Hindu Encounter with Modernity

Hindu Encounter with Moder­nity: Kedar­nath Datta Bhak­tivin­oda Vais­nava The­olo­gian, by Shukavak N. Dasa is a critical,

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the­o­log­i­cal biog­ra­phy of my grand-spiritual-teacher, Bhak­tivin­ode Thakur. It sup­ports nat­ural devo­tion and Uni­ver­sal­ist Radha-Krishnaism. He was very influ­enced by 19th cen­tury ratio­nal­ism, Chris­tian­ity and Uni­tar­ian thought. Bhak­tivin­ode pre­sented the teach­ings of Krishna Chai­tanya in a new way to intel­lec­tu­als of his day, just as I adapt those teach­ings to thought­ful West­ern peo­ple today.

Shukavak Dasa con­cludes that “if Chai­tanya Vaish­nav­ism is going to have a last­ing posi­tion and pos­i­tive impact on the West, then it must intel­lec­tu­ally move beyond the lit­er­al­ism by which it entered the West and begin to develop new forms of intel­lec­tual expres­sions and per­spec­tives that are a part of the West­ern intel­lec­tual and aca­d­e­mic tra­di­tions. Bhaktivinoda’s work pro­vides the basis for such a development.”

This is a mis­sion I have been work­ing on for thirty-five years. I shed most of the Indian cul­tural exter­nals of Vaish­nav­ism and main­tain the spir­i­tual essence. “Bhaktivinoda’s sep­a­ra­tion of the phe­nom­e­nal and the tran­scen­dent, along with his implicit dis­tinc­tion between reli­gious faith and belief” frees me to exper­i­ment with the task of cre­at­ing a lifestyle where by West­ern­ers can uti­lize the spir­i­tual prac­tices of Chai­tanya Vaish­nav­ism with­out hav­ing to become alien­ated from West­ern cul­ture or pur­sue the life of a renun­ci­ate. “Bhak­tivin­oda rec­og­nized the need for spir­i­tual and cul­tural adaptation.”

“If Chai­tanya Vaish­nav­ism is to become indige­nous to the mod­ern and even West­ern world, then it must…adapt to con­di­tions of moder­nity and to the West.” This may take some gen­er­a­tions and much exper­i­men­ta­tion. How­ever, Uni­ver­sal­ist Radha-Krishnaism addresses this need.

“Bhak­tivin­oda envi­sioned the mod­ern reli­gious thinker as a sara­grahi, one able to tran­scend the lim­i­ta­tions of his own reli­gious cul­ture and appre­ci­ate the spir­i­tual essence of other reli­gious tra­di­tions.” My long peri­ods of immer­sion in Chai­tanya Vaish­nav­ism and Chris­tian­ity as an ordained reli­gious leader along with exten­sive study and prac­tice of other tra­di­tions cer­tainly qual­i­fies me in this regard.

Bhak­tivin­ode “approached the tran­scen­dent through reli­gious faith rooted in sahaja-samadi, innate reli­gious intu­ition.” This is also my mode of oper­a­tion. It allows free­dom and cre­ativ­ity in the reli­gious realm for new rev­e­la­tions of spir­i­tual truth that are not bound by the past.

“Chai­tanya Vaish­nav­ism as it now exists in the West is largely dis­con­nected from the tra­di­tion of raganuga-bhakti-sadhana, and for this rea­son is some­what alien­ated from the eso­teric depths and spir­i­tual inspi­ra­tion of its par­ent move­ment.” I was ini­ti­ated into this path of nat­ural devo­tion to Radha-Krishna by Bhaktivinode’s son and dis­ci­ple, Lalita Prasad Thakur. This frees me from over depen­dence on rules and reg­u­la­tions, which seem to pre­oc­cupy so many devo­tees. Nat­ural devo­tion cul­ti­vates entry to the eso­teric spir­i­tual realms of devo­tion. Thus, I live a mod­ern, West­ern life con­ducive to my spir­i­tual growth. This is what I offer oth­ers as well.

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