BY: GADADHARA DASA
Jun 27, 2011 — DALLAS, TEXAS, USA (SUN) — In the article “Questions Some of Us are Asking Ourselves“, the author raises many important questions in the following paragraph:
- “Apparently the GBC body claims to be Srila Prabhupada, because they consider themselves to be the ultimate authority for ISKCON. How is it that 95% of Srila Prabhupada’s disciples cannot see this non-difference? How is it that so many of the disciples of failed-attempt ISKCON gurus did not get what the GBC promised, and cannot see this non-difference? How is it that the majority of aspiring devotees who have been involved in ISKCON leave with a bad taste? Srila Prabhupada left everyone he met in amazement for positive reasons, while the GBC body seems to leave everyone in amazement for the way they fail to properly lead (follow). So how can this claim to “be” Srila Prabhupada be true? And if it’s not true, how can this false claim be tolerated by so many aspiring devotees? (Concerned member of Srila Prabhupada’s greater family)”
Below are my comments to explain why it is happening:
The root cause of all this is the desire to be Gurus on the part of prominent leaders of ISKCON in the 1970s, by hook or crook – “Self-proclaimed” or “Rubber Stamped”. After Srila Prabhupada left these leaders conspired, and in 1978 told a bold-faced lie to everyone that “Srila Prabhupada appointed them as Gurus”. Anybody who knew that this was a lie was sidetracked, cold shouldered, or thrown out.
When the monopolistic (only us 11 were appointed and can be Gurus) empire of “Self-proclaimed Gurus” started crumbling by the mid-1980s, a new trick was invented by starting the “Guru Rubber Stamping Factory and Re-initiation”, which enticed/bribed everyone else that they can become Gurus also.
Now go back to April 22, 1977 and read, “Let Us Hear from Srila Prabhupada“, where the following warning is given by Srila Prabhupada:
- Tamal Krishna: Not rubber stamp.
Prabhupada: Then you’ll not be effective. You can cheat, but it will not be effective. Just see our Gaudiya Matha. Everyone wanted to become guru, and a small temple and “guru.” What kind of guru?
What we see today is a continuation of the same cheating that has been going on for the last 34 years, and planned even before that. It is no accident. They have ignored Srila Prabhupada’s guidance, “no rubber stamping of Gurus”, and the result is “you can cheat but it will not be effective”. And this answers all questions, such as: How is it that the majority of aspiring devotees who have been involved in ISKCON leave with a bad taste?
At the 1977 Mayapur GBC meeting, Srila Prabhupada proposed a Resolution that: “It is the responsibility of each GBC to bring back the devotees who have gone away from their zones” and GBC passed it. “ However, after Srila Prabhupada’s departure, this Resolution was conveniently forgotten for the next 17 years. Not only was nothing done to bring back the devotees who had already gone away, but more devotees left or were intentionally driven away. Then in 1994, Naveen Krishna Prabhu happened to find this Resolution and put it before the Annual Mayapur GBC meeting. Again it has been forgotten for another 17 years. So the conclusion is that ISKCON has been hijacked by liars and cheaters.
One has to be honest and intelligent enough to see the difference, in qualification and behavior, between the saint Srila Prabhupada and the GBC Swindlers to avoid getting cheated. One may be trusting by nature and may get cheated once or twice, but one should wake up when bad results show up around him/her.
Authorities tend to assume ownership and tend to become autocratic, dictatorial, controlling, and closed door operations.
We want responsible, reasonable, practical, accountable, open, consultative, considerate, input seeking, appreciative, and encouraging administration.
Please read “GBC Should Take Ultimate Responsibility, Not Ultimate Authority and GBC Should Take Ultimate Responsibility (2).
Srila Prabhupada has said that “leaders can cheat mass of people very easily”, and even in April 22, 1977 conversation he says to Tamal, “You can cheat, but it will not be effective”.
So the points raised in the following paragraph need to be addressed honestly and intelligently to bring the “GBC Cheating Operation” to a halt. Otherwise, world of cheaters and cheated in ISKCON will continue.
