DRIVING FOR KRISHNA

 From its early years to present, ISKCON has witnessed droves of devotees leave their bodies while traveling in automobiles. Although devotees don’t drink and drive, many male devotee drivers that I know are virtual terrors behind the wheel. With a desire to reduce Vaisnava auto tragedies and hoping to improve our service to Lord Krishna, Srila Prabhupada and our spiritual authorities, we humbly suggest some guidelines for devotee drivers to follow.

     Let us begin by understanding that driving an automobile in the service of the Lord (dasyam) is equal to performing any other service in bhakti-yoga such as sravanam, kirtanam, distributing books, offering arati to the deities, managing a temple, etc. Sri Daruka, Sri Hanuman, Sri Garuda and other devotees are famous for rendering the service of transporting the Lord from one place to another.

     Srila Prabhupada wanted devotees to drive carefully and he censured careless driving on several occasions. If we ignore his request and the laws governing safe driving, we are spiritually and materially at fault. [1] Due to inattention in performing devotional service, a careless devotee driver may not achieve the highest destination should he be called upon to leave his body. The Katha Upanisad (1.3.14) warns ksurasya dhara nisita duratyaya durgam pathas tat kavayo vadanti. “The path of spiritual realization is very difficult; it is sharp like a razor’s edge. That is the opinion of learned transcendental scholars.”