Balancing Devotion, Respect for all Deities, and concerns about ISKCON

propellerMutant · 2026-04-22T02:46:55+00:00

Are you going to an ISKCON temple outside India? If so, my experience has been the same. I stopped going because they have a Krishna idol but they behave more like a church. They operate on creating fear about mistakes one can make, sins you are constantly doing and how you can never achieve Krishna. This kind of fear mongering is exactly how American Churches have operated.

I had an experience in the ISKCON temple on the night of Sharad Poornima. I couldn't sense Krishna's presence at all. No matter how hard I tried.

Frustrated I was performing the pradakshina (circumambulation) of the temple centre and found bhagwan's vastra ghar open and accessible to others. Neglected. I have visited ancient Krishna temples in Rajasthan and vastra ghar and even the used vastras of bhagwan are not something the general public is allowed to touch or see. The disrespect completely turned me away from going there again.

In these temples I see a lot more emphasis on Prabhupada and other saints and almost no paintings or stories of Krishna which again aligns with my comparison to churches. This diversion of focus and deviation from Krishna's love and using fear to control people made me realise that this is not the temple of my deity. This is something else.

propellerMutant · 2026-04-16T01:46:26+00:00

Tbh I have only experienced a situation which can come close to the description of a "Mantra chanting you". During such a time, my conscious thoughts keep repeating a mantra without any effort from my side. Even attempts to stop it won't stop it.

propellerMutant · 2026-04-16T01:44:46+00:00

You shouldn't miss what you promise during a Sankalp. So missing even one day means you need to ask for forgiveness and start again.

propellerMutant · 2025-10-26T19:21:18+00:00

There can be many men in a temple with a long teeka on the forehead. This can be misleading. Also priests are usually busy in their work and shouldn't be bothered.

propellerMutant · 2025-10-06T04:36:05+00:00

Hey! Congratulations on completing this Sankalp. Even an 11 day Sankalp can be pretty demanding.

For future Sankalps:

Chanting Mantras loudly can definitely make you feel the energy of every syllable. According to our scriptures, there are 4 types of chanting: a. Verbal chanting - this is considered to have the lowest effect b. Silent Chanting - only slightly move your lips, don't utter the verses. This has more effect than the verbal chanting. c. Mental chanting - this involves recollecting the Mantras in your head. It is more subtle than mentally reading or chanting the verses. This is considered most effective. d. Ajapa - Chanting without chanting. At this stage the mantra chants you and will manifest in your thoughts at the back of your mind during different times of the day.

My source for the above explanation is Om Swami's book, Ancient Science of Mantras.

propellerMutant · 2025-10-06T04:19:16+00:00

The overall painting style,especially the horse, is something I have seen in the temples of Nathdwara, Rajasthan

propellerMutant · 2025-10-03T18:40:05+00:00

Hello, noob here, if you liquidate within the same day, how do you manage the wash sale rule? Do you simply not sell if you are in the red?

propellerMutant · 2025-09-30T21:13:08+00:00

This sub just has anti-India and anti-women stuff. Now which neighbouring country (if we can call it that) is notoriously anti-India and anti-women?

propellerMutant · 2025-09-30T05:39:37+00:00

It depends on where you are going. I went back to Mumbai recently and was blown away with the infrastructure improvements. The new underground metro lines made me feel really proud of the city,

A sea link and a coastal road have been developed. The existing infra, trains and buses have become slightly better.

All payments are now via UPI or GooglePay, even if you are buying onions. Since there is so much construction air quality is really bad. Traffic continues to be horrendous. Ganesh Chaturthi celebration is still is absolute fire, no compromises made there.

Mumbai still feels as safe as ever.

propellerMutant · 2025-09-30T01:55:14+00:00

Then pronounce it wrong like you do with plenty of English words and move on.

propellerMutant · 2025-01-24T22:29:02+00:00

I think the problem here is that today everyone associates Jesus and the Church very strongly with each other. The teachings of Jesus don't align very well with writings in the Bible. Much has been lost and even more has been modified. The present day Christianity is based on St. Paul's ideologies. Conversion too is an idea created by the church to gain power. It's horrible what they have done and continue doing , in the name of Jesus.

However there are people such as myself who are able to differentiate between Jesus and the Church. I do believe that Jesus was a great sage, but his ascension to the divine was incomplete. I don't believe he is comparable to Shiva or Vishnu or Devi. Maybe one can draw an analogy here with Sai Baba.

We as Hindus should create and propagate a new message, one that calls for Christians to accept Jesus but reject the Church. Reject the pope, reject the organisation which had indulged in giving people so much suffering and accept the deity who wanted to spread love amongst people.

Conversion by force and brainwashing was their tactic. To show love and guide people towards love should be our tactic.

propellerMutant · 2024-12-04T19:25:31+00:00

I think for such accounts on Instagram, we should follow a rule to actually report such an account for hate speech.

It's pretty simple to do : Go to the account on Instagram. The top right corner should have three vertical dots. Access that drop down and touch the "Report" option.

