WELCOME TO SRILA PRABHUPADA'S HARE KRISHNA SOCIETY

HARE KRSNA HARE KRSNA KRSNA KRSNA HARE HARE HARE RAMA HARE RAMA RAMA RAMA HARE HARE

| Home | About Us | Srila Prabhupada | Krishna Consciousness | Deity Darshan | Our Festivals & Events |
| Articles | Our Temples | Our Activities | Links | Contact Us |

Hare Krsna
 
Recently Seattle iskcon opened its new temple and many devotees voiced to me their objections.
 
One devotee said, he objected because now iskcon has a $1.5 million debt at that temple  and that will put all its members into financial slavery due to this debt. Another said, you  dont need such a huge temple, another said they didnt like the sign in the front entry, another said, they always felt "obliged" to give money when they went there and that wasnt good, and so on.
 
Actually all the above are good reasons but they dont come close to the REAL problem. When you have some major disease and if you just put a bandaid on an oozing boil, that bandaid will do no good at all in relieving the real problem. The ooze will still spill out, somewhere...
 
The real problem, as always, is philosophical , not emotional, or psychological. Emotional responses address  only one's immediate sense pleasure-- I dont like this or that at the temple, because I just dont like how it makes me feel. Or the leaders there kicked me out of  the temple because they didnt like me.  Psychological  responses address mental things like debt that would be incurred.
 
But the real question here is WHY is this iskcon temple off the mark- according to Srila Prabhupada ? .
 
If one bases his devotional service on "how it makes me feel"--isnt this conditional service? If I  dont feel good, then I wont do it. Arjuna didnt want to kill all his relatives, it didnt make him feel good about his "service", but once convinced about the philosophy of life in BG, he did his duty.
Arjuna  even gave Krsna good moral reasons why he shouldnt kill his relatives, all these were put to rest by Sri Bhagavan. In the end Krsna just told Arjuna to surrender to Him and forget all your nonsense "good" material reasons, for I am Sri Krsna the controller of all that be, and you will be better off to do it and get the credit, because I am going to kill all these soldiers with or without you, Arjuna!! 
 
So this iskcon temple opening, what is wrong here?
 
The first thing I saw in a picture email of this event was Hanuman Swami's picture on the altar right next to
Srila Prabhupada's in the param para. Even according to ikscons low standards today, the GBC says you cannot have these pictures of somebodys "guru" remain on the altar. What to speak of the real reasons why his picture should not be there. 
 (Just that one GBC rule ALONE should make one suspect how much these "gurus" are not  bonafide if even the GBC tells you to keep the pictures off the altar)
 
According to Srila Prabhupada who is cent percent a pure devotee of the Lord, he writes in Caitanya Caritamrta----Madhya 24.330  
When one has attained the topmost position of
maha-bhagavata, he is to be accepted as a guru and worshiped exactly
like Hari, the Personality of Godhead. Only such a person is eligible
to occupy the post of a guru.
 
So why is an ordinary sannyasi being worshipped as good as Hari on the altar of Hari??
 
In a letter April 12, 1974, Prabhupada writes..."Knowledge should be taken from a perfect person-because if you take knowledge from a person who is defective, your knowledge has NO VALUE. You must take knowledge from the perfect."  
 
Why or how do we know these so called "gurus" are all defective, or not perfect?
 
At first, when Srila Prabhupada left this planet, the unauthorized 11 took charge and immediately announced they were the sum total of all the demigods, pure devotees "empowered" to preach by Srila Prabhupada himself. Later, we find them backpedalling this imperfect stance because of all the massive falldowns, and problems they created within iskcon as a result of their imperfectness. If You want to know, in detail, all these problems, go to Puranjanas website, and he will give you ALL the gory details.
As Prabhupada used to say---Judge a thing by the result.
 
And more recently we find in the GBC's/iskcon gurus writings that the majority of them will claim that it is NOT they who is delivering the new initiates back to Godhead, but it is Srila Prabhupada himself !!
Which immediately begs the question--then WHY do we need these people, if Srila Prabhupada is the one giving both diksa and siksa?
And why did the GBC change (again) their philosophical stance? In the beginning the GBC said we all should worship the magnificient 11, that  they were taking us all back to Home,and also, make sure we didnt miss their cookie throw after their daily vyasa puja!!! Then when all these unfortunates started have glaring problems in their material and spiritual lives,  the GBC/Gurus graciously told us all, well maybe its better you dont worship us as good as God anymore, but better you just see us as "empowered" representatives of Srila Prabhupada instead, and dont forget to keep sending us your laxsmi too.
In other words, once the pus started oozing out of the polluted bodies, they couldnt keep up the false posture of sum total of all the demigods guru-and a simple bandaid wouldnt work anymore.
 
