Tags

, , , , , , ,

This is a reply to a comment from Seeker to the Sri Srila Prabhupada-asstaakaam post.

In Seeker’s comment he links to a few posts on ISKCON guru Trivikrama Swami’s blog, quotes from them, and comments. He points out the bizarre status accorded to Prabhupada in those links, and in the ISKCON community in general. One thing Seeker wrote was this:

Fact is stranger than fiction – any amount of sarcasm to point out flaws in the concept of guru as understood by ISKCON is overcome effortlessly by the comments of ISKCON gurus. Nothing is more hilarious than reality, it seems. Their articles make me wonder what kind of inner world that these gurus must be dwelling in – for example, in this link, an innocent devotee asks what should he do if he hears Srila Prabhupada’s statements being commented as wrong and the guru replies that he should protest and should even be willing to give up his life – scary.

When I was in ISKCON 30-35 years ago, when it came to how Prabhupada was represented, it was quite different than it is now. You wouldn’t hear people speak about Prabhupada having a special position above everyone else. Of course he was spoken of as being special and above all of us, but the attitude was that because we were all so new to bhakti-yoga that of course someone like Prabhupada was special and above us (what to speak of non-devotees). His specialness was taught as being a relative specialness, and, that all of us could attain his level of being eternally liberated, 100% self-realized, and in a direct one on one relationship with Krishna. Of course, Prabhupada was promoted in awe and reverence, but not because he was being taught as some special type of being, as a one of a kind person in all of history—it was because of his books, and how ISKCON began, along with it’s rapid growth, that Prabhupada was held in special awe and veneration. That ISKCON origin story was presented as a miraculous event, as if it was a superhuman feat. But, it was presented as Prabhupada’s empowerment by Krishna due to Prabhupada’s devotion to strictly obeying his guru’s “orders.”

Prabhupada was used as an example of what we could achieve if we also strictly followed our guru’s orders. Prabhupada wasn’t taught as being above any and all faults; you weren’t assailed as a blasphemous demon if you disagreed with anything Prabhupada taught. It was the general mood that it didn’t matter if Prabhupada made mistakes in things he said, he didn’t have to be seen as above making mistakes. It was drilled into our heads that the sole qualification of the spiritual master was in not changing the teachings. If the guru made some mistakes about any variety of other things, that wasn’t seen as diminishing him, and it wasn’t forbidden to disagree with those things. The importance of the parampara was stressed, the strict adherence to “not speculating” was stressed. The all-importance of handing down the unchanged teachings as the qualification for being a guru was taught as what differentiated ISKCON from all the “bogey yogis” who presented themselves with possessing mystic powers as their qualification to be gurus. It was stressed that Prabhupada wanted all of us to be gurus just like him.

And that was why ISKCON transformed so seamlessly and completely into the zonal acharya era after Prabhupada left. Of course many didn’t like it, but that had to do with their belief that those gurus weren’t yet advanced enough to be treated as if they had attained the highest level of God consciousness, as was the presumption about Prabhupada’s position. It wasn’t the idea of the new gurus being treated like Prabhupada that was a problem that was spoken about (at first). The idea or paradigm of their being treated as if they were intimately relating with God, and that they should be surrendered to wholeheartedly as highly qualified empowered leaders, wasn’t the problem. The idea wasn’t the problem, it was the guys filling that paradigm that many had a problem with.

The ritvik ideology grew out of a lack of faith in those gurus. Not long after the zonal acharya era began in 1977-78, a few prominent members (Pradyumna dasa, Jadurani dasi, Kailasa candra dasa, and Yasodanandana dasa) began to criticize the new system, they wrote and gave out tracts in defiance of the new ISKCON. But, their criticism was limited to the qualifications of the new gurus, not the paradigm. They were expelled from ISKCON for their activity, but they affected many members, being as they were respected members of the community. As the years went by, the eccentric, cruel, or criminal behavior of some of the gurus became more and more apparent. In the early 1980s Yasodanandana created the ritvik ideology. Within a few years many people had bought into it, with different groups having different interpretations.

The ritviks appealed to the ISKCON community outside of ISKCON properties with endless written and verbal attacks on ISKCON gurus. It seems they felt the best way to affect change to the ritvik cause was to attack the credibility of the ISKCON acharyas. This had a profound effect on the gurus and would lead us to where we are today in ISKCON.

