Ritviks and ISKCON: The Line is Beginning to Blur
BY: SUN STAFF (Rocana dasa)
Nov 12, 2012 — CANADA (SUN) — Over the years, the Ritvik-vada adherents have always made an effort to boldly differentiate themselves from the GBC-run ISKCON. Pointing to the many ways in which ISKCON is compromising Srila Prabhupada’s standards, they have tirelessly preached the notion that bogus guru-tattva philosophy is at the bottom of all the problems, and if ISKCON would just get on board with their Ritvik-vada, everything would come right.
[PADA: No one ever said “everything will be all right”? When Srila Prabhupada was being worshiped in the 1970s — that means everything was all right? No! Rocana is dreaming in colors? Sorry! It is a well known fact — that EVEN when Srila Prabhupada was here AND he was being worshiped, there were STILL major problems manifesting all the time. Hence: we never said his worship would end all “the troubles”? What we are doing is converting individuals to worship HDG, but we are not telling them “all the troubles will end” thereby? This is Rocana’s foolish speculation.
What we ALWAYS said was — even when Srila Prabhupada was here — there were problems. HOWEVER, unless people worship a pure devotee they will not go back to Godhead. That is all we ever said. Re-establishing HDG’s worship is simply a start to get things on track, we never said — this will “make everything all right.” What we are discussing is: establishing the right siddhanta, that we have to worship a pure devotee as our guru namely HDG, … not whether or not devotees have “troubles”? For that matter, the Pandavas, Prahlad maharaja, Mother Sita and of course people like Lord Jesus had all kinds of “troubles” despite being nice devotees, are we better than they are, that we can expect no troubles at all?]
RD: But in fact, as the poisonous influence coming from ISKCON Bangalore spreads, forming little pockets of asiddhantic Ritvikism around the world, we can now see that just the opposite is true: the problems in ISKCON are not being solved by the Ritviks, but rather are being replicated.
[PADA: OK, so now Rocana says that the worship of Srila Prabhupada is “poisonous apa-siddhantic.” That is what the GBC gurus say, — as does the Gaudiya Matha etc. Worship of pure devotees is poison? Yes, Narayana Maharaja ALSO said the ritviks are poison. Rocana is just a disciple of the Gaudiya Matha. That means Rocana wants us to worship — Rocana? He thinks he is the higher authority since he claims — the process of worship of the pure devotee is bogus. Rocana wants us to worship his idea and not HDG’s idea. Clearly Rocana is just as envious of Srila Prabhupada as are the bogus GBC’s gurus, many of them ALSO say that worship of the pure devotee is poison. NOTICE: Rocana repeats some of the GBC guru’s and NM’s slogans, hence — they are birds of a feather.]
RD: Climbing onto the Ritvik platform was apparently seen by Madhu Pandit das and the Bangalore leaders as a move of political expediency, and it did serve to temporarily get them out from under the fist of ISKCON leaders.
[PADA: Worship of the pure devotee is good for “political expediency”? Rocana is making Srila Prabhupada’s worship into a mundane political issue. Of course, that is also what Tamal said, the Prabhupadanuga worship idea is “politics.” Rocana is a disciple of Tamal. Also notice that Rocana admits his living guru idea is “living under an iron fist”? Why is Rocana promoting the main theme of the iron fisted folks against our devotees, the living guru idea? That means, Rocana is part of the iron fisted process himself.]
RD: (Except, of course, for the very costly lawsuit they’ve been saddled with.) But there are other drivers behind the Bangalore Ritvik phenomenon besides just guru-tattva, and two of these are Hindu Culture and Money. These two popular catalysts have been well known in the devotee community for many years.
[PADA: OK, so the ritviks are at times organizing the Hindus to help their program of worship of the pure devotee, this might be every bad — except Rocana has no program at all? We have nothing to compare the ritvik program vs Rocana’s program because — Rocana has no temples, no devotees, no programs, no nothing. At least the ritviks have something to show for their preaching? Rocana’s idea is clear, he wants to have no programs, no temples, no preaching, no books going out, nothingness? This is sunnyavada (atheist), “nothingness” is the highest ideal. The ritviks have some program at least, whereas Rocana has never had any, and that is why most of the people posting articles on his site are concocted made up names, he has no followers so he has to make their names up.]
RD: Nowhere is the proliferation of Hinduism in ISKCON more regularly criticized than here in the Sun.
[PADA: Rocana’s living guru idea is itself coming from Hinduism?]
RD: Fortunately, many devotees are moved to write about the manifestation of this blight on Srila Prabhupada’s movement, and thousands of readers appreciate hearing what these writers have to say. And what they say is something we all know very well… money is the honey, and in ISKCON, the Indian community is where the honey comes from.