The real or main reason none of these persons occupying falsely the vyasasana in Prabhupadas own House (iskcon) are bona fide or allowed to do this "guru business"--is and always will be this--
Prabhupada never gave the order for any of us to accept the position of initiating spiritual master within his iskcon institution.   And he had a million reasons, all in his books , as to why not........".First, be qualified".....was one of them...
 
This point has been debated until we are sick of hearing about it. But the bottom line is the people in iskcon cannot show us any proof where Srila Prabhupada EVER gave us the instructions to accept the business of initiation of new disciples on our own, AFTER he would leave us. Never!! Rather there is ample and sufficient proof to the contrary, that we did want us to accept the position of ritvik gurus who would initiate newcomers on HIS BEHALF, after he left this planet. This is what was going on in his physical presence, and he wanted us to continue everything-unchanged. But they didnt do that. 
 
And because the leaders in iskcon have not done this, they have disobeyed the MAIN ORDER of the spiritual master, so nothing but chaos and confusion over siddhanta has continued to this day.--otherwise why is the GBC still requesting brahminical type devotees to write Iskcon's DEFINITIVE paper on guru tattva?--
This means they still dont understand guru tattva,otherwise they would have a "conclusion" on it, by now.
 
So again , how do we know these persons are not perfect or pure devotees of the Lord?
 
We see it in their behavior. Perfect means- above the 4 defects, The 4 defects means imperfect senses, making mistakes, in illusion about this body, and propensity to cheat. Anybody possessing these defects in small or large part, according to Srila Prabhpada cannot occupy the seat of Vyasadev and act as Acarya or spiritual master.
 
1)"the conditioned soul is tightly tied by the ropes of illusioin . A man bound by the hands and feet cannot free himself-he must be helped by a person who is unbound. Because the bound cannot help the bound, the rescuer must be liberated. Therefore only Lord Krsna or His bona fide representative the spiritual master can release the conditioned soul. BG 7.14
2) mistakes, illusions, cheating, and defective perceptions do not occur in the saying of the authoritative sages. CCAdi 2.86
3)"Knowledge should be taken from the perfect person-because if you take knowledge from a person who is defective, your knowledge has no value".. Letter april 12, 1974
 
Srila Prabhupada warns us in his books that anybody who accepts this business of being guru WITHOUT being authorized,---his falldown is assured or guaranteed. And why shouldnt they fall down?? Being the bona fide representative of the Supreme Lord is a very very confidential activity that is reserved only for the most pure souls.
However, Srila Prabhupada states...
There is no possibility that first class devotee will fall down..." (CC mad 22.71)
 
on the other hand, those who "assume this elevated position he warns us....
 
â–ºNoD 14                Devotional Qualifications
   The spiritual master must never be carried away by an accumulation
of wealth or a large number of followers. A bona fide spiritual master
will never become like that
. But sometimes, if a spiritual master is
not properly authorized and only on his own initiative
(or the GBC sanction) becomes a
spiritual master,
he may be carried away by an accumulation of wealth
and large numbers of disciples. His is not a very high grade of
devotional service.
( we see now in iskcon most of the sannyasis have more money in  their bank accounts than the householders or temples themselves-and a sannyasi is supposed to have NO MONEY-thats what renounced means!!!)
 
"presently people are so fallen that they cannot distinguish between a liberated soul and a conditioned soul." SB 4.18.5
 
 
"one should not imitate the behavior of an advanced devotee or mahabhagavat without being self realized, for by such imitation one will eventually become degraded." NOI pg 58
 
From the above statements by Prabhupada we can easily see why  one who assumes the position of a liberated spiritual master and who has not been authorized by Srila Prabhupada, then he has signed his own death warrant in the manner of his own self designed falldown. And that is EXACTLY what we have seen in the history of these men who were so ambitious to even think they were fit to take on the karma of so many conditioned souls in this age of Kali.
 
Still with me here??? take a look at this very telling conversation Prabhupada had about "devotees" who chant the same or similiar mantras that Hare Krsna people do....
 
760502rc.fij                Conversations                419790/530501
Guru-krpa: Just like, for example, in Bengal before, there was that
Charan das Babaji. He induced them to chant the wrong mantra, but
where is.... He's not specifically parampara.
Prabhupada: No. He chanted for some time and, of course, there was
chanting of "Nitai-Gaura." He introduced new system of chanting:
nitai-gaura radhe-syama. So the Nitai-Gaura chanting will have some
effect, Kali-yuga. Although he was presenting pervertedly, the
beginning was Nitai-Gaura, so it would have some effect. He did not
know actually Nitai-Gaura. From his words it appears. He used to
preach that Nitai is Radharani, and Gaura is Krsna. That is
siddhanta-viruddha. But some way or other, he was chanting
Nitai-Gaura. So some effect were there
. Just like sandalwood. You do
not know which way better pulp comes out, but if you rub any way, some
pulp will come because it is sandalwood. So he had some effect of
chanting Nitai-Gaura, but later on they deteriorated because they did
not know actually, neither they were taught. Siddhanta-viruddha. The
siddhanta-viruddha means it will deteriorate. It will not endure.
 
