BY THE IRM
Satsvarupa Das Goswami’s (SDG) recent paper: “How All Generations Can Stay With Srila Prabhupada” begins with all the usual platitudes one has heard a thousand times from him and his associate usurpers. Statements such as the following abound:
So we can all follow Srila Prabhupada, thanks very much, but can we become his direct disciples? After all, according to SDG, it is Srila Prabhupada who is doing all the work:
So it is Srila Prabhupada who is doing most of the preaching, imparting transcendental knowledge via his books.
It is Srila Prabhupada who inspires new devotees to chant.
It is also Srila Prabhupada who inspires the commitment new devotees have for practising spiritual life. One might ask what there is left for SDG and his ‘guru’ associates to do, given that Srila Prabhupada has already done everything. Surely if SDG is correct in his analysis it would be decent and honourable for him to step aside completely and allow Srila Prabhupada to continue initiating as he instructed in his July 9th directive. Especially since he claims:
If SDG believes Srila Prabhupada is ‘just’ as accessible as before he departed, then is he finally admitting that he can resume his rightful function as ISKCON’s sole diksa guru, as he was before he physically departed? Not on your life:
Above SDG has simply assumed that which needs to be proven, namely that for some reason Srila Prabhupada cannot remain the initiating guru for his movement via instructions he personally issued to his entire leadership. In order to convince us that the ritvik system is wrong SDG misrepresents Lord Chaitanya’s ‘amara’ verse, along with Srila Prabhupada’s many general orders quoting this verse, as a call for everyone to become diksa guru:
Surprisingly SDG’s erudition does not extend to the purports following this verse where it is stated:
So clearly Lord Chaitanya’s order, as conveyed to us by Srila Prabhupada, was not meant to refer to diksa as far as we, his followers, are concerned. The Final Order explained all this many years ago. Strangely SDG avoids all mention of this paper, even though it was commissioned by the GBC to correctly represent the ritvik position. Instead he cites a flawed paper by Karnamrta as a straw man to attack, even though it is not accepted by the IRM, the largest and most successful group of pro-ritviks:
This paper was written over seventeen years ago, where has SDG been hiding all this time? The Final Order never says anything like this, and what ‘system’ could SDG be alluding to? Surely not the old zonal system that he supported for nearly a decade, only to be forced into changing his position by the North American rebellion. And yet at least that original zonal system had some sort of basis, in that Srila Prabhupada selected the eleven names. The only problem was that they were only selected to act as ritviks, SDG included. He says with regards the ritvik system:
It is understandable that SDG should not want to go into the ‘intricacies’ since The Final Order presents signed proof that the ritvik system was the ONLY system left in place by Srila Prabhupada. There was no other ‘system’. There was no zonal system, as practised unquestioningly by SDG for nearly ten years, nor any mention of the current multiple acarya successor system in any of his books lectures etc. Even the GBC do not accept that a disciple can automatically initiate after the departure of his guru, since they themselves have an elaborate system for authorising ISKCON gurus to begin initiating. This elaborate system is also not mentioned in any of Srila Prabhupada’s books, lectures, letters etc, but that does not seem to trouble SDG. The only thing that troubles him is when people question his right to steal Srila Prabhupada’s disciples. This he calls anarchy:
If there is anarchy he only has himself to blame for stifling any real discussion, and supporting the banning, beating and intimidation of anyone who dares point to Srila Prabhupada’s signed directive on how initiation was meant to run within ISKCON. He was only forced out of his zonal position by a rebellion, and it is SDG and the GBC’s continued insubordination over the ritvik issue that may lead to the same thing happening again over the ritvik issue. This rebellion is growing in force and strength, and SDG must be praying it does not finally overwhelm him and his cohorts just as the previous one did. |