity of the “religious” traditions themselves. Therefore, in Hinduism, the anarchy of magic and the arbitrariness of the priestly-brahmanical elite reigns to a large extent, where every usher guarding a revered place imagines himself, if not a demigod, then at least a great guru. Perhaps this explains such a number of very different and independent teachers and mentors - “demigods”, from time to time declaring themselves the incarnation of the “supreme god”, or, more modestly, “his divine grace”. It is not for nothing that there is a saying in India: “Every village has its own Narayana (Supreme God).”

Philosophical, ideological and ethical pluralism that reigns in the world of Hinduism will always be the fertile soil of religious pluralism and the source of multi-confessionalism and sectarianism.

According to one of the Moscow leaders of Krishnaism in Russia, Sanak Kumar Das, it is precisely such a mutually contradictory mosaic of opinions in Hinduism that is “a clear sign of free-thinking.”

Representatives of various neo-Hindu sects in our country are trying to counter the accusation of totalitarianism with theological pluralism, or more correctly, with the “communal” anarchy reigning in their post-“session” ashrams.

Very little is known about the most ancient, so to speak, initial period in the history of Hinduism, therefore chronological data concerning this period should be treated with great caution.

"Bhagavad-Gita" (Song of God) is included in the 6th book of the "Mahabharata" (an ancient Indian poetic epic) - a philosophical book of Krishnaism. Krishna, who plays the main role here, explains the essence of Vaishnavism-Krishnaism to one of the members of the royal Pandava family - Arjuna, who, before the start of the battle, refuses to kill members of his clan. From a Christian perspective, Arjuna's pacifism deserves respect. After all, he cannot fight against: “his fathers, grandfathers, teachers, maternal uncles, brothers, sons, grandchildren, friends, as well as fathers-in-law and well-wishers” (“B.-G.”, 1, 26).

He “saw” relatives and friends “in both armies,” and that’s why he doesn’t want to go fight. Citing flexible religious and philosophical doctrines that arose in the difficult conditions of the historical reality of that era as evidence of Arjuna’s wrongness, Krishna ends the dialogue, convincing the interlocutor to fight in the name of establishing “dharma” in the country - justice and autocracy.

In a sense, the philosophy of the Bhagavad-Gita is an apology for “civil war.” The poem depicts Krishna as a prince, charioteer, warrior and diplomat, an ally of the Pandavas, leading them to victory over another branch of the royal family - the Kauravas. The “Divine” coachman recounted to Arjuna the ideas of the Upanishads - the last set of Vedic teachings that developed in the 7th - 6th centuries. BC e. .

Among the ancient codexes of the Gita that have survived to this day, the “Kashmir Manuscript” stands out.

Western Sanskrit scholars consider the Kashmiri corpus to be the most complete of the surviving early copies of the Bhagavad Gita.

Speaking about the compilation of the shlokas of the Gita, it seems appropriate to say a few words about the internal contradictions of the Bhagavad Gita, which indicate that its text was formalized in different religious sects, schools and traditions.

So, for example, Garbe draws attention to slokas where Vishnu-Krishna and Brahma are not identified ("B.G." 8, 3; 14, 26-27; 18, 50, 53). Schrader attributed these texts to the activities of the Bhagavat sect. On the other hand, clearly not without the influence of the Vaishnava sect, in the text of the Gita, much later slokas appear in which Brahma is identified with Vishnu - Krishna ("B. - G." 7, 19; 11, 40). The entire 11th chapter with its description of Krishna was discarded by Winternitz as a figment of the sick imagination of the Vaishnavites. It can be assumed that if this “revision” had continued until the time of Chaitanya’s devotees, slokas would have arisen in which Brahma would have been identified with both Chaitanya and the founder of the USC Prabhupada.

The Kathaka Upanishad is especially often paraphrased by the ancient compilers of the Gita. The original idea of ​​the Upanishads is found in the dialogue between Krishna and Arjuna. The famous reformer of Hinduism R. Roy offers the following table of similar shlokas:

Kathaka Upanishad	Gita
2, 19	2, 19
2, 20	2, 18
2, 29	2, 7
3, 42-43	3,10-11; 6, 7-8
8, 11	2, 15
15, 1	6, 1
11, 48, 53	2, 8-9; 2, 23-24

Svetashvatara Upanishad	Gita
5, 13	3, 18
13, 14-15	3, 10-17.

Let's try to look at several examples of the use of Upanishad texts by the compilers of the Gita from the proposed table of Roy.

Kathaka Upanishad.“If the one who kills thinks that he is killing; if the one who is killed thinks that he is killed, then both of them do not recognize (the truth) - he does not kill, we do not kill” (2, 19);

Gita.“Whoever thinks that He (the Incarnate) kills, or whoever believes that He can be killed, both of them do not know: He does not kill and cannot be killed” (2, 19).

Kathaka Upanishad.“The Enlightened One is not born, does not die, he does not (arise) from anywhere, does not become anyone; Unborn, permanent, eternal, original, he does not (can be) killed (when) the body is killed” (2, 18) ;

Gita.“He is never born and does not die; without arising, He never arises again; unborn, constant, endless. He, the Ancient One, is not killed when the body is killed” (2, 20).

Kathaka Upanishad.“Worthy of wonder is he who instructs (about one) whom many are not able to comprehend even by hearing; whom, even when they hear, many do not see; He who comprehends him is skillful; worthy of wonder is he who is taught by the skillful and recognizes (him)” (2, 7);

Gita.“One looks at Him as a miracle, another speaks of Him as a miracle, another hears about Him as a miracle, but even having heard, no one knows Him” (2:29).

Kathaka Upanishad."For objects (perceptions) are higher than the senses, and the mind is higher than the objects, And the intellect is higher than the mind, the great Atman is higher than the intellect. The unmanifest is higher than the great (Atman), the purusha is higher than the unmanifest. There is nothing higher than the purusha. This is the ultimate goal. This is the highest path" (3, 10-11);

Gita. “Feelings are called great, higher than feelings is manas; higher than manas is buddhi; He is higher than buddhi. Having realized that He is higher than Buddhi, having established yourself in the Atman, strike the enemy, O mighty-armed one. In the form of Kama, difficult to defeat” (3, 42-43).

