The Constructive Ambiguity of Vedic Culture in ISKCON Mayapur

Abstract

Among several predominant themes that pervade scholarly accounts of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) is the idea that founder Srila Prabhupada (henceforth Prabhupad) ‘transplanted’ not only Indian spirituality but also Indian culture to the West. ISKCON’s success in the West however is just one chapter in a broader history that saw Prabhupad bring his mission, along with dozens of newly recruited Western devotees, back to India in the early 1970s. Over forty years later, although ISKCON’s appeal has long since waned in America, the movement is gaining momentum in India. This is maybe nowhere more evident than in Mayapur, West Bengal, which is today home to a growing multi-national community, many of whom have moved their lives to India to pursue what is often referred to as ‘Vedic culture’. This paper looks at narratives of and commitments to diverse conceptions of Vedic culture, as have come to animate devotees’ projects of both self-fashioning and world-making. I trace the culture concept through ISKCON’s history and suggest that, as is the case with the much-debated anthropological concept, the very ambiguity of Vedic culture in Mayapur is a necessary condition of its enduring significance.

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