Back To Prabhupada, Issue 57, Vol. 1 2018
n the previous article, we saw that a GBC-elected guru, HH Trivikrama Swami ("TKS"), was willing to put forward arguments he did not agree with simply to try to oppose the IRM position that Srila Prabhupada remains the diksa guru of ISKCON. This desperation is engaged in because, for the GBC gurus, this is a fight for survival. Accepting that Srila Prabhupada is still ISKCON's diksa guru directly threatens their positions. Unfortunately, this desperation has now escalated into tolerating an attack on Srila Prabhupada's spiritual position.
Whilst TKS was in the midst of debating the BTP editor about why the IRM's position is wrong (as quoted in the previous article), he recommended that a video which attacked the IRM's position be viewed. On pages 9-10 of the "Interactive" section in this issue, we print his recommendation, and also rebut the arguments made by this video. However, the video also engaged in insults, claiming that accepting Srila Prabhupada as ISKCON's diksa guru is "dead guru-tattva" and "zombie guru nonsense". By attacking Srila Prabhupada's ISKCON diksa guru status in this way, the video is claiming:
a) That after Srila Prabhupada physically disappeared, he became a "dead guru", and thus was unable to continue acting as a diksa guru;
b) Stating that Srila Prabhupada continues as a diksa guru following his physical disappearance would mean that, since he is a "dead guru", he would be no different to a "zombie" guru. Because zombies are creatures who arise after dead humans are "raised" to do nothing more than act as mindless cannibals, and similarly Srila Prabhupada would be a "dead guru" who is "raised" to only appear to be fully alive again.
Thus, the video's attacks on the IRM's position assume that Srila Prabhupada died like an ordinary human being, and thus became spiritually impotent on his physical disappearance. However, it can be proven in two undisputed ways that this is not true:
1) Srila Prabhupada explains about his diksa guru that:
"So my Guru Maharaja [...] It is not that he is dead and gone. That is not spiritual understanding. [...] He is seeing."
(Srila Prabhupada Lecture, 2/3/75, emphases added)
Hence, clearly the diksa guru does not die (spiritually) even after his physical disappearance, and is still "seeing". Therefore, straight after his physical disappearance, Srila Prabhupada continued to act as a diksa guru for his pre-1977 disciples, and thus he is not dead, but "seeing".
2) Additionally, it is accepted by all parties that straight after his physical disappearance Srila Prabhupada continued to act as the siksa guru of everyone in ISKCON (GBC Resolution 409, 1994). Which also proves he did not die like an ordinary human being, but remained spiritually active.
Thus, the video's claim that Srila Prabhupada acting as ISKCON's diksa guru means he is a "zombie guru" would apply equally to Srila Prabhupada's status as diksa guru for his pre-1977 disciples and siksa guru for everyone in ISKCON. For those activities would also not be possible if Srila Prabhupada were a "dead guru", and would mean that everyone in ISKCON today is worshipping Srila Prabhupada as a "zombie guru".
Hence, ironically, after falsely claiming in the video that the IRM is "trying to kill" Srila Prabhupada, as debunked in detail on pages 9 and 10, the video's author himself actually has "killed" Srila
Prabhupada by already declaring him "dead". Therefore, the video's attack on the IRM's position as being "dead guru-tattva" and "zombie guru nonsense" is actually a direct, vicious attack on Srila
Prabhupada's spiritual position, as it claims that Srila Prabhupada died in 1977 just like any ordinary human being.
However, seeing Srila Prabhupada as an ordinary human being makes one a resident of hell:
"one who sees a Vaisnava guru as an ordinary human being, or one who materially conceives of a Vaisnava as belonging to a particular caste is naraki, a resident of hell."
(SB, 10.3.46)
And, instead of condemning such hellish "dead zombie guru" thinking, TKS recommended the video promoting this attack on Srila Prabhupada.
TKS's tolerance of this materialistic hellish thinking is supplemented by him concluding in regards to Srila Prabhupada's refusal on October 18th, 1977, to perform an initiation ceremony:
Srila Prabhupada: "I may not be pressed in this condition to initiate."
(Room conversation, 18/10/77)
that:
"From common sense point if Srila Prabhupada is not willing to initiate because his body is sick how can we conclude that he would be willing to initiate when his body is in samadhi covered by heaps of salt?"
(TKS email to BTP editor, 23/9/17)
Hence, seeing diksa as a physical process depending on the physical body, TKS is not able to see that Srila Prabhupada's physical ailments only prevented him from engaging in a physical activity–personally conducting the initiation ceremony–rather than prevent him from engaging in the transcendental process that diksa accomplishes:
"Diksa is the process by which one can awaken his transcendental knowledge and vanquish all reactions caused by sinful activity."
(Cc., Madhya-lila, 15.108)
Therefore, TKS reasons–when Srila Prabhupada is sick, when he is covered in "heaps of salt"–how can he possibly give diksa?
This is the practical consequence of the guru hoax. One's consciousness becomes so covered by the desire to prevent Srila Prabhupada from continuing to give diksa, that one will even attack Srila Prabhupada's spiritual position to try to achieve it. An attack which assumes that Srila Prabhupada is a "dead zombie guru", instead of a transcendental guru. And which would also mean that Srila Prabhupada only functions in ISKCON today also as a "dead zombie guru".
Return to Trivikrama Swami Index
Return to Hanuman Das Index
Return to IRM Homepage
