Hare Krishna Beliefs, Part 4

Two more installments from the series on my other blog:

http://krishna-christ-and-changing-the-world.blogspot.com/2012/12/what-do-hare-krishnas-believe-part-4.html

and

http://krishna-christ-and-changing-the-world.blogspot.com/2013/01/what-do-hare-krishnas-believe-part-5.html

Hare Krishna Beliefs, Part 3

Next installment of the present series:

http://krishna-christ-and-changing-the-world.blogspot.com/2012/12/what-do-hare-krishnas-believe-part-3.html

Hare Krishna Beliefs, Part 2

OK... this part of the series on my other blog may not be quite as necessary as background to my next post on this blog, but since I'm nowhere near ready to do another post on here, I guess I might as well put the link to my other blog here again so that you'll have something to read in the meantime if you like.  :P  And maybe it will prove to be necessary background, after all.

http://krishna-christ-and-changing-the-world.blogspot.com/2012/11/what-do-hare-krishnas-believe-part-2.html

Hare Krishna Beliefs

Before I go any further in talking about my dad and his beliefs, I think I need to make sure you're acquainted with basic Hare Krishna philosophy.  Before reading anything more on this blog, please hop over here to my other blog and read the post I just put up there.  It's necessary background to what I'm planning to post next on this blog. 

Thank you!

The Patriarch, Part 3: Faithfulness to Received Teachings

As I mentioned in prior posts on this blog, the Vedas and Vedic culture are respected by Hindus and Hare Krishnas alike, and the prescribed social roles in Vedic culture are very clearly delineated.  As I also mentioned, there are plenty of members of the Hare Krishna movement (just as there are "modern" Hindus also) who don't put a lot of importance on living according to Vedic cultural prescriptions in this day and age.  Srila Prabhupada, the founder and acarya (teacher-by-example) of the Hare Krishna movement, struck a balance between traditionalism and innovation, and his followers -- just like Christians, Jews, Muslims, and undoubtedly those of many other faiths -- continue to struggle with the question of how much traditionalism and how much innovation we ought to accept in our treading of the path.

In his endeavor to hold fast to the standards Srila Prabhupada gave us, my father has sometimes been labeled a fanatic or other such derogatory terms.  He, naturally, does not feel that he is a fanatic at all; and I don't believe he really deserves that label either, although I do recognize that his combative Type 8 nature leads him to be pretty darn partisan and relish a good fight, and therefore he will sometimes fail to notice the beneficial, important, and/or reasonable aspects of other people's points of view.  My own nature is to look for common ground and help everybody get along and cooperate nicely insofar as possible, so my views of other people's positions tend to be gentler and more appreciative than his.  Still, I feel confident that there must be others in our movement who are far more rigidly traditionalistic than my father.  At least a few! ;)

I'm sure that my father's personality does play a part in his choice of social ideals and beliefs to passionately champion -- just as my own personality influences me, and those of other members of our movement influence them.  I see no reason to exempt him from that assumption.  Certainly it can't be doubted that his personality is a very good fit with many of the teachings he expounds on.  Still, his claim that he isn't making anything up, that he gets all his attitudes and beliefs straight from Srila Prabhupada and sastra (scripture), is also something he has every right to make.  The traditional culture that's represented in our scriptures is patriarchal, and Srila Prabhupada did speak highly of it and introduce many aspects of it into his movement.

The Patriarch, Part 2: His Background

My dad was born in Texas in June of 1950 to a father of Scotch-Irish descent and a mother who came from a Catholic German family.  He had one older sister, and a younger sister was to follow as well.  From his mother he inherited his warmth, spontaneity, and temper, while from his father he was to imbibe a strong work ethic and the principles of honor and duty.  His parents, unfortunately, fought a lot, and when he was about 10 years old, they got divorced.  His father remarried soon after that, his mother later on in life.

Like most young boys of that day and age, he enjoyed outdoor play of various kinds.  He hated to be bored and sought after exciting or stimulating pastimes.  If something didn't hold his interest, he wouldn't pursue it, but if he was bent on something, he had plenty of energy and drive to keep on working until he achieved it.  In his teenage years, he used his charm on the girls -- many of them -- and he got jobs, worked hard, bought himself a used car with his own money, and generally made his own way in the world -- in part due to his father's insistence on it.  At some point, to his parents' chagrin, he joined the hippie movement, got into drugs, and grew his hair and beard out long.  Then he decided to drive out to Northern California and live there for a while.