Such uses by the compilers of the Bhagavad Gita of the Vedic scriptures apply not only to the Upanishads, but also to other Vedic texts.

In the Gita we can also encounter Buddhist influences. So, for example, in 6, 15 ("B.-G.") we read: "Thus, always practicing, the yogi, having tamed the mind, reaches the world of the highest nirvana, located in me." The expression “taming the mind” indicates the presence of a Buddhist concept of meditation among the compilers of this section of the Gita.

Traditionally, the Hare Krishnas themselves adhere to the principle of personal personalism, where the importance of the individual does not disappear even during a period of religious exaltation and where transcendental love is realized between “conditioned” individuals. The world of “highest nirvana” looks like the goal of life for a person who has achieved peace. Verses 10 - 14 of the same chapter paint the image of a meditating anchorite, and the technique (13 pp.) that is proposed here leaves no doubt that we are talking about the Buddhist practice of meditative ascension. The only detail that could suggest the opposite is the skin of a doe (11 p.), on which the meditator sits. This detail rather indicates Shaivite influences on the text, but does not solve the problem of its Buddhist orientation - both in the description of meditative practices and in the term nirvana itself. According to Radhakrishna, the “description of the ideal person” in the Gita coincides with the Buddhist concept of buddhi (as a renounced person who dedicated his life to the “Supreme”). The word “budha” itself appears twice in the Bhagavad Gita (4, 19; 10, 10). According to the Russian scientist B.L. Smirnov, “in context it does not have any specific meaning”; but one can hardly imagine that in a text that has undergone so many strictly verified “editions” one can encounter a random term-word. Returning to the comparison proposed by Radhakrishna between the asceticism of the Gita and the Buddhist traditions, we see a striking similarity between the first and the second (“B. G.” - 2, 55-72; 4, 16-23; 5, 18-28; 12, 13-16. Cf. Dhammapada, 360-423; Sitanipada, Minisitta, 1, 7-14).

In this sense, the Bhagavad Gita is a compilation of knowledge borrowed from a wide variety of late and early Vedic texts, Buddhism and other religions. There are many repetitions and contradictions in the Gita, its composition is vague, and we can assume that this work had several authors and compilers.

“It has never happened that I, or you, or all these kings did not exist; and it will never happen that any of us ceased to exist” (B.G. 2.12). In the text we read, we see that the “god” of the Gita is not the Creator of man, he is the eternal companion of the “conditioned personality.” He cannot disrupt the order of existence of the human race, and only coexists with it. One of the leaders of neo-Hinduism, Prabhupada, in a commentary on the text being analyzed, writes: “The divine personality supports life in countless living beings.” He seems to assign Krishna the role of an executor who determines the fate of beings “according to their position and individual activities.”

Arjuna, unlike Krishna, does not remember any of his past life. The past “eternity” did not lead him to the joy of living in Krishnaloka. Eternity is cyclical; there is no place for love and happiness in it. “The process of creation of material universes” is like the breath of Brahman. Everything repeats itself regardless of the will of man and even the will of God.

Here we are faced, in the apt expression of Vladimir Solovyov, with bad infinity.

Representatives of neo-Hinduism often overestimate the role of the Bhagavad Gita in relation to the Vedic scriptures themselves. They argue that the four Vedas, unlike the Gita, belong to the section of “karma-kanda” (material activity), and therefore are not of particular interest to “transcendentalists”. To confirm this idea, they refer to the Bhagavad-Gita itself (B.G., 2, 45): “The Vedas talk a lot about the three gunas of material nature. O Arjuna, free yourself from the influence of these three gunas.” .

"Bhagavad-Gita", being part of the "Mahabharata", has never been the same indisputable authority in doctrinal matters as the Vedic "sacred scriptures" - "shruti".

Despite the statement by the leadership of the USC that the Bhagavad-Gita was allegedly given by Krishna 5000 years ago, Indian Vedo-epic archeology believes that the time of preliminary writing and design (literary fixation) of the Mahabharata was the 3rd - 4th centuries AD. Science does not know any more ancient surviving texts.

In the question of the original origin of the texts of the Gita, the Hare Krishnas themselves usually try to refer to such “impartial luminaries” as Dasgupta and Radhakrishnan.

Thus, among the numerous doctrinal (that is, “sacred”) scriptures of various religions, the modern corpus of the Bhagavad Gita is the most vulnerable object of scientific criticism.

The religious movement that arose around the texts of the Bhagavad Gita was called Bhagavatism, and only in the 4th - 5th centuries AD, during the Gupta dynasty, it began to be called “Vaishnavism” (Vishnavism).

Vaishnavism (Vaishnavism)

The cult of Vishnu did not immediately enter Hinduism. In the ancient Vedic texts, in particular in the Rig Veda, Vishnu was given a secondary role as upendra, the younger companion of Indra. However, Hare Krishnas believe that the superiority of Vishnu over Indra is evidenced by the fact that the powerless Indra, defeated by the asura Bali, is saved by Vishnu, who came to the rescue at the request of mother Aditi and easily defeated the demon (this episode is described in detail in Srimad-Bhagavatam, 8.15- 22). According to Vedic tradition, the name "Upendra" is understood as "the younger brother of Indra.

The largest foreign specialist in ancient Indian and ancient Iranian mythology, the Dutch scientist F. B. J. Kuyper, came to similar conclusions in his research. In the article "The Fundamental Concept of the Vedic Religion" he writes: "Many years ago I tried to prove that in the Veda Vishnu is not just a subordinate assistant to Indra, but must be a central figure, more important than Indra himself. While the first two steps of Vishnu express his relation to the two opposite parts of the cosmos, the third step corresponds to the transcendental world in which these two opposing sides are united... In this respect, Vishnu must have been from a long time a more significant god than Varuna and Indra, since he overcame the dualism they personified."