- “Apparently the GBC body claims to be Srila Prabhupada, because they consider themselves to be the ultimate authority for ISKCON. How is it that 95% of Srila Prabhupada’s disciples cannot see this non-difference? How is it that so many of the disciples of failed-attempt ISKCON gurus did not get what the GBC promised, and cannot see this non-difference? How is it that the majority of aspiring devotees who have been involved in ISKCON leave with a bad taste? Srila Prabhupada left everyone he met in amazement for positive reasons, while the GBC body seems to leave everyone in amazement for the way they fail to properly lead (follow). So how can this claim to “be” Srila Prabhupada be true? And if it’s not true, how can this false claim be tolerated by so many aspiring devotees? (Concerned member of Srila Prabhupada’s greater family)”
We must begin to see the difference between Srila Prabhupada and the GBC Swindlers. We must begin to see the difference in results produced by Srila Prabhupada and the GBC Swindlers, as pointed out in the above paragraph, and act accordingly with courage.
The GBC has ignored Srila Prabhupada’s will, as seen above. It is time they be driven out wholesale. The real question is not, “Where are the honest, smart, and responsible GBC Members?” The real question is, “Where are the honest, smart, and responsible devotees who will drive away these GBC Cheaters?”
Srila Prabhupada says, “Criminal will not accept any amount of reasoning”, and the GBC is such a gang which needs to be thrown out.
Wishing All of You Well,
Yhs- Gadadhar dasa
Please note Gadahara dasa that the request you made to the honest, smart, and responsible devotees to drive away the GBC members wholesale will not take place.
Very briefly the reason is simply this – the various opponents of Iskcon GBC (the Ritviks, IRM, Prabhupadnugas, Pada, DVDs and Vanaprasthas plus whatever else proponents and the various smart, honest and responsible individuals whoever they may be etc. ) are fragmented, disorganized, individualist, not united, each individually propagating themselves, sentimentalist and quarrelsome. Till todate none of these groups and individuals have made any attempt to come together as a alternate unified Krsna Conscious society.
The GBC of Iskcon on the other hand have been at it for more than 40 years. They began their planning to take over Iskcon even when the founder acharya HDG ACBSP was still around. Since then till now they have consolidated their power base, accumulated enough wealth, influence and support to thwart any attempt to remove them. They are organized, they play their politics well and are very much united among themselves. These people are mostly in passion and ignorance who are proned to despicable and dishonourable acts like betrayal, lying, cheating, being hypocrite, deceitful, unethical, immoral, no sence of shame, treachrous and pretenders and other negative traits. Their greed for wealth, have tasted fame and adoration and being lustful, they will not give up their dishonourable ways.
So, if for the past 40 years the GBC opponents could not do anything what makes you Gadahara Dasa think that they could do something now to remove them wholesale. Its just not going to happen.
The question you may want ask yourself is not how to remove them but how to minimize them effectively.
@SG,
Pranams.
It’s true, and we have often admitted the GBC’s greatest asset lies not in righteousness but in its opposition. Yet, as fragmented quarrelsome and individualistic as the opposition is in pursuit of accountability, there has been an immense achievement in the area of awareness.
Albeit the GBC are entrenched and have honed their skills over the last forty years, but just as in all theft by deception cases, they lie exposed in many areas, all of which demand secular attention.
The dilemma lies not in whether secular involvement is the correct strategy, but how such action would effect Srila Prabhupada’s mission. Especially when we focus on GBC activities in India. The chain reaction could be devastating.
In India we have a saying- “Das deen ke chor ek deen pakrajaige”- You may be a successful thief for ten days but one day you will be caught, and it’s all over. So the GBC has stolen successfully for forty years, but in recent times they have stolen from families that should have been well left alone. These families have money, and influence in the highest places, and smart kids who want their money back.
Sri Krsna has heard the cries of His devotees. He will act in His own time-frame.
krsne matir astu.
pamho agtACBSP
yes you are right prabhu there is not a very strong assocciation of honest, smart and responsible devotees as it used to be when SRILA PRABHUPADA was still physically present on this planet.
We learned everything about vedic history brought in the West by SRILA PRABHUPADA.
Time is teaching us that the desire of spreading Krsna consciousness all over the world is been fulfilled by Prabhupada as SRILA BHAKTIVINODA predicted: a very great soul soon will appear.
Now it takes generations to get the honest, smart and responsible devotees because Krsna consciousness just started in the western countries by the mercy of Prabhupada.
We should not be surprised to see what’s happening to Iskcon after SRILA PRABHUPADA’s disappearance because nobody of us got Vaishnava family background as our beloved acharya.
Yet we are working to become fully spiritually realized because from vaidi bhakti to raganuga bhakti is a long journey.
Sahajiyas who imitated the honest and smart devotees failed – even so called “bhaktivedantas”.
