Back To Prabhupada, Issue 65, Vol 1, 2020
Welcome to Issue 65 of Back To Prabhupada (BTP).
Every issue of BTP makes a point to emphasise the need for philosophical purity in regards to Srila Prabhupada's teachings. This in practice has thus led us to highlight the importance of remaining faithful to Srila Prabhupada by accepting only his direct words and translations as the source of all spiritual knowledge and authority. Some have commented that this smacks of "fanaticism", since it refuses to acknowledge that there are also other "scholarly" devotees who can contribute. However, here is what Srila Prabhupada states:
"Even if you, by A-B-C-D, you have become more learned than the acarya... That is not possible, but if you foolishly think like that, still, you should not exhibit your foolishness, that you know more than the acarya."
(Srila Prabhupada Lecture, 4/10/76)
Yet, as we have documented in previous issues, there are always persons who are trying to show that they are more "learned" than Srila Prabhupada, and, as you will find out, this issue is no exception! Please see the article on page 5 for an example. Srila Prabhupada then goes on to explain:
"Real success is how one is faithful to his guru. That is real success. Yasya deve para bhaktir yatha deve tatha gurau. It is not by education or grammatical knowledge you can learn anything. No. It is by the grace of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. And that grace comes down through the grace of guru. That grace also does not come directly. We should not be neglecting this point."
(Srila Prabhupada Lecture, 4/10/76, emphases added)
• Srila Prabhupada makes it clear that being "faithful" to him alone is the "real success".
• And that, regardless of your "learning", to actually learn something you need Lord Krsna's grace to come through the grace of the guru.
1) Those who have taken GBC gurus in ISKCON retort that the above quotation only states that one must be faithful to "his guru", and that they are indeed faithful to their guru. This argument, however, suffers from a fatal flaw. If their guru is a disciple of Srila Prabhupada, but is himself not faithful to Srila Prabhupada by having usurped Srila Prabhupada's position as ISKCON's diksa guru, then he is only a faithless disciple rather than a bona fide guru. And Srila Prabhupada does not speak above about having faith in a bogus guru being the "real success"! This flaw would also apply to disciples of Srila Prabhupada's so-called "grand-disciples". For the latter became gurus by "succeeding" the faithless "bogus" gurus just mentioned, and thus would themselves also be similarly unauthorised gurus.
2) Another point made by such followers of GBC gurus is that since they are in any case following Srila Prabhupada's orders such as chanting 16 rounds, etc., albeit through their own gurus, then they are being faithful to Srila Prabhupada. Even if we leave aside the obvious flaw in this argument that beginning one's spiritual life by denying one's relationship with Srila Prabhupada as ISKCON's diksa guru is hardly being faithful to Srila Prabhupada, there are still other problems. Namely that, as we show in every issue, the GBC gurus, and even those who officially claim to accept that Srila Prabhupada is ISKCON's diksa guru, cannot help but also deviate from Srila Prabhupada's other instructions in addition to his order that he is the diksa guru of ISKCON. And thus, for example, on page 15 of this issue, we show that now even faith in something as basic as the supremacy of Srila Prabhupada's books is being undermined.
3) An obvious point in regards to being faithful to Srila Prabhupada's teachings is to make sure that we are actually dealing with Srila Prabhupada's teachings to begin with – which means following the POP or Prabhupada-Only Paradigm, and thus accepting only the recorded instructions of Srila Prabhupada.
On page 4 of this issue, we expand further on this theme of needing to be faithful to Srila Prabhupada and how it is achieved, because there is no other way to be successful spiritually. Hence, we make no apology for being "fanatically" concerned with it!
Thank you and Hare Krsna.
In Srila Prabhupada's service,
Krishnakant
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