One guru, Kirtanananda Swami Bhaktipada, was sent to prison as part of a murder conspiracy against a ritvik devotee named Sulochana. Sulochana das was upset with his wife refusing to leave Kirtanananda’s ashram community in West Virginia to live with him. He was a mentally unsound person who couldn’t accept that his wife left him because of her dislike for him and the lifestyle he planned for them (living in a van or motorhome while travelling around selling stuff). Sulochana had bought wholeheartedly into the concept Prabhupada had taught on how a wife was supposed behave—she’s supposed to be a completely submissive slave-like worshipful disciple of her husband/guru. Sulochana’s wife refused to behave like that, and left him (she described him as a lazy, unwilling to support her and the kids, delusional, and constantly stoned). He blamed Kirtanananda for allowing her to stay in his country ashram community. He was incensed that Kirtanananda Swami didn’t agree with him, with Prabhupada, about the role of the wife. He expected and demanded his wife be sent to him. Thinking there was nothing wrong with himself, thinking he was someone whom his wife should worship, he couldn’t believe she would voluntarily leave him. He believed it was a conspiracy by Kirtanananda, who “poisoned” her mind against Sulochana so she would join the money making apparatus of Kirtanananda Swami.

Sulochana became obsessed with revenge, with writing a long diatribe on ritvikism, and generally speaking in a threatening manner about Kirtanananda. This would have serious repercussions for him, Kirtanananda, ISKCON, and the ritvik movement. Fearing a crazed Sulochana harming Kirtanananda (who had been attacked and almost died shortly before, by a mentally disturbed ISKCON member) and possibly fearing the dissemination of information revealing Kirtanananda’s homosexual and pedophile proclivity, a murder conspiracy was hatched by Kirtanananda and or his closest cohorts. Sulochana was shot and killed while sitting in a parked vehicle he was living out of, right near the ISKCON temple in Los Angeles, 1986.

It wasn’t long until newspapers and television shows around the world blared the story of the sordid murders orchestrated by leading members of the Hare Krishnas. This history is well known to most Hare Krishnas, if you need more info there is plenty on the Internet to read.

The ISKCON gurus were undoubtedly worried about the Sulochana affair. The ritviks propagandized heavily that Sulochana was killed because of his exposing the bogus guru ideology of the ISKCON gurus. The gurus probably saw it a bit differently, more likely they were afraid of people like Sulochana causing them physical harm, more so than any philosophical exposé. Because Prabhupada had casually advocated extreme violence or killing people for blasphemy as not only God sanctioned, but at times imperative; and because ISKCON membership had never lacked in the violent member department due to its then easy to join open-door policy on full-time membership—it’s than easy to understand the gurus being worried about the combustible combination of the ritvik claim of their punishable great offense for taking the role of guru, along with the number of potentially violent mentally unsound people in and around ISKCON.

It was then, after years of criticism for daring to act as gurus, or for not allowing any more gurus, that ISKCON guru policy began to change. They thought that if they could share their position with others then the criticism would damper. It did appease many, and many more gurus were added over the years, with a policy that allows anyone to become a guru if they pass strict qualifications. But the ritviks were not satisfied, as well as many others. The ritvik ideology was attractive to so many because it does away with the ISKCON gurus altogether. There were many disgruntled members and ex-members who blamed various gurus for all the problems in ISKCON, and many had personal troubled acrimonious dealings with the gurus over the years. Wouldn’t it be better for everyone if those problems and potential problems went away for good? And wasn’t Prabhupada special? Isn’t the proof of his specialness in the low caliber of the ISKCON gurus when compared to him? That was the genesis of how ISKCON and the wider community came to promote Prabhupada in the future as like a God among mere mortals.

As the ritvik groups began to gain more and more of a following, and because the Internet made it easy for them to try to convince everyone that ISKCON gurus were not only insincere egotistic usurpers; fools; redundant; thieves and fraudsters—but were also murderers in a poisoning conspiracy which killed Prabhupada—it became seen as prudent for ISKCON gurus to get out of the line of their fire. The guru policy shift hadn’t stopped the ritviks, and in many ways hardened them. A new guru theology began to emerge, which would radically change ISKCON in hopes of appeasing the ritvik movement, which was starting to gain more steam.

