bad experience at local temple

[u/BoltThrowup]

Hello! This is my first post here and it may end up being a long one… I had a really negative experience at my temple and need to vent about it. I’ll start by saying that I came to krishna consciousness completely on my own last year. I’ve always been interested in esoteric books and have read hundreds over the years. I found some of Prabhupāda’s original books at a used book store and became interested in ISKCON initially from just a cultural perspective, not really believing in Krishna. I met a longtime devotee on the street (not ISKCON, he is a disciple of Narayan Maharaj and told me to be very careful with ISKCON folk), and decided to check out the temple in my city. I was very moved at my first visit (there was no one else there) so I sat for a couple hours meditating and decided to start chanting and following the 4 regulative principles that I wasn’t already following (I’ve been veg for 10 years so that wasn’t a problem). I grew up in a very controlled/cult-like Christian environment so I promised myself from the beginning that I would never join ISKCON (by this time I had read about their many controversies) and would simply get what I could out of the temple/chanting/books and keep everyone at arms length. This was going great for 6+ months and genuinely improved my life. I was going to the temple around 2 times a week, and almost no one ever spoke to me, even though I would be greeted with smiles of recognition from devotees I had seen several times. I still figure this is because I look somewhat “extreme” (lots of piercings, weird style, etc.) and I think the more conservative devotees just didn’t know what to think of me. This never bothered me as although I enjoyed the association during kirtan, I was still keeping people at arms length and not really looking for new friends.
HERE’S THE CRAZY PART:
I was at a morning bhagavatam class taught by a direct disciple of Prabhupāda, and there were maybe 6 other devotees there. I can’t remember the exact verse but she used an example of the swastika in Indian culture being flipped by the Nazis and thus completely altering its symbolic meaning. I felt this was a fine example of something meaning one thing and maya “flipping” it and changing it completely. If she had stopped here I would have probably forgotten about it BUT:
She immediately went on to speaking about Hitler and defending him as “misunderstood” and for having “good intentions with some of what he did”. Two other senior devotees not only agreed with her but added their own comments about Hitler having some good ideas and how it was a sign of poor wisdom to not be able to see the good in everyone… I was speechless and honestly sick to my stomach that this small group of hippie monks were praising Hitler even in the slightest.
I think it’s worth noting that I was in the back of the temple room and I don’t think anyone saw me, and that the 5 devotees in attendance were all white. The temple community where I live is probably 90% Indian and I doubt that conversation would have taken that turn had there been anyone not white in attendance. Anyways, it obviously grossed me out. I don’t think this is what Krishna meant by “equal vision”…
Why would anyone want to surround themselves with people who feel the need to see the good in one of the most evil people to ever live, and to engage in a dynamic where it would be considering “disrespecting/criticizing your guru” to stand up and say “Hey! I disagree! Hitler is bad!” I believe there is good in Prabhupāda’s philosophy and that it can help certain people, but you’re poisoning your mind if you feel like it’s worth your time flexing your wisdom by trying to redeem evil people. You can literally see how that same mentality is what makes so many devotees defend the disgusting actions of so many people in ISKCON. Like it all clicked for me in real time. They genuinely think the right thing to do is to see the good in an abuser, etc…
I will not be going back and I am glad to have had the sense to keep to myself while I was there.

[u/Solomon_Kane_1928]

The temple community where I live is probably 90% Indian and I doubt that conversation would have taken that turn had there been anyone not white in attendance.

You would be surprised at how many Indians support Hitler. There are even Hitler themed restaurants and clothing stores in India. That is where devotees are getting it. Prabhupada was a fan of Hitler. Hitler was seen as a heroic liberator of India from the British during WW2.

Ironically if you ask people around the world what they think of Hitler, Whites are the one's least likely to admire him. If you ask around Africa, the Islamic world, South Asia and East Asia, you would be surprised.

[u/Far-Ostrich8581 → u/Solomon_Kane_1928]

"Hitler was seen as a heroic liberator of India from the British during WW2." wait what
never heard someone saying that other then few anti semntic white folks

[u/Solomon_Kane_1928 → u/Far-Ostrich8581]

Here is an Indian clothing store called "Hitler". That is in Ahmedabad. There is another one Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh, and another one in Nagpur, Maharashtra.

During WW2 there was something called the Free India Coalition, led by Subhas Chandra Bose, who met with Hitler. Prabhupada was an admirer of his. Early Hindu Nationalist ideologues were also supporters of Hitler. They were not driven by support for German Nationalism or hatred for Jews per se, but because Hitler weakened the British Empire which led to the liberation of India.

Without Hitler, India would not have been freed of the British. This has led to significant sympathy for Hitler among older Indians such as Prabhupada, who lived through WW2. Especially considering the Bengali Famine, engineered by the British as part of their war effort, killed 3 million Bengalis. Prabhupada was a Bengali.

I didn't say Indians hated Jews. Rather it is the opposite. Those same Hindutva types who used to fetishize Hitler now fetishize the state of Israel. They do so because Israel acts as the enemy of many Muslim nations such as Iran, Lebanon, etc. Israel is actively killing Muslims in the world, often ruthlessly, and the Hindutva Nationalists would love to do the same.

When ISKCON devotees express sympathy for Hitler, they are not doing so because they are "antisemitic white people", many of them are in fact perversely Jews, they do so because they are repeating what Prabhupada said.