Angela R Burt

Bhagavad-gita outlines different process of yoga in order to connect with transcendence. It propounds that one can spiritualise and perfect the body and mind though the practice of bhakti-yoga (the yoga of devotion) and in doing so, attain liberation. Bhakti-yoga offers a method of practicing connection with the Supreme through meditation, and working in devotion, and the concept of jīvan-mukta describes the state of being liberated while in the physical body. This concept of yoga is in contrast with popular conceptions of yoga in the West, as a way of strengthening the physical body through āsanas (bodily poses). In order to make bhakti-yoga more accessible to those interested in a physically based concept of yoga, practitioners of bhakti-yoga have introduced to the Western yoga scene the practice of kīrtan–group chanting of mantras to the accompaniment of musical instruments. Kīrtan has become increasingly popular, with kīrtan artists such as Krishna das building up a large following world-wide. In this way, kīrtan represents the attempt to engage in the process of perfecting the body and mind through communal meditation on transcendent love as the highest truth.

The period following the death of the founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) in 1977 constituted a turbulent period in its development when eleven members took on the role of spiritual and institutional leaders in the organization. Debates ensued regarding whether they were the legitimate successors to the founder, culminating in a period of leadership reform in the mid-1980s. The organization then settled into a less turbulent rhythm, and changes in the organization included a shift from a predominantly Western membership to a substantial Indian-Hindu congregation. In 2014 a new preaching initiative, Krishna West, was initiated to reverse this shift. Key themes include authority, legitimacy, institutional reform, the coming together of Indian and Western values, and tradition and modernity. Krishna West has been a divisive issue amongst ISKCON members, and how it is dealt with will determine how the institution moves forward in the 21st century.

This paper presents work to date on a PhD thesis that uses an oral history method to examine spiritual leadership in ISKCON, following the passing of its founder in 1977 up until the late 1980s when a period of leadership reform took place. I note that variations in accounts by key players in this time period have been the most striking observation to date. Rather than view this as problematic for consensus, I am viewing this phenomenon to be indicative of the existence of various narratives. Moreover, the need to excavate these narratives is seen to be necessary if a more nuanced understanding of this complex subject is to be attained. I argue that the subject has been dominated by a master narrative, leading to an incomplete understanding. Narrative analysis is being used to unearth and examine the various narratives.

I will be giving an online talk about my book "Hare Krishna in the Twenty-First Century" for the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, The Intersection of Hinduism and Contemporary Society Invited Speaker Series: https://ochs.org.uk/THE-INTERSECTION-OF-HINDUISM-AND-CONTEMPORARY-SOCIETY/#SERIES

Thursday 7th December 8pm UTC, which is Friday 8th December 7am Sydney time.

Register here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-intersection-of-hinduism-and-contemporary-society-guest-lecture-4-tickets-761726984917?aff=oddtdtcreator

The book is available here: https://ow.ly/nO9X50PqxbH

In this seminar presentation, Dr Angela Burt will discuss key themes from her newly published book in the Cambridge University Press Elements in New Religious Movements series entitled, Hare Krishna in the Twenty-First Century. Angela Burt introduces the historical origins of the Hare Krishna movement as a modern manifestation of the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition, which has its roots in sixteenth century West Bengal, India. The tradition was institutionalized in a modern form in 1966 when it was registered by A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada as the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) in New York City. Using frame alignment and resource mobilization as theoretical lenses, Angela Burt examines the beliefs and practices of the movement within the context of its institutional and community dynamics. She also considers the Hare Krishna movement’s changing relationship with mainstream society and its shifting demographic makeup, including the Indian-Hindu community’s role in the movement’s efforts to navigate a changing internal and external environment. She discusses the key challenges and controversies that have beset the movement throughout its history and considers how the movement’s responses to a new set of issues and challenges are pivotal for its future direction in the twenty-first century.

