Thursday, January 7, 2010: I am a former disciple of an ISKCON guru named Bhakti Vikasa Swami. I read The Final Order a few months ago and I came to accept the fact that Srila Prabhupada never authorized anyone to become diksa gurus. Srila Prabhupada only authorized ritvik acharyas, or priests who initiate others on behalf of Srila Prabhupada.
My own personal experience with Bhakti Vikasa Swami (BVKS) was mostly positive. I can attest to the purity of his character, that he doesn’t associate unnecessarily with women, and has not had any falldowns from the sannyasa ashram. He is also quite scholarly and experienced in Vedic culture. We are not attacking his character. But nor can we testify that we believe he is a liberated soul, which is the qualification to act as a diksa guru. How can one untie the knots of illusion of others if they themselves are not fully freed from the ropes of illusion?
I also want to make it very clear that I am not doubting the sincerity of BVKS’s absolute dedication to Srila Prabhupada. It was his utmost surrender to Srila Prabhupada which originally attracted me to select him as a guru. Another quality of his that I find to be very inspiring is his tremendous enthusiasm for preaching. And yet another quality of his that I personally found to be inspiring is his staunch opposition to the apasiddhantas of feminism, homosexuality, psychology, and secular liberal humanism.
BVKS has many wonderful qualities, but we feel that he has fallen into the trap of thinking himself a guru, just like so many other senior disciples of Srila Prabhupada.
It has been the experience of many former disciples of ISKCON gurus that their ISKCON guru served as an obstacle to their relationship with Srila Prabhupada, rather than help develop that relationship. It is as if the ISKCON guru comes between the devotee and Srila Prabhupada, cutting off the devotee from Srila Prabhupada.
Again, I have nothing against BVKS, I have only affection for him. But until he begins to follow Srila Prabhupada’s Final Order, which is that he should act as a ritvik acharya, initiating people on behalf of Srila Prabhupada and who are thus considered Srila Prabhupada’s disciples and not his own, I cannot risk jeopardizing my relationship with Srila Prabhupada by associating with him.
The fact remains that Srila Prabhupada never set up a diksa guru system in ISKCON. He established a ritvik acharya system, devotees who would act as priests and initiate people to be Srila Prabhupada’s disciples. Of course ISKCON gurus never teach this part of ISKCON’s history to their so called disciples.
Don’t the disciples of all these ISKCON gurus ever stop long enough to ask themselves the question “Hey, where are all of Srila Prabhupada’s disciples and why are most of them not in ISKCON anymore?” The answer to this question is that after Srila Prabhupada departed in 1977, the 11 devotees Srila Prabhupada named to become ritvik acharyas disobeyed Srila Prabhupada and made themselves into diksa gurus. In other words, they stole new devotees from Srila Prabhupada and made them into their own disciples. For this offense against Srila Prabhupada, most of the original 11 fell down into scandalous behavior, while others deviated philosophically from Srila Prabhupada, or both. Any disciple of Srila Prabhupada who protested against these bogus gurus were kicked out of ISKCON, or even murdered sometimes. Naturally, most Srila Prabhupada disciples packed their bags and voluntarily left ISKCON.
This deviation of becoming a diksa guru instead of becoming a ritvik acharya which is what Srila Prabhupada ordered, has nearly totally destroyed the Hare Krishna movement. The only thing that can unite the devotees again is if everyone again centers around Srila Prabhupada’s lotus feet, and all of the ISKCON gurus surrender their so called disciples back to Srila Prabhupada’s lotus feet. This is the only hope.
Hare krishna.
One of the main problems that i have with this sort of letter is trying to understand what Prabhu means in his useage of the English language.
If as he says he is a former disciple of BVKS then he must have been following BVKS discipline as a Diksa Guru,otherwise what does he mean by “disciple”.
If he means he took initiation from BVKS then thats a different matter.
Does anyone know the difference between the words and meaning of “disciple” and “initiate”.
The Iskcon jargon seems to be hugely mixed up and misappropriated.
Surely we can be disciples of BVKS and be initiated by Srila Prabhupada at the same time.
Disciple just means either being helped in the discipline that Srila Prabhupada taught by a senior devotee,nothing wrong in that,or in a superior meaning can be an initiated disciple of Srila Prabhupada.
If we ALL dont agree on what is meant by Diksa Guru then it just becomes arbitrary.
Either the “Gurus” in Iskcon are Diksa Gurus or they are not,there is no half-way house of a neo Diksa Guru,not that i have read about.
Srila Prabhupada has outlined all the characteristics,qualifications and authenticity of what is a Diksa Guru.Srila Prabhupada has listed the different qualifications of Vaisnavas and which platform a Diksa Guru is situated,Nectar of Instruction text 5 is a good example,and these instructions are axiomatic,they dont change through time so why is there so many problems all the time with Iskcon devotees trying to figure out who and what is the Diksa Guru.
If there is another Diksa Guru after Srila Prabhupada then He would have succeeded Srila Prabhupada in Disciplic Succession as in the parampara system.We ALL know that has not happened,not even nearly happened.So what is the problem,Srila Prabhupada would have made it abundantly clear back in 1977 who was to Succeed Him IF He had seen another qualified Diksa Guru from amongst the devotees of that time.
All Srila Prabhupada indicated was the Officiating Acharya system,no more no less.
If we follow Srila Prabhupadas discipline then we are His disciples.
If we Hear from Srila Prabhupada through His tapes ,Books then our Eternal bond between Spiritual Master and Disciple begins at that time,Initiation.
The rest is up to us to follow sincerely and more importantly transparently,keep asking questions and Srila Prabhupada will answer them through His Vani.Srila Prabhupada ,the Bona Fide Spiritual Master exists in His Vapuh for some time then in His Vani Eternally and we can all access Him through Transcendental Sound Vibration,through His Instructions and through His Books.
“These are not ordinary Books.It is recorded chanting.Anyone who reads,he is Hearing.” Letter to Rupanuga.19/10/74.
I also noticed the contradiction with using the word “former”, but I don’t know how else to describe it. I joined ISKCON, was told by ISKCON leaders that I had to take diksa from an ISKCON guru, and so I was simply blindly following them. If I had used my own intelligence, I probably would not have rushed into it.
Let’s face it. ISKCON is cheating people, either intentionally or unintentionally. But people are being told that they can’t choose Srila Prabhupada as their guru, and they have to follow some “living guru” who is a conditioned soul. Sorry, but I will not accept a conditioned soul as a guru.
I have no problem with others who choose to follow an ISKCON guru. It is not from the ritvik camp that all of this fighting has started. Madhu Pandit Prabhu is not the one who is going around attacking others and trying to start fights.
All of the problems can be solved if we simply go back to Srila Prabhupada’s lotus feet and accept Him as the guru of the Hare Krishna movement, and that all of the ISKCON gurus should simply be relegated as ritvik-acharya gurus, and perhaps siksa-gurus in some cases.
“Srila Prabhupada is our leader, the holy name is our main weapon and the original Bhagavad Gita As It Is, is our war plan. “