Gauranga Das, an IIT graduate who embraced spirituality and now serves in various capacities at the national and global levels within ISKCON, attended the Pran Pratishtha ceremony of the ISKCON temple at Piramal Vaikunth, Thane. This temple, the first of its kind within a gated community, was constructed on the principles of ‘Shilpashastra’ and ‘Vastushastra’, resonating with the esteemed Nagara architectural style and drawing parallels with the design of the recently unveiled Ram Mandir in Ayodhya.
On the occasion, Gauranga Das talked to Special Correspondent of Organiser Nishant Kumar Azad, where he discussed ISKCON’s global outreach efforts, youth’s social media engagement, PM Modi’s role in the resurgence of Sanatan, and more. Excerpts:
In this changing landscape, how does ISKCON envision fostering deeper spiritual connection among individuals, especially amidst the challenges of modernity and technological advancement?
What the youth need to learn is perseverance amid adversity. When adversity comes, the youth gets very demoralised. They need to understand that depression should not lead to discouragement, and it should not lead to defeat. Therefore, spirituality is a core element which helps people become action-oriented, internally strong, and live life fully. Based on that, they start making progress – they have increased levels of perseverance and meditation, and feel the need to connect with mentors. Then they need to increase their focus and their faith. All these things happen with spirituality.
What is the significance of spirituality in our lives?
Let me provide you with a basic idea of what spirituality is. Bhagawad Gita speaks about five interconnected themes of Ishwar, Jeeva, Prakriti, Kaal, and Karma. Prakriti is nature, Kaal is time, Karma is action. These are common! Jeeva is soul, i.e. all of us. But the fifth theme is Ishwar or the controller. All religions accept a controller. When you go into details of that, differences happen. Hence, Prakriti, Kaal and Karma come under the material and Jeeva and Ishwar comes under the spiritual. When the soul connects only with Prakriti, Kaal or Karma, it is material or bhoga, and when the soul connects with Ishwar it is called spiritual or yoga. The Bharatiya Sanskriti and Sanatan Dharma are all about when the Sanatan Jeeva which serves the Sanatan Ishwar through Sanatan Seva.
You were an engineer. Will you please tell us about your journey from being an engineer to embracing spirituality?
The common factor in monk and engineer is that both of them are dealing with cause and effect. Engineer is, you know, converting a cause into an effect by creating technology and understanding science. Science is all about cause and effect, and then technology is about implementing that, applying that cause and effect. Spirituality is understanding that yes, whatever effect we see in the world is a result of some cause. So, therefore, as an engineer, I would have dealt with managing the things around me. The body is like a computer. Mind is like the hard disk. Hence, if I was a computer technologist, I would have dealt with hard disk and the computer. But being a monk, I’m dealing with the body, which is like a computer and the mind, which is the hard disk, and when the hard disk crashes ultimately it cannot function. Similarly, when the mind is filled with depression, it results in identity crises, anxieties and insecurities. Then, even if the body is robust and strong, it cannot function.
Today the youth spends much time on social media and because of that we are witnessing a harrowing rise of psychological trauma. What do you have to say about this excessive dependence on social media?
If a human being, instead of eating three chapatis starts eating 70 to 100 chapatis in every meal, what will happen to the digestive system? Human digestive system can only digest an x amount of chapatis, or a y amount of rice. The mind is a central organ in the human body. If we give our mind 100 times more data than it can handle, naturally there’s going to be a complete breakdown, just like the digestive system would collapse.
Tell us something about the Govardhan eco-village. We have been told it is one of best wellness centres
of Bharat.