The cult of Krishna becomes central to Chaitanya's sermons. At the same time, he puts the emphasis not on heroism, but on the game, when Krishna indulges in love affairs with shepherdesses on the banks of the Yamuna in the marvelous forest of Vrindavan. The anonymous beloved gopi (cowherd) of Krishna takes on the name Radha. Krishna incarnates into Radha to understand the full power of loving devotion to oneself. According to the followers of the new teaching, this incarnation is Chaitanya. The Chaitanists, contrary to the established Hindu canon, declared Vishnu to be an avatar of Krishna. In other words, the theologians of the sect began to insist that Krishna, as he appears in the Bhagavata Purana, is the highest personal deity (Bhagavan). Argumentation of this kind made it possible to establish the superiority of Krishna over the gods of other sampradayas (Vishnu, Shiva, and so on). From this moment on, the followers of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu - the Hare Krishnas - turned into one of the many Hindu sects that emerged from the bosom of Vaishnavism. But even in this radically new teaching for Bengal, Chaitanya did not turn out to be an innovator - in embryo his ideas were known in Vaishnavism from the time of the existence of the Bhagavata Purana (also called Srimad-Bhagavatam), that is, according to the most conservative estimates, from the first millennium AD.

Chaitanya's followers, explaining the intricacies of the new cult of Krishna "as the supreme deity" in India at that time, wrote dozens and hundreds of volumes, mainly in Sanskrit. One Jiva Goswami compiled about 25 books, including almost 500,000 slokas (verses) - in volume this is five times larger than the Mahabharata. Overall, the movement initiated by the works of Sri Chaitanya made a huge contribution to the culture of the Indian Middle Ages.

Professor Larry Shinn, in The Formation of the Hare Krishna Movement in America, compares Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu to Luther. He writes: "Indeed, the parallels between Chaitanya and Martin Luther are very interesting, especially considering that they were contemporaries and, as far as we know, knew nothing about each other. All that belonged to the Krishna religion in East India at the time of his birth Chaitanya, was almost completely monopolized by the priestly class (brahmins). Rituals were performed secretly, worship was conducted in the ancient language of India, Sanskrit, and the religious scriptures of Krishna were accessible to ordinary people only through public readings by priests. Like Martin Luther, Chaitanya and his followers translated these scriptures. into the national languages ​​Hindi and Bengali." The return of modern Hare Krishnas to Sanskrit, their attempt to introduce into the life of modern society elements of varnas (a relic of the caste system of relations), way of life and way of life (which has become a relic in India itself) shows that the main ideas of the Bengal reformer were consigned to oblivion, and in the ranks of the USC the Brahmanical ones won ideas about cult, ritual and life, that is, what Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu struggled with all his life.

Guru movement

The founder of the modern Krishna movement, which took shape as the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKC), was Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, born Abhay Charan De (1896 - 1977). In Hare Krishna circles he is briefly called Prabhupada. The “Great Teacher” of the Hare Krishnas was born in the Indian city of Calcutta on September 1, 1896. His father was a humble cloth merchant, Gour Mohan De, a descendant of the famous Rammohan Roy (1772 - 1833).

Professor L. Shinn wrote about Srila Prabhupada's early life: "He grew up in a traditional Indian family, but studied at a Christian school in Bengal."

A careful analysis of Prabhupada's works reveals the enormous influence of Christian theological education on the author. This is especially noticeable in his main and most popular book - “Bhagavad-Gita As It Is”, more precisely, in the commentaries to it. Prabhupada uses Christian concepts as a convenient methodological tool, absolutely indispensable in “cultural recoding.” He very intensively resorts to the help of theology where Hindu ideas about God seem too vague, depersonalized (the doctrine of the “Supreme Personality of God” is one of the main and favorite “horses” of modern Krishnaism) and even openly polytheistic. Prabhupada often emphasizes the fundamental irreducibility of the creature and the Creator (which, in general, is completely uncharacteristic of the Hindu tradition): “One should be careful,” he writes in his commentary on the Bhagavad-Gita, “to avoid the erroneous opinion that the Supreme Divine Person present in every body and the individual jiva are one."

ISKCON, together with Prabhupada, also professes the belief that the conditioned soul can “fall out” from the spiritual world. According to Professor Kapoor, a disciple of Hare Krishna guru Saraswati Thakura, such a belief shows that "some ISKCON supporters are trying to introduce a new element into the philosophy of Vaishnavism. The doctrine of the fall is more characteristic of Christianity than of Hinduism." Although, according to Kapur, Prabhupada himself did not change anything in the Vaishnava teachings.

Prabhupada seeks to rethink and interpret the Hindu tradition in the forms of Christian religio-cultural consciousness. To do this, he uses the main categories of Christian theology to reveal the ontological and dogmatic aspects of his doctrine, turns to moral theology, trying to look at the heritage of the Vedas through the prism of Christianity.

For example, modern Hare Krishnas love to talk about the complete identity of the moral law of the Gospel and Vedic ethics, about the “prophetic ministry” of Christ, about the absence of any contradictions or disagreements between Christianity and Hare Krishnaism. At the same time, they often find themselves stumped by the most seemingly primitive, childish questions. According to former editor-in-chief of Back to Godhead magazine (the official organ of the USC) Ed Senesi, Hare Krishna leaders could never fully explain why Christ ate fish. They offered many interpretations, but could not explain this fact. Most often they reasoned like this: "Well, He didn't really eat fish - that's just an interpretation of the Greek word. It was the fruit of the fish tree," or something like that. Prabhupada said, “Christ is so spiritual, He is so perfect, that He could eat the whole world,” I still don’t understand what that could mean, but that’s what the teacher said, “Don’t think that you are on the same level with Jesus Christ. He preached according to the time and circumstances. He was in those places where vegetables did not grow."

