By Satyaraja Dasa From the very beginning of His movement in India, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu predicted…
Month: January 2026
When the parents expressed a concern common to many respectable parents—that the devotees “don’t seem very ambitious”—Srila Prabhupada did not retreat from the implication.
“That is right,” he replied. “A devotee has no ambition. He simply wants to do some humble service for Krishna. He is not trying to do anything big.”
Here, Srila Prabhupada was not making a rhetorical point. He was defining the internal culture of the movement he had founded. As Founder-Acarya, he was shaping not only institutions, but consciousness itself. Ambition—even subtly redefined—was not to be the motivating force of devotional life.
When an attempt was made by Kirtanananda to soften his words—saying that devotees have no material ambitions, but have spiritual ambitions—Srila Prabhupada immediately cut off Kirtanananda’s interpretation that disagreed with him.
“No! We have no ambition. The devotee is not at all ambitious. We just want to serve Krishna.”
In his doctoral study on the position of the Founder-Acharya in ISKCON titled An Indian Guru and His Western Disciples: Representation and Communication of Charisma in the Hare Krishna Movement, Dr. Kimmo Ketola—one of Finland’s most respected scholars of comparative religion—set out to understand a question many devotees already feel in their hearts: Why was Srila Prabhupada so powerful in transforming lives? And just as important, why does that power continue today?
The Seven Purposes of ISKCON: Vision, Mission, and Application The seven purposes of ISKCON articulate…