Back To Prabhupada, Issue 69, Vol 2, 2021
GBC voted-in guru Suresvara Dasa ("SUD") has been running a course all over the world in ISKCON about Srila Prabhupada's position as Founder-Acarya. In the next two articles, we will show how the course both promotes and tries to usurp Srila Prabhupada's true position! All quotes in shaded boxes are taken from Parts 9 and 10 of a recent course, titled "Founder-Acarya Essentials", delivered on 20/12/20 and 17/1/21. All emphases added.
SUD quotes Srila Prabhupada stating the following in a lecture on 8/12/73:
"You cannot imagine what my spiritual master said, or even if you read some books you cannot understand unless you understand it from me. This is called parampara system. You cannot jump over to the superior guru, neglecting the next acarya, immediate next acarya."
And SUD then explains that, therefore:
"If ‘no jumping over' means no neglecting one's ‘immediate next acarya' how much more does that apply to Srila Prabhupada, our Founder-Acarya, from whom we derive our core identity and through whom we see all teachers and teachings?"
However, if one cannot "jump over" Srila Prabhupada, then it would mean he is the "immediate next acarya" or current acarya or current link in the parampara and not a previous acarya. Otherwise, there would be no Srila Prabhupada to "jump over". Which means he is the diksa or initiating guru:
"in order to receive the real message of Srimad-Bhagavatam one should approach the current link, or spiritual master in the chain of disciplic succession. After being initiated by the proper spiritual master in that chain of succession"
(SB, 2.9.7, purport)
SUD states that Srila Prabhupada specifically took steps to ensure that his position of revealing transcendental knowledge, and thus having absolute authority over his disciples, would be the same for all who joined ISKCON:
"when Srila Prabhupada toured ISKCON as its Founder-Acarya, he commanded absolute authority over his disciples. He did this by the transcendental knowledge he revealed as well as by his own endearing example of pure devotional service. Keen to see his knowledge and example inspire all generations of his followers, Prabhupada took steps to protect his foundational role in ISKCON."
And SUD states that one of the steps Srila Prabhupada took to protect this position and his "foundational role" was ensuring all future generations would continue to worship him every morning with guru-puja:
"to help ISKCON be sustainable, and to ensure his position as Founder-Acarya, he instituted daily guru-puja to himself"
This guru-puja mentions Srila Prabhupada revealing transcendental knowledge, which we quoted SUD stating was how Srila Prabhupada kept absolute authority over his disciples. This is done via the verse "Divya jnana hrde prokasito" (where "divya-jnana" means transcendental knowledge), which Srila Prabhupada explains means he is the diksa guru:
"Divya jnana hrde prokasito. What is that divya-jnana? [...] This is divya-jnana. Diksa. Diksa means from this divya-jnana."
(Srila Prabhupada Lecture, 11/7/76)
Thus, SUD is effectively stating that:
a) Srila Prabhupada will continue to reveal transcendental knowledge and thus have absolute authority over everyone in ISKCON as his disciples.
b) Srila Prabhupada wanted all of ISKCON to always worship him as the diksa guru.
1) SUD states that it is in Srila Prabhupada's books "where he was making himself most available" and where we can find a "deeper intimacy, by following his instructions".
2) Therefore, anyone today can connect with Srila Prabhupada in the same way as those who were already initiated by Srila Prabhupada during his physical presence:
"And here's a very mystical way we can stay in touch or we can have Prabhupada answer a question for us [...] my Godbrothers and Godsisters would say this regularly, how they might have a problem or a question and they'll just open up Prabhupada's books randomly [...] and Krsna directs us to a passage or a verse that speaks right to our situation, it's very mystical how that works."
3) Due to this mystical process, SUD states Srila Prabhupada's teachings contain: "practically, any answer to any question is there."
a) Thus, not only does his physical disappearance not affect Srila Prabhupada's ability to associate with and guide anyone in ISKCON, he also continues to do this in the same way as he does for his initiated disciples.
b) Hence, a lack of physical presence is no impediment to Srila Prabhupada being our diksa guru. Because, as shown in the previous section, diksa involves the transmission of divya-jnana or transcendental knowledge – and Srila Prabhupada is still able to deliver this transcendental knowledge to all of us today mystically through his books.
c) Therefore, this proves that not only is there no necessity for physically present "living" successor GBC voted-in diksa gurus, but that also Srila Prabhupada continues to function as the diksa guru in ISKCON.
"In his authorised booklet Srila Prabhupada The Founder-Acarya of ISKCON, Ravindra Svarupa Prabhu concludes by listing the benefits of deeply understanding Prabhupada's unique transcendental position especially for all who serve his movement."
In our analysis of the abovementioned "authorised booklet" by Ravindra Svarupa Dasa, we quote verbatim the statements that it makes. This analysis was done in the IRM book: Srila Prabhupada: The Founder-Acarya of ISKCON – Presenting the Conclusions of the GBC Foundational Document (SPFAIC). And these statements we quoted from Ravindra Svarupa's book establish that Srila Prabhupada is ISKCON's diksa guru. Thus, when RSD mentioned the SPFAIC, he was unable to refute this conclusion that was present in his own book! This fact was documented in detail in the BTP 47 article "GBC Unable to Reply to Founder-Acarya Book", which can be read here.
Thus, SUD "unwittingly" promotes Srila Prabhupada as ISKCON's diksa guru.
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