Back To Prabhupada, Issue 52, Summer 2016
he previous article demonstrated how ISKCON's guru hoaxers will utilise the PFP ("Prabhupada-Free Paradigm") to ensure that their guru hoax is not exposed. In this article, we shall see that the PFP is so dangerous that it leads even those who have already rejected the false guru hoaxers in ISKCON to still promote these same guru hoaxers as providing bona fide guruship and spiritual progress.
The quotes in the shaded panel below are taken from an interview with Madhu Pandit Dasa ("MPD"), which was published on social media on 29/6/16. MPD is the Temple President of ISKCON Bangalore ("IB"), which has officially rejected ISKCON's guru system and accepted that it is a hoax. Hence, the phrases "other ISKCON", "other camp" and "even there" used in the interview below refer to the official ISKCON movement and their system of almost 80 "successor gurus" to Srila Prabhupada. And we use the term "ISKCON" below to refer to the same. All emphases added.
Interviewer: "So if you see, even in the other ISKCON they are progressing in spiritual life, they are moving towards Krishna, which means the principle of guruship is acting even in them."
MPD: "Definitely it is acting in them. [...] when I was in the other camp, I am not saying that I didn't make advancement at all. I did make advancement [...]"
Interviewer: "Now we all accept that we will progress, either this way or that way, even there they will progress because at least they're chanting the Holy Name."
MPD: "Right."
Interviewer: "They will definitely progress."
MPD: "Right."
a) MPD agrees that the "gurus" in ISKCON are acting as genuine gurus, by confirming that the "principle of guruship" is "definitely acting" in ISKCON.
b) He says that he made spiritual advancement following one of these "gurus" when he was previously in the "other camp" (where for around 18 years he followed and worshipped HH Jayapataka Swami as his ‘good as God' diksa guru).
c) He agrees that, due to chanting, these gurus and the persons following them, are all automatically making spiritual progress.
In order for ISKCON's many "successor gurus" to provide "guruship" of any kind, they would at the very least need to be on a bona fide path. However, MPD has already agreed that ISKCON's guru system is a result of a "deviant" ISKCON being "infested with the disobedience" of Srila Prabhupada's "order on spiritual succession" (MPD Vyasa-puja Offering to Srila Prabhupada, 2006). But, according to Srila Prabhupada's teachings, this disobedience would mean that ISKCON's many "successor gurus" are not actually bona fide gurus of any kind, and thus are not providing "guruship":
"If you become disobedient to guru, then your business is finished."
(Srila Prabhupada Lecture, 10/8/74)
"If one is disobeying the spiritual master, he cannot remain in the pure status of life. He cannot be siksa-guru or anything else. He is finished, immediately."
(Srila Prabhupada Lecture, 4/7/74)
"A siksa-guru who instructs against the instruction of spiritual, he is not a siksa-guru. He is a demon. [...] siksa-guru does not mean he is speaking something against the teachings of the diksa-guru. He is not a siksa-guru. He is a rascal."
(Srila Prabhupada Lecture, 4/7/74)
Thus, since ISKCON gurus are false gurus, according to Srila Prabhupada's teachings, one does not make spiritual progress following them:
"One cannot become happy by accepting a false guru. [...] One should approach a bona fide guru to inquire about the highest benefit of life. [...] If one is able to obtain the dust of the lotus feet of such a guru, his life becomes successful. Otherwise he is baffled both in this life and in the next."
(SB, 5.14.13)
Indeed, both the false spiritual master and his follower are doomed:
"The pseudo-spiritual master flatters the so-called disciple, and thereby both the master and his ward go to hell without a doubt."
(SB, 1.19.37)
"Because that is offense. Guror avajna. First offense is guror avajna, defying the authority of guru. This is the first offense. So one who is offensive, how he can make advance in chanting? He cannot make. Then everything is finished in the beginning."
(Srila Prabhupada Lecture, 4/7/74)
IB has confirmed these points made by Srila Prabhupada. On a website owned and administered by them, in the "About Us" section, it states that ISKCON's leaders, rather than offering "guruship", are not even devotees but actually "envious persons posing as Vaishnavas". Also, whilst describing the deviations of ISKCON's leaders, it quotes Srimad-Bhagavatam, 4.28.48, which speaks of "rogues and non-devotees". Indeed, in MPD's 2010 Vyasa-puja offering to Srila Prabhupada, he admits that, rather than advancing, had he not been "saved" from the "other camp", his whole "life time" would have been "lost in the course of following a deviant path". Hence, there is no dispute from MPD that due to ISKCON's "gurus" actually being "envious rogues and non-devotees", with themselves and their followers on a completely "lost" and "deviant path", they are deviating rather than making "spiritual progress".
1) Srila Prabhupada teaches that ISKCON's unauthorised "gurus" are neither offering guruship of any kind, nor are they spiritually progressing, nor are those following them spiritually progressing.
2) This understanding given by Srila Prabhupada is so clear that MPD has already agreed with it, as part of the process of explaining IB's rejection of the guru hoax.
3) However, the interview featured here was not made with specific and direct reference to Srila
Prabhupada's teachings. This in turn led MPD to contradict both Srila Prabhupada and himself, and to also unwittingly promote the very guru hoax that he is supposed to have rejected. For, MPD's points can only be correct if we first deny the reality of the guru hoax. Thus, this showcases just how dangerous the PFP is.
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