Purpose of ISKCON

Expressions researched:
"ISKCON" |"of the movement" |"purpose" |"purposes" |"this institution"

Notes from the compiler: VedaBase query:"purpose* iskcon"@20

SB Canto 4

SB 4.22.23, Purport:

The beginning of devotional service is to hear about the glories of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. That is recommended in this verse: vinā harer guṇa-pīyūṣa-pānāt. One must drink the nectar of the glories of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and this means that one must be always engaged in hearing and chanting the glories of the Lord. It is the prime method for advancing in spiritual life. Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu also recommends this in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta. If one wants to make advancement in spiritual life, by great fortune he may meet a bona fide spiritual master and from him learn about Kṛṣṇa. By serving both the spiritual master and Kṛṣṇa he gets the seed of devotional service (bhakti-latā-bīja), and if he sows the seed within his heart and waters it by hearing and chanting, it grows into a luxuriant bhakti-latā, or bhakti creeper. The creeper is so strong that it penetrates the covering of the universe and reaches the spiritual world and continues to grow on and on until it reaches and takes shelter of the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, just as an ordinary creeper also grows on and on until it takes a solid shelter on a roof; then it very steadily grows and produces the required fruit. The real cause of the growing of such fruit, which is here called the nectar of hearing the glories of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is to water the creeper of devotional service by hearing and chanting. The purport is that one cannot live outside the society of devotees; one must live in the association of devotees, where there is constant chanting and hearing of the glories of the Lord. The Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is started for this purpose, so that hundreds of ISKCON centers may give people a chance to hear and chant, to accept the spiritual master and to disassociate themselves from persons who are materially interested, for in this way one can make solid advancement in going back home, back to Godhead.

1968 Correspondence

Letter to Roland Michener (Governor-General of Canada) -- Montreal 24 August, 1968:

ISKCON (the International Society of Krishna Consciousness) is a non-lucrative organization, whose purpose is to promote the well-being of human society by drawing its attention to God. We are a non-sectarian society, and our members include people from Christian, Jewish and Moslem as well as Hindu faiths. The aim of ISKCON is not to found a new religious sect, but to invoke the living entity's dormant love of God, and thus provide the human society of all faiths with a common platform of clear theistic knowledge and practice. Members of ISKCON may retain their own respective religious faiths, as ISKCON is meant to establish a clear, practical common formulation of the common ideal of all theists, and to defeat the unnecessary dogmatic wranglings that now divide and invalidate the theistic camp. This common ideal of theism is to develop love of God.

We are following in the footsteps of Lord Caitanya to invoke the dormant love of Godhead. The sum and substance of this teaching is that the living entity is eternally the subordinate servant of God, but unfortunately, being sophisticated by illusion, everyone in the human society is trying to predominate over others without accepting the Supreme Predominator. A case in point is the recent Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia.

ISKCON is trying to train people to be situated in that pure condition of life by simple methods, encouraging them to associate always in the matters of God consciousness or Krishna Consciousness, and actually I have good results in the sense that since I have come to the Western countries to preach this cult, my disciples have taken to this principle unhesitatingly although they belong to different faiths and cultures. So I think this propagation of love of Godhead can be pushed forward more and more with good results.

1969 Correspondence

Letter to Swami B. S. Bhagavata Maharaja -- Los Angeles 21 August, 1969:

The main purposes of this institution are as follows amongst others: 1) To systematically propagate spiritual knowledge to society at large and to educate all peoples in the techniques of spiritual life in order to check the imbalance of values in life and to achieve real unity and peace in the world. 2) To propagate a consciousness of Krishna as it is revealed in the Bhagavad-gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam. 3) To bring the members of the Society together with each other and nearer to Krishna, the prime entity, and thus develop the idea, within the members and humanity at large that each soul is part and parcel of the quality of Godhead (Krishna). 4) To teach and encourage the Sankirtana movement, congregational chanting of the holy name of God as revealed in the teachings of Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.

1972 Correspondence

Letter to Friends -- Los Angeles 23 May, 1972:

My Dear Friends,

Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated May 9, 1972 and I have noted the contents. Actually outside of our bona fide Krishna Consciousness centers, there is no possibility of finding out what Krishna does or does not want. We say "We feel that Krishna wills this for us." But I feel Krishna does not. So whose feelings will be all right? You say that you are following the regulative principles, so if you are following the regulative principles, why you will not cooperate? If by following the regulative principles you do not become devotees, and you can not appreciate other devotees, then what is the use of these regulative principles? If you are actually chanting regularly 16 rounds, holding sankirtana daily, reading our books as much as possible, like that, then I think you will feel that such program of living separately, away from our Krishna consciousness program is a great mistake.

