| Home | “When Śrīla Prabhupāda was here, if the temple president recommended you to be initiated, then you got initiated. If he didn’t, then you didn’t. It was as simple as that.” |
“[Kṛṣṇa consciousness] is simple for the simple, but it is
very hard for the crooked.”—Śrīla Prabhupāda
Dear Prabhus,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Śrīla Prabhupāda!
THE PROBLEM
How can we expect Bhakta Joe, off the street, to be able to figure out whom is a bona fide guru when the GBC can’t even do it! He should at least be provided with videotapes of all 70 of the “GBC approved gurus” being asked some very pointed questions like, “Why was all of the sexual abuse of gurukula children covered up? Don’t you know that this is criminal negligence? Are the victims, and the parents of the victims, being compensated? Have official letters of apology been sent out to all of the victims, and the parents of the victims? Have all of the tuition payments been refunded? Have compensatory and punitive damage awards been made? If not, why not?” and “Why is ISKCON’s official communications system (COM in Sweden) blocking private email messages without the permission of either the sender or the receiver? Don’t you know that this is a clear violation of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights.”:
************ Begin copied text ***********
The United Nations Declaration of Human Rights
Article 12
No one shall be subject to arbitrary interference with his
privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his
honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of
the law against such interference or attacks.
*********** End of copied text
***********
“Why was ISKCON ’taken over’ in 1978 through the use of lies, fraud, and deceit? Don’t you know that this is a serious criminal act?”
It might also help if Bhakta Joe had copies of the palm prints and astrological data of all the gurus, so that expert astrologers and palm readers could be consulted. If this information was also made available on all of the gurus who have fallen down, a comparative study could be conducted. All of their email addresses should be provided, so that the prospective initiate could quiz the prospective initiator on a more personal basis. And how about photos of each of them, so he could try and see whether or not any of them looked like liars, crooks, embezzlers, child molesters, wife stealers, disciple molesters, disciple’s wife molesters, marriage ruiners, murderers, sex maniacs, subtle sex maniacs, gamblers, homosexuals, gun slingers, boozers, dope heads, perverts, lusty old men, idiots, losers, crazy men, college professors, lazy bums, fancy car owners, big house owners, initiation vow breakers, or just plain old fat slobs?!
To make things even more confusing for poor Bhakta Joe, Sannyāsī/guru A says, “[Sannyāsī/guru B] shouldn’t be on the GBC. He doesn’t even chant 16 rounds a day.” Sannyāsī/guru C says, “[Sannyāsī/guru D] shouldn’t be on the GBC. He doesn’t even attend the morning program regularly.” Sannyāsī/guru E says, “A Sannyāsī doesn’t go to college.,” Sannyāsī/guru F says, “Gurus shouldn’t be on the GBC. Then they don’t have time to do either service properly.,” Sannyāsī/guru G says, “Gurus who believe that they know the inside story behind the ‘UFOs’ are in māyā.,” etc., etc.
Now Harikeśa Dāsa, an ISKCON “guru” with over 3000 disciples, is saying things like, “I am … quite disgusted and appalled at the hardness, cruelness and heartlessness of the leaders of ISKCON,” “…this movement is mainly interested in money, power, buildings and empty institutionalization without any real spiritual energy or power…,” and “…ISKCON is worse than the material world….”
This is nothing new. They were tearing each other apart from day one. For example, when my wife, my oldest son, and I moved to New Vrindaban, in 1980, I heard it said, “The other 10 gurus are all bogus, except for maybe Satswarupa Maharaj.”
For 20 years now the gurus have been criticising each other left and right, and now this critisism is even being published on COM, which is controlled by disciples of Harikeśa ex-Svami, who is now at odds with the GBC! Now many of the “grand disciples” and “new bhaktas” can see this criticism in the “public” COM conferences! Because the corrupt GBC men are very impressed by money, they gave Harikeśa whatever he asked for, including control over the copyrights to all of Prabhupāda’s books! Now the hen has come home to roost, and it’s time for them to pay the piper!
THE SOLUTION
I hate to disappoint all of you sādhus out there, but Śrīla Prabhupāda did not leave the management of ISKCON open for the research of the intellectual class. He made everything very straightforward and simple to understand. For example, when I was the temple treasurer in Boston in 1976, I had the following letter tacked to the temple treasury office wall:
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9 September, 1975 Los Angeles My Dear Satsvarupa Goswami: Please accept my blessings. […] Also I want that all centers follow the following procedure for handling the money. Whatever income is there, every cent must be given to the treasurer. Immediately he records it in the book. Then daily he deposits everything in the bank. For the expenditures, he withdraws from the bank the petty cash by check signed by himself and the President. Then the expenditures are checked by the President to see how the money is being spent. The important thing is that all monies must be given to the treasurer and he records it and every day deposits everything in the bank. And whatever is spent that also is withdrawn from the bank. This will stop the embezzling that is going on. Please arrange for this and inform me. I hope this meets you in good health. Your ever well wisher, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami ACBS/bs |
Is this letter clear enough? (To find it on the Vedabase, search for “petty cash.”)
Just because we are dealing with spiritual initiations does not mean that some mysterious hocus-pocus, mumbo-jumbo is involved. When Śrīla Prabhupāda was here, if the temple president recommended you to be initiated, then you got initiated. If he didn’t, then you didn’t. It was as simple as that. This is the way it should be today. The temple president says, “I’ve arranged for so-and-so dāsa to come here and initiate you on behalf of Śrīla Prabhupāda on such-and-such date.,” and that’s final. No if’s, and’s, or but’s! If you don’t want to get initiated on behalf of Śrīla Prabhupāda, then you’re in the wrong movement! This movement is the real thing, and it’s not for people who want to get initiated by some rascal pretender who wants to be a guru!
Initiations are not the business of the GBC. Their business is to make sure that the spiritual standards are maintained, that the various properties are safe and secure, that varnashrama gets implemented, that each temple has a restaurant, a gurukula and a farm, that Mayapur City gets built, and that all of the devotees are happy and satisfied. If they fail to do that, then they should all be replaced!
Like the fools that they are, they’ve spent 20 years making a big deal out of initiations, and have neglected their real duty. The result is that they are all going to get the “royal boot.” It’s just a matter of time!
Since the rank and file devotees don’t have any say in whom is on the GBC, and since the GBC refuses to listen to any of their grievances, then their only alternative is to “go on strike.” (Ignore the GBC. Don’t send them any money. Don’t let them stay in your temple. Expose them on the Internet, and in the media, etc. until they are forced to resign. Then a real GBC could finally be chosen.)
The 1986 temple presidents’ meeting at New Vrindaban demonstrated that such meetings are time consuming, expensive, and ultimately useless. Now we have the Internet. Let’s all use it! Get all of your friends on-line, and get them to contribute something, on VNN, on PADA, on IRG, on Garuḍa Express, or on Usenet. Let’s get moving on this. Within the last two weeks, I’ve helped to get three new people on-line. Please also do your part!
The Internet is fastest from midnight ’til 8 am. This is war! Until the war is won, our morning program should be to make ourselves heard on the Internet!
Your servant,
Pratyatoṣa Dāsa
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