Mahatma dasa: Some thoughts concerning the 2015 Prabhupadanuga convention

Hare Krishna Bramabhuta dasa prabhu. Respects. All glories to Srila
Prabhupada!

First of all, I am practically nobody in it all. Don’t have the intelligence nor capacity to perceive it all, what to speak of deciding what to do. I see you all God brothers as much more dedicated, smart, capable and effective than myself.
I see that all Prabhupadanugas are doing service. Some are doing significant service. You can not say otherwise. Look at all KK is doing. Incredible capacity.
At the same time, how can we say Bangalore is not doing a lot of service, when they have 21 temples 9 GBCs, are projecting a 700 feet tall temple in Mathura, a Krishna land, and project 5 million plates of Prasada 6 days a week free for school kids by 2020. They keep in communication to the best of their capacity with all types of Prabhupadanugas, despite the court attacks against them. They are the only ones that gave $15,000 to fix the bathroom in your center in New York if I am not mistaken. They have showed concern in other cases of suffering devotees.They just bought 80 acres in San Francisco and are building a 10 millions dollars temple there. Having said that, still, I know there is no service attitude, cooperative spirit, trust and love among the different camps of  Prabhupadanugas, when there should be so according to Srila Prabhupada desire.

Yes. Some have wonderful footing in philosophy, while others may not be as strong  in that field, but still are being able to do so much! I am sure, we all have anarthas, or weaknesses and bad habits, us much as we may do most impressive service among the anartha world.  By in large, we do not see or know of the sadhana of most Prabhupadanugas. Based on my experience, it is most likely that the bulk are not following as we should. Extensive studies done by the Rand Corporation, the UCLA Psychology department lead by a psychologist with two Ph.D, has concluded that we in fact have the same psychology and mental in all of ISKCON and most similar to the general population too!  So we are all pretty much the same according to this study and if you ask me and others based on our observation, as much as some may be very strong in a particular field or quality.

I see that Prabhupadanugas not only do not give credit and appreciate the service of other Prabhupadanugas, but I see that we tend to think our perspective is categorically most superior, despite the ignorance we all have about all of us following or not following as we are supposed to do, etc. We do not know, because we do not associate closely together. In fact, it seems that some devotees do not have even one close associate that they do saddhana with, on top of other services! Also, many Prabhupadanugas are not following under a GBC as Srila Prabhupada ordered!

You mentioned the DOM. It appears that the DOM was fist drafted in 1938, then worked on in 1948, 1953 and in the late 60s. It was placed as ISKCON law in 1970, but was not followed by the GBC. Nityananda dasa, has an original signed document of Srila Prabhupada’s, dated 1974, that was sent to all ISKCON leaders, stating that the DOM should be practically followed in ISKCON. But obviously and again, this order was not followed. The DOM says we should all serve under a GBC. The DOM says that temple Presidents are to elect by vote the GBC every 3 years, etc.  This is an order from Srila Prabhupada that must be followed. To not follow any order of Srila Prabhupada, is mad elephant offense, this is part of the siddhanta, but obviously, we are individually and collectively weak on this and other points of understanding, as much as we may be very solid in others. I am not making reference to this, because I think you or others are not serving under a GBC, I have no idea what 99.9% of the Prabhupadanugas do or not do. But the DOM is a most relevant point to address I feel, and this could be done at the April 2015 convention.

I have found that some Prabhupadanuga devotees take the service and donations of others happily, and some act as if they are the only and best hope for my and others spiritual life. If we just totally surrendered to they views and “saddhana.” (I write “saddhana” because in fact I have no idea if they follow fully, or they follow only a little, etc.) We never or seldom associate closely together, so I may be wrong, but I was not born yesterday, so in addition to the saddhana factor, I and others feel that if they are willing to take the service and donations, will they also be willing to take loving care of me or others, if we fully surrender to them, when we can no longer give service or donations? I and other Prabhupadanugas truly wonder if our leaders really care about us, beyond our service and financial support as it should be.  If I surrender fully to them, what will happen if I get sick and can not serve more or give donations? Will they take loving care of me as they should based on common human standards? I have my serious doubts about this. This is an important point that should be addressed. What are we doing to guarantee the well being of Prabhupadanugas that have served, are serving now or will serve in the future. Many feel that we need to have a new era of really caring for the Prabhupadanugas. An era to use new progressive tools that will make for more trust and love as Vaisnavas should have.

