Krishnakant, editor Back To Prabhupada: In the BTP 23 article “Any nonsense will do”, we demonstrated via the words of ISKCON GBC voted-in guru HH Sivarama Swami (“SRS”) the nonsense philosophy spouted by ISKCON’s gurus to justify their existence as gurus. For example, we cited SRS stating that ISKCON’s gurus are essentially ritvik priests in the way they operate, but they should still be worshipped as good-as-God even if they display personality flaws or a lack of spiritual realization. We can now add more nonsense from the mouth of SRS to the above, providing further proof that, as far as the guru hoaxers are concerned, indeed, “any nonsense will do”!
Gurus have to be deviants!
“And we can see that our present day gurus are not necessarily self-realized souls, otherwise we wouldn’t be falling down, what to speak of even leaving the path of Krishna Consciousness. And particularly that deviation takes place when you’re talking about such conditioned souls — conditioned souls who make mistakes, have imperfect senses, a tendency to be illusioned and when they don’t follow strictly their parampara, then there will be deviation. How can you guard against it? You can’t. This is Kali-yuga.”
(SRS Podcast, December 13th, 2009)
SRS openly admits that ISKCON’s gurus are not necessarily self-realized, because so many have fallen down. Having confessed that ISKCON’s gurus may not be self-realized, SRS also admits that, as such, they will deviate, and that, furthermore, one can do nothing to improve the situation because this is the Kali-yuga. Hence, he is basically condemning the ISKCON guru system, telling everyone to accept that their gurus may deviate.
Gurus do not have to be deviants!
“When sadhus and gurus are self-realized souls, then there’s no deviation. Then there’s no apasampradaya. Then there’s no falling away from the sampradaya and no deviation of the philosophy.”
(SRS Podcast, December 13th, 2009)
Having said that one cannot stop gurus deviating because they are conditioned and it is Kali-yuga, SRS contradicts himself in the same podcast by declaring boldly that as long as gurus are self-realized, then there will be no deviation!
Therefore, by SRS’s own statements, the answer is to accept the self-realized guru, Srila Prabhupada, rather than the fallible gurus offered today by ISKCON’s GBC.
What did I just say?!
“I can’t choose a spiritual master instructing or otherwise for someone I don’t know!” (SRS Podcast, December 2nd, 2009)
SRS now cannot even remember what he himself had just said, for he had just stated that:
“Of course, Srila Prabhupada is the Founder-Acarya, his instructions, his personality is also there as the siksa guru of ISKCON.”
(SRS Podcast, December 2nd, 2009)
So he can choose an instructing spiritual master (siksa guru) for everyone, and that person is Srila Prabhupada, ISKCON’s very own Founder-Acarya!
One rule for me, another for you!
“Sadhus are those who were once guru, but they are no longer physically present […] yes, although Srila Prabhupada is the Founder-Acarya, but he is also now sadhu. […] And as long as present day gurus are following Srila Prabhupada and thereby following the previous sadhus, then the parampara will not deviate.”
(SRS Podcast, December 13th, 2009)
SRS claims here that Srila Prabhupada was “once guru”, but now that he is no longer physically present, he is relegated to only being a “sadhu”. Instead, “present-day” ISKCON gurus, like SRS, who will be following the previous sadhus such as Srila Prabhupada, should be followed. Yet, Srila Prabhupada has never taught that once a guru is no longer physically present, he ceases to be guru. This is simply SRS’s fabrication. Indeed, SRS’s own example proves that the guru’s physical presence is not required in order for that person to be accepted as guru:
“For almost five years I had seen and known Prabhupada visually from photos […] But I had never seen Prabhupada in person […] Then I understood that the spiritual master is non different than his picture […] I accepted the information I was receiving from the book as perfect […] That was the first personal contact with his Divine Grace, although I had been an initiated devotee for two years.”
(SRS, “Meeting Srila Prabhupada”)
SRS was able to accept and get initiated by Srila Prabhupada without requiring Srila Prabhupada’s physical presence at all. Yet, hypocritically, SRS now wishes to impose Srila Prabhupada’s physical presence as being a requirement for everyone else.
