ISKCON Laguna Beach — Attraction in Laguna Beach

This temple is one of the last bastions of a religious movement imported from India and widely popularized in the 60’s by the Beatles and it’s charismatic leader A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada, a saintly little old Indian gentleman who offered to the countercultural youth of the times something which was quite a novelty, someone over 30 in whose guidance they felt that they could trust. Indeed his offering of an alternative lifestyle to that of remaining a member of a society gone mad with materialism and militarism or the life of just a social drop out proved quite attractive and the Hare Krsnas as they were called, quickly grew from a small storefront in the Bowery to an International society with centers worldwide. They follow a paradigm that had long held sway over the Western world but which had been rejected during the Enlightenment, a paradigm driven by the notion of a God centered society, in this case centered around the highest Theistic conception of Deity, the divine couple, in the forms a beautiful, youthful, playful God, Lord Krsna and Srimati Radharani. The temple is in the heart of the city near to the beach. The God forms on display are installed with a practice of Theurgy long forgotten in the West that invests them with the presence of Godhead itself, which, if you are sensitive, you may even feel, hear or see come alive before you. Even if you don’t though, simply seeing them is considered to be spiritually uplifting and if you are just looking for some novelty or to broaden your cultural horizon there is that too. The ‘devotees’ as members of this faith are called follow an ascetic discipline meant to reign in the senses and control the mind in order to reduce disturbances and to gain self mastery that they might apply themselves without deviation towards their principle practice of Bhakti yoga which is distinct from Patanjalis system though it includes liberation as a secondary focus. Subhadra dd, the last and only devotee I ever introduced into this movement following its founders death, was part of this temple community many years ago and has some favorable memories of it and we still visit it together once in a while as the deities are very dear to her and her positive experiences here were formative of the love for Krsna that her devotional service developed during her years within the International Society for Krsna Consciousness. Krsna protected her, which I had hoped He would do, especially since it was He that arranged the introduction. Many years later Krsna brought her and her back into my life shortly after the death of a loved one had removed from my life all purpose and meaning. Though I have never been a member of this faith, neither Krsna, nor His devotees seem to hold that against me and this was not the first time that my soul had been restored by this beautiful blue God and His even more merciful devotees. The food is both tasty and holy, since it is offered to Krsna before it is served. Don’t however count the calories, especially if you stop by at their Sunday feast. The temple attracts a lot of Hindus and their really nice people, on-judgemental, respectful, open and welcoming. I used to sit around and chat with the old timers who remembered the Raj, Gandhi, so much and about their views on things. The predominant world views foundational doctrine asserts, in the words of John Locke, that “God is unknowable by definition.” This religion teaches that through love that God may be known. There was a time in my life in which an acceptance of either one of those contradictory claims would have been for me a matter of blind faith acceptance, but that time in my life was before I came into contact with this society and its founder A.C.Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada who the Beatles, especially George Harrison were also...

i visited the temple last week for the Sunday program. All elderly devotees prabhus and matajis were humble, kind, loving and quiet. The Pancha Tattva deities are magnificent. All that were spoiled by a preacher / leader with his arrogance, aggressiveness, hautiness, and rudeness. I took some friends in the hope to introduce them to Krsna Consciousness, who came back scared by his aggression. They said " we did not hear anything about krsna. This man has put us off". So, my request to you prabhu , please honour Srila Prabhupada if you want to lead. No pranams prayers, no Guru vandana, no scripture reading and purport, no explanation of what our spiritual master wrote. Instead , you showed how great and knowledgable you are , put people down calling them second language speakers, made the indian congregation small by shouting at the prabhu about the door. I am speechless. May krsna...

Hinduism is one of the most tolerant and wisest eastern philosophy based on doing ones duty. The philosophy of Gita is to welcome all, no judgements, no rules. Yet, this place does not represent the true Gita and it’s teachings: you have to commit to “classes” even before you decide this is right for you, and it’s a way of pressuring people, lots of judgement even to a point of which version of Gita you should be reading. That is NOT what the Gita is about. I did my sons mundan ceremony here, and they badgered me non-stop about making a “donation” - just poor taste, and the swami/priest was so rude and disrespectful to my old parents. Most of the people here are really lovely, I just don’t like the idiots running the place. Don’t ruin Hinduism for all, because of your small-minded limited understanding of what the Gita teaches and above all, practice...