The period following the death of the founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) in 1977 constituted a turbulent period in its development when eleven members took on the role of spiritual and institutional leaders in the organization. Debates ensued about whether they were the legitimate successors to the founder, culminating in a period of leadership reform in the mid-1980s. Key issues in this period include authority, legitimacy, institutional reform, and the threat of schism. The organization subsequently settled into a less turbulent rhythm, but succumbed to a post-reform malaise as well as changes that produced a substantial Indian-Hindu congregation. In 2014 controversy erupted again when the GBC and one of the gurus, Hridayananda das Goswami clashed regarding his new preaching initiative, Krishna West, a response to what he has characterized as the collapse of a dynamic preaching movement into a lethargic and Indianized religious institution. This latest development indicates that the key issues that beset ISKCON’s earlier period are still significant. Krishna West is currently one of the most talked about and divisive issues amongst ISKCON devotees. How it is dealt with by ISKCON members will be important for how the institution moves forward in the 21st century and adapts itself to a post-countercultural world.

McComas Taylor, Seven Days of Nectar: Contemporary Oral Performance of the Bhāgavatapurāṇa. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016. xx + 228 pp. isbn 9780190611910 (hbk.). Seven Days of Nectar: Contemporary Oral Performance of the Bhāgavatapurāṇa is a study of the Bhāgavata-saptāha-the oral performance of the Sanskrit verses of the Bhāgavatapurāṇa that takes place over a seven-day period. The book is based on a participant observer study of Bhāgavata-saptāhas held in India and Australia. Taylor's research combines contemporary critical theory and classical Sanskrit narrative literature, and his expertise in this intersection of disciplines is skillfully executed in the book. Taylor takes the role of a participant observer of the performance and utilizes the poetic aspects of the Bhāgavatapurāṇa, and in so doing, seeks to draw the reader into having an experiential understanding of the text. In this account of the recitation of the Bhāgavatapurāṇa, McComas Taylor employs the poetic power of the text by describing the research areas that he addresses in the book as mirroring the structure of a mandala: three concentric rings, with the outer ring concerning the power and knowledge of texts in society and how they help shape society; the middle ring addressing how power and knowledge manifest in the texts themselves, including the sources of authority in the texts; and the inner ring concerning how these texts are used in oral performance and how these performances transform the participants. In the same vein, Taylor assigns each chapter a metaphor from the act of yajna-ritual offering-as a way of expressing the relationship between the various parts of the book. Taylor argues that the "religious learning, cultural values, social connect-edness and the spiritual nourishment provided by saptāha constitute real and meaningful experiences for many attendees" (p. 181). Stepping outside of the modern Western viewpoint, Taylor points out that Western scholarship privileges the written text over the oral, whereas Vedic scholarship was originally oral, and the written tradition came later. Taylor draws upon Dumont and Pocock (1957) and Singer (1972) in claiming that scholars who can bridge the fields of textual scholarship and the social sciences are a rarity, and he acknowledges Sihlé's lament of a lack of fit between the study of religious texts and anthropological practices (Sihlé 2010). In response, Taylor, with his knowledge of the textual tradition and his employment of the ethnographic methods of observation and interviewing, paints a picture of a living tradition, and thus effectively straddles what is a vast scholastic divide. Taylor states that he is seeking to understand what makes these performances transformative and attractive for participants, and why Bhāgavata-saptāha

