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“The truly advanced devotee sees that he is not a devotee but
that everyone else is a devotee.”—Śrīla Prabhupāda
“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.”—Śrīla Prabhupāda
Dear Prabhus, please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda!
This morning, in the prasādam room, I was telling a group of “grand-disciples” about the Chakra website (http://www.chakra.org) headline story: “Harikeśa Leaves ISKCON.” One mātājī 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 Prabhupāda. He’s criticizing Śrīla Prabhupāda in a very demoniac way, siding with the karmī 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 Śrīla Prabhupāda? That is obviously why they became gurus! This is obviously why they are trying to imitate Prabhupāda! They are envious of each other also, because they are always criticizing each other!”
It’s obvious that the only thing that’s going to work for ISKCON is for there to be only one dīkṣā guru: His Divine Grace Śrīla Prabhupāda! 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 Harikeśa, 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 Harikeśa to take sannyāsa. He’s the one who decided to do it. No one told him that he had to do that!”
Here are some comments by Gurukṛpā ex-Svami about Harikeśa ex-Svami that I just read: “I mentioned to Harikeśa at the GBC meeting in 1978, ‘How could you allow people to call you a parmahamsa, when you have no realization of sambandha jñāna, which is the first installment of the guru’s mercy on his dependent surrendered disciples.’ Harikeśa 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 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 Śrīla Prabhupāda had so painstakingly implimented 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 Śrīla Prabhupāda?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa was made to feel very uncomfortable as GBC of New York in 1976, as was Bhavānanda in 1971, after becoming very unpopular with the devotees there. TKG was also severely chastised on more than one occasion by Śrīla Prabhupāda. Śrīla Prabhupāda was also forced to severely chastise Kīrtanānanda, Haṁsadūta, 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 Dāsa. I told Dinesh that I wanted to travel with Śrīla Prabhupāda, 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 Prabhupāda!” I replied, “That’s me! I’m not very advanced! I want to travel with Prabhupāda!”
Many devotees had the attitude that these “biggies” who were always hanging around Śrīla Prabhupāda 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 sannyāsīs, were not only feeling vengeful against some of their Godbrothers, but were feeling vengeful against Śrīla Prabhupāda as well!
Were they afraid of being “demoted?”
Many of these early leaders were also “banished” by Śrīla Prabhupāda 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 Śrīla Prabhupāda there to back them up, was a very real possibility.
This actually happened to Govardhana, the temple president of Detroit, who was “kicked out” by one of the 11 original gurus, Jayatīrtha, in 1981, because he wasn’t enough of a “yes man.” When Prabhupāda was personally present, he would back up Goverdhana 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 Paramānanda in Gita Nagari (the ISKCON farm community in near Port Royal, Pennsylvania). I was even told by Adi Keśava, the acting GBC representative for Gita Nagari in 1977, that Śrīla Prabhupāda said that Gita Nagari was “Paramānanda’s farm.” But Paramānanda was no “yes man,” so he didn’t fit into the “new guru’s” scheme of things either. He was “kicked out” by Ravīndra Swarupa, the newly appointed GBC/“guru” of Gita Nagari, in 1987.
I must admit that I had had some animosity against some temple presidents, such as Paramānanda, 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 this 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 Kṛṣṇa’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-adhikārī, pure devotee spiritual master, Śrīla Prabhupāda, who said that he wanted “ritvik” initiations within ISKCON, both before AND AFTER his physical departure. The recently revealed case of Kavichandra Svāmī 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 Kṛṣṇa’s instruments to put these imposters in their rightful place!
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One of the “grand-disciples” has already put Jayatīrtha 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,
Pratyatoṣa Dāsa
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