In this way SRS is attempting to try and eliminate Srila Prabhupada as being a potential guru for those joining ISKCON. SRS needs to do this since he is a competitor guru, and thus needs to keep potential recruits for himself and his guru hoaxer colleagues.
I am a hypocrite
“It’s your responsibility to see that if someone else is deviating, that if you’re a guru, or gurus are deviating, that you don’t follow and by not following you insure that there isn’t a deviant sampradaya. If someone shows you the wrong path, then, tyaga, then you have to reject that person. […] We’ve seen that unfortunately over the decdes since Srila Prabhupada’s disappearance that many times this has taken place. Devotees have had to take a stand and say, “No, I will not follow this wrong example.””
SRS here gives a green signal to the IRM’s program. He states that we must openly take a stand and reject ISKCON gurus who are deviating. This is exactly what the IRM has done. We have documented in our papers, with incontrovertible proof, that SRS and all the ISKCON gurus are deviating from Srila Prabhupada’s orders. Our proof in this regard remains unanswered to this day. Rather, the response of SRS has simply been to viciously ban and drive out IRM members for simply taking his advice to stand up against the deviant gurus.
In Parts 1 and 2 of our HH Sivarama Swami (“SRS”) special series of nonsense (see BTP 23 and page 15 of this issue), we highlighted this leading ISKCON GBC voted-in guru declaring that:
1) ISKCON gurus essentially operate as “ritvik” priests, but should nonetheless be worshipped as saksad-hari, or as good-as-God.
2) One should find a “present day” guru in ISKCON, although such a guru will be a non-realized conditioned soul who may possibly fall down and leave Krishna consciousness altogether, or else will be the cause of a deviation (apasampradaya).
Below we see SRS continuing his nonsense theme that one should still accept a guru, even if he is bad:
HH Sivarama Swami says:
‘Guru does not have to be a good guy’
“Now the devotee continues to say, this is the second question, he says, “Sadly for some reason or another I cannot make my spiritual master my worshipful Deity and source of my life.”[…] However, I would start off that the principle has to be accepted and is important, and by investing faith in that principle that actually one can really go a long way to achieving what this verse describes one way or another. By that I mean a policeman may be not nice looking, gruff, not a nice person, but when he tells you to stop at the red light then you stop at the red light. He doesn’t have to be a good guy for you to do that. Why? Because he’s representing a principle and it’s a principle that you follow. […] The same thing with spiritual master.”
(HH Sivararma Swami, Podcast, December 2nd, 2009)
His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada disagrees:
Reporter: But the bad gurus…
Srila Prabhupada: And what is a “bad” guru?
Reporter: A bad guru just wants some money or some fame.
Srila Prabhupada: Well, if he is bad, how can he become a guru? (Laughter.) How can iron become gold? Actually, a guru cannot be bad, for if someone is bad, he cannot be a guru. You cannot say “bad guru”. That is a contradiction. What you have to do is simply try to understand what a genuine guru is. […] A guru cannot be bad. There is no question of a bad guru […] Guru means “genuine guru.”
(Srila Prabhupada interview with The Times, London, The Science of Self-Realization)
Hence, the guru must always be “good”. Furthermore, someone is not a policeman simply by putting on a uniform that makes him look like a policeman. He must be authorized. Is SRS authorized? It is the burden of the policeman to show he is authorized. It is not the burden of the citizen, when ordered by someone, to prove that the person is not a policeman. SRS has not stated how he has been authorized by Srila Prabhupada. Rather, he has admitted he was authorized via his own initiative of applying to get the necessary number of votes from the GBC, due to being asked to become a guru by a young girl:
“At this time I also was asked to take up the role of initiating spiritual master. I didn’t consider that this would be very conducive to my personal spiritual life and I was satisfied for others to do that service and that I would stay in the role of sannyasi, a preacher, siksa guru, personal spiritual life and I was satisfied for others to do that service and that I would stay in the role of sannyasi, a preacher, siksa guru, GBC, and probably it was at Gaurangi’s* repeated prompting that ultimately I began to think seriously of that service and took it up.” (HH Sivarama Swami, Podcast, October 4th, 2006)
*at the time a young female devotee, and now a disciple.
Know The Truth:
The solution to all this ISKCON confusion is clearly explained in the book, “The Final Order”.
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