There was that mood thrown into the '60s: the counterculture. "Nothing matters. Institutions don't matter. Let's burn them all down. Wooden ships on the water, very free, talking about you and me. Let's go off to an island somewhere on a wooden ship and get away from all this." That's what Arjuna thought also, and Kṛṣṇa said mm-mm (gestures no). There may be this bristling effect where we think, "Oh, institution, I have to live in an institution." But Prabhupāda specifically combined the two ideas together. That is, that it's not antithetical to have an institution and within it have a process through which one could develop spontaneous love for God. Therefore, ISKCON (I-S-K-C-O-N), which emerged from the divine mind of His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada who penned it—just as Jīva Gosvāmī penned many legal documents to protect temples. One could say, "Well, just let Kṛṣṇa protect them," but he said, "We need documents to protect us." There are various ways in which he established standards to institutionalize Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism so it could be passed down. There were meetings amongst the best of Vaiṣṇavas at the time to put in order the process of bhakti so that it could be passed on to other people. ISKCON is a byproduct of that. A rather interesting one, and effective one at that—because Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura was the first one in the modern age to establish a countrywide institution called the Gauḍīya Maṭha, which was, by the way, highly successful until he left. And then it fractionalized because there was an idea that maybe we are better off with individuals running small places, and they would be the ācāryas of those places and the institution not so important. That resulted in the decentralization of the process of bhakti, or the continuance of it and the transmission of it, which led to fractionalization that was not productive at all. Prabhupāda noted that, and therefore, early on, before he established much else, he institutionalized the process in ISKCON and also, the publishing of books, Bhaktivedanta Book Trust. He wanted that centralized. He wanted it institutionalized. He wanted a legal document to hold it together. It's the container to continue the transmission. Therefore, ISKCON is important. And it doesn't mean it's perfect. Institutions have their setbacks as well, but they are those we have to live with. Our bodies have setbacks we have to live with; they are also institutions. We have organs which work together—they don't always cooperate, at least mine don't. But somehow or other, we chug along. Somehow, we got here this morning. We figured out how to walk out the door, which is not easy if you try to build a robot that does that. We do it automatically, and we are here, and we are able to take advantage. So the International Society for Krishna Consciousness is a means by which to transmit, to preserve, to take advantage of the contents of the container, and it should be considered sacred in the sense that it is for that purpose. (32:44) ------------------------------------------------------------ To connect with His Grace Vaiśeṣika Dāsa, please visit https://www.fanthespark.com/next-steps/ask-vaisesika-dasa/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=launch2025 https://vaisesikadasayatra.blogspot.com/ ------------------------------------------------------------ Add to your wisdom literature collection: https://iskconsv.com/book-store/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=launch2025 https://www.bbtacademic.com/books/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=launch2025 https://thefourquestionsbook.com/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=launch2025 ------------------------------------------------------------ Join us live on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FanTheSpark/ Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sound-bhakti/id1132423868