The GBC Gurus have been continually trying to portray the illusion that they are always endeavouring to put "Srila Prabhupada in the center", and that they themselves are simply nothing but assistants in this most noble task. Bhakti Caru Swami more than anyone specialises in this technique.
He will go out of his way to try and show how he is always concerned that Srila Prabhupada be in the center rather than himself. This charade is used no doubt to deflect attention from the real picture, which is that they have replaced Srila Prabhupada, stolen his disciples, and are busy enjoying the result of this disobedient activity. But do not take our word for it.
Please read the following accounts of the 'pastimes' of Bhakti Caru Swami, including the recent 'Vyasa-Puja' celebrations of Bhakti Caru Swami, and please decide for yourself just who it is that is really in the 'center' here:
"The next morning, at 6:30, Guru Maharaja went to Mayapur by car, accompanied by another vehicle. [...]
Then the kirtan kept going and Guru Maharaja circumnambulated the main deities three times, sometimes dancing lightly with his hands held in the air. Finally, he went upstairs to his quarters, again accompanied by a huge trail of devotees all running up the stairs one after another. When Guru Maharaja came in and sat down on his Vyasasana (the regular one that always stays in the front darsan room), a Guru Puja was started. As the many devotees sang and danced, Guru Maharaja distributed 3 types of cookies to the small children first and then to the rest of the devotees, as they came to him and offered a flower at his lotus feet. At the end of the Guru Puja, Guru Maharaja gave the following talk. [...]
On Vyasa Puja day, Guru Maharaja was in the temple for Mangala aroti.
[...]
After that, Guru Maharaja went to Srila Prabhupada's Vyasasana to be the one to offer the more than 60 preparations that had been offered for the occasion, including an enormously long cake (it took 8 devotees to carry it). [...]
Then, there was supposed to be readings of Vyasa Puja offerings to Guru Maharaja in the GBC conference room at 4:30. At 5:15 Guru Maharaja went up there, sat down on the same Vysasana as the previous night, but he noticed that there were hardly anyone there! Indeed, only about 30 devotees were sitting there. Guru Maharaja got a little upset with Ganga Narayana das, the organizer of the event. He grimaced, got up and left. As he walked away, he said, "I didn't even want to do this! There is practically no one here, so what is the use?" [...]
After some time, Guru Maharaja came out of his room and sat on the Vyasasana, his anger completely gone. Then, for 3 hours, so many devotees stood up and read their offerings to Guru Maharaja. At the end, Guru Maharaja said a few words again in glorification of Srila Prabhupada and of the need in our society to put all emphasis on him."
(The above is taken from the BCS Istaghosti conference on com)
Please Note:
- He receives regular Guru-Pujas as he sits on his Vyasasana, with flowers offered to his 'lotus feet', and he hands out cookies to Children.
- He has a lavish Vyasa-puja celebration with 60 preps and a cake so huge it needs 8 devotees to carry it.
- He is overcome with 'anger', 'grimaces' and walks out in a huff because there were 'only' 30 disciples waiting to read Vyasa-Puja offerings to him.
- As soon as there are enough disciples gathered to glorify him, so that the offerings last for a full 3 hours, he is happy to sit on his Vyasasana and listen. He had claimed that he did not even want to listen to these offerings, yet he gets angry when something he claims he does even want to do does NOT happen but appears fine when it does happen!
- Then after having spent 100% of his time ensuring that the emphasis was
100% on only him, he has the cheek to pontificate to everyone else that the society needs to 'put all the emphasis' on Srila Prabhupada!!! This has to be the height of hypocrisy.
The charade detailed above epitomises perfectly his technique of receiving massive adulation and glorification for hours on end, and then simply SAYING that actually we should all emphasise Srila Prabhupada. This technique serves two purposes:
- It distracts everyone's attention from the massive 'Srila Prabhupada imitation' that has just gone on.
- It makes Bhakti Caru Swami less guilty for having just engaged in an orgy of self-glorification.
It seems that Bhakti Caru's absorption in meditating on the pastimes of Srila Prabhupada in order to make his film of Srila Prabhupada's life, has simply resulted in him actually trying to ACT OUT these pastimes himself!
Further, to judge the result of having substituted Srila Prabhupada from the center with himself, one only needs to read a snippet of the 'Vyasa-Puja' offerings which were made to him this year:
"Due to Your direct mercy we are progressing in our Krishna Conscious lives and we cannot understand how much we have lost out in our lives.
We thank You for picking us up from the gutters and accepting us as Your children; we pray that we live up to Your expectations. [...]
Please give us Your spiritual guidance, we need it to make our lives successful and have an opportunity to go back home, back to Godhead.""Dear Father, You have so very mercifully lifted us up from the gutters of material nescience and given us the wonderful opportunity to establish our lost relationship with the Supreme Lord, Sri Krishna"
- Isn't it actually Srila Prabhupada who is doing this?
- Is Bhakti Caru Swami really keeping Srila Prabhupada in the center when he has trained his disciples to ascribe to him the characteristics which are really actually only applicable to Srila Prabhupada?
- And is it really keeping Srila Prabhupada in the center when as he have just seen above he tries to imitate the position of Srila Prabhupada?
Please re-read all the above and judge for yourselves.
One final note is that even some of Bhakti Caru Swami's disciples themselves knew that his 'Vyasa-Puja' celebrations were an embarrassment for someone who claims that he is concerned with 'keeping Srila Prabhupada in the center'. That is why they put out the story that this was not really a 'Vyasa-Puja' celebration but just a 'normal Birthday party'.
Besides the fact that the activities clearly prove it was a standard Vyasa-Puja celebration, all we can say is - that was some birthday party for a supposedly 'humble' sannyasi!
So the next time you hear Bhakti Caru or anyone else pontificate about how they are keeping 'Srila Prabhupada in the center', please remember:
ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS
And we can see very clearly that the actions do not match the hypocritical weasel words.