Brian Collins, The Head Beneath the Altar: Hindu Mythology and the Critique of Sacrifice. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2015, pp. x + 320, ISBN: 9781611861167 (pbk). In The Head Beneath the Altar, Brian Collins executes a skilful application of René Girard's theory of mimetic violence and scapegoating to Hinduism. As a scholar of Indian religions and philosophy, Collins attempts to determine whether Girard's theory holds water outside of the Christian context in which it was originally formulated. He is aware of criticisms that Girard's theory privileges a Christian understanding of religion and points out that Girard himself suggested looking at the Hindu tradition through the lens of his own theory. He states the aims of the book as being: understanding Hinduism through mimetic theory; understanding mimetic theory through Hinduism; and a re-examination of mimetic theory for the benefit of scholars who may be able to use it in their work. Collins discusses Girard's mimetic theory of violence and scapegoating, and after laying out the theoretical foundation for the book, he goes on to discuss stories from Vedic texts. Collins deftly applies Girard's theory of violence to a number of myths and characters in the Vedic literary corpus, including those told in the epic, the Mahābhārata. His recounting of these stories makes for entertaining reading and serves as a respite from the density of the theory that he offers up. However, despite the entertainment value that these stories offer, Collins relates them in all their richness in order to demonstrate his argument for three types of sacrificial critique in Hinduism: the Śaiva critique exemplified by myths of Indra and the Yatis and Dakṣa's sacrifice; a Vaiṣṇava critique that can be seen in the stories of Jarāsaṃdha and Śiśupāla; and an existential critique that combines the Śaiva and Vaiṣṇava critiques, and which is seen in the story of the tragic anti-hero, Karṇa. In building a bridge between the field of Indology and Girard's theory of mimetic violence, Collins draws on the work of Jan Heesterman, who Collins argues is the Indologist whose work most aligns with Girard's. Collins argues that Heesterman's distinction between sacrifice and ritual is analogous to Girard's distinction between the founding murder and its repetition in sacrifice. Collins puts forward the intriguing idea that the Brahmins did not always enjoy the position of authority and power that they came to have in the Vedic world, arguing that they moved from a position of sacrificial victim to powerful leader in society by trading their sacrificial status for that of sacrifice. Collins also puts forth the idea that judicial combat and the agonistic dual belong to a religio-judicial system whose function is to contain conflict. Collins concludes by outlining the differences between his interpretation of the critique of Hindu sacrifice and Girard's and discusses how Girard's theory and his own analysis can be used to arrive at an ethical position. In summing up, Collins argues that Girard " rejects the idea of protecting the lie [scapegoating and its cover-up] to preserve the social order " (p. 246) and " the universalization of scapegoating, which amounts to the scapegoating of humanity " (p. 247). The question for Collins is what this means for Hinduism. In answer to he own question, he argues that because Hinduism never developed a Church, its ideas were not disseminated in the world the way Christian revelation was, and that therefore " we must search out the period in which some Hindus, in imitation of Christianity, sought to remake their tradition into a world religion " (p. 249) and for this reason we must turn to the nineteenth century

This study sought to determine whether the repetitive behaviours observed in some poker machine players have a role in maintaining playing. Thirty subjects observed to use such behaviours were observed while playing poker machines on two separate occasions. On one occasion, players were instructed to use their repetitive behaviour, while on the other occasion they were instructed to not use their repetitive behaviour. The order of these two conditions was reversed for half of the subjects. The amount of play as measured by playing time and the number of plays decreased significantly when players were instructed not to use their repetitive behaviour. It was concluded that these repetitive behaviours served to maintain playing in these players despite losses, and that these players saw poker machine playing as a game of skill. Irrational thinking and the illusion of control were seen as the best explanations of why these repetitive behaviours were used.

Available at:  https://www.routledge.com/Leadi.../Burt/p/book/9781032249407
20% discount with the code SMA22 until 30 July 2024.

This book examines issues of leadership and succession in the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) which was founded in by A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada in 1966. After the founder’s death in 1977, the movement was led by a group of gurus in the "zonal acharya system" until their authority was challenged and reformed in the mid-1980s. At the heart of the book is an exploration of the developments, conflicts, and defining characteristics of leadership in ISKCON in this decade. Themes of hierarchy, status, power and authority, and the routinisation of charisma are shown to be keys to understanding the events of the time. With careful analysis of interviews and documentary evidence, the research offers a unique insight into ISKCON as an organisation and the broader religious community in which ISKCON is located. The book will be of particular interest to scholars of new religious movements and those concerned with religious leadership.