He had some artistic talents and used them in working to support himself.  Shortly after his move to California, he decided to become a vegetarian; some time later, he gave up drugs as well. Then, he read the Bhagavad-gita As It Is -- the "bible" of the Hare Krishna movement -- and realized that here were the answers to all the philosophical questions he had ever asked.  He accepted the author -- His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami (whom we call Srila Prabhupada) -- as his guru, and upon finding out that Srila Prabhupada was then in Los Angeles, my father immediately traveled down there to meet him.  It wasn't long before my dad shaved his head and moved into the temple, accepted the four regulative principles as his rule of life (which for him really just meant giving up illicit sex, since he was already vegetarian and intoxication-free, and gambling, the fourth proscribed item, wasn't an issue for him), and received the name Haripada dasa, officially becoming part of the Hare Krishna phenomenon that was sweeping the nation at that time (in the 1970s).

Like most new members of the Hare Krishna movement, he became celibate for a while, focused on worshiping Krsna (God), chanting His names, and reading and selling Srila Prabhupada's books.  During this time he also started his own temple in Fullerton, CA and commenced holding regular programs there.  However, again like most members, after some time he needed to find a wife for himself.  My mother was very interested in him, so the two of them went on some dates together (chaperoned by friends) and he decided to accept her as his new spouse.  After they were legally married, she moved into the Fullerton temple with him. 

The Patriarch, Part 1: Introducing My Father

If you've read Part 2 of my self-introduction on here ("So What's a Dharmic Divorcée?"), which delineates some of the patriarchal social values I grew up with, you probably won't be too surprised to hear that my father has been a major influence in my life.  Of course, that's true for anyone whose father has taken a hand in raising them, but in my case the sheer magnitude of my father's impact basically can't be overemphasized.  Have you heard of the Enneagram personality typing system?  It divides all human personalities into nine basic types.  In that system, my dad's core type is unmistakably Type 8.  Everything I've ever read about Type 8 has been nothing short of stunning in how well it fit my dad.  One place you can read about Type 8 is here.

Not only is my dad a core 8, but he also has the other two assertive Enneagram types (7 and 3) as the other fixes in his Tritype^TM!  (Read my post explaining tritype theory here).  AND his instinctual variant stacking is sx/so (sexual instinct first, social second)!  (The sexual-first maximizes his intensity, while the sx/so stacking gives him a constantly radiating energy.)  So basically, he is just about as "Type A" and take-charge as you can get.  Here's one more link: a description of his Myers-Briggs type, which is ENTJ.

One of the truest sentences in the above-linked description of Type 8, for my family anyway, is: "Intimate relationships are frequently the arena in which an Eight's control issues are most obviously played out."  Of course, this is natural.  Why control if you don't care?  The main reasons for wanting to control a situation, as far as I can see, are (A) caring about the outcome and/or (B) having a duty or job description that involves doing so.  Your family members tend to be the ones you care about most AND the ones you have the most duty towards.  So therefore, your family members will just naturally be the ones you'll feel the need to shepherd in the right direction most frequently.  With 8s, this control-in-order-to-protect urge is just a lot stronger than it is with most other types.

My dad's caring, protective heart isn't hard to see, at least for those of us who know him well.  As the description said: "Eights often have a sentimental side... [W]hile trust does not come easily to an Eight, when an Eight does take someone into the inner sanctum, they find a steadfast ally and stalwart friend. The Eight's powerful protective instincts are called into play when it comes to the defense of family and friends, and Eights are frequently generous to a fault in providing for those under their care."  All this, too, is perfectly true of him.  As daughters of patriarchal families go, I'm one of the lucky ones.  There are many patriarchal fathers out there who control without offering love.  My dad has always given me more love than I knew what to do with, plus endless validation and encouragement.

'Tritype^TM' is a trademark of Enneagram Explorations and can only be used with permission.