Back To Prabhupada, Issue 56, Summer 2017
n 1978, the GBC foisted a great hoax on the movement by claiming that Srila Prabhupada had appointed 11 successor diksa gurus. In time, the GBC was forced to admit that these 11 persons had not been appointed as diksa gurus. On page 7 of this issue we quote from a GBC publication accepting that these 11 persons were only appointed as rtviks rather than diksa gurus. In previous issues we have quoted ISKCON's official Back To Godhead (BTG) magazine admitting that accepting these 11 persons as appointed diksa gurus was done due to "maya" or illusion (BTG 25-01, 1991). A recent GBC endorsed book, The Guru & Disciple Book, again reiterates that the 11 were only ever appointed as rtviks or representatives, and not as gurus:
"In July 1977, he (Srila Prabhupada) lists eleven names of disciples [...] The letter does not appoint the eleven as gurus, it merely appoints them as continental representatives [...] by November the only selection that vaguely resembled anything like that was the choosing of eleven to act as continental representatives in the matter of initiation."
So, at the very least, ISKCON's leadership should accept that these 11 persons were not appointed as diksa gurus.
However, in BTP 51 and 52 we documented GBC-elected gurus HH Sivarama Swami and HH Bhakti Vikasa Swami claiming that the 11 were appointed as diksa gurus. In this issue, on page 7 we documented HH Bhakti Charu Swami also claiming that the 11 were appointed as diksa gurus. And on page 5 of this issue we documented HH Trivikrama Swami claiming that this "list" of names also referred to those who were to act as diksa gurus. Now another GBC-elected diksa guru, Mahatma Dasa ("MAD"), recently claimed:
"Now most of the gurus in our movement, fifty years ago were hippies in San Francisco, New York, the Himalayas, right [...] You know Prabhupada told us to become gurus in 1969. How would you feel if you were sitting there? How would you feel in 1977 when your name was on the list and you'd been a devotee six years and you were 26 years old?"
(MAD, Lecture, UK, 16/7/17)
Thus, while speaking about GBC diksa gurus in ISKCON, MAD also claims that in 1977 Srila Prabhupada had given a "list" of names for devotees who would become diksa gurus.
Therefore, in a sign of just how desperate and intellectually bankrupt ISKCON's leadership has become in trying to prop up its guru hoax, they have started to put forward the already defeated, and accepted as defeated, idea that Srila Prabhupada did appoint these 11 persons as diksa gurus! Because if they had other arguments to explain their guru program, they would use them, rather than resorting to an argument that has already been accepted as defeated.
Similarly, GBC-elected diksa guru Kripamoya Dasa ("KMD") repeatedly claims the false idea that the diksa guru must have physical contact with the disciple. In BTP 38 he was humiliated for claiming that the diksa guru "must personally speak the mantra (gayatri) into the ear of the disciple at the time of initiation so he obviously has to be ‘physically present'"—when we presented his own initiation letter from Srila Prabhupada, wherein it was stated the mantra can be heard by tape, and not in person. Yet, in a recent booklet he wrote titled Encouragement in Spiritual Life, KMD again puts forward the false idea that the prospective disciple and diksa guru must have had contact and thus gotten to know each other:
"He or she must have also successfully developed some level of relationship with the prospective guru. For his part, the guru had also to get to know his prospective disciple."
(KMD, Encouragement in Spiritual Life)
But, in the same booklet, KMD accepts that actually this is not necessary since he admits that Srila Prabhupada did not meet all his disciples:
"There was insufficient time for meeting every disciple [...] He eventually initiated 4,800 disciples."
(KMD, Encouragement in Spiritual Life)
Indeed, in this same booklet KMD also quotes the same initiation letter to him from Srila Prabhupada mentioned earlier, which we had already quoted to him in BTP 38 to defeat his "physically present diksa guru" idea.
There is no surer sign of having no valid arguments to offer, if all you can put forward are already defeated arguments.
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