Back To Prabhupada, Issue 3, Spring 2004, Editorial
Dear Devotees,
Welcome to the 3rd issue of Back To Prabhupada. We have had an even greater response to the 2nd issue of BTP than we did to the inaugural issue - twice as much actually - and this is reflected in the fact that we have had to allocate an extra page for our readers' letters. Even still, there are many letters we could not include and so I would like to apologise if yours was left out. In addition, there is the usual mix of stories, demonstrating both the need for positive change in ISKCON and examples of that change in action, rounded off with evidence presenting the real instructions of Srila Prabhupada.
With this 3rd issue of Back to Prabhupada we would also like to encourage you to think about getting involved with the ISKCON Revival Movement (IRM). A survey of ISKCON members taken back in 1996 by eminent scholar Prof. Burke Rochford showed that a majority of congregational members in North America agreed with the ritvik position (i.e. the IRM's position that Srila Prabhupada is the real initiating Guru in ISKCON):
"The ritvik position received some support from among devotee respondents. As might be expected, support for the ritvik position was stronger among congregational members and former ISKCON adherents [See III (g-i)]. Yet there is a substantial minority of full-time members who also supported at least some ritvik ideas. In North America one in four full-time members, and one in two congregational members (50%) and former ISKCON members (56%) agreed that "Prabhupada wanted the 11 ritviks he appointed to continue as ritviks after his departure"
(Prof. Rochford report, Prabhupada Centennial Survey, 1996)
We can only assume that the number of devotees supporting ritvik has grown along with the growing dissatisfaction with the leadership of ISKCON. So we know you're out there, reading the IRM newsletter and BTP, and quietly waiting on the sidelines. But we understand that it can be very tough to stand up for what you believe in. So you go on with your devotional life, but this gnawing doubt just won't go away. One day you get the courage to bring up some of your doubts to a friend, Godbrother, or perhaps the Temple President. But the moment you bring up any doubts you are immediately labelled as an "offender" and told that you have no right to "criticize the pure devotee". So perhaps you go back to your service, and keep your doubts to yourself. But they still won't go away, and you still are not sure "Is this person really pure? Are they really going to take me back to Godhead? Should I be following Srila Prabhupada instead?"
If you continue to bring up doubts there are some other things that might happen to you:
- You may be given the heaviest guilt trip you've ever experienced, and made to feel that your doubts are due to your own impurities.
- Perhaps you may be banned from the temple.
- Your Godbrothers and Godsisters may 'excommunicate' you and stop speaking with you.
However, we'd like to encourage you to stand up for yourself and not let these cult tactics keep you from seeking the truth. Many devotees are afraid to speak up for fear of making offenses, but telling the truth about a bogus Guru who is cheating is not making offenses, rather it is only exposing the truth for the beneft of all.
The IRM is not criticising these people just to make trouble, rather we are only trying to show what happens when disciples disobey the orders of the bona-fide spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada.
So we are writing to that percentage of devotees who can potentially support the IRM - we know you're out there, and we need your help to return ISKCON back to Srila Prabhupada! Come out of the closet and help us, and you'll find blissful association among your IRM Godbrothers and Godsisters.
Thank you.
Hare Krishna and all glories to Srila Prabhupada.
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