Back To Prabhupada, Issue 64, Vol 4, 2019
H Bhakti Vikasa Swami ("BVKS") is another prominent supporter of the movement against female diksa gurus which was mentioned on page 4. He has written a book entitled Women: Masters or Mothers? (now called Mothers & Masters), in which he attacks the idea of women becoming diksa gurus. However, in this book, he also attacks the IRM's position, by comparing the move for "equality" and feminism which has led to female diksa gurus, with the IRM's position that Srila Prabhupada remains ISKCON's diksa guru. He tries to claim that both are equally deviant. In so doing, we shall see that he simply makes a fool of himself since the points he makes to support his position only reveal that he is a liar. The quotes in the shaded boxes are from the chapter entitled "Rtvik Folly" in the above book, which ironically only reveal his own folly in lying.
"seek to justify their position by the heterodox and dangerous hermeneutic that Srila Prabhupada is so special that he could override guru, sadhu, and sastra, and that he actually did so to establish rtvikism and feminism."
This is BVKS's blatantly false description of the IRM's position (which he calls "rtvikism"). We have never stated this. Rather, we state the opposite, that Srila Prabhupada's orders are always in line with sadhu and sastra, making a point to quote the following:
"Guru means who follows the sastra and sadhu. So there are three, the same."
(Srila Prabhupada Lecture, 30/11/76)
And we simply wish to follow these orders, such as keeping him as the sole Acarya of ISKCON, which also means diksa guru.
"Similarly in and around ISKCON there has been an attempt to remove gurus [...] Rtvikism has simply added one more deviation: the abandoning of the guru system."
More misrepresentation from BVKS. We are not abandoning the guru system, since we are not trying to remove, but keep, the guru, who is the current representative of the disciplic succession, Srila Prabhupada. Instead BVKS has the situation back to front. For it is he and his GBC guru colleagues who have removed Srila Prabhupada as ISKCON's diksa guru. Without this guru removal of Srila Prabhupada, neither BVKS nor anyone else could even exist as GBC gurus, and hence the question of "removing" them as gurus would not even arise. Thus, it is they who are the guru removers.
"The notion that due to problems with gurus in ISKCON we can simply bypass the gurus and make Prabhupada our guru"
Continuing to "describe" our position, BVKS continues to lie. This "notion" he puts forward here exists only in his lying mind. We are not stating that due to problems with gurus we "make" Srila Prabhupada the guru. Rather, we are claiming the opposite — that not following Srila Prabhupada's order to keep him as the guru leads to problems with false successor gurus, and hence there is nothing to "bypass".
"rtvikism was meant to counter abuses of the guru system that arose post-1977, by providing the simplistic solution that Srila Prabhupada alone continues to initiate all aspiring disciples within ISKCON"
No, as just stated, our position is that the purpose of keeping Srila Prabhupada as the guru is to follow his pre-1978 orders to do this. And the abuses in ISKCON's guru system only came afterwards due to not doing this. One may dispute these orders, but one cannot dispute that our position is based on these orders.
All our points are stated clearly in our position paper The Final Order ("TFO"), and BVKS is fully aware of TFO's contents, since he stated that TFO is "perhaps the most influential post-1977 publication in the Vaisnava world." (12/1/13). Hence, BVKS has no excuse for making these false points about the IRM's position, and hence his chapter on our position is just filled with lies from start to finish.
"Although rtvikists claim that Srila Prabhupada is their initiating guru, there is no precedent in genuine Vaisnavism for accepting initiation from a guru who is not physically present in the world."
Not content with straight-out lying about the IRM's position, BVKS now puts forward an "argument" that he does not even believe, and thus in effect he is lying to himself. The GBC states about its guru system of multiple gurus, of which BVKS is a part, that:
"ISKCON's ethos of multiple diksa- and siksa-gurus serving under the auspices of a global managerial board is unique in the history of Vaisnavism".
(GBC Resolution 318, 2014)
Therefore, if BVKS actually believed in only following a guru system that had a precedent, he would first remove himself from acting as a GBC diksa guru, as that system is without precedent ("unique"). But he has not done this, and thus he does not even believe what he is claiming here!
By offering these "straw-man arguments" about the IRM's position — that is, lying about it — BVKS becomes his own worst enemy. Because as a result of this practice:
1) The IRM's actual position is not being addressed, and hence he can never hope to defeat it, because he is not even answering it. Rather, he is only "addressing" some made up points that he has fabricated in his lying mind.
2) The IRM's actual position not being addressed means it remains standing, undefeated, and thus BVKS achieves the opposite of what he is supposedly setting out to do.
3) His refusal to even address the IRM's position makes it appear that this is due to him being unable to defeat the IRM's position and hence he is too scared to even try. Thus, he instead evades the IRM's position with false, straw-man arguments that he can "address".
Such blatant lying and contradiction seem to be par for the course in so-called "Vaisnava" circles. They are writing "books", but there is no attempt at scholarship or even basic literacy, with our supposed "brahmana scholars" and "good as God" gurus not even aware of what a "straw-man" argument is. Rather, the objective is always to somehow deny Srila Prabhupada's guru position at all costs — including lying — so desperate are the guru hoaxers to keep their false guru positions. Such lying tactics arise because all attempts to actually address the IRM's position have been easily defeated, as a simple look at the "Challengers to the IRM Defeated" box on our homepage will confirm.
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