Back To Prabhupada, Issue 13, Autumn 2006, Editorial
Welcome to Issue 13 of Back to Prabhupada (BTP).
In the last BTP editorial we explained the IRM's emphasis on preaching the truth about Srila Prabhupada, and why book distribution has no meaning unless this truth about Srila Prabhupada's position is established first. The facts regarding why this must be done as a matter of utmost urgency and importance are clear, and are as follows.
Since 1978, under the guru hoax program, over 200 million books have been distributed, and even though this distribution has greatly diminished, book distribution still continues today at the rate of around 3 million books a year, according to ISKCON's World Sankirtan Newsletter. In addition, there are a few hundred temples, preaching centers, Nama-hatta groups and cell programs spread across the globe. The aim of all this activity and organisation is to bring people into contact with ISKCON, so that they can subsequently be cheated by being handed over to one of the 80 impostor "gurus". In sum, there is a huge effort being made to help perpetrate the guru hoax, delivering many people every year down a false path away from Srila Prabhupada. Thus a major anti-Prabhupada program, done insidiously in Srila Prabhupada's name, currently pervades the whole planet. Hence, there are probably hundreds of thousands of individuals out there who have been so duped. And this number increases every year. These devotees genuinely want to follow Srila Prabhupada, and they sincerely think they are doing so, but instead they are being horribly cheated, with the net result that their spiritual life is destroyed. To help all those being cheated is therefore clearly a major task, requiring professional organisation, full-time commitment, and in one sense, has only just begun. And it is to execute this mammoth task that the IRM exists. For given this situation, if the IRM does not bring the truth to, and help, all these many thousands of souls, WHO will? Thus, we are presently in a very specific situation, with this huge preaching task currently before us being the need of the hour over and above anything else. Given this fact, it would therefore be very uncompassionate on our part to abandon all these countless souls who are being led away from Srila Prabhupada, with the IRM instead being diverted into only establishing a few temples in one corner of the world, catering just to the local public.
Hence to focus only on making a small, separate, localised movement whilst mass-scale deception in Srila Prabhupada's name is continuing, and all the souls affected by this deception are suffering, is not the best course of action. To go all out and fight on Srila Prabhupada's behalf, exposing the monstrous guru hoax and cheating of the public going on, restoring Srila Prabhupada's true position and helping the thousands of souls being thus deceived - is. So let us work to please Srila Prabhupada by serving him in this way, and in turn achieve his mercy, for without obtaining the mercy of the Guru, it is not possible to advance in bhakti-yoga (devotional service). Such mercy cannot come from participating, either directly, in the hijacking of Srila Prabhupada's name and movement and cheating of all the devotees; OR indirectly, by not vigorously opposing this hijacking and cheating, concentrating instead only on establishing buildings, rather than the knowledge about Srila Prabhupada's glorious position.
However, if we work to defend and re-establish the truth about Srila Prabhupada and his real teachings, and bring all those being deviated in his name back to Srila Prabhupada, we have a chance at obtaining such mercy, and thus achieving bhakti. As we mentioned in a previous BTP editorial:
"The acarya, the authorized representative of the Supreme Lord, establishes these principles, but when he disappears, things once again become disordered. The perfect disciples of the acarya try to relieve the situation by sincerely following the instructions of the spiritual master."
(Srimad-Bhagavatam, 4.28.48, purport)
Hence we are trying as fast as possible to distribute The Final Order and BTP in many languages all over the world to assist the process of relieving the disorder which has been created in the wake of Srila Prabhupada's departure. If we do not directly participate in this knowledge distribution, we indirectly contribute to the current disorder, by not actively doing anything to rectify it. Thus, our success in pleasing Srila Prabhupada cannot currently be a question of how many followers we have, or how much real estate and money we have accumulated, but rather of how much we are following Srila Prabhupada as his perfect disciples, by trying to relieve the disorder created since his disappearance. And once all this disorder is relieved, Srila Prabhupada's real movement, with him as the sole diksa Guru, will once again automatically expand in leaps and bounds all over the world, just as it did previously from 1966 to 1977.
Please feel free to write to me at the following address if you have any questions, criticisms or comments: irm@iskconirm.com.
Thank you and Hare Krishna.
Yours in the service of Srila Prabhupada,
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