Winter 2004/5

In BTP 4 we gave the sad history of Satsvarupa Das, the ISKCON Guru hoax founder, who was recently exposed as having had an affair with a married woman, yet is still desperately trying to cling to his diksa (initiating) Guru status. Now that his facade of saintliness has been exposed for what it was, a sham, we felt it timely to warn readers of the dangers of reading his biography of Srila Prabuhupada: Srila Prabhupada lilamrta.
Many devotees have appreciated this book since it does contain direct quotes from Srila Prabhupada's lectures, conversations and books. However, in amongst the nectar of Srila Prabhupada's words, Satsvarupa Das has weaved his own mundane bias and self-interest.
 

So determined was Satsvarupa Das to convince the world of his legitimacy as an initiating Guru, he invented his own version of the May 28th, 1977 conversation with Srila Prabhupada (the so-called "Appointment tape" ) which to this day is still printed in the Lilamrta. Below we give an amalgam of all four official GBC versions of the relevant section of the conversation (with variations in brackets):

 And below is Satsvarupa's invented version as it appears in the Lilamrta:

"So they may also be considered your disciples," said Satsvarupa, referring to those persons initiated on Prabhupada's behalf by the ritvik acarya.
"They are their disciples," said Srila Prabhupada. Now he was speaking of initiations after his passing away. "They are the disciples of the one who is initiating. And they are my grand disciples..."
(Satsvarupa dasa Goswami, Srila Prabhupada-lilamrta, Vol.6, 'Uniting Two Worlds', chapter 8)

In the actual recording, Srila Prabhupada agrees that all disciples initiated within the ritvik system are his...

...this completely contradicts the idea that Srila Prabhupada was appointing successors, so what does Satsvarupa do? He skips that line completely and then changes "They are his disciples" (where Srila Prabhupada can only have been speaking of himself in the third person, since "his" is singular) to: "They are their disciples," which gives the false impression of a plurality of initiators. Thus we are meant to understand that the ritviks mentioned at the beginning of the conversation will magically transform themselves into fully fledged diksa Gurus. Satsvarupa then claims that Srila Prabhupada selected or appointed him and ten others as diksa Gurus, even though the GBC abandoned this claim in the mid-1980s:

As the GBC have been forced to concede, there was no special diksa Guru selection. Srila Prabhupada only ever "selected" eleven devotees to act as ritviks, or representative priests, not as diksa Gurus in their own right. Yet the Lilamrita is sold in temple bookshops as though it were the gospel truth.
 

Throughout, the Lilamrta insidiously implies that Srila Prabhupada was an ordinary human being with all the regular frailties, fears and insecurities. The book is subtitled: "A very real human story", and to drive the point home in the introduction Satsvarupa writes: "I invite the reader to enjoy the very real, human life story of Srila Prabhupada" just in case anyone might get the wrong impression that Srila Prabhupada was in any way superhuman. Contrast this with the correct scriptural understanding:

"...the spiritual master is the sum total of all demigods."
(The Science of Self Realisation, chapter 2)

"A person acting in the service of Krsna with his body, mind and words is a liberated person, even within the material world."
(Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu 1.2.187)

"Therefore, one is forbidden to regard the guru as an ordinary human being (gurusu nara-matir...naraki sah). The spiritual master, or acarya, is always situated in the spiritual status of life. Birth, death, old age and disease do not affect him."
(Srimad-Bhagavatam 10.4.20, purport)

By the time Satsvarupa began writing the Lilamrta he had already illegally ensconced himself as one of Srila Prabhupada's successors, even though he knew he was not qualified for this position:

"As for guru, I am in no position for that...Now Srila Prabhupada has departed in his personal presence. I am to begin initiating disciples. At present I don't feel I could give a disciple shelter. I could not tell a soul that if he simply served me nicely, I could take him back to Godhead."
(Satsvarupa das Goswami, ISKCON in the 1970s)

He also said of Srila Prabhupada:

"I sometimes saw him as my rival. Still, I sometimes feel a twinge of jealousy when one of my disciples speaks on and on about all the realisations he is getting from his relationship with Srila Prabhupada."
(Satsvarupa Das Goswami, Srila Prabhupada is Here)

