Why Watch Cinemas?

As I am staying today at ISKCON's center in Culver City, Los Angeles, California, the home of some of the world's leading movie studios, and as a movie actor (one of my e-students) is coming to meet me this afternoon, I am reminded of the great attraction that cinema has for millions and millions of people all over the world. In spite of their great popularity cinemas hold little interest for those who are Krishna conscious.

Why is it that cinema does not appeal to those who are Krishna conscious? Krishna conscious persons are most enlivened and inspired to experience Krishna within everything and everything within Krishna. So if cinema can be utilized to increase one's Krishna consciousness, it is welcome. Therefore the Krishna consciousness movement has a branch called ISKCON Cinema, which is simply for the purpose of utilizing cinema for the purpose of elevating the consciousness.

But why is it that those who are fixed in Krishna consciousness do not attend the popular cinemas shown in cinema houses and available on DVD's? If a devotee finds that by watching a cinema his mind is diverted from Krishna, he naturally loses all interest in that cinema. He does not need to experience the feeling of excitement and adventure that is available through watching a movie because he is experiencing a life which is more exciting and adventurous than anything being conjured up by the movie producers.

Why absorb your consciousness in an imaginary hero when you can personally become a great hero in the greatest movie that has ever played in the universe--the inundation of the entire cosmos in a tidal wave of Krishna bhakti?

Sankarshan Das Adhikari

Sony Pictures Studios Near ISKCON Temple
in Culver City, Los Angeles, CaliforniaSony Pictures Studios Near ISKCON Temple

Answers According to the Vedic Version:

Question: Were You Being Offensive?

Please forgive me for sounding petty, but I find it offensive that you would refer to Los Angeles as hellish. Is there not at least one ISKCON temple there? Aren't there several ISKCON devotees living in that area. Doesn't Lord Krishna say and Srila Prabhupada say that if one or more devotees are in an area that Lord Krishna is there too?

If that is true, then how could you call it hellish?

Your servant

Answer: I Presented Krishna's Version of Reality

According to Lord Sri Krishna's statement in the Bhagavad-gita every place in this material existence is certainly a hell. So there was nothing wrong for me to describe Los Angeles as a hell. And by observation also we can see that so much pollution and so much crime does indeed make a place hellish.

Of course it is also true that wherever Lord Krishna's temple is present that place becomes the spiritual world. But this is only true for those people who take advantage of the temple. For those who do not that place remains for them a hell. At the present time this means 99.999% of the population is living in a hellish condition without taking advantage of the sublime process of Krishna consciousness.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari

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