Iskcon Gurus: are they bonafide or show-bottle?

Guru Gauranga Please Wake Up
BY: B. RADHA-GOVINDA

Aug 31, MIDDLE EAST (SUN) — Addressing various points in Guru Gauranga prabhu’s article, ” Response to Vidyavan: But the Caravan will Pass “, with hopes that he will wake up to the relative realities.

Guru Gauranga dasa wrote:

“1) ISKCON Gurus are show-bottle. You accuse all ISKCON Gurus of breaking the four regulative principles and cheating disciples for material gain.
Have you any proof of any standing Guru doing these things, O saintly one. If so, the GBC will suspend or excommunicate them.”

Only when something becomes so blatantly obvious in terms of deviant behavior that the GBC can no longer hide it do they “do something” about one of their members deviations. (You asked for proof, so here is a 2009 example, with GBC Executive Committee decision to send Param Gati Swami to stay in Mayapur, (still as a sannyasi), for (in the GBC Executive Committee’s words), “recently making sexual advances to a male devotee”:

“The Governing Body Commission of ISKCON wishes to announce that Param Gati Swami has resigned from the GBC and will no longer accept disciples for initiation. The GBC has determined, following a careful investigation, that Param Gati Swami recently made sexual advances to a male devotee. The man did not welcome these advances and matters advanced no further. In pursuance of GBC direction, Param Gati Swami will be staying in Mayapur for the next year for a directed course of counseling and spiritual restoration under GBC supervision.”

Although it was not mentioned above, Param Gati Swami was previously as part of his activities (caught publicly by photo) at “rave parties,” dancing (and dressing as a “raver”. Why would a sannyasi/guru give up his sannyasa cloth to wear rave dancing clothes and become engaged in “rave dancing”? You asked for proof, so since this is one case that has become public knowledge, I can cite it here. One of your more “very famous” GBC/sannyasi/guru people has been bedding in with women, but since this has been sufficiently kept silent, I’m not going to bring that as proof to this forum. Maybe at some point, Krsna will bring that to the light as well. (So far, it’s been very well-hidden for so many years.)

Guru Gauranga dasa wrote:

“2) That the GBC has no authority.
Answer: Srila Prabhupada has empowered the GBC’s as the authority for ISKCON.”

Right now, in terms of spiritually and managerially speaking, regarding what SHOULD be and should not being followed, the GBC has NO real authority because they are NOT following Srila Prabhupada’s desires and instructions. (There were times Srila Prabhupada DISbanded the GBC due to their deviations in this regard; their NOT following according to Srila Prabhupada’s desires/instructions.) IF AND WHEN THE GBC FOLLOWS!!! SRILA PRABHUPADA’S DESIRES/INSTRUCTIONS!!! then the GBC will be empowered as authority for ISKCON.

Guru Gauranga dasa wrote:

“3) The GBC is rubber-stamping Gurus.
Answer: the GBC is not in the business of rubber-stamping Gurus. It is only when there is a request from aspiring bonafide disciples that a person is assessed for qualification.”

GG prabhu, it seems you need to “wake up and smell,” the stool. (It would have been nice to say “roses,” but right now, I’m talking about stool. One might criticise and say, “Oh, there’s the fly again; doesn’t go for the honey (or roses), but for the stool.” Well prabhu, if there is stool all over the place, unless someone is that dull-brained, one can’t avoid noticing. The good point about noticing and pointing it out, is that when others see it and get disgusted by it, they can desire that such a dirty place be made clean, and the stool-laden place transformed into something beautiful. So someone, even at times, many people has/have to first see and point out the stool and its stench: Then it can be cleaned up.)

Guru Gauranga dasa wrote:

“4) You presume that Vedic society had no Spiritual Committees and system of status vetting.

Answer: Vedic Society was highly organized, due to the affect of Kali yuga that organization degraded into the perverted caste system and Hinduism. The real system was revived by Om Vishnupada Paramahamsa 108 His Divine Grace Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Gosvami and his revered disciple, A.C.Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. It will not come to a halt with the ranting of any P.K. Avidyavan.”

Why hasn’t the GBC after all these 30+ years followed Srila Prabhupada desires/instructions to institute Varnasramdharma?, (and of course there are the so many OTHER instructions.) And why did the GBC either force or DIRECTLY KICK out SO MANY (practically all) of Srila Prabhupada’s disciples who could/ would have helped to enable/would have enabled these instructions being implemented?

“We are not Hindu, but followers of Sanatana Dharma.”