So even though they are chanting Hare Krsna mantra in iskcon,. it is being done improperly due to guru offense to Srila Prabhupada, their own guru. They have disobeyed his orders, so eventually it will have no effect at all.It will detiorate, even more, as he says above,  and we are seeing that right now. Why are all the iskcon temples in North America populated ONLY by HIndus and hardly no westerners who are disciples of Srila Prabhupada? Simply because they all know iskcon is now deviated from Srila Prabhupada.Whereas the Hindus dont have a clue what is to be done or not to be done.
 
And for all those sentimental types out there, who think that all their dancing kids with Krsna t-shirts who are chanting Prabhupada and Krsna names is good--what will you do when your own son or daughter is molested by one of the pedophile types who  are allowed to travel about the ikscon world, unchecked?  It first happened in New Vrndavana, it happened and is still happening in Mayapur, and it is still happening all over the world simply because the leaders of iskcon have disobeyed the orders of Srila Prabhupada and opened the door to all types of siddhanta viruddha's--deviations in the name of religion.
 
Please Try to understand this--once you disobey the order of guru, by assuming the post of spiritual master without any of the qualifications or Order of Guru, then all kinds of nasty things start to happen. What do you think Prabhupada means when he says for by such imitation one will eventually become degraded." NOI pg 58 ?????????
 
The first thing that happens is the aspiring guru desires wrongly--he wants to KILL GURU" as Prabhupada puts it. This means the disciple wants to take the position of his spiritual master, when the spiritual master has not ordered him to do any such thing. By a conditioned soul assuming the position of a mahabhagavat, (the only one allowed to sit on the vyasasana as Guru) he literally Kills the real guru by showing to the public the false guru. Since conditioned souls (shown in the quote above) cannot tell the difference between a liberated and conditioned soul, they think the fake, is the real deal!!
 
 The next thing that happens is the fake guru starts to get adoration and prestige and money which is really what he wants in the first place but has deluded himself (compliments of Maya) into thinking he is pure enough to liberate others when he himself is still conditioned.  Then this continues for some time, more people come and "take his dust", he gets more puffed up and delusional, until finally one day, the whole charade comes crashing down due to the weight of all the sins of others he has absorbed.
 
Then to continue the charade, he lies to himself and all others about his personal faults and falldowns. For some of them in Iskcon this lying goes on for years of attempted coverups, until finally due to good old fashioned Gravity--what goes up MUST come down. He sends out an email or letter to his "disciples" telling him he can no longer be their "guru" due to his  exposed faults.
Then the GBC get into the picture and realize that if this person falls away, then  that entire zone will fall apart and so they send in the damage control people for more coverup activities.
So you can see here, and this is only a very tiny part of the entire story, how just one conditioned soul who lies to himself thinking he can be spiritual master and deliver others from birth and death becomes once again a ........mouse ....punah musika bhava...
This same story has been repeated over a hundred times in Iskcon.
So why would Krsna do that to His pure devotees?
He doesnt do that to His pure devotees!! He protects them as He tells us in His Bhagavad Gita. But for the impure devotees, he punishes them severely for trying to think they are as good as the bona fide spiritual master Srila Prabhupada.
 
Therefore this new temple opening of Seattle Iskcon is just another dead branch that has fallen off the Tree of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. When a big branch falls or is cut off a large tree, the branch laying on the ground looks like its alive, has lots of leaves, branches, etc, but it is dying since it has been cut off from the trunk. Just like the story  of Charan das Babaji in Bengal who chanted Hare Krsna Hare Rama Nitai Gaura Radhe Shyam was bogus--even though he had thousands of followers at the time -----
BECAUSE he was an offender to the Holy Name and the Guru param para, it all collapsed in due course of time. He was personally ambitious and did not understand bhakti Siddhanta or the conclusions of sastra.
 
Therefore, if one follows such a fallen system of "bhakti" he or she is sure to become a sahijiya or cheap imitation follower of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. And like that branch which fell or was cut off the tree, will eventually dry up and die.  But who will understand this??? As Srila Prabhupada often said----------- 
"Those with sufficient brain substance."
 
Hare Krsna
 
Damaghosa das

| HOME | TOP |

This website is best viewed in resolution: 1024 x 768 or higher


The Krishna Consciousness Movement, The Nama Hatta Mission of California™, 2009

Links provided are for information only, The Hare Krishna Society does not necessarily endorse all the contents and statements in those links.
Readers are encouraged to read the original unrevised versions of Srila Prabhupada's books

BBT images and written materials from Srila Prabhupada's books are copyrighted by the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust.  All rights reserved.  All such materials are published pursuant to  Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, Fair Use Exception