"His Lotus Feet Are The Only Way...."
Posted October 18, 2012
The attempt to broadcast the news of the great Temple of the Vedic Planetarium is praiseworthy. All the devotees who are working so hard and participating in the manifestation of Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityananda's prediction, the building of this temple and dream of Srila Prabhupada, are to be thanked wholeheartedly and the dust of their feet placed on all of our heads.
However, I think it quite a bit negligent in the film, "The Temple Out Of The Rice Fields," which was just produced as an official representation of the project, to address the divine personality who inspired the idea in the devotees of this temple, His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada, as simply some "old Hindu monk". Since when has it been on record that any of our great acaryas are addressed in such a way, what to speak of the world's greatest Acarya, Srila Prabhupada? The way he is depicted by such language does not give the viewer any insight of his importance nor of his divine commission as being the one sent personally by Sri Caitanay Mahaprabhu to break open the storehouse of love of Godhead, giving it freely to all the world. The way he is casually mentioned is as if to almost lessen his importance, although I am sure that was not the intention of the creators of the film, and definately not the idea or opinion of all the devotees who are sacrificing their lives to build this extraordinary mandir.
The err or misplacement of Srila Prabhupada's accurate and true title in the film would not be a very difficult thing to correct, and should be done so. I have heard other senior Srila Prabhupada disciples also mention this. What is the wrong with saying, "His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, who was a pure devotee of Lord Krishna since birth, at an elderly age, set sail to America aboard the Jaladhuta ship"? Why do we have to minimize him in reference in any way, as if he is just some other "monk"? We may be monks, or devotees, but he is the spiritual master of the universe! Srila Prabhupada should get the highest credit (mention in film) for the divine mission of starting ISKCON, as well as inspiring all the devotees to work together to help make the prediction of our predecessor acaryas come true.
Besides that point, anyone whoever has heard Srila Prabhupada speak, either personally or on tape, knows that he preached so much against India's spiritual culture being classified as Hindu. And then we turn around and call him Hindu? Would Srila Prabhupada personally ever say, that the temple of the Vedic Planetarium will be the largest Hindu temple in the world? To say that this will be the largest "Vedic" temple in the would, he might give it that designation. It is not a Hindu or hodge-podge temple of any sort, and it never will be. And none of our acaryas were Hindus. They are all pure Vaishnavas,
It's only words, but choice words eloquently spoken should take every and any opportunity such as this, to properly glorify Krishna's pure devotee to the world, and thus receive his blessings more upon our own heads. We should also be giving the more proper understanding to India's so-called Hindus. The temple will stand on its own divine merits and the grace of Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu, without our public relations department needing to fabricate or continue a misnomer handed down in history by non-aryan people apart from the Vedic culture. The knowledge passed down in guru parampara, disciplic succession, as well as the Vedic culture, speaks for itself.
Again, my humble respects and gratefulness to all the members and leaders of Iskcon for taking up this great task. By it, Srila Prabhupada is glorified. Jai Ambarish prabhu!
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