Wake up Prabhu: Maybe you had better write this to the GBC. It’s a FACT that we are NOT Hindu but followers of Sanatan Dharma. How many times Srila Prabhupada explained and reiterated this, but NOW for whatever their “convenience” purposes – generally it can be traced back to money-making – MANY of the GBC and guru people ARE calling ISKCON “Hindu,” (even some of them bringing the worship of certain devatas into the ISKCON temples).

Guru Gauranga dasa wrote:

“Welcome to the 21st Century where we have order. The dark ages of diluted Vedic culture in the form of Hinduism was purified through the Divine Filter of the Lotus Like heart of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.”

Srila Prabhupada gave this order (in the various ways the word can be applied) to us purely, but over the years, those who were SUPPOSED to follow, implement and uphold Srila Prabhupada’s instructions – the ISKCON GBC – for keeping such order, have instead DEVIATED from the instructions given to them by Srila Prabhupada, and have sent DISorder to Srila Prabhupada’s ISKCON; the GBC’s DILUTING Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s teachings, making problems for genuine practitioners of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s teachings, ( including kicking so many of them out of Srila Prabhupada’s temples, having some devotees beaten up, as well as having some devotees killed ), and putting in their own (GBC) deviations, (and I might add, clout of threat against devotees still residing “within” ISKCON).

Guru Gauranga dasa wrote:

“In your conclusion you say “Srila Prabhupada; he was faithful disciple and automatic guru by the blessing of Bhagavan”, but then you insult Srila Prabhupada and Bhagavan for producing an impotent society with show-bottle gurus!!!!”

A more accurate way to describe the present-day ITS GON society, would be to say, “By the blessing of Bhagavan, Srila Prabhupada was a Saktyvesh Avatar sent to this Earth planet to preach Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s Hari Nam Sankirtan all over the world, and to demonstrate the life of a pure devotee. In that capacity, by His example, Srila Prabhupada, Who by Bhagavan’s arrangement became the next self-effulgent Acarya in our Guru Parampara was a faithful disciple of His Guru Maharaj. As a faithful disciple of His Guru Maharaj, following Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur Prabhupada’s instructions to preach Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s message in English to the Western World, Srila Prabhupada created a most potent society, ISKCON, based on spiritual principles, dedicated to bringing Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s mission throughout the world, and wanted His disciples to uphold such in His physical absence. There were many sincere disciples of Srila Prabhupada, whose desire it was to uphold Srila Prabhupada’s desires/instructions and the purposes of Srila Prabhupada’s ISKCON mission, but due to the GBC’s deviations based on material ambitions and desires, the GBC’s forcing practically all (if not all) of these disciples to leave, ISKCON became deviated, produced many show-bottle gurus, many of whom who have fallen down in very decadent ways, and the ISKCON society became transformed into a materialistic society based on materialistic money-making and other non-spiritual principles.

Guru Gauranga dasa wrote:

“Be honest, you have out of envy acted against Srila Prabhupada and his society.”

You’re telling someone else “Be honest,” so why don’t you also “be honest”? and admit to the fact that so many of the ISKCON GBC, gurus, and other ISKCON leaders and/or managers, have NOT been honest, have deviated in MANY ways, have NOT followed Srila Prabhupada’s instructions, and have INSTEAD, in so many cases, acted out of envy for Srila Prabhupada, and envy of other devotees, including the fact that MANY of the ISKCON gurus are NOT bona fide gurus, and are instead USING “guru” as a position for their own materialistic purposes.

Guru Gauranga dasa wrote:

“This is a huge insult to our Srila Prabhupada to accuse that he was unable to produce bonafide gurus. In fact, his ISKCON is so powerful that it will produce many bona fide gurus for years together. I may be so bold as to say that all ISKCON devotees are bona fide gurus, if you tell any of them about your hallucinations they will simply call you an ignorant rascal!”

CERTAINLY Srila Prabhupada by HIS qualifications could produce bona fide gurus. And ISKCON WOULD have been VERY POWERFUL IF Srila Prabhupada’s desires/instructions had been followed. But due to the GBC’s PURPOSEFUL DEVIATIONS from Srila Prabhupada’s desires/instructions, ISKCON has been GREATLY REDUCED in it’s efficacy on all levels, including spiritual potency. IF devotees were/are properly following Srila Prabhupada’s instructions (from the top, down – yad yad acarati sresthas …) then all ISKCON devotees would be bona fide gurus. (Even a bird or ant can be accepted as guru…)

If someone was to tell me that all of my Godbrothers (and Godsisters) who are ISKCON gurus, “are ‘bona fide’ gurus” I would think them to be possessed of great foolishness.

Your servant,

Dasi, B. Radha-Govinda
Hare Krsna

—

Photos of Iskcon Gurus

—