So this “exclusive” categorically “most superior” views of at least some of the leaders have, no longer convince many of us. Many have given up and have advised me to not waste my time, money and energy, trying to get the leaders to cooperate. They say that it’s the same old, profit, adoration and distinction! I am sorry that based on my own observations, I must at least in part agree with these observations of other God brothers and sisters. So what is very evident, is that we all still have a long ways to go, and I think that a Prabhupadanuga convention and GBC meetings as the one we are organizing, will help us all to some degree regarding all of these issues.

Srila Prabhupada tolerated all our most violent offenses. Everything from being locked in a room by crazy punks trying to take over his movement, to dealing with similar crazies making their own vyasasan to be worshiped “as good as Krishna,” to having hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars stolen from him, to not following many other orders of his, to being poisoned as the scientist said he was, advising for a criminal investigation on the case. (I paid for part of the forensic study and did other related service, so I know.) So Srila Prabhupada tolerated, was patient with us and forgave us for all of these most gross offenses. He never made a big fuzz and or gave up, and still has not given up and will never give up on helping his most rascal disciples. Now, are we so special or advanced that we will not continue to try all our crazy lives to cooperate with and have a service attitude toward the God brothers? If we “know” we have a unique view and  truly trusting and loving attitude, that will help save us and all the God brothers, how is it we may not try at every moment and take advantage of every opportunity to save the God brothers, although  this may “kill” us?  How does this kind of self centered and selfish mood reflect the mood of tolerance, patience, mercy, risk taking and compassion, exhibited by Srila Prabhupada? The God brothers somehow, are not worthy, or they do not depend  on each others mercy? I think all living entities are worthy of the same mercy Srila Prabhupada gives to all living entities, and that we should risk all, including the life of our bodies as Srila Prabhupada also demonstrated.

If you and KK feel that what you need is for you to stand on a stage and read all your conclusions and have others debate you on these, or try to better understand, etc, for more harmony, I will be most happy to try to accommodate that for you and KK. No problem. If there is something else you would like, or something in addition to that, we will be most happy to try our best to accommodate that also.

It is most urgent that we all try hard to iron as much as possible in all regards about philosophy, identity, cooperative spirit and service attitude, trust and love among Prabhupadanugas, because this does not only please Srila Prabhupada most, but it helps tremendously in protecting Srila Prabhupada, his teachings and his ISKCON society. Nothing pleases Srila Prabhupada most, than seeing humble cooperative spirit, trust and love among his disciples. In my travels and observations, I have found that there are so called Prabhupadanugas that are acting against Srila Prabhupada! Some have gone to even hate Srila Prabhupada, blaming him for “wasting” or “losing” their lives! So we have to try our hardest to be humble, admit we all have anarthas and trying to be more united and in more harmony among ourselves, for the sake defending and protecting Srila Prabhupada and his love for all of us. This will for sure make our lives much easier too!

If someone wants to come to the convention and say that only if we follow him/them in all regards, there is any hope for us all, he/she/they are welcome to try to convince the rest of us. But rest assured that I and many others will ask about some guarantees, like., how will you take loving care of me if I can no longer serve or give you financial support, etc. Of course, good answers will be expected.

So these are some of my views, which at least in part reflect the views of other Prabhupadanugas around the world, such as those I met while driving near 10,000 miles in USA and taking a couple of trips to South America, etc. The realization of many, is that we urgently need to come closer together to really please Srila Prabhupada. We need to come together as equals. The idea of serve me and my views only, is old and by at least some is taken as arrogance. So what I see is that we all have to proceed in a very considerate and more mature way. In this way, we can together launch a new truly progressive era toward true caring, trust and love among the Prabhupadanugas.

We are going forth with this convention. I am sure, those of us that will take part in this., The First International Prabhupadanuga convention and GBC meetings in Alachua next year, will accomplish a lot of our iams and more, since these devotees are very sincere and dedicated to this most noble and needed aim. We hope many others will  join us and also benefit from this convention.

Thanks for taking the time to give feed back. Of course, I would very much like further input from you, based on what I responded above. Jai all victorious Srila Prabhupada!!

Sincerely,

Mahatma dasa
718-879-0846

P.S. Hare Krishna everyone! Please send this out to those you feel may
appreciate it! Thank you!