Back To Prabhupada, Issue 16, Summer 2007
His Grace Ravindra Svarupa Das:
“I also have my own views on the application of varnasrama-dharma, for I too have thought about the subject, but I assure you, that whatever I speak or write will not go uncontested by someone else in ISKCON. Nevertheless, I will venture here to propose the major reasons why ISKCON is having such a difficult time coming to grips with this matter. The first and foremost is that ISKCON - I put it starkly - has no brain.”
(ISKCON and Varnasrama Dharma: A Mission Unfulfilled, GBC Chairman and voted-in guru Ravindra Svarupa Das, January 29th, 1999, emphasis added)
His Grace Ravindra Svarupa Das:
“And now the GBC has become very, very weak. The principal reason for this has been the fall-down of spiritual masters and the decay of spiritual authority in general. This applies to sannyasis, gurus and the GBC. There has been a big overlap of these three categories, and they are all in disrepute. The renounced order of life has come to be called the denounced order of life - we hear that all the time. People are very dubious about gurus - everyone is wondering when the next one is going to fall. And the GBC seems to be floundering and cannot do anything about it. There is a feeling that we do not know where our vision is going to come from.”
(GBC Chairman and voted-in guru Ravindra Svarupa Das, ISKCON Communications Journal #81, January/June 2000)
His Grace Ravindra Svarupa Das:
“Therefore the question remains: What, then, will we do? How will we deal with our polarized and disintegrating society? […] If we ask why ISKCON now finds itself in such an impossible position, we can only conclude that is must be due to the continuing reactions to our own sins and offenses. Thus, the GBC (and ISKCON) still needs to atone for its sins and its offenses, acknowledged and unacknowledged […] So I have been baffled and in much distress. […] Of course, now our offenses and sins against our children are foremost in mind, but these are just part of a larger pattern of offenses, ultimately to Prabhupada.”
(GBC Chairman and voted-in guru Ravindra Svarupa Das, Letter posted on GBC conference, May 2000)
His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada:
“They wanted to create artificially somebody acarya and everything failed. [...] So better remain a foolish person perpetually to be directed by Guru Maharaja. That is perfection. And as soon as he learns the Guru Maharaja is dead, “Now I am so advanced that I can kill my guru and I become guru.” Then he’s finished.”
(Srila Prabhupada Conversation, August 16th, 1976, emphases added)
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