June 01, 2011, New Zealand — Please accept my obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
Thank you for your article Burn the heretics.
Due to my limited intelligence and understanding, I may have missed some of your points in your articles. Please forgive this.
Prabhu, I am trying understand how to preach to people because, like you say, would I like to bring anyone that I care about to an Iskcon temple? Sadly the answer is no. Even here in New Zealand, from what I’ve heard and seen, devotees get banned left, right and centre at the Iskcon temple here for the smallest of things. And it feels unpleasant to go there.
Hearing about all the corruption in our society makes me so sad and angry. Sometimes I just want to scream out “ENOUGH!!!”
When I look at the world and the state it is in, I want to cry that even although Srila Prabhupada has given us the cure to help ourselves and others, we can’t take it properly or give it out properly because of all the corruption.
Which brings me to the point of the initiation system of Iskcon. My frustration about his issue drives me insane as I try to find what is MY truth in relation to Srila Prabhupada. And what do I tell new comers?
Even the Iskcon sanyasi who gave my initiation told me recently that he thinks that the system is flawed.
…So what are we supposed to do?
Personally I want to put my faith in Prabhupadas ritvik system…if Prabhupada could change the minimum number of rounds to 16, allow women to live in temples and do arati on the alter, if He could go to the west and mix with melechas, if he could as a sanyasi perform weddings and generally do what no other Vaisnava has done, then why could’nt He set up the ritvik system?
Another thing I am trying to understand is, if Prabhupada knew that He was leaving this planet, surely He would instruct the devotees on how to continue the initiation process and this mission He worked so hard to create for the deliverance of conditioned souls, by the order of HIs GuruMaharaj and Lord Krsna?
The July 9th letter seems to give the instruction, but why is there so much confusion on this matter and consequently a totally corrupt society? It all does not add up…someone is hiding something or twisting the truth…what is the TRUTH?
My heart is broken as I try to understand all these things, torn by feelings of frustration towards the very devotees who supported me in my years in Iskcon temple life back in South Africa. I have respect for all these devotees, but I can’t put my faith in them anymore. I’ve heard too much from devotees such as yourself and so many others.
May plea today, is that if there are any devotees who can give me some enlightenment on the ritvik initiation system that Prabhupada set up and you are following it, please write an article or e-mail me directly with your convictions about it, be it words from Prabhupada, experiences in Iskcon, visions or dreams of Prabhupada directly telling you to follow the ritvik system. ( I know this sounds strange, but it helps to hear from others.)
I want to follow Srila Prabhupada and if I am going to preach, I need to be able to tell people the truth. If I am going to represent Srila Prabhupada and His books and His institution, I need the whole truth. I don’t want to displease Srila Prabhupada, and follow something that He does not sanction, nor do I want to lead others astray…as that would displease Srila Prabhupada so much. I don’t want to live in the shadow of a corrupt society, which does NOT represent our Spiritual Master His Divine Grace Srila A.C Bhaktivedant Swami Prabhupada.
Mahavidya Prabhu, I don’t want to represent this apparent “Iskcon”, but I want to feel alive by serving my Spiritual Father Srila Prabhupada, just like yourself and so many others.
Fogive my arrogant enthusiasm about just going out on Sankirtan in my previous articles, I know that devotees take full shelter of the Holy names, I just want to be on that Planet Iskcon in which Srila Prabhupada resides and I wish so badly for all the devotees who are feeling such separation from Srila Prabhupada to be there too.
All glories to all the devotees of the Lord.
All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
Your servant in the service of Srila Prabhupada
Suvarna Manjari dasi (suvarna_manjari[at]rediffmail.com)
Pamdo. You will find some useful informations and links also, at our Prabhupadanuga devotee site, http://puredevoteeseva.ning.com/
You are not the only one who prefers truth despite the opulent shining bobbles of the GBC cults. Krsna bless you , me too please!
Pamho! AgtSP!
Thank you Prabhu. It’s really difficult to take the truth when one is afraid that perhaps it is not the truth…:) Kali Yuga is HECTIC!
Thanks for the blessing! May Krsna bless you too!
Throughout the history of Kali Yuga, after the departure of an empowered acharya or an empowered preacher from the vision of mundane people, things usally turn bad. In the case of Srila Prabhupada, after the disappearance of his vapu form, his vani form remains: in his books, his letters, his conversations and lecture tapes. Even his vapu form remains vividly present in pictures, films and of course His murtis. The problem is: who wants to be a servant of Srila Prabhupada, knowing him to be well and alive? And who wants to become a a replacement of Prabhupada, because Prabhupada is dead and gone? If we think that Prabhupada is dead and gone, than we will surely go astray. As the great vaishnava acharya Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur wrote: “He who thinks that a vaishnava dies does not understand. A vaishnava dies to live and living spreads the holy names around.” Prabhupada never died. He is well and alive in his words, in his teachings etc. He who thinks of Prabhupada as an ordinary being, subjected to the laws of Yamaraj, is making a big mistake. In fact, he has a hellish mentality (naraka).
Dear Jay Gurudeva das
Thank you for your words. I believe that Prabhupada is alive and here with us. And I want to accept His ritvik system. It’s just that the lines are blurred by people words and I’m afraid of making a mistake. Kali Yuga and Maya is so powerful that 2 different people may think different things and both believe that they are right.
I feel that Prabhupadas ritvik instruction is the right system for Iskcon even if there are some hard core ritviks out there who give the ritvik system a bad name.
All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
ys Suvarna