Hare Krishna Transformed

7. Moving On

Moving On “Bloop” is the sound the soul makes when it falls into the material world. But leaving iskcon does not mean leaving Krishna or Prabhupada . —Prabhupada disciple, 1996 The days are gone when you can visit temples and understand iskcon . If you just have temples on your radar, you are going to miss what is going on. —iskcon leader and guru 2005 Researchers of social movements often assume that defection and schism rob a movement of its energy and vitality. Gamson (1975: 101–3) went so far as to argue that factionalism is the major cause of movement failure. Yet this view of failure confuses the conceptual difference between movement organizations and movements. If the fortunes of movements are made equivalent to those of movement organizations , defection, factionalism, and schism readily become signs of decline and failure. If we view social movements as fluid, however, organizational boundaries become less important than the broader contexts in which movements operate (Gusfield 1981:323). Studies of disengagement from new religions have largely treated defection as an individual experience involving a breakdown in the ideological and cognitive linkage between a convert’s values and beliefs and the group’s religious doctrines and practices. Defection is thus characterized as a process of “falling from the faith” (Bromley 1988) or as an outcome of dissonance problems leading to “deconversion” (Jacobs 1984, 1987; Skonovd 1983; Wright 1983, 1984). Yet as new religions developed, internal conflict and factionalism emerged, resulting in mass expulsion, group defection, and schism (Balch and Cohig 1985, cited in Wright 1988; Chancellor 2000; Ofshe 1980; Rochford 1989; Rochford 7 161 and Bailey 2006; Wallis 1976, 1982). Each of these collective forms of disaffiliation places a group’s survival at risk, as membership loss is often associated with economic decline (Chancellor 2000; Balch and Cohig 1985, cited in Wright 1988:157; Rochford and Bailey 2006). Beginning in the early 1980s, Prabhupada’s movement moved beyond the organizational boundaries of iskcon as large numbers of devotees abandoned its North American communities. Because those leaving did so largely for reasons of economic necessity and differences with the leadership, the majority remained part of Prabhupada’s movement. Yet the mass exodus out of its communities left iskcon in a state of decline and facing a precarious future. Taking Leave of ISKCON Throughout iskcon’s North American history, individual defection has been commonplace (Rochford, Purvis, and Eastman 1989). Beginning in the late 1970s and early 1980s, however, the pattern changed toward more collective forms of disengagement (Rochford 1989). As we have seen, the collapse of iskcon’s communal structure led the leadership to force large numbers of householders and their families out of iskcon’s communities to find jobs, schooling, and independent living situations. This amounted to a mass expulsion, as householders ultimately had little control over their disengagement. Yet many of those pushed out of iskcon’s temple communities formed new congregations that reshaped iskcon’s social organization as well as its religious culture. Congregational members became less involved in iskcon as the household displaced the temple as the center of Krishna conscious religious life. Because they were forced out of iskcon’s communities, many householders remained resentful toward a leadership that they viewed as largely out of touch with devotee families’ needs. As one Prabhupada disciple who left iskcon in 1982 commented, “I have little faith that iskcon will be able to move ahead fast enough in my lifetime to understand my family’s needs what to speak of do anything about them.” Another longtime iskcon member who moved with his family into the congregation in the late 1980s stated, But here we have sannyasis who are considered “socially dead” because of their position dealing with householders, women, children, educa162 | Moving On tion, and all these issues that make up a society. And who do you have running it? A bunch of devotees who are socially dead, incapable of understanding , what to speak of dealing with householders and their needs. Yet they are establishing the rules, guiding and planning the [iskcon ] society. It’s ass backwards. (interview 1993) Some of those pushed out of iskcon’s communities chose to leave iskcon altogether rather than join the emerging congregation. Ever since they kicked us out, I have worked hard to establish myself and family materially. It has taken many years to become stable and successful. I can’t see how I could...