His Holiness Radhanath Swami Maharaj, following the instructions of Swami Prabhupada, founder of ISKCON, gave seven purposes to ISKCON and mentioned the sixth purpose as ‘simple living, high thinking’. Krishna represents cow protection, Balram represents agriculture. Along with that, we should have education. We should have 12 forests of Vrindavan replica because Bharat is a land of spirituality. Tourism should expand in Bharat based on spirituality. Ancient pilgrimage spots are few, but each person can create holy place of pilgrimage. Therefore, we have 12 forests of Vrindavan here. We have 120 rooms. We have Ayurveda and Yoga. The URL is ecovillage.org.in. It’s a spiritual resort available to anybody, but it connects city to the village. The city folks are looking for peace. Villagers are looking for economic aid. We are doing rural development, skill development, women empowerment, poverty eradication, hunger, nutrition eradication and all of these. We can say that this is a connecting point between the city and the village.
What are the key future projects or initiatives the organisation is planning to undertake to address social issues and contribute to Hindu community worldwide?
ISKCON is planning to launch, in a big way, skill development programmes in every district across Bharat because rural folks need to be connected. We are also looking at, making sure that all the youth experience de-addiction. Hence, we have a de-addiction programme, which we have already launched in a few places and it’s going to be launched in other places also.
“The youth need to understand that depression should not lead to discouragement, and it should not lead to defeat. Spirituality is a core element that helps people to become action oriented, internally strong, and live life fully”
Last year, ISKCON had a controversy. One of your affiliates spoke against Swami Vivekananda and Ramakrishna Paramhans. Even though ISKCON took some action, in the long term, how will you ensure that such unfortunate controversies do not take place again?
We are trying to educate the people. We regret that incident, and we have already issued a public statement and taken proper action. All our speakers across the board have been very, very strictly told that they should not cross the boundaries while speaking in public and they should always be respectful. They should always be empathetic. They should always speak in a way that will enhance unity and integrity. We have to enhance the celebration of diversity in this great land of Bharat, which will bring people closer to each other, closer to themselves, and transform society.
The Mandir at Piramal Vaikunth residential complex is the first of its kind. Will we see more such projects in the coming years?
This is a great example that Ajay Piramal and his family have created. We have a beautiful stone temple that is going to be a Vedic Learning Centre. Parents should know that with all the higher education, and in their pursuit of doubling their income, both husband and wife are working now, and the person who’s getting most affected is the child. Our generation grew up in the 1970s without television, and hence got the full attention of our parents. But this generation is getting only partial attention of parents, and the effect on the children is clearly visible. Now parents are also realising that it is important for us to share quality time, attention and give the right content at the right time. Nowadays, even children aged four to five are adept at using smartphones. There is no control on the content available to the kids, who do not know how to figure out what is good and what is not. The kind of empathy that can be transmitted person-to-person can never happen through a phone or a gadget. We are becoming more and more gadget-oriented. People are realising that we were taken for a ride. It’s time for us to come back to the good old basics. Human-to-human touch is ultimately healing. Such temples act as pollinators to bring the community together, bring the community closer to God and closer to each other, and closer to the outside society.
“PM Modi propagated that following Dharmic traditions doesn’t mean that you are orthodox. He has shown that visiting mandirs, investing in Dharma and performing rituals doesn’t mean that you are unscientific. He has shattered all the stereotyped concepts which youth may have had. PM publicly does yoga; he travels worldwide wearing Sanatan on his sleeves. The youth have certainly got an icon, an “influencer” in him”
You have said that nowadays youth are going to temples in large numbers. What is the key reason behind this new movement?
Well, 2014 set the narrative for change. Because youth in Bharat are highly influenced by heroes,. If they have good people to follow, they will follow that. If they have bad people to follow… We have a wonderful example of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has created a feeling that speaking in Hindi doesn’t mean you are uneducated. He propagated that following Dharmic traditions doesn’t mean that you are orthodox. He has shown that visiting mandirs, investing in Dharma and performing rituals doesn’t mean that you are unscientific. He has shattered all the stereotyped concepts that youth may have had. The PM publicly does yoga, he travels worldwide wearing Sanatan on his sleeves. The youth have certainly got an icon, an “influencer” in him.