But let's return to our main character, or rather, to his biography. Even when Abhay (remember, this was Srila Prabhupada’s name in childhood and youth, before his “initiation”) was studying at Calcutta University, his father engaged him to Radharani Datta, who only many years later became his wife.

A significant time gap between engagement and wedding is not uncommon among Hindus. At the same time, while studying in college, Abhay came under the strong influence of the famous nationalist, one of the ideologists of the Indian liberation movement, Subhas Chandra Bose, who actively opposed “Western religiosity.” Subhas would later lead the Indian National Army "to end British rule in India." Satsvarupa Das Goswami talks about this period in the life of the future guru in his biographical sketch “Prabhupada”: “Abhay listened attentively to the passionate speeches of Bose, who called on the students to support the movement for Indian independence.”

Oddly enough, it was the emphasis on Indian everyday exoticism that helped Prabhupada “get into the flow” after he descended the ladder of a cargo ship onto American soil in 1965. Disappointment in Western culture, which had become quite decrepit and had ceased to be a bearer of creativity (which, according to Oswald Spengler, is an undeniable sign of “dying”), forced Western “God-seekers” to turn their gaze to the East.

Beautiful, colorfully packaged Krishnaism satisfied their need for a respectable and understandable theology and for an unknown, exotic “spirituality.” Even Hare Krishna asceticism was perceived in the West as an element of exoticism.

After completing his studies at Calcutta University, Prabhupada worked for some time as a pharmacist and sold medicines in his own store. The turn of the second and third decades of ours was marked by a surge of revolutionary activity throughout the world. A movement for national independence of unprecedented mass and enthusiasm began in India. The Hare Krishnas actively participated in it, and developed, as a counterweight to Christian and Islamic expansion, their own program of missionary work in the West. It was this time (1910s) that should be considered the era of the birth of modern Hare Krishnaism, adapted to Western consciousness. For missionary work in the West, young, well-educated people were needed, fluent in English, oriented in Christian theology and European culture.

The initiator of the program of translating Vedic literature into English was the prominent spiritual teacher Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura (1838-1914). He was one of the literary elite of Bengal, and not only religious, but also secular works belonged to his pen. Being close to the writer Rabindranath Tagore (Thakur) (1861-1941), who was considered the “soul” of the Indian national liberation movement, Bhaktivinoda had connections with representatives of various parties and schools. Bhaktivinoda was greatly influenced by the literary and philosophical heritage of the Bengali religious leader and reformer Raja Rammohan Roy (1772-1833).

He is especially active against human sacrifices, practiced in Shaivite sects, and ritual suicides of widows on a funeral pyre - sati.

The ritual of "sati" was justified by the texts of the Vedic treatise "Vayu Purana", which describes the self-immolation of Shiva's wife - Sati. Perhaps in ancient times the ritual of “sati” was performed by women voluntarily, but over time it turned into a ritual murder, cruel and merciless. The woman was tied to a pole around which a fire was built, and if she still managed to free herself when the ropes burned out, then specially standing volunteer fanatics drove her back into the fire with sticks. The practice of "sati" in those days was very widespread throughout India.

Only through the efforts of the British colonial authorities, with the active participation of missionaries and the support of the Brahma Society (Brahma Samaj) created by Roy, was it possible to achieve an official ban on sati in 1829. Roy organized a deputation to the government with an address signed by 300 Hindus and then sent a petition to the British Parliament.

In recognizing the One God as an all-perfect Person;

In the doctrine of the immortality of the soul and the possibility of its existence in the afterlife without a chain of reincarnations (reincarnation), which affirmed the uniqueness of each human personality in the likeness of the Supreme Personality of the One God;

In recognition of the Lord's providential care for the destinies of His creation;

In the denial of the caste division of society and in the perception of the human race as a single family, which manifested itself as alien to traditional Hinduism, essentially Christian, social ethics;

In the denial of complex Brahminical rituals, since they are associated with idolatry;

In recognizing the need to translate Sanskrit texts into spoken languages.

These ideas were shared by the "early" Hare Krishnas, such as Thakura (although in practice they often deviated from them. In particular, they allowed the possibility of many incarnations - avatars). Krishna neoconservatism was a kind of reduction of Brahma-Samaj modernism. However, in everything else (in particular, in ritual practice), the Hare Krishnas were and remain very close to this neo-Hindu movement.

The Brahma Society created by Roy “was the first social organization of a new type in India, although it still bore the features of a religious society. Its participants sought to reform the religion of Hinduism, interpreting it in a rationalistic and moralistic spirit, and rejected medieval class-caste divisions and family and household customs.”

Such close attention that we paid to the Brahma Samaj is explained primarily by the fact that it was the activities and teachings of the great reformer Rammohan Roy that prepared the ground for modern neo-Hinduism, and if its history is ever written, its first section will rightfully occupy " Brahma Samaj...

It would not be a great exaggeration if we call Bhaktivinoda Thakura the most prominent personality in the Bengal guru movement of the late 19th century. Thakura preached very actively not only in his homeland, but throughout India. The main content of his sermon was the teachings of Chaitanya. He considered Chaitanya to be one of Krishna’s avatars, and his last avatar in historical time.

As a result of Thakura's missionary work, numerous Hare Krishna ashrama centers began to appear throughout the country. The revival of "true religion" automatically awakened the missionary impulse - the need to spread the newfound truth as widely as possible. There was a need for translations into languages ​​understandable to the common people, since most Hindus did not know Sanskrit. Thakura took up translation work, not forgetting about his own books. His most significant work is the book "Sri Kaitanaya Mahaprabhu: His Life and Teachings". He sent it to various universities and interested parties in the West.

Bhaktivinoda Thakura's son, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura (1838-1937), completed the work his father had begun.

During his student years, he wrote many articles for magazines. In them, he denounced the spiritual practices cultivated in society under the label “religion.” He advocated the rejection of cultural assessments of Hinduism, and saw in it only a manifestation of mysticism.