Satsvarupa either consciously or unconsciously made the biography of Srila Prabhupada a vehicle to minimise His Divine Grace's greatness; perhaps so he and the other Guru hoaxers would not pale completely into insignificance as wannabe acaryas. In the material world we are innately envious of the Supreme Lord Krishna.
This envy also extends to whoever represents him. So already we are at a huge disadvantage when trying to have absolute faith in the bona fide spiritual master. The last thing we need is someone writing a book that merely confirms the idea that he was not so very different from us.
Thus, even if Srila Prabhupada may have ascribed to himself feelings and emotions that we recognise, perhaps to encourage us, as disciples we should not spend our time broadcasting these to the world just to demonstrate how "very human" he was. Here are just a few examples of the many mundane, "human" attributes Satsvarupa Das offensively superimposes onto Srila Prabhupada:
 

The subtle inference here is that Srila Prabhupada was forced into situations, just like you and I, the only difference being that he somehow "accepted" those circumstances as "Krsna's mercy".

Yet Srila Prabhupada tells us the proper understanding:

"...a pure devotee is never under the modes of nature. In other words, no material laws apply on a devotee because he is fully under the direction of Krsna. (...) in this kind of loving service there is no question of force."
(Srila Prabhupada Letter, February 14th, 1970)
 

Yet Srila Prabhupada taught:

"Established thus (in Krishna consciousness), one never departs from the truth, and upon gaining this he thinks there is no greater gain. Being situated in such a position, one is never shaken, even in the midst of the greatest difficulty."
(Bhagavad-gita 6.20-23)

"An unalloyed devotee is never disturbed by any kind of trying circumstance."
(Srimad-Bhagavatam 6.12.19, purport)
 

Yet Srila Prabhupada taught:

"When one is self-realized, then he is jolly . "Prasannatma. He is never morose . He is jolly. Na socati na kanksati: "He has no lamentation, no hankering."
(Srila Prabhupada Conversation, June 19th, 1974)

"In the liberated stage, oneness with the Supreme Lord means that one has no realization other than happiness ."
(Srimad-Bhagavatam, 3.28.37, purport)
 

Yet Srila Prabhupada taught:

"When you live at the mercy of others, this is called dog's business. Just like a dog lives at the mercy of the master. So it is strictly prohibited for the brahmanas."
(Srila Prabhupada Lecture, July 8th, 1976)

"A Krsna conscious person does not take shelter of any person, man or demigod ."
(Bhagavad-gita, 3.18 purport)
 

Yet Srila Prabhupada taught:

"You just become obedient to Me, surrendered to Me. I shall give you all protection." This is the law. So if you become a surrendered soul to God, then your position is very secure."
(Srila Prabhupada Lecture, October 19th, 1975)

"When a devotee needs something, the Supreme Personality of Godhead supplies it."
(Srimad-Bhagavatam 7.10.4, purport)
 

Yet Srila Prabhupada states the opposite:

"When I first came to the United States I was seemingly alone for one year. But I never felt alone. I always felt the presence of my Guru Maharaja."
(Srila Prabhupada Letter, December 27th, 1974)

"So my Guru Maharaja will be very, very much pleased with you ... it is not that he is dead and gone. That is not spiritual understanding ...he is seeing. I never feel that I am alone."
(Srila Prabhupada Lecture, March 2nd, 1975)

"So far as personal association with Guru is concerned, I was only with Guru Maharaj 4 or 5 times, but I have never left his association, not even for a moment. Because I am following his instruction, I have never felt any separation."
(Srila Prabhupada Letter, February 20th, 1972)
 

The Lilamrta is quite dangerous since it mixes truth with illusion, the mundane with the transcendental. As Srila Prabhupada warned:

"Intermingling the spiritual with the material causes one to look on transcendence as material and mundane as spiritual. All this is due to a poor fund of knowledge."
(Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya-lila 16.72, purport)

This might explain Satsvarupa Das' infatuation with mundane songs, poetry, jazz, paintings and other people's wives; all whilst posing as a spiritual master. Yet the same fate surely awaits anyone who becomes influenced by his writing.