Back To Prabhupada, Issue 26, Winter 2009/10
In the BTP 23 article “Any nonsense will do”, we demonstrated via the words of ISKCON GBC voted-in guru HH Sivarama Swami (“SRS”) the nonsense philosophy spouted by ISKCON’s gurus to justify their existence as gurus. For example, we cited SRS stating that ISKCON’s gurus are essentially ritvik priests in the way they operate, but they should still be worshipped as good-as-God even if they display personality flaws or a lack of spiritual realization. We can now add more nonsense from the mouth of SRS to the above, providing further proof that, as far as the guru hoaxers are concerned, indeed, “any nonsense will do”!
“And we can see that our present day gurus are not necessarily self-realized souls, otherwise we wouldn’t be falling down, what to speak of even leaving the path of Krishna Consciousness. And particularly that deviation takes place when you’re talking about such conditioned souls – conditioned souls who make mistakes, have imperfect senses, a tendency to be illusioned and when they don’t follow strictly their parampara, then there will be deviation. How can you guard against it? You can’t. This is Kali-yuga.”
(SRS Podcast, December 13th, 2009)
SRS openly admits that ISKCON’s gurus are not necessarily self-realized, because so many have fallen down. Having confessed that ISKCON’s gurus may not be self-realized, SRS also admits that, as such, they will deviate, and that, furthermore, one can do nothing to improve the situation because this is the Kali-yuga. Hence, he is basically condemning the ISKCON guru system, telling everyone to accept that their gurus may deviate.
“When sadhus and gurus are self-realized souls, then there’s no deviation. Then there’s no apasampradaya. Then there’s no falling away from the sampradaya and no deviation of the philosophy.”
(SRS Podcast, December 13th, 2009)
Having said that one cannot stop gurus deviating because they are conditioned and it is Kali-yuga, SRS contradicts himself in the same podcast by declaring boldly that as long as gurus are self-realized, then there will be no deviation! Therefore, by SRS’s own statements, the answer is to accept the self-realized guru, Srila Prabhupada, rather than the fallible gurus offered today by ISKCON’s GBC.
“I can’t choose a spiritual master instructing or otherwise for someone I don’t know.”
(SRS Podcast, December 2nd, 2009)
SRS now cannot even remember what he himself had just said, for he had just stated that:
“Of course, Srila Prabhupada is the Founder-Acarya, his instructions, his personality is also there as the siksa guru of ISKCON.”
(SRS Podcast, December 2nd, 2009)
So he can choose an instructing spiritual master (siksa guru) for everyone, and that person is Srila Prabhupada, ISKCON’s very own Founder-Acarya!
“Sadhus are those who were once guru, but they are no longer physically present […] yes, although Srila Prabhupada is the Founder-Acarya, but he is also now sadhu. […] And as long as present day gurus are following Srila Prabhupada and thereby following the previous sadhus, then the parampara will not deviate.”
(SRS Podcast, December 13th, 2009)
SRS claims here that Srila Prabhupada was “once guru”, but now that he is no longer physically present, he is relegated to only being a “sadhu”. Instead, “present-day” ISKCON gurus, like SRS, who will be following the previous sadhus such as Srila Prabhupada, should be followed.
Yet, Srila Prabhupada has never taught that once a guru is no longer physically present, he ceases to be guru. This is simply SRS’s fabrication. Indeed, SRS’s own example proves that the guru’s physical presence is not required in order for that person to be accepted as guru:
“For almost five years I had seen and known Prabhupada visually from photos [...] But I had never seen Prabhupada in person […] Then I understood that the spiritual master is non different than his picture […] I accepted the information I was receiving from the book as perfect […] That was the first personal contact with his Divine Grace, although I had been an initiated devotee for two years.”
(SRS, ‘Meeting Srila Prabhupada’)
SRS was able to accept and get initiated by Srila Prabhupada without requiring Srila Prabhupada’s physical presence at all. Yet, hypocritically, SRS now wishes to impose Srila Prabhupada’s physical presence as being a requirement for everyone else. In this way SRS is attempting to try and eliminate Srila Prabhupada as being a potential guru for those joining ISKCON. SRS needs to do this since he is a competitor guru, and thus needs to keep potential recruits for himself and his guru hoaxer colleagues.
“It’s your responsibility to see that if someone else is deviating, that if you’re a guru, or gurus are deviating, that you don’t follow and by not following you insure that there isn’t a deviant sampradaya. If someone shows you the wrong path, then, tyaga, then you have to reject that person. […] We’ve seen that unfortunately over the decades since Srila Prabhupada’s disappearance that many times this has taken place. Devotees have had to take a stand and say, “No, I will not follow this wrong example.” ”
SRS here gives a green signal to the IRM’s program. He states that we must openly take a stand and reject ISKCON gurus who are deviating. This is exactly what the IRM has done. We have documented in our papers, with incontrovertible proof, that SRS and all the ISKCON gurus are deviating from Srila Prabhupada’s orders. Our proof in this regard remains unanswered to this day. Rather, the response of SRS has simply been to viciously ban and drive out IRM members for simply taking his advice to stand up against the deviant gurus.
For further continuation of this nonsense, please turn over the page.
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