Even in his youth, Saraswati Thakura, while studying at a Hindu Sanskrit college, spoke out against family life and systematic education. In his autobiography, he wrote: “If I had continued my studies, my parents would have insisted on marriage. I thought it was better to leave Sanskrit College rather than bear the burden of family life."

In 1919, Thakura Jr. recreated the medieval Gaudiya Math organization. Its members were divided into two groups. Some took vows of renunciation and lived in traditional semi-poor shelters. Very soon these shelters, mathas, turned into a kind of missionary seminaries.

Others remained householders but were also involved in organized philanthropic activities. Due to his preaching works, especially in South India, Thakura received the respectful nickname "Simha Guru". He founded 64 temples in India, one in Rangoon (Burma). And, most importantly, he created two Hare Krishna centers: in England and in Germany. It was these centers that became the strongholds of the Western mission of Krishnaism.

Saraswati Thakura was also involved in publishing activities and founded several large printing houses. The tactics and strategy he developed for missionary work among English-speaking peoples formed the basis for Prabhupada's future work. Thakura Jr. died on January 1, 1937, surrounded by numerous followers and students.

An analysis of the history of the origin and development of Krishnaism in the 19th century clearly shows that this new religious movement experienced, during its Bengal dawn, the interpenetrating influence of a variety of religious and philosophical systems and syncretic anti-systems.

But even the most superficial glance at early Krishnaism convinces us that, in general, Bengali Hinduism experienced a philosophical and religious “renaissance” in the last century, especially in its second half.

“Renaissance”, which, unfortunately, very soon, at the beginning of this century, was sacrificed to Indian nationalism in the form of anti-British separatism and the ideology of the liberation struggle against the colonialists.

In 1944, almost single-handedly, Abhay began publishing the magazine Back to Godhead, which was published in English twice a month. The idea of ​​a return to God and at the same time to the ideal past can be traced even in the title of this periodical.

To this day, the magazine remains the main organ of Moscow and is published in more than thirty languages ​​with a total circulation of several hundred thousand copies.

While engaged in missionary work, Abhay nevertheless remained a secular man until 1950. In 1947, his work received recognition - his comrades in the movement awarded him the honorary title "Bhaktivedanta". In 1950, when A. Ch. De turned 54 years old, he left his family and became vanaprasthi, that is, a member of the monastic community (ashrams). According to the Hare Krishna classification, vanaprastha is considered the “third stage” of spiritual life. A Vaishnava who has reached this stage must travel to holy places and engage in meditation. Having settled in the Ratha-Damodara temple, located in the holy city of Vrindavan, vanaprastha Prabhupada completely devoted himself to scientific studies, in particular, translating the multi-volume collection "Srimad-Bhagavatam".

After nine years of “novitiate”, Abhay takes vows of complete renunciation and becomes a sannyasi monk.

In the USA and a number of European countries, educational institutions are appearing that adhere to a special educational method, the so-called gurukul. Its essence lies in the deep connection between student and teacher. Which, by the way, behaves with the rough simplicity of a loved one.

While preaching, Prabhupada does not forget his homeland, India. Here he builds religious and cultural centers (the main one is Sridham Mayapur in West Bengal), where numerous pilgrims from all over the world are currently flocking.

In 1972, ISKCON founded its own publishing house, the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, whose colorful books are known to many of our compatriots - they are the ones distributed by Russian Hare Krishnas on the streets and in subway passages. And today the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust is dedicated to Prabhupada's legacy. His works are published in more than thirty languages. In particular, the following have been published in Russian: “Bhagavad-Gita as it is”, “The Source of Eternal Pleasure”, “The Teachings of Sri Chaitanya”, “Perfect Questions, Perfect Answers”, “Easy Journey to Other Planets” and the multi-volume book “Srimad-Bhagavatam” ".

ISKCON pays great attention to bhakti yoga, a method of practical implementation of Hare Krishna standards of life. According to this method, disciples (Vaiṣṇavas) are required to follow the “four regulative principles.” They are prohibited from eating meat, fish, eggs, onions and garlic, taking intoxicants and stimulants (including coffee, tea, tobacco, alcohol and drugs), gambling and illicit sexual relations.

The Hare Krishna day, if one follows bhakti yoga, should begin at 3.30 am. Having woken up, the Vaishnava does a little cleaning of the room, takes a cold shower and puts on clean traditional clothes (men - kurta and hoti, women - sari).

Having completed his bath, the Vaishnava must apply tilak - clay from the banks of the sacred Yamuna River - to his body in twelve places. At 4.15 am in ashrams (temple-monasteries), which, if possible, all Hare Krishnas should visit daily, public morning prayers begin, after which individual reading of the maha-mantra beads is prescribed (a “prayer” consisting of a variable alternation of invocations of the deity: “ Hare Krishna" and "Hare Rama") 1728 times. After two hours of meditation on the name “Krishna,” in the very sound of which Hare Krishnas detect certain “transcendental vibrations,” the Vaishnava can begin his daily activities. However, during the day he is obliged to perform several thousand more mantras and read aloud “Bhagavad-Gita As It Is” and “Srimad-Bhagavatam”.

After morning prayers and reading Prabhupada's books, there are lectures in ashrams and only then breakfast.

Hare Krishnas can eat only food prepared by the hands of Vaishnavas. This food is called prasadam. In Sanskrit - “prasadam” - “consecrated food”, i.e. food prepared for Krishna and offered to him "with love and devotion."

Such “asceticism” and, in general, a rather harsh way of life leads many young people who have converted to Krishnaism to become convinced of their exclusivity, “God’s chosenness,” which leads them to think about their own superiority. Ed Senesi, former editor-in-chief of the ISKCON magazine Back to Divinity, recalls: “This asceticism instilled in us a fair amount of contempt and hostility towards those Christians who tried to talk to us. We did not accept them, although we publicly declared that we accepted everyone, because that all people follow the same path of returning to God. Christians were meat-eaters, and we emphasized that vegetarianism is the “first point” in spiritual life. And if you are unable to reach this level, you cannot even be called a human being, much less “. spiritual man." You are simply using other forms of life in pursuit of carnal pleasures, while human life is meant for the spiritual service of God. We believed that these people profess to worship God, serve Him, but in fact violate His laws. We said, that even their own commandment commands: “Thou shalt not kill,” and at the same time they kill animals. What kind of hypocrisy is this, what kind of spiritual people are they?” .

