Back To Prabhupada, Issue 61, Vol 1, 2019
n the articles on pages 4, 5 and 7, we saw how ISKCON's leadership is having to deal with the IRM's position. In the previous issue ("Book Changer's Bluster Backfires"), we showed HH Jayadvaita Swami attacking the IRM. And now below we see another GBC guru, HG Sankarshan Dasa ("SAD"), also being asked about the IRM. Clearly, the reach and success of the IRM is something that ISKCON leaders are being forced to contend with. The extracts in the shaded boxes below are from a class on Srimad-Bhagavatam, 4.18.22, given by SAD on 31/12/18, in response to being asked: "What is your opinion about the ISKCON Revival Movement (IRM)?". Emphases added.
"It's come down through this chain of disciplic succession, it's gone on for thousands and even millions of years in the history of this universe. The IRM people say, ‘with Prabhupada it stopped'. It's been going on for the – but Prabhupada – stopped. No more disciplic succession, it stopped there. But that's not what Prabhupada said."
This is what Srila Prabhupada actually said:
Allen Ginsberg: "400,000 years. Will people still be chanting Hare Krishna in 400,000..."
Srila Prabhupada: "No. Hare Krishna will be finished within ten thousand years. There will be no more Hare Krishna."
Allen Ginsberg: "Ah. So what will be left?"
Srila Prabhupada: "Nothing."
(Conversation, 13/5/69)
Thus, Srila Prabhupada, not the IRM, is stating clearly that his ISKCON movement will end. Srila Prabhupada has also stated that he alone will always be the Acarya of ISKCON, which means he will also be the last Acarya of ISKCON. And that as the Acarya he will act as the diksa guru. This has been confirmed by the GBC (please see the book: Srila
Prabhupada: The Founder-Acarya of ISKCON – Presenting the Conclusions of the GBC Foundational Document, for evidence). Thus, the IRM's position is that given by Srila Prabhupada.
"They're simply envious snakes actually. The IRM people are envious snakes, to be honest. [...] It's sad because I have godbrothers who became IRM. I've a very dear godbrother, [...] he looked at me like – (pulls face) – like I was the most horrible demon he'd ever seen in his whole life because I wasn't part of the IRM. I mean, phew, it's really sad."
1) SAD claims that how someone was just supposedly looking at him is evidence of contempt for him and that this is sad. Yet he actually has contempt for every IRM devotee, as he deems them all "envious snakes".
2) When speaking about these same IRM devotees and their position on the "guru hoax" which differs from SAD's position, and which is no different today, SAD still glorified them:
"He (BTP Editor, Krishnakant) is no doubt one of the most powerful spiritual leaders on the planet today. [...] Even though he and I stand on two sides of an issue we stand united in our desire to serve and please Srila Prabhupada."
(SAD, 27/1/04)
Thus, SAD accepts that, despite their differences, they still have the desire to serve and please Srila Prabhupada. A desire which he claims still makes them envious snakes!
"So, even Prabhupada told me one can become jagad-guru, a letter he wrote me, disciple can become jagad-guru, what to speak of guru. So Prabhupada's instruction is very clear that he wanted his disciples to become spiritual masters and accept disciples. He told us this. So these IRM people, they have some agenda".
The letter mentioned was written on 31/12/72, and states as follows.
a) SAD is told to actually be a disciple:
"So far your difficulty for controlling the sex urge [...] First thing is, you have made promise when you took initiation that there will be no illicit sex connection. If still you are unable to fulfill that promise to your spiritual master, then what is the use of calling yourself devotee and disciple? That is simply pretending."
b) He is then given the option to leave:
"So if still the material nature is so much attractive to you that you are unable to sacrifice things in this way, then better you give up the whole thing and do as you like outside. But if you want to call yourself devotee and serve Krsna in that capacity, then you must avoid these four basic principle restrictions [includes illicit sex - Ed.]".
Clearly, SAD was struggling to even behave as a disciple.
"You have got some desire to become a famous preacher and famous Vaisnava singer and also jagad-guru. This is a spiritual desire, so it is not like any material desire and it is all right to desire for Krsna in this way. but great Vaisnava or famous Vaisnava means that you have no sex desire. Whether you can be like that? First of all you be like that, without any sex desire, then you think famous Vaisnava. Vaisnava means he has no material desire, what to speak of sex desire."
Having just addressed SAD's sex desire problems, Srila Prabhupada then continues the letter as above, stating *3* times that the qualification before one can even think of desiring to become a great Vaisnava like a jagad-guru is to have no sex desire. Srila Prabhupada accepts that to just desire to be jagad-guru can be spiritual, but he does not order SAD to "become jagad-guru" or "accept disciples". Thus, anyone who actually reads this letter will clearly see that it has nothing to do with telling SAD to "become jagad-guru" and everything to do with telling SAD to "become disciple" by following strictly. And therefore it is not evidence that he is an authorised successor diksa guru. But SAD is relying on having blind followers so that he can claim whatever he wants and get away with it. And, unfortunately, this is the sorry state we face in ISKCON, where due to blind following, unscrupulous people can easily cheat their followers. People will not even bother to read one letter from Srila Prabhupada!
When speaking of how to follow even the bona fide spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada states that "blind following" is "condemned" (Bg., 4.34). But such blind following is actually necessary for the false GBC gurus, otherwise their falseness will become discovered by the follower.
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