Here is utter, mad bullshit by a rando

I didn't read a single post in this thread.

 

FYI, this guy (I'm going to be sexist and presume it's a guy) is spamming the web with the very same post.

The face looks oddly European to me. What do Indians think about it?

 

You'll be relieved to know you haven't missed anything.

I think this might actually be a legit operation by an actual Hare Krishna group. I know sometimes groups flying under that banner will run little operations like that, kinda like the mafia but more weird than straight up shady or violent. They've gotta make money to sustain themselves. It's at the least gotta be some Indians running a westernized HinduKrishna-YogaNagchampa self-help media scam. Though I guess they don't necessarily need to be Indians. You know English isn't their first language though. Anybody check out their site? Seems clean https://asitis.com/

Seems like they're just running a shop, really selling the sort of stuff I'd expect from a tacky Indian gift shop or one of those spiritual healing trinket shops. Maybe a little ideology heavy comparatively - there's a lot of information on the page. But it hits more or less the same beats as those places. It's calling on that same 'homebrewed-mystical' vibe.

Check it out, they're selling a book on Bhagavad Gita with a bonus DVD for $9.95!

Strange operation, at any rate. Their little astroturfing flyer reads like a cult invite when at the end of the day they're just peddling what looks like standard-fare bootleg spirituality. You know there's more than one person behind this. It wouldn't make sense for one person to just do this. They could, but it would be a lot of work. Though maybe that's nothing if all you have is time and no income to tap into.

There's a cynical part of me that leaps to it having this seedy underbelly. Like actually the whole thing is a scam and you never get anything from them. They take your money and sell your info to their buddies running the phone/mail scams. Anything is possible. Or maybe through their website there's some hidden path to some real religious cult type shit.

Just odd to see in this day and age. I feel like these are the same people you would've gotten junk mail from... or like pamphlets... or maybe you saw a late night paid slot program on some shitty local channel... back in the 90s. They can't still exist on the internet using the same old tactics. They just can't be that isolated that they think this fly-by-night shit still sticks on the internet. I guess sometimes they really are out there though. I imagine they appoint a team that does this for them and they're just kinda using whatever they know to use from around to get stuff out there. Doesn't seem like they're on their game. The post is really weirdly worded and the site design is atrociously dated. I think they probably know what they're going for. I'm just not sure they really know what they're doing at all lol

Maybe it's by design, staying inconspicuous. I just feel like there are better ways of selling this kind of stuff. Social media marketing is simple. People sell wackier shit and it flies. It's like nobody told these cats that the internet flipped like 12 years ago and there are better ways to sell your weirdo shit. That's what makes me think they're somewhere off in bumfuck, India. We're talking about people who barely know English (if at all) using old means for perpetuating their stuff. Probably not the most advanced bunch. I'm surprised there are no CDs or VHS cassettes lol

 

"There ain't no Guru who can see through your eyes"

 

@Elnrik you must - the OP will change your lives.

 

Actually, Kali Yuga started approximately 5,200 years ago (trust me on this one). So, it's more 425,000 .

 

Do not take advice from someone who does not appreciate tasty food.

May OP suffer eternally in a box of fresh wasabi so he or she can drown in tears induced by burning pain.

 

Wow. Thanks for that - had no idea!

 

I constantly go back and forth on whether ISKCON (the Hare Krishna people) are a scammy cult thing or a legitimate cultural group. Some of their stuff seems iffy, but they also have big temples here in DC & Baltimore that serve as major community centers. And it's hard for me to tell what's weird in their interpretation of Hinduism because it's been whitewashed vs. all religious stuff sounds kind of the same from the outside.

Some of the ISKCON people are pretty aggressive in trying to proselytize and/or sell people on things. Back in college, we had a lot of these guys running around trying to recruit in the quads. While some of their actual events were pretty inoffensive-- free food for those who want/need is a core part of their society, and their Gita is the same book as mine-- a lot of the white guys in orange robes running around on the quad were pretty aggressive. I'm, how shall we say, obviously of Indian heritage. Brown skin, big nose, the whole thing. And these guys would come up to me and start trying to sell me the Gita, tell me that I should join ISKCON to reclaim my heritage, or all sorts of things. Some of them wouldn't take a no thank you for an answer, or "Uh, I'm already Hindu." The weirdest thing is that some of them would call me on it? Like I'm walking to class, not walking into a temple. I don't need to prove knowledge of my religion or heritage or whatever to you, random man in a shawl. But hey, if we're going to let the pit preacher stick around with his sermons, we have to let all the religious recruiters run free on campus apparently?

 

Your anecdote reminds me of all the Christian sub-cultures and their evangelists that I encountered as a kid. I mean you have Baptists, Judaïsts, Pinkster/Easter, Dutch Protestant, (American) Evangelical (almost Puritan) and so on. The more fanatical they became, the more you started disliking them. (Sin, virtue, heaven, hell, morality, pureness, pretentious soul-searching and so much preaching.)

People can express their beliefs and how it makes them happy. Try to convert me and I will detest you on a personal level. I am that bitter...

 

Ooh, we need to send some Jehova's Witnesses your way

 

My mum joined the Jehova's Witnesses for a while. Later, we thought it was maybe a delayed reaction to the loss of Dad some years previously, plus she loved going around houses and talking to people (me: "Yes, but you don't join a cult for the social life"*)

What I love is that she left, telling them, "I really like all you people, but I don't think much of Jehova."

The Hare Krishna mob also puzzle me. At worst, they seem to advertise the chant as a cheap alternative to barbiturates. Chant it continuously and the world goes away. At best... they are just Hindus, right? Except different, in a sort of thin, skinny, sort of way. Do they have a serious heritage? Is it a modern fad? I don't know. I'll ask around, when social life starts up again here.Modern fad? Or ancient Vaishnavite tradition?

The London crowd pissed me off rightly. They'd always be "giving away" their Bhagavad Gita. When one said, "Oh, right, thanks..." they'd ask for a donation. Getting a few coins, they'd complain about how much it cost to even print the book and take it back. So giving away was, in fact an outright lie.

So, is it a scam? Well, according to me, that whole book thing was. But if it is a big money thing, would expect to find a big money man at the top of it all.

They have a place not far from me, built, almost certainly illegally, right on the beach line. It's nice: they used to rent out the auditorium for concerts. I never bothered to check out any of the literature --- and nobody bothered people to do so. I've never seen them begging/scamming on the streets here. I think they'd just be treated as beggars (@supertransformingdhruv? @Koth Ganesh?). People do ask for money for pilgramages and stuff. Or make religious noises until one pays them to go away. I used to be a sucker: now I have a rule that I don't pay pay for other people's religion. Food/drink/drugs, education even, maybe: but they can pay for own religion.


*Oh wait, yes you do. I'm forgetting that I did once!