Interesting in this regard is the story of John Hubner and Lindsay Gruson in the book “Monkey on a Stick” about the waves of indignation against Christians that swept the Vaishnavas during the “case” of Phaktipada (Kirtananda).

The Bengali guru began his preaching in the USA among hippies, drug addicts and perverts. Apparently, he deliberately tested the “effect of meeting Krishna” on karmis (fallen people infected with the passions of the material world). And, we must give him his due, Prabhupada achieved a lot in the social field: drug addicts gave up drugs, perverts gave up “illegal sex,” young people protested against the Vietnam War, etc. And yet, society’s attitude towards the sect was more wary than positive . Today it has a clearly expressed negative character. An ethics based on pleasure does not convince people raised in Christian traditions. Intolerance and slave labor in the name of deity seem to be a relic of the Middle Ages. And, of course, Hindu fascism, which uses some of the ideas of Bhaktivedanta to incite religious fanaticism, is not at all inspiring.

Hare Krishnas in Russia

Prabhupada arrived in Moscow in June 1971. Outwardly, this visit went unnoticed. The Guru took a photo with St. Basil's Cathedral in the background and walked around the center (no further than Vasilyevsky Spusk). Most of the time was spent in the hotel. The exception was a visit to the Institute of Oriental Studies of the USSR Academy of Sciences in Armenian Lane, where Prabhupada was received by the head of the department of India and South Asia, Grigory Kotovsky.

Kotovsky recalls this meeting: “Our conversation with Srila Prabhupada was quite long and interesting, and covered a wide range of religious, philosophical and historical and cultural problems... At the very beginning of the conversation, he noted that in the indicated texts (meaning " Bhagavad-Gita" and "Bhagavad-Purana" - O.S.) contain ideas that resonate with socialist and communist ideals."

The first Russian Hare Krishna, as mentioned above, was Anatoly Pinyaev. The author of these lines met with him several times. Pinyaev spoke about his “conversion”: “I saw white people in exotic clothes at the market. I came closer and realized that they were Americans. Interest increased... I asked: “What are you doing in Moscow?” And when I found out that they arrived with my guru, asked to arrange a meeting with him. We arrived at the hotel. Prabhupada sat on the bed and explained something, I think, to the students from India. Prabhupada himself initiated me. Pinyaev lived up to the teacher's hopes.

Educated, well-read, with knowledge of foreign languages, he, with all the fervor of his youth, began to spread a teaching that was new to Russia. He had amazing energy. He distributed the Bhagavad Gita among students of the MDS and MDA, visited the cells of residents of Orthodox monasteries, preached in universities, libraries and other public institutions. It was the 70s! I remember meeting him at an Orthodox religious seminar held in Margarita P.’s apartment. Even for Orthodox “conspirators,” his courage seemed inexplicable. In Moscow, Pinyaev found people interested in Indian philosophy, culture, and traditions. It was in this environment that the first Russian Hare Krishnas appeared.

After Prabhupada's death, the USSR entered one of the eleven zones into which the Hare Krishnas divided the whole world.

The leaders of the “Russian zone” (headquarters in Sweden) turned out to be Vishnupada (Harikesha Swami), known in the world as Robert Compagnola and Kirtiraja (David Yakubka). In the late 70s they visited the USSR. But already in 1980, their activities were recognized as destructive and they were denied entry into the country of the Soviets.

According to Pinyaev, at this time the “spiritual” nourishment of Russian Hare Krishnas was carried out through correspondence. Letters of instructions came both legally and illegally through the “ambassy” route. And initiations took place in absentia. Mr. Sanaka Kumara Dasa, who was in a mental hospital for compulsory examination in those years, says: “Initiation was carried out in absentia from Vrindavan. Everything was prepared for the ritual there, and our names were called, after which brahminical paraphernalia was placed in the places reserved for us. We only knew the time when this happened and, naturally, everyone in prison, in the mental hospital, and at home, read japa." Realizing the danger their flocks in the USSR were exposed to from the KGB, the overseas gurs advised Vaishnavas to leave big cities, move to the countryside, and “dissolve” in bear corners. Pinyaev and his associates tried to create closed agricultural ashrams (communities) in Ukraine, Crimea, and the Caucasus (Abkhazia, Ossetia). However, many of those who wanted to live in such ashrams did not have agricultural experience, and the initiative was never developed.

And today Hare Krishnas are trying to create their own agricultural ashrams). For example, on Sakhalin, local authorities allocated them a large plot of land to organize a “Vedic” farm. Similar farms exist in Central Russia.

The Hare Krishnas were persecuted by the secular authorities. Most often they were accused under articles of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR: 198, 198 approx. (“violation of passport regime”, “parasitism”). Sometimes under Article 209 (“vagrancy”).

Anatoly Pinyaev was sent to a “prison” type mental hospital.

Soon many of his other like-minded people found themselves behind bars.

In 1981, an attempt was made to register USC in the USSR. Lists of members of the illegal “Hare Krishna” community were submitted to the Council for Religious Affairs. These lists were the basis for another wave of arrests and trials. It is quite possible that the idea of ​​submitting lists for registration was provoked by KGB officers embedded in the ranks of the Moscow OSK. From 1982 to 1985, more than fifty Hare Krishnas were convicted. They were tried under Article 227, the “religious” article.

Almost all modern USC leaders in Russia have been subjected to repression. Former “dissidents from Krishna” went through thick and thin. It is no coincidence that they are the ones who occupy leadership positions in USC today.

A second attempt to register followed in 1985. This time, it seems, the lists were not immediately transferred from the Council of Religious Affairs to the KGB.

