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The truly advanced devotee sees that he is not a devotee but that everyone else is a devotee.—Srila Prabhupada
Thinking oneself lower than the straw in the street, one should be more tolerant than a tree.—Lord Caitanya
Anyone who has any desire or aspiration for satisfying his senses by becoming more and more important, either in the material sense or in the spiritual sense, cannot actually relish the really sweet taste of devotional service.—Srila Prabhupada
Dear Prabhus, please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
This morning, in the prasadam room, I was telling a group of “grand-disciples” about the Chakra website (http://www.chakra.org) headline story: “Harikesa Leaves ISKCON.” One mataji said, “He’s sick. We can’t take anything he does seriously. He may be back to normal again soon.” I said, “But, he’s criticizing Prabhupada. He’s criticizing Srila Prabhupada in a very demoniac way, siding with the karmi psychologists and saying that householders aren’t getting enough sex life. This is demoniac!” She said, “Ritviks are just envious of the gurus; that’s all.” and she walked out of the room. This is not the first time that she’s said this to me, and I was thinking, “Why should I be envious of people who are envious of Srila Prabhupada? That is obviously why they became gurus! This is obviously why they are trying to imitate Prabhupada! They are envious of each other also, because they are constantly criticizing each other!”
It’s obvious that the only thing that’s going to work for ISKCON is for there to be only one diksa guru: His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada! Why would someone who is supposed to be thinking that “he is not a devotee but that everyone else is a devotee” want to cause disruption by putting himself on an artificially high platform, above his godbrothers and godsisters, who, for all he knows, might be more spiritually advanced than he is, unless he’s got a sadistic, demoniac mentality, and simply wants to cause his godbrothers and godsisters to suffer? Why would someone, like Harikesa, initiate thousands of “disciples,” tell them that the guru/disciple relationship is more important than the marriage relationship, and then let them down like this? He has broken their hearts just for his own selfish sense gratification.
One of the “grand-disciples” pointed out, “No one forced Harikesa to take sannyasa. He’s the one who decided to do it. No one told him that he had to do that!”
Here are some comments by Gurukrpa ex-Swami about Harikesa ex-Swami that I just read: “I mentioned to Harikesa at the GBC meeting in 1978, ‘How could you allow people to call you a parmahamsa, when you have no realization of sambandha jnana, which is the first installment of the guru’s mercy on his dependent surrendered disciples.’ Harikesa cynically smiled and said, ‘I am a parmahamsa. What are you going to do about it?’ I replied, ‘But you are not a parmahamsa. You are a piece of s---!’”
“I am a parmahamsa. What are you going to do about it?!”!! This is the sick, demoniac attitude that many of these so-called gurus had from day one! Because of this attitude, they told their disciples, “My Godbrothers are simply envious of me. Don’t listen to them.” Thus the whole system of bhakta training (known in the military as the “buddy system”) that Srila Prabhupada had so painstakingly implemented in ISKCON was practically destroyed overnight!
Here’s a related text which I wrote a few months ago:
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WERE THEY VENGEFUL?
Introduction
Recently, I was talking with one of ISKCON’s oldest and best dramatic actors. He said, in reference to the current crop of ISKCON “gurus,” “I’m an actor. I can tell that they’re just acting! …and they’re not even very good actors!”
Assuming that there was a hostile takeover of ISKCON back in 1977/78, what was the motivation behind it? Obvious reasons such as fame, adoration and distinction are usually given as the reasons, but there are a couple of other reasons which might not be so obvious: revenge, and a fear of being “demoted!”
Were the Original 11 “Gurus” Feeling Vengeful Towards Their Godbrothers and Towards Srila Prabhupada?
Tamala Krsna was made to feel very uncomfortable as GBC of New York in 1976, as was Bhavananda in 1971, after becoming very unpopular with the devotees there. TKG was also severely chastised on more than one occasion by Srila Prabhupada. Srila Prabhupada was also forced to severely chastise Kirtanananda, Hamsaduta, Satswarupa, and others. Because of this, they were given additional harassment by many of their Godbrothers.
