Back To Prabhupada, Issue 66, Vol 2, 2020
Much of BTP's content is generated by the following process:
1) An ISKCON leader, usually sitting on the Vyasasana (guru's seat), will reel off whatever "stream of consciousness" thoughts occur to him. There will be a marked absence of directly quoting Srila Prabhupada's words.
2) Instead he will just assume that his words are automatically empowered and correct, as if he is the Acarya of ISKCON.
3) We then simply compare his words with what the Acarya Srila Prabhupada teaches, and find that what the ISKCON leader says is not taught by Srila Prabhupada, and indeed Srila Prabhupada's teachings will actually be something completely different.
Thus, following the above process, we will expose a GBC voted-in diksa guru's ignorance about diksa, even though he is supposed to have given diksa to others! The statements in shaded boxes below were made by GBC member and GBC voted-in guru HH Bhanu Swami ("BS") during a Srimad-Bhagavatam lecture delivered on 22/6/20. All emphases added.
"So it's quite a unique feature in our sampradaya that we have harinama as the main process, so the emphasis therefore is less on the diksa guru, whose function is actually to transmit the diksa mantra, because we're using that to a lesser degree. Mainly it's for the deity worship, but the deity worship also is secondary to the harinama."
BS states that because harinama is "the main process", the emphasis should actually be taken off the diksa guru, as what we need him for is really the diksa mantra that is required for deity worship. However, Srila Prabhupada taught that diksa, which of course comes from the diksa guru, is the all-important process of receiving transcendental knowledge:
"This is the purpose of diksa, or initiation. Initiation means receiving the pure knowledge of spiritual consciousness."
(Cc., Madhya-lila, 9.61, purport)
"Diksa is the process by which one can awaken his transcendental knowledge and vanquish all reactions caused by sinful activity. A person expert in the study of the revealed scriptures knows this process as diksa."
(Cc., Madhya-lila, 15.108, purport)
"Diksa actually means initiating a disciple with transcendental knowledge by which he becomes freed from all material contamination."
(Cc., Madhya-lila, 4.111, purport)
Thus, it is not a fact that the diksa guru's function is to only or mainly transmit the diksa mantra for deity worship.
"So therefore when harinama becomes prominent we can say that, theoretically, the siksa guru should become more prominent than the diksa guru. [...] that should be the process so that we put prominence on the persons who give the teachings, proper teachings, rather than simply the diksa mantra."
BS states that diksa gurus do not give "proper teachings", and disciples must instead rely on "siksa gurus" to do that. However, Srila Prabhupada states that a diksa guru does deliver "proper teachings" and also gives the necessary siksa:
Pradyumna: "Guru-padasrayah: "First one must take shelter of the lotus feet of a spiritual master." Tasmat krsna-diksadi-siksanam. Tasmat, "from him," krsna-diksadi-siksanam, "one should take krsna-diksa, initiation, and siksa.""
Srila Prabhupada: "Diksa means divya-jnanam ksapayati iti diksa. Which explains the divya-jnana, transcendental, that is diksa. Di, divya, diksanam. Diksa. So divya-jnana, transcendental knowledge... If you don't accept spiritual master, how you'll get transcen... You'll be taught here and there, here and there, and waste time. Waste time for the teacher and waste your valuable time. Therefore you have to be guided by an expert spiritual master. Read it."
Pradyumna: "Krsna-diksadi-siksanam."
Srila Prabhupada: "Siksanam. We have to learn."
(Room Conversation, 27/1/77)
Thus, it is not a fact that only the siksa guru gives the "proper teachings" and the diksa guru does not. Rather, not only does the diksa guru give the "proper teachings", but the siksa guru becomes the diksa guru:
"Generally a spiritual master who constantly instructs a disciple in spiritual science becomes his initiating spiritual master later on."
(Cc., Adi-lila, 1.35, purport)
"generally the siksa-guru later on becomes the diksa-guru."
(SB, 4.12.32, purport)
"we have to think of what the result is by going to the scripture [...] so we get the process in the scripture also, that is the process of bhakti, how to do the bhakti, that with all sorts of details, then we may have to learn that through the guru"
BS states that the process for advancing in bhakti is by consulting the "scripture" and following the processes detailed therein, with learning from the guru being something we only "may" do. However, as shown by the quotes from Srila Prabhupada supplied in the previous sections, this does not fit the definition of a diksa guru, since the diksa guru is the transmitter of transcendental knowledge unto the disciple. It only fits the pseudo diksa guru setup of today's GBC gurus in ISKCON, where everyone is just pretending to be a diksa guru while relying on Srila Prabhupada's teachings – i.e. "scripture", which BS is reading from in his Srimad-Bhagavatam class –
"Srila Prabhupada's instructions are the essential teachings for every ISKCON devotee."
(GBC Resolutions, No. 35, 1994)
BS's brand of nonsense is just the latest in a long line of diksa definitions ISKCON gurus have tried to give over the years. For example, in the BTP 55 article "What is Diksa?", we covered GBC guru HH Romapada Swami's ignorance of what diksa is – even though he is supposed to be offering it – through his claim that it is a physical event. When every GBC diksa guru has their own theory about the most basic function of their existence, it is blatant proof that their guru system is a hoax.
All this speculative nonsense could easily be avoided if everyone just repeated exactly what Srila Prabhupada states on a subject. And how difficult could doing that possibly be – after all you can even train a parrot to do it!
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