Free access available until 24 August https://ow.ly/nO9X50PqxbH
The Hare Krishna movement is a modern manifestation of the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition, which has its roots in sixteenth century West Bengal, India. The tradition was institutionalized in a modern form when it was registered as the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) in New York City in 1966 by A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Its mission was to present bhakti-yoga (the yoga of devotion) to a Western audience. This Element introduces the historical origins of the movement and examines its beliefs and practices within the context of its institutional and community dynamics. It also considers the Hare Krishna movement's changing relationship with mainstream society and its shifting demographic makeup in tandem with key challenges and controversies that have beset the movement throughout its history. The Element concludes by considering how the movement's responses to a new set of issues and challenges are pivotal for its future direction in the twenty-first century.

The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), also known as the Hare Krishna movement, experienced a turbulent period in its development as an Indian spiritual tradition manifesting in the West as a new religious movement following the death of the founder in 1977, when eleven members took on the role of religious leadership as gurus in the organization. The organization’s members dealt with the uncertainty caused by the founder’s death through adherence to practice and tradition, creating an institutional structure, discussing succession with the founder, naming eleven successor gurus, and developing a zonal system of gurus. Rituals, symbols, and honour served to shore up this leadership structure. The new leadership was met with protest and reform, and this process was fanned by the fact that some gurus were experiencing serious difficulties in executing their roles as institutional heads and spiritual guides. Ultimately, ISKCON’s members offset a strong trend towards contingency – a belief that they were trapped in a system of leadership that was not working – by engaging their own agency in the form of protest and reform.

Foundations of a Gaudiya Vaishnava Eco-theology

To register, please send an email to hmss@ochs.org.uk with the subject line “REGISTER GUPTA”. and include your name in the body of the email.
You will receive a zoom link two days before the event.

Religion and ecology are indelibly linked in India. Sacred texts, devotional narratives, and theological convictions often motivate environmental action and provide cultural resources for ecological initiatives. Religious concepts and stories are often reinterpreted by practitioners in the face of new environmental challenges. For this reason, it is paramount to draw out the elements of a tradition’s theology that can support sustainable ecological relationships, as well as honestly examine those elements that hinder such relationships. This presentation will begin that task, by outlining some building blocks of a Gaudiya Vaishnava theology of the environment.

The Intersection of Hinduism and Contemporary Society Invited Speaker Series:
“In Yoga, We Are Connected!” Examining the Fabric That Makes Belonging".
Jens Augspurger

Thursday, 6th July, 10:30–11:30am UTC

Please register for the event here: 
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/hinduism-and-contemporary-society-guest-lecture-2-tickets-596450508527

A Zoom link will be sent once you have registered.

Spiritual tourism is, unlike other religiously motivated forms of travel, characterised by the specific attention that is placed on the personal growth of the tourist, i.e., their 'inner journey'. The phenomenon aligns with the broader trend towards self-improvement, self-reference, and self-realisation that is occurring at the (now again) globalised intersection of religion, health, and wellness. 

My research seeks to understand spiritual tourism by examining the interplay between the journey (act of travel), the journeyed (destination), and the journeyer (tourist). Using biographical approaches, I conducted research interviews with spiritual tourists who had returned from travel to India either before or at the start of the pandemic. The data suggests that my interlocutors maintained complex correspondences with the places they had journeyed to. Many of these destinations seemed unattainable at the time of the interview during the height of several lockdowns in 2020 and 2021.

In this talk, I will explore how the spiritual tourists often grappled with reflecting on their own impact and identity during their travels. I will then discuss the diverse ways in which my interlocutors have sought to maintain their connections to India, or Yogaland, whether through the computer camera-lens, their personal yoga practice, or imaginative acts of connection.

Jens Augspurger is a PhD Candidate at the Department of Religions and Philosophies at SOAS University of London and a member of the school’s Centre for Yoga Studies. His research is located at the various intersections of religion, power, and politics, with a specific focus on spiritual and yoga communities. Jens is also a survivor activist and co-founder of Project SATYA, an initiative dedicated to combating spiritual abuse, coercive control, and institutionalised violence within religious groups.