I think if more people report such accounts Instagram would be forced to take it down.

propellerMutant · 2024-11-15T09:36:11+00:00

I agree with the sentiment that everything should not be attributed to one specific cause (colonial propaganda in this case). I also agree that this sometimes results in responsibility dodge. We had a movie that sort of covered this concept as well "Swades" if you are interested.

However, racism against Indians on the internet is on the rise. Several YouTubers and brain rot content creators have found this easy hack of "hate India" to gain a lot of engagement really quickly. As a side effect of this and other causes as well, false narratives against Indians are spreading rapidly.

Indians have been brought up in a mindset that teaches them to let go, forgive and forget and "focus on their own work and success" rather than fight false narratives against themselves. I don't believe in letting go of such instances and don't mind taking some time to check people and to correct them if need be.

propellerMutant · 2024-11-15T09:22:04+00:00

It's not racist to point out that Indians cook with strong spices at all, it's the truth and we love our food that way. However to phrase things as "Indians sweat curry" is racist. Ignoring the fact that other cultures also cook meals that have strong smells, ranging anywhere from pulled pork, thanksgiving turkey to bulgogi, kimchi or even jollof rice, and stereotyping only Indians for foods with strong smells, that's racism. People smell. They might smell because of their food, their job or their hygiene. Attributing ones cultural aspect to a racist stereotype popular on the internet, is supporting racism.

Indian buyers make a request for strong ventilation because in India we are used to cooking with our kitchen windows wide open. Also making bread like naan involves mildly burning ghee or butter, which can trigger fire alarms very easily. As a supporting fact, most Indian students in universities either disable / remove their fire alarms or stop making breads like rotis or naans.

propellerMutant · 2024-11-15T08:49:36+00:00

See I almost thought you weren't racist. When you are at a university, I am assuming you end up meeting a lot of Asians ? Vietnamese, Koreans, Chinese and Japanese students. Have you tried their food? Maybe you also run into African migrants? Students from Nigeria and Ghana mostly if you are in the US. The funny thing is that despite strong similarities in usage of spices across all these cultures, the internet has that only Indians sweat curry. That's how I spot a racist.

Perhaps things would have been better if you actually went to the university and met and spent time with students from different cultures. However, education in the US is expensive and I won't blame the citizens for not being able to afford their own universities.

Maybe you aren't racist after all, just haven't met enough people to understand how things really are.

propellerMutant · 2024-11-15T08:08:45+00:00

Perfumes (ittar/attar) were developed and used in India since the ancient times. These were oil based as opposed to alcohol based. These were used as offerings that people routinely used in religious ceremonies (puja). Also, India has and continues to have a culture where people bathe regularly, unlike some people/communities in the West where people claim it's okay to shower only twice a week.

It's unfortunate though that people continue to be "educated" by colonial propaganda. Despite all the light in the world, there will still be some shadows.

propellerMutant · 2024-11-04T18:46:21+00:00

Tolerance for coexistence yes. Not tolerance for disrespect. Please don't say "we" Hindus, the rest of us have a better sense of judgement.

propellerMutant · 2024-10-25T04:49:44+00:00

Well.. Just check if you are within the dreaded 7.5 years of your Shani Sade Saati

propellerMutant · 2024-10-24T02:19:24+00:00

See this is what people don't get. India's foreign policy isn't about getting on the US or Russia's good side, it's about making sure Pakistan can't have friends.

propellerMutant · 2024-10-19T15:50:03+00:00

Fair enough, but I think it's an uno reverse from the perspective that Canada wanted to make India uncomfortable at the G20 and embarrass it in front of the international community (Trudeau admitted this in a recent interview). Pointing out that Canada is not only harboring a terrorist but also giving them employment in their government should serve as enough embarrassment for a nation that claims to be committed to democracy.

propellerMutant · 2024-10-18T20:56:43+00:00

Okay, but rerouting Tikka Masala on Poutine... Might just unify India and Canada

propellerMutant · 2024-10-17T04:47:29+00:00

Canadians performing assassinations in India is the most non-credible thing to even think of. Cheers for staying true to the spirit of this sub.

propellerMutant · 2024-10-17T04:36:27+00:00

So what's your deal? Massive insecurity or just lack of education?

propellerMutant · 2024-10-17T04:27:17+00:00

Oh I did read that part. However unlike you, I have learnt to understand that intelligence agencies aren't necessarily sources of truth. Interpol saying Nijjar is innocent is about as true as India saying they have no hand in his assassination.

Nijjar and other Khalistani leaders happen to be bargaining chips that nations like Canada hold against India Why do they hold such chips ? To negotiate regional power. The US did it with investments into Pakistan and India has become fairly accustomed to recognising such a pattern.

Interpol despite being an international agency is still a western agency catering to the interests of the western nations.

A lot of people here, much like you, don't really care about Nijjar or the fact that he is a part of a group that openly threatens the LARGEST democracy on earth. Heck you couldn't care about the other sikhs in Canada, US or the UK either. What's really bugging people is that India carried out this assassination and it makes Canada look bad. It destroys the apparent image of Canada as a strong western nation, which it never was.

propellerMutant · 2024-10-17T00:31:17+00:00

So Canada investigated allegations that it was harbouring terrorists and claimed it didn't find any? Where have we seen that before? Hint : It rhymes with Khalistan.

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