Speaking about the number of ISKCON followers, about the rate of its growth, comparing these indicators among the Hare Krishnas with more stable religious groups of neo-Hinduism, such as the supporters of Ramakrishna (1836-1886), Vivekananda (1863 - 1902) and Aurobindo (1872-1950), - we can say with full confidence that after the death of Prabhupada and a number of scandals surrounding the leadership of ISKCON, the growth rate of the number of followers of Krishnaism decreased significantly, and missionary work died out.

The libraries of many countries around the world are overflowing with Vedic and epic books. The existence of different, often hostile, Hindu movements and sects makes the overall picture confusing and unattractive. The relative success of the preaching of neo-Hinduism in the countries of the former USSR can only be explained by the 74-year period of dominance of state atheism.

Speaking about the problems caused by the policy of apparent non-interference by the state in the processes that have engulfed the religious segment of public life, we must not forget about the cultural significance of the ancient Indian traditions that are penetrating us under the cover of neo-Hinduism.

Cultural interest in Indian scriptures has existed in Russia for a long time; it is enough to mention the first translation of the Bhagavad Gita into Russian, which appeared in the Moscow university printing house of N. I. Novikov back in 1788. In the first edition, the book was called quite funny: “Bagaut Geta, or Conversations of Krishna with Arjun.” Soon after this, in 1819, on the pages of the magazine “Competitor of Enlightenment and Charity”, the first Russian translation of the Ramayana was published. It is known that the epic texts of Ancient India inspired V.A. Zhukovsky (“Nalya and Damayati”); the great Russian Orthodox theologian, scientist and publicist A.S. Khomyakov was compiling the first Russian-Sanskrit dictionary. Already in our century, more precisely, in 1939, Academician A.P. Barannikov made an attempt to carry out a scientific publication and Russian translation of all the books of the Mahabharata. This grandiose scientific project continues to this day.

In polemics with representatives of various neo-Hindu movements, it is useful to recall, at least from time to time, the Russian proverb: “Don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater.”

Herodotus also wrote about India as a land of wonders. But once you get to know this land better, the feeling of a fairy tale disappears. The difficult, very difficult life of people is permeated with rigid ritual. Spiritual quests, with all the diversity of tradition, doom a person to the path of loneliness bordering on selfishness. The cold of the absolute does not allow the sprouts of love to rise. Detached from the multiplicity of the world, mysticism knows only “conditioned personalities.” We know from Scripture that the basis of a person’s personality is in his sacrifice, in his readiness to bear his cross. Fleeing from the cross gives rise to painful phenomena, deforms optics, makes suffering and compassion dark.

Without the cross, the idea of ​​brotherly service to others is suspect. Talk about universal synthesis distorts the idea of ​​salvation. Of course, there are bright sides to Hinduism.

Yes, I am close to the “Slavophiles” of other religions.

But this closeness is possible only up to a certain point. In Christ, as we know, there is “neither Greek nor Jew.” At some point, you have to make a choice in the tradition itself, preferring the main thing in it. Following Him Who is “The Truth, the Way and the Life.” Without the opportunity to freely make a choice, any “return” to a happy “yesterday” loses its meaning.

A mythologized past without the blessed light of the Gospel leads to a dead end, just like the communist “tomorrow.” It seems that it is no coincidence that the ideologists of Nazism peered closely at the spiritual East, finding related motifs in the religions of overseas countries. Many features of the same Krishnaism, such as slave labor in the name of deity and the slaughter of women, are unlikely to inspire modern people. Others - say the doctrine of padasraya - will remind him of the horrors of totalitarianism. The center for the rehabilitation of victims of non-traditional religions named after A. S. Khomyakov, where I work, is often visited by supporters of Krishna who have lost their faith. They tell me about the feeling of ontological emptiness, isolation from the world and from the joys of family that they experienced as members of ISKOSK. I understand them well, and I try to help them in any way I can: to introduce them to Orthodoxy, to warm them up, to talk “from heart to heart.” But I also communicate with those who are still far from Christianity. In my deep conviction, you need to talk and communicate with people, and not fence yourself off from them with a wall of imaginary righteousness and indifference, and not stick different labels on them. To illustrate these words, I will give a wonderful image of Abba Dorotheus. According to the thoughts of this great ascetic, humanity can be imagined as a circle, in the center of which is God. If people come closer to God, they come closer to each other. And vice versa, walking towards each other, people find the Truth along this path, which makes them free.
Oleg Stenyaev
, archpriest

Rehabilitation Center for Victims of Non-Traditional Religions

and drug addicts. A.S. Khomyakova, Moscow

Prof. Bolotov V.V. writes: “Apostle Thomas. According to legend, he preaches in the city of Edessa, but he seems primarily to be the apostle of India, a tradition about which dates back to the time of Ephraim the Syrian. The so-called carmina Nisibena testify that at the end of the 4th century within the boundaries of Edessa and Syria, there was a tradition that St. Thomas died in India and that his relics were then transferred to Edessa" (Bolotov V.V. Lectures on the history of the ancient church. Vol. 2. - M.: Spaso-Preobrazhensky Valaam Stavropegic Monastery , 1994. - P. 253).

Suvira Jaiswal. The Origin and Development of Vaisnavism, Munshiram Manoharlal, New Delhi, 1981, pp.1-4.

Ibid., p.550.

Shruti (Sansk - heard revelation, God’s own “word”).

Shrutis constitute the most authoritative texts - scriptures such as the Samhitas, Brahmanas, Upanishads, Aranyakas. Actually, only shruti can be called Vedic scriptures.

Illustrated history of religions / Ed. prof.

D.P. Chantepie de la Saussey.- T.2.- 2nd edition. - M.: Publishing house of the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Valaam Monastery, 1992.- P.115.