So my only request is that you immediately return either to the Cleveland temple or to some other temple. You may correspond with Bhagavan das at the Detroit center, 8311 E. Jefferson St., Detroit 48214, in this connection. He is the GBC zonal secretary for that zone of the mid-west, so you may address your questions and inquiries to him. I am very much encouraged that you are all chanting Hare Krishna and trying to become Krishna Conscious. But I do not advise that you approach the matter of perfecting your life in this independent way. Unless there is connection with a bona fide spiritual master, coming in the line of disciplic succession, there is no possibility of making progress in spiritual life. So I have established ISKCON centers for the purpose of catching up the Lotus Feet of Krishna by intimate connection with the spiritual master. These are my authorized centers for that purpose. You say that whatever I instruct you you will carry out, so again my instruction is that you abandon this independent scheme and join your good god-brothers and sisters at some one of our ISKCON centers.

1976 Conversations and Morning Walks

Interview with Religious Editor Of the Associated Press -- July 16, 1976, New York:

Bali-mardana: If you pay attention to the car without paying attention to understanding who the driver of the car is, what is the driver, then what is the use of your knowledge? In other words, the driver is the living entity or the soul and the car is this body, the material elements of this material world including the body. So without understanding who you are, who the living entity within the body or the driver within the car, then what is the use of your knowledge of the material elements without understanding who you are?

Interviewer: Well, since this dichotomy appears to be the case, I mean that there is, that the movement is sort of cut off from the world in general, does that not deprive the world of the service, of the usefulness of these people?

Prabhupāda: First of all, if you do not understand what is the movement then how you can give your verdict like that? First of all, try to understand what is this movement.

Interviewer: The Hare Kṛṣṇa movement, the Kṛṣṇa Consciousness Society.

Prabhupāda: Then what is that Kṛṣṇa movement? That Kṛṣṇa movement is, just like to understand the driver.

Bali-mardana: The Kṛṣṇa movement is meant to help people to understand the spiritual knowledge, knowledge of who they actually are. That is what our movement is dedicated to. We are not dedicated for our own...

Interviewer: What is the purpose of the movement, your Grace?

Prabhupāda: Purpose of the movement is to know who is the driver of the car.

Interviewer: To know who is the driver of the car?

Prabhupāda: Of the car.

Interviewer: And who is that?

Prabhupāda: That is, we are contributing. People are in ignorance about his own identification, who is he. He's thinking he's dead body. That is misconception.

Interviewer: There's no way to identify the driver of the car then.

Bali-mardana: No, no.

Prabhupāda: Just see it is so difficult subject matter. I am speaking to you, still you feel difficulty. It is little difficult subject matter. We say the car and driver, if you understand this analogy, the car and the driver, so who is important? The driver is important, the car is important. Both combined together giving a service, the car is moving. But if they are separated, who is important, the car is important or the driver is important?

Interviewer: I don't know how I'm going to get the point you're making there across. If the car and the driver are separated, the car is useless and the driver is a person. The driver is always important.

Prabhupāda: Yes, yes, driver is always important. Within the car or without the car.

Interviewer: Within or without the car, and if he's a chauffeur driving a carload of people then he becomes less important, the people are primarily the ones that are important, that are in the car. (laughter)

Prabhupāda: First of all try to understand the car is moving with the help of the driver. So the driver and the car they are always different identity. So when the car is dead, the driver do not work with the car, but the driver is important within the car or without the car.

Bali-mardana: In other words, the soul is important with this body or without this body. But the body without the soul is simply fertilizer, like you said, it's dead, useless. So our mission is to educate people about the driver, about the soul within the body.

Prabhupāda: And people are generally working on the body.

Interviewer: People are generally working on the body.

Prabhupāda: Yes. And we are working on the driver of the body. That is the difference.

Interviewer: Working on the driver of the body. On the spirit, right?

Prabhupāda: Yes, on the spirit soul. And because they do not know what is the difference between the soul and the body, they cannot understand what is our contribution.

Interviewer: Because they do not understand the difference between the soul and the body, that's why they don't understand what you are contributing.

Prabhupāda: Contribution.