The Intersection of Hinduism and Contemporary Society: A Virtual Conference

We are inviting participants for an online conference that we are holding on June 2nd and 3rd 2022 that explores the intersections between Hinduism and contemporary society. This conference aims to provide an opportunity for scholars to dialogue and share sociological and multi-disciplinary research related to the experiences of contemporary Hindu communities and adherents as they navigate life within, without, and on the fringes of their religious institutions and host communities. The conference is hosted by the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies. Please find details about the conference at https://ochs.org.uk/the-intersection-of-hinduism-and-contemporary-society-virtual-conference/

If you are interested, please send us a 300-500 word abstract of your presentation by April 7th (a full paper is not required). The abstract could either outline issues you are thinking about or could be about a present or future paper that you are looking for feedback on. Please email your abstract to hmss@ochs.org.uk

Thank you and we look forward to hearing from you.

Best wishes,

Cecilia Bastos, Angela Burt, Ace Simpson, and Alan Herbert

The Intersection of Hinduism and Contemporary Society: A Virtual Conference

We are inviting participants for an online conference that we are holding on June 2nd and 3rd 2022 that explores the intersections between Hinduism and contemporary society. This conference aims to provide an opportunity for scholars to dialogue and share sociological and multi-disciplinary research related to the experiences of contemporary Hindu communities and adherents as they navigate life within, without, and on the fringes of their religious institutions and host communities. The conference is hosted by the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies. Please find details about the conference at https://ochs.org.uk/the-intersection-of-hinduism-and-contemporary-society-virtual-conference/

If you are interested, please send us a 300-500 word abstract of your presentation by March 28th (a full paper is not required). The abstract could either outline issues you are thinking about or could be about a present or future paper that you are looking for feedback on. Please email your abstract to hmss@ochs.org.uk

Thank you and we look forward to hearing from you.

Best wishes,

Cecilia Bastos, Angela Burt, Ace Simpson, and Alan Herbert

McComas Taylor, Seven Days of Nectar: Contemporary Oral Performance of the Bhāgavatapurāṇa. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016. xx + 228 pp. isbn 9780190611910 (hbk.). Seven Days of Nectar: Contemporary Oral Performance of the Bhāgavatapurāṇa is a study of the Bhāgavata-saptāha-the oral performance of the Sanskrit verses of the Bhāgavatapurāṇa that takes place over a seven-day period. The book is based on a participant observer study of Bhāgavata-saptāhas held in India and Australia. Taylor's research combines contemporary critical theory and classical Sanskrit narrative literature, and his expertise in this intersection of disciplines is skillfully executed in the book. Taylor takes the role of a participant observer of the performance and utilizes the poetic aspects of the Bhāgavatapurāṇa, and in so doing, seeks to draw the reader into having an experiential understanding of the text. In this account of the recitation of the Bhāgavatapurāṇa, McComas Taylor employs the poetic power of the text by describing the research areas that he addresses in the book as mirroring the structure of a mandala: three concentric rings, with the outer ring concerning the power and knowledge of texts in society and how they help shape society; the middle ring addressing how power and knowledge manifest in the texts themselves, including the sources of authority in the texts; and the inner ring concerning how these texts are used in oral performance and how these performances transform the participants. In the same vein, Taylor assigns each chapter a metaphor from the act of yajna-ritual offering-as a way of expressing the relationship between the various parts of the book. Taylor argues that the "religious learning, cultural values, social connect-edness and the spiritual nourishment provided by saptāha constitute real and meaningful experiences for many attendees" (p. 181). Stepping outside of the modern Western viewpoint, Taylor points out that Western scholarship privileges the written text over the oral, whereas Vedic scholarship was originally oral, and the written tradition came later. Taylor draws upon Dumont and Pocock (1957) and Singer (1972) in claiming that scholars who can bridge the fields of textual scholarship and the social sciences are a rarity, and he acknowledges Sihlé's lament of a lack of fit between the study of religious texts and anthropological practices (Sihlé 2010). In response, Taylor, with his knowledge of the textual tradition and his employment of the ethnographic methods of observation and interviewing, paints a picture of a living tradition, and thus effectively straddles what is a vast scholastic divide. Taylor states that he is seeking to understand what makes these performances transformative and attractive for participants, and why Bhāgavata-saptāha