George A. Smith: Rocana dasa’s Constitition contends with Srila Prabhupada on the subject of Guru

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In the wake of Rocana dasa’s New Constitution for ISKCON I have been examining his position on Guru Tattva based upon his own writings, While Rocana dasa’s writing style evidences that he feels rather sure of his conclusions in regards to this important matter, I find his position upon guru tattva to be both confused and logically inconsistent and as it serves to be the basis of the policy of his Constitutions policy towards gurus and their disciples within the boundaries of the Vaishnava community that his New Constitution means to legitimize and inaugurate. Simply irresponsible and a disaster in the making.

Central to Rocana’s acceptance of the qualification of someone being thought of as being an uttama-adhikari is their acceptance of Rocana dasa’s own philosophical position. Go figure. The litmus test to deduce as to whether a spiritual master is bona fide or not is dependent upon whether “he’ accepts Srila Prabhupada as a Sampradaya Acarya and if he refuses to do this, for whatever reason, he is not and one need to examine him no further. While we may personally agree with such a part of his assessment, we cannot help but to notice that after this point has been made in such articles as Rocana dasa’s “The Ultimate “Guru Test” that he rapidly loses interest, maintaining his consciousness on the issue only long enough to mask a dignified withdrawal from it, trailing off with:

“If you want to be connected to our Sampradaya’s Acaryas through a regular guru — someone who is not nitya-siddha, not on that same level — then first of all, the guru has to recognize who the sampradaya consists of. I’m not stating that persons who link you up with the Sampradaya Acaryas aren’t an essential ingredient in the guru-parampara system . So long as regular diksa gurus are following strictly in the footsteps of these topmost Acaryas in the guru-parampara, they are bonafide members of the Sampradaya.”

The Ultimate “Guru Test” Rocana dasa

Here in this statement Rocana dasa offers contradiction to Srila Prabhupada’s own claims, despite giving lip service to them in other portions of his article. The contradiction offered here my Rocana dasa is in his claim that simply by “following strictly in the footsteps of the topmost acaryas in the guru-parampara” that one is bona fide and how this disputes Srila Prabhupada’s conclusion is in this, that according to Srila Prabhupada following strictly is not good enough, one must actually be attained to the position of being an uttama-adhikari pure devotee of Lord Krsna to be qualified in the eyes of Srila Prabhupada to occupy the post of guru.

“The guru MUST be situated on the topmost platform of devotional service. There are three classes of devotees, and the guru MUST be accepted from the topmost class. The first-class devotee is the spiritual master for all kinds of people. ….When one has attained the topmost position of MAHA-BHAGAVATA, he is to be accepted as a guru and worshiped exactly like Hari, the Personality of Godhead. Only such a person is eligible to occupy the post of a guru.”

Madhya 24.330 The Sixty-One Explanations of the Atmarama Verse

It is ironic that while on the one hand Rocana is claiming that one must strictly follow in the footsteps of the acaryas that in the very same article he has attempted to divert the entire Krsna consciousness movement away from his own spiritual masters conclusions marking the worship that he himself is engaged in, image over essence, mere idolatry and what has he sacrificed on the altar of such idolatry? What has Rocana dasa fed into the flames of his own unquenchable lust for name and fame, if not position? For one thing I can think of, at least his own integrity for from railing against those who in his own esteem have become asiddhantic for preaching against Srila Prabhupada’s conclusions, Rocana dasa in now preaching against Srila Prabhupada’s conclusions on who is qualified to initiate has become asiddhantic himself.

Because Rocana dasa gives lip service to the acceptance of Srila Prabhupada’s conclusions, most notably in the first paragraph of his article, some devotees may become confused as to his final and actual offering and may see in his obvious loyalty to his own vision of Srila Prabhupada, as he presents him to us, as a Sampradaya Acarya, that which sways their minds away from the clarity of regarding any independent claims separately from the positions that they are associated with. Through finding in his logic that which we must agree with, we may be inclined to throw caution to the winds and agree with all the rest of what he presents us with which encompasses not just Srila Prabhupada’s position as Sampradaya Acarya but also who is qualified to act as guru.

As Rocana dasa states himself however ” Krsna Consciousness is Scientific” and thus Srila Prabhupada’s position as Sampradaya Acarya and the qualification of who may be accepted as being a bona fide initiating spiritual master must be seen and investigated as separate issues.

In Rocana dasa’s article, although he appears at some points to accept the conclusions offered by the acaryas, in his ultimate offering he dilutes them to the point that instead of continuing to tell us that only the topmost level of devotees are qualified to serve as gurus that now even conditioned souls are qualified to initiate, just so long as they pass the litmus test of having have accepted Srila Prabhupada’s as an Sampradaya Acarya and are seen to be following strictly. In addition he mentions that such persons must also exhibit advanced qualities:

“Naturally, gurus are required to exhibit the qualities of advanced Vaisnavas. Beyond that, this “test” is only a matter of common sense.presents to us”

Rocana dasa perhaps realizing that he has extended his nose into his own spiritual master Srila Prabhupada’s business past the point where it is safe for him to do so, seeks to make it seem to us and perhaps even to Srila Prabhupada and to Lord Krsna, that he is actually changing nothing in their presentation by providing to us the above noted reassurance.

As Rocana das does not go on to mention the qualities that an advanced Vaishnava has to exhibit to be considered bona fide, he leaves us to wonder if these must include such things as perfect elocution and good penmanship, somethings that the “sum-total of all the demigods” should find it a cinch to exhibit, to that or to feel that we are in danger of appearing to be ignorant if we look to his claim and question it.