[PADA: True, except right now — the Western devotees are mostly gone, and thus there is hardly anyone collecting money from selling books. Thus, most current temples are running on Hindu donations. Agreed. Yet Rocana does not say, where is the money to maintain the temples going to come from instead? Rocana has no better plan? Rocana de facto says, stop making money altogether and shut down all the temples. OK, then the deities will have no temples, no garlands, no food offerings, no money to support the preaching etc., Nothingness is better than something? Sour grapes! Rocana just wants everything to stop. What kind of plan is this, just stop the whole program that is going on now and have no income at all? Shut the whole thing down and have nothing like Rocana does, what kind of plan is that? Rocana wants no temples, no deities, no books, no devotees being made, nothing at all, that is his better plan?]
RD: So despite all the efforts the Bangalore Ritviks make to put themselves above the rest of ISKCON, by watching the programs that go on in their local centers, one can see that the very same problems are there.
[PADA: Corporate ISKCON worship the molester messiahs program, no, we do not have that problem at all?]
RD: Take for example the recent invitation featured on the Ritvik website, Prabhupadanugas.eu, for an upcoming program at the Sri Krishna Balaram Mandir in Sunnyvale, California. This was the first Bangalore-supported Ritvik temple to be launched in the U.S. In photos of the temple’s early days, e.g., at the inauguration festivities, we saw local Ritvik granddaddy, Yasodanandana dasa, standing benignly behind a beaming crowd of Indian-bodied devotees. What we didn’t see, however, were pictures of Yasodanandana actually preaching from the asana. Given that Yasodanandana is California’s governor of Ritvik-vada, we were surprised not to see him promoted as one of the key preachers.
If one keeps an eye on the periodically advertised activities going on at the Sunnyvale temple, they will see a slate of activities very reminiscent of Hari Vilasa’s ISKCON Seattle temple: one Hindu festival after another, after another, punctuated by non-Gaudiya Vaisnava Indian cultural events, Mayavadi and New Age preaching, and all manner of offensive goings-on in front of the Deities.
We have long taken great exception to ISKCON Seattle’s style of advertising promo pieces, which devotees in their congregation regularly send to us. The devotees are appalled by the grossness of disregard temple management shows for Srila Prabhupada’s standards. Over and over, we have seen flyers for temple events that combine a festival Srila Prabhupada established, along with whatever Hindu event was falling close to that date on the calendar. Repeatedly we have seen Seattle posters that give prominence to the Hindu festival, putting the Vaisnava event at the bottom of the page, where a tiny picture of Lord Caitanya and Srila Prabhupada is found, dwarfed by some other Hindu figure or symbol.
[PADA: Rocana has no documents advertising anything to send out to anyone, he has nothing at all going on. Zero.]
RD: Today we read the promo piece from the Sunnyvale Ritvik temple event — not billed as Deepotsava or the Festival of Lord Damodar, but rather as Deevali. And tacked onto the agenda after the offering of lamps and arati to Damodar is “Rama Taraka Yajna”. But when did Srila Prabhupada include the chanting of Rama mantras during a festival in honor Lord Damodar?
[PADA: OK again, Rocana’s program has no temples, no deities, no programs at all, no chanting to either Lord Damodara or Lord Rama or anyone else, no nothing. Why is nothing better than some non-standard “chanting to Lord Rama”? At least these people are chanting to Lord Rama, whereas in Rocana’s program — no one is chanting anything to anyone? At least chanting to Lord Rama is better than no chanting whatsoever?]
RD: Last month’s workshop offering at Sunnyvale was also similar to typical ISKCON temple fare these days. A seminar called “Art of Mind Control” made reference to Arjuna and the Upanishads, but promised to deliver a solution that doesn’t come from Bhagavad-gita or Srila Prabhupada’s instructions. Instead, they are selling “never-before-heard-of strategies and never-before-used applications”. But what was wrong with the techniques and strategies Sri Krsna provided to Arjuna for controlling the mind and senses, which are ageless and perfect?
[PADA: Well for the record, the Sunnyvale temple tells people to chant Hare Krishna as a means of mind control. Not sure what is the harm of that? Rocana has no program to help anyone, he is not helping one single person do anything of value whatsoever. At least we have some program where we tell people to control the mind by chanting HARE KRISHNA, we have something going on at least, Rocana has nothing at all going on.]
Sunnyvale’s ‘Art of Mind Control’ Workshop: “The Upanishads say that for one who has conquered the mind, the mind is the best of friends; but for one who has failed to do so, his mind will remain the greatest enemy. Arjuna characterized the mind to be restless, turbulent, obstinate and very strong, and thought subduing it would be more difficult than controlling the wind.
Be trained in making this powerful phenomenon as a friend to achieve inconceivable feats. Take charge of this subtle weapon at one’s disposal waiting to be unleashed. Discover never-before-heard-of strategies and never-before-used applications.”
[PADA: Right, the never heard before process is to chant Hare Krishna. Apparently, Rocana has never heard of this either. ys pd]
“Yes, Narayana Maharaja ALSO said the ritviks are poison..”