Time must be used for self-realization and not to make a show. The books are already written by the best paramahamsa, Srila Prabhupada, when people will start reading?
ys
seva das
haribol
I like the comments of our distinguished personality SG when he says ; ” Very briefly the reason is simply this — the various opponents of Iskcon GBC (the Ritviks, IRM, Prabhupadnugas, Pada, DVDs and Vanaprasthas plus whatever else proponents and the various smart, honest and responsible individuals whoever they may be etc. ) are fragmented, disorganized, individualist, not united, each individually propagating themselves, sentimentalist and quarrelsome. Till todate none of these groups and individuals have made any attempt to come together as a alternate unified Krsna Conscious society.”
I find this particular sentence very interesting ; ” each individually propagating themselves,” in the above said comments.
Further I find this NOT true in the comments when SG states ; ” Till todate none of these groups and individuals have made any attempt to come together as a alternate unified Krsna Conscious society.”
SG. there are groups as listed in the link on this web site and others running as unified Krsna Conscious society because all of them subscribe to the Initiation Instructions – VANI of Srila Prabhupada.
But the dilemma is YOU are writing and propagating so much against the Initiating Instructions of Srila Prabhupada ?
WHY ? You have never answered this, thus far ?
All Glories to Srila Prabhupada.
I find in this article http://www.harekrsna.com/sun/editorials/01-10/editorials5594.htm
What is an Uttama-adhikari by MARGARET CONNOR in support of the rubber stamped gurus factory very deceptive and misleading when she writes this ;
“Fortunately Srila Prabhupada has made it possible for us all to identify such worthy association. It is safe to say that there are many such sincere and serious devotees all over the world serving Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s mission and we are all most fortunate to have their association. It is safe to say that the leaders of ISKCON make their best efforts to ensure that such valuable devotees who meet the above mentioned qualifications are carefully selected to represent Srila Prabhupada and his mission.”
By quoting the Scripture from the Nectar of Instruction purport to Text 5.
“In this Krsna consciousness movement a chance is given to everyone without discrimination of caste, creed or color. Everyone is invited to join this movement, sit with us, take prasada and hear about Krsna. When we see that someone is actually interested in Krsna consciousness and wants to be initiated, we accept him as a disciple for the chanting of the holy name of the Lord. When a neophyte devotee is actually initiated and engaged in devotional service by the orders of the spiritual master, he should be accepted immediately as a bona fide Vaisnava, and obeisances should be offered unto him. Out of many such Vaisnavas, one may be found to be very seriously engaged in the service of the Lord and strictly following all the regulative principles, chanting the prescribed number of rounds on japa beads and always thinking of how to expand the Krsna consciousness movement. Such a Vaisnava should be accepted as an uttama-adhikari, a highly advanced devotee, and his association should always be sought”.
Is there any authorization from Srila Prabhupada to any such personality or personalities to accept his or their own disciples in His Iskcon world wide before or after His manifested Lela ?
Is it not a cheating in promoting and propagating such misleading concept of Uttama-adhikari in the present Iskcon Leaders accepting their own disciples without the authorization of HDG. Srila
Prabhupada . ?
Srila Prabhupada explains further during His Conversation on April 22,1977 :
Prabhupada: What is the use of producing some rascal guru?
Tamala Krishna: Well, I have studied myself and all of your disciples, and it’s clear fact that we are all conditioned souls, so we cannot be guru. Maybe one day it may be possible…
Prabhupada: Hm.
Tamala Krishna: …but not now.
Prabhupada: Yes. I shall produce some gurus. I shall say who is guru, ‘Now you become acharya. You become authorized.’ I am waiting for that. You become, all, acharya. I retire completely. But the training must be complete.
Tamala Krishna: The process of purification must be there.
Prabhupada: Oh, yes, must be there. Caitanya Mahaprabhu wants that. Amara ajnaya guru hana. “You become guru.” (laughs) But be qualified. Little thing, strictly follower…
Tamala Krishna: Not rubber stamp.
Prabhupada: Then you’ll not be effective. You can cheat, but it will not be effective. Just see our Gaudiya Matha. Everyone wanted to become guru, and a small temple and “guru.
” What kind of guru?
OM TAT SAT.
Hari BOL.
Jai Srila Prabhupada.
Margaret Connors is actually Praghosa das (book distibutor):
http://www.harekrsna.org/gbc/black/rocana7.htm