As the bona fide spiritual master can part the ocean with a word, halt the sun in its race across the heavens, turn water into wine or even call forth to the dead that they rise up and live again what we seek as exhibition that they are qualified is something that is beyond the ability of magicians or wonder workers to falsify or duplicate. What quality, beyond all others must a Vaishnava who is qualified to occupy the post of guru display? Srila Prabhupada provides us answer to this himself in his purport to NOI 5

“…When a person realizes himself to be an eternal servitor of Krishna, he loses interest in everything but Krishna’s service. Always thinking of Krishna, devising means by which to spread the holy name of Krishna, he understands that his only business is in spreading the Krishna consciousness movement all over the world. Such a person is to be recognized as an uttama-adhikari, and his association should be immediately accepted according to the six processes (dadati pratigrihnati, etc.). Indeed, the advanced uttama-adhikari Vaishnava devotee should be accepted as a spiritual master. Everything one possesses should be offered to him, for it is enjoined that one should deliver whatever he has to the spiritual master. The brahmacari in particular is supposed to beg alms from others and offer them to the spiritual master. However, one should not imitate the behavior of an advanced devotee or maha-bhagavata without being self-realized, for by such imitation one will eventually become degraded.”

Noi 5 purport Srila Prabhupada

In the above Srila Prabhupada assures us that the only people who are actually bona fide spiritual masters are both liberated and engaged in loving devotional service to Krsna in the liberated condition. They are mot kanistha adhikaris nor are the madhyama adhikaris, they are uttama-adhikaris, liberated souls who are situated in their original consciousness’s as servitors of Krsna, They are not conditioned souls who are going up by following in the footsteps of the acaryas very strictly, they are pure devotees of Krsna who have come down to the middle position for one purpose and one purpose only, to please the Lord in His desire to bring us all back home, back home to Godhead and not only does such a bona fide spiritual master have that purpose in mind, unlike the kanistha and madhyma devotees who are going up but who are not as yet qualified or bona fide, providing that we are willing these pure devotees of Krsna have the ability to do it, to take us all the way back home to Godhead.

This is certainly a difference to what Rocana dasa presents to us, a society under whose constitution we must continually be prepared to endure such things as this:

“In both scenarios, there will be failures and disappointments. That cannot be avoided. Gurus will cheat. Disciples will make bad choices. It is not much different than a marriage. Some gurus will fool everyone as to their qualifications, then they will falldown and cheat. Others will fool everyone, but manage to not fall down publicly, or get caught. Disciples will sometimes be broken-hearted. Whether the approval process is in the hands of the individual candidate for initiation, or in the hands of institutional functionaries, still there will be cases of failure. But the process recommend in the Constitution eliminates two all-important problems: it does not go against sastra, and it does not paint the whole society and its leadership with a bad brush when a guru falls down or is found to be unqualified.”

Constitutional Issues: ‘Rubber Stamp’ Approvals Part 2

The other “scenario” that Rocana dasa is referring to is , of course, ISKCONs current way of doing things but since what Rocana dasa offers us under his new Constitutional society provides for us no different, it would be wise perhaps to ask “It doesn’t work so why change it for something else that doesn’t work?” Rocana’s counter to this in so many words is that he hopes that it will not work as bad, but if you’re going to try to fix something, some piece of equipment for instance, why try to replace one defective part with another part that is also defective? Why not simply replace the broken piece with one that works? Why not then, instead of offering kanistha and madhyama level devotees to prospective initiates offer them instead the pure devotee Srila Prabhupada? Because you don’t believe in it? Hardly scientific Rocana dasa and since your already preaching asiddhantic yourself by your telling us that it’s ok for gurus who are on the lower to middle level to come into your society and to bring their disciples with them, to what shall we actually attribute your lack of acceptance of the Rtviks into tour new scheme of things for the devotees to? Would it be to your own envy or to your lack of faith or simply to your own confusion which you have become to proud and puffed up to admit to?

In Rocana dasa’s article he cites the reasons or gives the excuses for his proposition in regards to his fumbling changes when he writes:

“But the process recommend in the Constitution eliminates two all-important problems: it does not go against sastra, and it does not paint the whole society and its leadership with a bad brush when a guru falls down or is found to be unqualified. What it does do is ensure a system in which, immediately upon disclosure of a problem, decisive action is taken by the leadership, with full disclosure.”

We have already seen that Rocana dasas first claim is false by it’s allowance of less than uttama-adhikari pure devotees of Krsna to serve as initiating furus under his new Constitution, now we look to his second claim to examine its credence:

“it does not paint the whole society and its leadership with a bad brush when a guru falls down or is found to be unqualified”

It doesn’t? Rocana seems to forget the general reaction of the public to such News Headlines as that informed the public that :The Hare Krishna’s” were drug smuggling or the reaction that they had to Monkey on a Stick. If Rocana dasa is so naive though as to think that such an open door invitation as he is making now to whoever wants to come into his new society to ultimately take over it and to exploit its membership and to pervert it to a degree even worse than the Zonals ever did, then someone who cares about him should bring him to his senses for he has totally forgotten about Maya but she has not however forgotten about him. Let us all pray for Srila Prabhupada’s mercy upon Rocana dasa and all of those foolish enough to sign such a devils pact. We are reminded of the sign over the Inferno “Abandon all hope, ye who enter within.”

Srila Prabhupada is our greatness, offer his mercy to everyone then perhaps they will not begrudge us all for the faults of being sometimes fools and for having sometimes followed those who were less even than the beasts in our foolishness and self delusion.

Hare Krsna

George A. Smith