Laws were passed, speeches were written, the mood in ISKCON was changed. Prabhupada was no longer just another member of the parampara; his level of God consciousness was no longer just like our own potential; no longer were the gurus after Prabhupada ever to be seen as on the same level as Prabhupada, in fact they were no longer gurus in the traditional sense according to ISKCON law. The official ISKCON guru theology was changed to reflect the fear of ISKCON leaders and gurus of being constantly criticized on the Internet, and threats of bodily harm. They hoped that by putting Prabhupada on an unreachable special God-like level, and then actually make it written into law that the only role of the guru in ISKCON is to “connect the disciple to Prabhupada,” rather than to God, as is the traditional role of a guru—that all their unrelenting critics would finally relent. After all the new role of the guru in ISKCON is officially that of a ritvik priest in all but name. And after all, they’ve adopted a vision of Prabhupada as a demigod, full of mystical powers and possibilites of an infinite variety, a spiritual superhuman superman, a once in a planet’s history savior; like Krishna he has descended from heaven to save humanity, and whose every whimsical idea is perfect eternal law in ISKCON (officially). To disagree with Prabhupada, or present any idea of any other guru, or to compare anyone else to Prabhupada—can get you banned and demonized as a heretic blasphemer.

Till now, the plan hasn’t really worked. The ritviks and guru haters are more rabid than ever before. Once they realized the power of the Internet, the criticism went into overdrive. Every little guru is constantly examined and judged, and of course found wanting to say the least. The hatred for them is evident on a myriad of websites, blaming them for every sin under the sun, but especially for being rogue agents in their takeover as the worshipful gods of ISKCON from Prabhupada—thereby being “offenders” to Krishna, and even worse—to Prabhupada. Anyone who looks at the Sampradaya Sun website, or the Prabhupadanuga websites and others, besides the Prabhupada worship, can see their passionate denunciations of ISKCON leaders daily, as if there is an unlimited supply of Prabhupada related offenses to complain about. Really there’s just a handful, repeated in different ways ad nauseam. At the other end of the spectrum are the ISKCON and pro-ISKCON websites, which also display an unending supply of bizarre over-the-top Prabhupada worship, having him essentially supplant Krishna as the point and purpose of Gaudiya Vaishnavism for that community.

To all of them Prabhupada was Jesus, Moses, Mohammed, Allah, Krishna, and Jehovah combined. He’s worshiped as the almighty perfect source of anything and everything worthy of mentioning about anything. If it ain’t Prabhupada—it’s somehow or the other pure unadultered crap—unless it’s from an acharya previous to Prabhupada. But they’re of course mostly relegated to obsolete redundancy.

This is the current ideology of not only the Prabhupada devotee ISKCON hater community, but also of ISKCON and it’s devoted community:

Srila Prabhupada, the most wondrous benediction moon, gave us everything—and all we will need, forever. Who do we think we are thinking that we can understand the previous acharyas anyways? As our guru and savior, we are meant for nothing but devoted servile loyalty to Prabhupada. Any other instruction from any other guru or person is a betrayal. After all, without Prabhupada we wouldn’t be saved, we would all have gone to hell. Prabhupada changed our destiny. We don’t even need scriptures, simply by worshiping Prabhupada; meditating on Prabhupada’s pastimes; offering food to Prabhupada; chanting Prabhupada’s names and bhajans in his glorification, we attain perfection

Simply by serving and worshiping him, Prabhupada has the ultimate ultimo super mystic super potency to magically transform us all into the highest level self-realized nitya-mukta parishad (eternally liberated associate of God). It will please God so much you’ll be liberated without delay if you make Prabhupada your life and soul. Nothing else is needed or even matters. Then, upon leaving our bodies, we will go live with and serve Prabhupada eternally as his menial servants. Until then we should pray to Prabhupada for he can see and hear us, he can reveal himself to us in dreams or through others. By revealing our hearts and minds to him as we beg for one drop of his divine mercy, our ever well-wisher will then grant us the boon of everlasting bliss in service to his lotus nectarean feet.

Advertisement