Back To Prabhupada, Issue 29, Autumn 2010
We have continued to document in past issues, as well as in our Special Issue No. 2, how ISKCON's leadership is climbing down from its previous position and scrambling to follow the IRM's lead and claim that Srila Prabhupada is ISKCON's diksha or initiating guru, regardless of the fact they do not actually follow this in practice. In BTP 27, we documented GBC-elected ISKCON diksha guru, His Holiness Giriraja Swami, displaying similar tendencies. And below, we see him coming back for more ritvik-style preaching!
Quotes in the tinted panels are taken from a lecture His Holiness Giriraja Swami gave on the day of Guru-purnima, July 26th, 2010.
1) The singular spiritual master is the diksha guru
"We offer respects to the spiritual master in singular, to the spiritual masters in plural, and to all Vaisnavas. The singular spiritual master is our personal spiritual master, the plural spiritual masters are the predecessor acharyas, and the Vaisnavas are the followers of the spiritual master."
And His Holiness Giriraja Swami quotes Srila Prabhupada stating -
"One who teaches can be treated as spiritual master. . . So if we take instruction from them, all senior godbrothers may be treated as guru. There is no harm. Actually, you have only one spiritual master, who initiates you, just as you have only one father. But every Vaisnava should be treated as prabhu, master, higher than me, and in this sense, if I learn from him, he may be regarded as guru."
(Srila Prabhupada Letter , November 20th, 1971)
- to make clear the distinction between the diksha (initiating) guru, who can only be singular, and all other spiritual masters, who are plural, and who are siksha (teacher) gurus.
2) Srila Prabhupada is that singular spiritual master
His Holiness Giriraja Swami refers to Srila Prabhupada as that singular guru, whilst his many followers are plural gurus called prabhus, which in the quote just given, refers to the siksha gurus:
"Srila Prabhupada explains further, "Spiritual master means they must have many followers, who are all Vaisnavas. They are called prabhus, and the spiritual master is called Prabhupada, because at his lotus feet there are many prabhus."
(Srila Prabhupada comment on Mangalacarana, January 8, 1969). For us in ISKCON, Srila Prabhupada is the main guru"
3) Srila Prabhupada's disciples are the plural siksha gurus
Having established that the diksha guru is the singular spiritual master, and that Srila Prabhupada is that spiritual master, His Holiness Giriraja Swami goes on to refer to Srila Prabhupada's disciples as his followers, who are teaching on his behalf, which as the quotes given in the previous sections show, refer to the plural spiritual masters, known as siksha gurus:
"Vaisnavas are the followers of the spiritual master. […] And now the followers of Srila Prabhupada are presenting the same knowledge."
Of course, we would not be dealing with an ISKCON leader if His Holiness Giriraja Swami also did not simultaneously contradict himself, for hypocrisy is the hallmark of this age of Kali-yuga, and those who best represent and epitomise the progress of the personality of Kali can be recognised via their constant display of hypocrisy and contradiction. Thus, regardless of what he may say here, His Holiness Giriraja Swami not only continues to act as a successor ISKCON diksha guru to Srila Prabhupada, but in the same article he also praises other disciples of Srila Prabhupada acting as successor ISKCON diksha gurus!