Mahabharata, Ramayana / Library of World Literature. - Series one. - T.2. - M.: Fiction, 1974. - P.6,7. - “By analogy with other national epics, the era that gave rise to the legends of the Mahabharata and Ramayana received a special name in scientific literature - the “heroic age.” However, a lot of time usually lies between the heroic age and the epic poetry glorifying it. in Greece, where the events of the Trojan War apparently date back to the 13th century BC, and the Homeric poems dedicated to it were created four to five centuries later, this was the case with the epic of the Germanic peoples, the epic period of which falls on the 4th - 6th centuries, and the time of literary fixation in the 11th - 14th centuries, this was also the case in India. In any case, the first mentions of the Bharata epic in Indian literature are attested not earlier than the 4th century BC, but finally, in the form in which it was written. reached us, the Mahabharata took shape in the 3rd - 4th centuries AD."

S. Dasgupta. A History of Indian Philosophy, M.Banarsidass, Delhi, 1991, vol.2, p.551.

S.Radhakrishnan. The Bhagavadgita. - Harper Collins, Delhi, 1996, p.14

Mahabharata, Ramayana / Library of World Literature.

Ibid., p.9.

Speaking about the literary fixation of the Mahabharata, for comparison we can cite evidence of the existing literary fixation of biblical texts. For example, about the oldest handwritten books of the Old Testament: Papyri Yeb (Elephatine) and Assuan (Egyptian) (494-407 BC), Edfu (Egyptian) (III century BC); Qumran parchments (2nd century BC). An interesting circumstance is that among the Qumran parchments the first translation of the biblical books of the Old Testament into Greek (Septuagint), dated to the 2nd century, was discovered. BC The oldest texts of the New Testament have been preserved in sufficient quantities; 76 papyri are known, the great antiquity of which is beyond doubt among scientists. For example, the “Ryland Papyrus” dates back to the first half of the 2nd century AD - it was written in 120-130, the dating of this text is only a few decades distant from the writing of the original Gospel of John.

According to the testimony of St. Irenaeus of Lyons (about 185), the Apostle John wrote the gospel during his stay in Ephesus, in the days of Emperor Domitian (81-96 AD). The most recent discovery in the field of biblical papyrology was that made by Carsten P. Thiede, an expert from Germany.

He conducted an examination of a fragment of the text of the Gospel of Matthew, stored at Magdalen College, Oxford (UK). The resulting dating of the text, known under the code name P 64, shocked all of modern bibliology. Thiede describes the Oxford fragment as "a fragment of a first-century Christian codex, possibly (though not necessarily) dating from before 70 AD." ("Zeitschrift fur Papyrologie und Epigraphik"). So, we see that, contrary to the statements of individual adherents of Krishnaism, the biblical texts have a more ancient literary fixation. And the mythological antiquity of the Bhagavad Gita is not confirmed or verified by the methods of positive science and historical and philological criticism.

Works on Vedic mythology / Ed. T.Ya. Elizarenkova. - M.: "Science", 1986. - P.35-36.

Ibid., p. 110. , images of any livestock that is on the earth, images of any winged bird that flies under the heavens, images of any [reptile] crawling on the earth, images of any fish that are in the waters below the earth; And lest when you look up to heaven and see the sun, the moon, and the stars [and] all the host of heaven, you are deceived and worship them and serve them, since the Lord your God has allocated them to all the nations under the whole heaven" (Deut. 4, 15-19);

"...calling themselves wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image like corruptible man, and birds, and four-footed animals, and reptiles,- then God gave them over to uncleanness in the lusts of their hearts, so that they defiled their own bodies. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature instead of the Creator, who is blessed forever, amen" (Rom. 1:22-25),

Rybakov R. Around Madras (From the book “In India of the Fourth Dimension”) // Avatara.

Almanac of the Society for Cultural Relations with India / Ed. ed. Doctor of Philology A.N. Senkevich. - M., 1996.

"Chaitanyacharitamrita" is the most revered biography of Chaitanya in Vaishnavism, written by Krishnadasa Kabiraja at the end of the 16th century.

Stuart M.Elkman, Jiva Gosvamin's Tattvasandarbha, M.Banarsidass, Delhi, 1986, p.5

The invasion of Hinduism in Russia. Collection of articles / Supplement to the newspaper "Orthodox Perm". Issue 2 / Comp. V.A. Gurko. - Perm, 1997.

In Russia, Hare Krishnas try to avoid connections with pro-fascist organizations and condemn those who establish such connections. However, Russian supporters of “Aryan superiority” themselves are very interested in the so-called “Vedic knowledge” of ISKCON.

Interest in Hare Krishnaism in post-communist countries is a consequence of “scientific atheism.” As the population returns to traditional religions, interest in exotic cults weakens and acquires a relict connotation.

The World History. In 24 volumes - T.14. - Minsk: Literature, 1996. - P.312-313.

Singh I.Ram Mohun Roy.Vol.1.- N.Y., 1958.

The English Works of Raja Rammohun Roy.- Allahabad, 1906.- Vol.1.- P.112.

Right there. P.68.

“The tragic fate of many Indian women - namely, the burning of widows - was not a universal custom and was often replaced by a corresponding symbolic action. However, traces of the original culture, when everything was sacrificed for the welfare and protection of the tribe, still continue to emerge; for example, religion does not prevent the display of old people and weak children, and even itself gives rise to terrible cruelties, since there is no doubt that human sacrifices existed in Vedic times." - Illustrated History of Religions / Ed. Prof. D.P. Chantepie de la Saussey.- T.2.- Edition 2.- M.: Publishing House of the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Valaam Monastery, 1992 P. 39.

Between 1815 and 1825, there were 5,100 cases of sati reported in Bengal, 1,150 in Varanasi, over 700 in Patna, etc. - Walker B. Hindu World. Vol.2.- L., 1968.- P.464.

The English Works. Vol.1.- P.379.
Srila Harikesa Swami. Timeless culture. - M.: Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, 1994. - P.26-27.

From materials of the St. Petersburg Center for Apologetic Research.

Vaishnavism: an open forum. - 1997, No. 1., -C. 110-111

Moscow Theological Seminary

Moscow Theological Academy

Vaishnavism: an open forum. - 1997, No. 1., -C. 109