Vedic Psychology Explained at Los Angeles Convention

Last April 9 in Los Angeles, an overflow crowd of two hundred psychologists attended a symposium on Krsna consciousness at the Western Psychology Association convention. The featured speaker at the symposium was Bahulasva dasa, a college program coordinator for ISKCON's Berkeley center, who set the theme as a comparison of Eastern and Western approaches to psychology.

Noting that in childhood we all start at an animalistic level of behavior, Bahulasva proposed that the goal of individual growth should be "to reach a point of consciousness-we call it Krsna consciousness-where one becomes the master of his biological urges." Being careful to distinguish this kind of sense control from repression, he advocated it as a necessary part of "our ability to refine ourselves, to rise up to the level of spiritual existence."

Describing ISKCON members as "people who are serious about helping suffering humanity," he concluded by asking his audience to read Bhagavad-gita As It Is, by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Bahulasva's speech received warm applause.

Preceding Bahulasva at the podium were Dr. Alan Gerson, a clinical psychologist from the Los Angeles area, and Dr. J. Stillson Judah, a professor at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley.

Dr. Gerson presented the results of his extensive psychological tests of devotees. Titled "Hare Krsna: Insane Dropouts or Vanguard of a Saner Society?" His paper opted for the latter idea.

Dr. Judah, whose book Hare Krishna and the Counterculture was published two years ago by Wiley & Sons, praised the work of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada in giving young Americans "a meaningful way to love God."

The program opened and closed with refreshments and musical offerings of the Hare Krsna chant. As devotees passed around silver trays of food offered to Krsna, one appreciative Ph.D. commented, "I've been to a lot of symposiums at conventions, but this is the first time they served hors d'oeuvres."