This much is true, although other than the two women that he made this statement to I believe that I am the only other witness to it.
Narayana Maharaja made this claim in the moments following a lecture that he had given in the Marina area near Venice in Los Angeles some years before his sanga opened the Rose Street temple (which has for the second time shut it’s doors and looks to have finally failed).
This was the first time that I had even been in Naryanas presence and had gone there at the erging of one Puru dasa. I had but recently returned from a long abscence from the Krsna consciousness movement, since some several months before Srila Prabhupada’s disappearance and was just again getting my feet wet, so to speak.
Some weeks prior to going to see Narayana Maharaja I had found out about the rtviks and had actually attended a rtvik initiation ceremony. I had been much impressed with the sincerity of the young man who was initiated that night and also with a young couples who were all about serving Srila Prabhupada and Krsna consciousnes movement.
When I had first made the acquaintence of such young men and women, all of whom who had given up their lives as an offering to Srila Prabhupada, who had given up everything to push this Krsna consciousness movement on they had all of them been honored and praised by Srila Prabhupada himself and Srila Prabhupada himself had given them the name of the greatest thing that any man or woman could ever be, Srila Prabhupada had called them devotees.
Following the conclusion of Narayana Maharajas lecture as everyone else was gathering to leave I remained sitting where I was, less than a dozen feet away from and right in front of him. There was enough movement and milling around to distract him away from noticing the intensity of my appraisal of him, otherwise he might have noticed that my glance was neither approving or dissaproving. Puru das had told me that he considered Narayana Maharaja to be on par with Srila Prabhupada, to be a pure devotee. What I had found ourt independendently through the testemony of others was that Puru was on what he considered to be a mission in Narayana Maharaja’s service, a mission that did not bode well for my acceptance of Narayana Maharaja as being what Puru claimed of him to be; Krsna’s pure devotee and the successor to Srila Prabhupada and the rightful heir to Srila Prabhupada’s ISKCON.
This mission that Narayana Maharaja had reportably set Puru up to, and which he himself confirmed to me was true was something that I had found one of the victims of the first time I had ever heard of Puru dasa. That service consisted of going about savaging anyone who did not agree with Puru’s appraisal of Narayana Maharaja, something that Puru did quite joyously and without any slightest bit of remorse.
Having never liked bullies myself I followed his trail and tracked him down and then gave him a taste of his own medicine, or in other words I made him hurt. There are two types of bullies, Puru was the type that the only way that you could get him to respect you was to beat him up, after which he considered me to be his friend and out of friendship invited me to go and to see Narayana Maharaja.
Even though I had only been in the movement for around a year all told, I had learned a little something, one of which was that you should judge a man, not so mutch by his words but by his activities. This understanding which the devotees had passed on to me allowed me to see Narayana Maharaja’s appointment of Puru as his grand executioner across the forums of the old VNN web site as exactly what it was. Puru absolutely loved going about and savaging even women who did not agree that Narayana Maharaja was all that he claimed to be. These were devotees who he was harming and taking out his frustrations upon with such savagery and utter disregard for the pain he was inflicting and Narayana Maharaja had given him the license to do this. Narayana Maharaja was manipulating Puru by Puru’s vices. and encouraging him to commit Vaisvava aparadha with utter disregard for the spiritual consequences and how these might impact Puru das.
Rather than refuse Puru gift of an invitation to see Narayana Maharaja I went and listened to his lecture but it was not until his lecture had concluded and he was making small talk with the devotees that were fixing to leave that I became impressed with him, NEGATIVLY.
Two women came up to him and asked him if it would be alright with him if they could go over to New Dwarka to attend the Prabhupada centinial festivities. It was then he made this statement that the Rtviks were poison. It was made as part of a complete sentence which included both his ok for them to go and then, a statement that ISKCON was alright and an admonishment to just stay away from the rtviks because “The Rtviks are poison.”
As I said when I had come to the movement those wonderful young men and women who had given up their lives to the service of Krsna through their surrender to Lord Krsnas dear servant Srila Prabhupada were called deevotees. Here before me however was a person who was calling these men and women or the exact same type of them “poison” while he tried to look cute for the ladies, and then he did something else that he should not have done; he laughed at the cuteness of what his own witicism and when I heard this, this irresponsible leader making such a comment about the nice young man who had taken intitiation the night I had attended the rtvik ceremony, the nice devotee couple in the desert struggling very hard to establish a mission for Srila Prabhupada and Lord Krsnas pleasure…when I heard this man Narayana Maharaja speak so disparagingly about the devotees, calling them poison, poisoners and thus placing them into a category fit only for elimination I became very angry with him and spent the following years up to his demise writing a series of articles, “What I Think of Narayana Maharaja…” some of which appear on this site and others of which appear upon Rocana’s Sampradaya Sun.
George A. Smith