One attitude that the “little” devotees had about the ISKCON “biggies” was expressed to me in 1971, by Dinesh Dasa. I told Dinesh that I wanted to travel with Srila Prabhupada, so that I could make good quality recordings of his lectures and conversations, make sure that the various P.A. systems that he would be using were working, and were correctly adjusted. Dinesh told me, “That’s for devotees who are not very advanced, who need a lot of personal association with Prabhupada!” I replied, “That’s me! I’m not very advanced! I want to travel with Prabhupada!”
Many devotees had the attitude that these “biggies” who were always hanging around Srila Prabhupada were “egomaniacs,” “scene stealers,” “glory grabbers,” “control freaks,” and were “not very advanced.”
My theory is that many of the original 11 “gurus,” and many leading GBC men and sannyasis, were not only feeling vengeful against some of their Godbrothers, but were feeling vengeful against Srila Prabhupada as well!
Were they afraid of being “demoted?”
Many of these early leaders were also “banished” by Srila Prabhupada to such places as China, which had a ruthless communist dictatorship, Ceylon, a small island, Scandinavia, where the winters are long, very cold, and very dark, the steep hills of West Virginia, where the winters are long and cold, and where snow, mud, and flies are plentiful, rural Pennsylvania, which has most of the disadvantages of the West Virginia hill country, with the addition of savage man eating gnats!
Since the precedent had already been established, and since many of the ISKCON “biggies” were not very popular with their Godbrothers, being “demoted,” “banished,” or even “kicked out,” without Srila Prabhupada there to back them up, was a very real possibility.
In 1981, this actually happened to Govardhana, the temple president of Detroit, who was “kicked out” by Jayatirtha, one of the original 11 “appointed gurus” because he wasn’t enough of a “yes man.” By way of contrast, when Prabhupada was personally running ISKCON, he would back up Govardhana to such an extent that Govardhana seemed to tell the local GBC representative what to do, instead of the other way around!
A similar case was that of Paramananda in Gita Nagari (the ISKCON farm community near Port Royal, Pennsylvania). I was even told by Adi Kesava, the acting GBC representative for Gita Nagari in 1977, that Srila Prabhupada said that Gita Nagari was “Paramananda’s farm.” But Paramananda was no “yes man,” so he didn’t fit into the “new guru’s” scheme of things either. He was “kicked out” by Ravindra Swarupa, the newly appointed GBC/“guru” of Gita Nagari, in 1987.
I must admit that I had had some animosity for some temple presidents, such as Paramananda, Govardhana, and Aja (TP of Boston), and was glad to see them “kicked out” by the new “gurus” and GBC men, but now I am feeling sorry that I ever felt that way.
Conclusion
These are two possible reasons why these men were so desperate to make a power grab in 1977/78, to get as many “disciples” as possible, as fast as possible, so as to make it very difficult to get rid of them, and so that they would have the political “clout” to take revenge against their political “enemies.”
The problem for them now is that they are trapped in a web of their own weaving. By Krsna’s divine arrangement, the only kind of “disciples” who are sent to an insincere guru, are themselves insincere. These so-called disciples usually fall into one of two categories:
1. The “mindless yes-man” who is constantly doing stupid things, thereby making his “guru” look bad.
2. The “opportunistic back-stabber,” who is just waiting for his “guru” to “slip up,” so that he can get rid of him, and take his place.
Because of this, these unqualified “gurus” are in constant anxiety, and are becoming more and more neurotic, but the ultimate cause of their “headaches” and neurosis is that they disobeyed their uttama-adhikari, pure devotee spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada, who said that he wanted “rtvik” initiations within ISKCON, both before AND AFTER his physical departure. The recently revealed case of Kavichandra Svami is a good example of this inevitable tendency toward neuroses and fall down.
The irony of the present situation is that the very people who these rascal “gurus” thought would save them, their “disciples,” are probably the ones who will ultimately act as Krsna’s instruments to put these imposters in their rightful place!
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One of the “grand-disciples” has already put Jayatirtha in his “rightful place.” I’ve heard that this “grand-disciple” is out of jail already, and that he’s a national hero in England for decapitating a bogus guru! The general public hates bogus gurus, and they hate prejudice against, and exploitation of women and children!
Your servant,
Pratyatosa Dasa
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