Back To Prabhupada, Issue 70, Vol 3, 2021
We have noted before that:
Allegation + No Evidence = Opinion.
Allegation + Evidence = Fact.
Anyone with even a very basic grasp of reason understands this. So, any claim must be supported by evidence. The quotes in shaded boxes are from the same 12/6/21 interview with HH Hridayananda Dasa Goswami ("HD") quoted in the previous article. All emphases added.
"Prabhupada, when he chose 11 people [...] when Prabhupada chose the gurus he only chose people who were preachers and managers"
HD refers here to Srila Prabhupada choosing "11 people". HD claims that this was when "Prabhupada chose the gurus". Now, a claim like this is very easy to verify, because the claim that Srila Prabhupada "chose the gurus", if true, would require two elements:
a) The act of choosing specific persons;
b) Who are chosen as diksa gurus.
We therefore need a statement from Srila Prabhupada stating something like: "I am choosing (selecting, appointing, etc.,) so and so person or persons to be diksa/initiating gurus/spiritual masters."
But, no such statement exists.
1) Indeed, the only time Srila Prabhupada ever chose "11 people" was in the July 9th, 1977 directive when he chose 11 "rtviks" – we provided proof of that in our article on page 4. Thus, this can not be when Srila Prabhupada "chose the gurus".
2) And, if we go to the May 28th, 1977 "appointment" conversation, Srila Prabhupada first speaks only about people he is planning to recommend in the future:
"After this is settled up, I shall recommend some of you"
Thus, regardless of what he was planning to recommend them as (in this case "officiating acaryas"), Srila Prabhupada is not even "choosing" anyone here.
3) Similarly, at the end of this same conversation, Srila Prabhupada states:
"When I order"
Again, regardless of what Srila Prabhupada is referring to that could be ordered (in this case "you become guru"), he is not choosing, or ordering, anyone here.
Thus, there is no act of choosing occurring at all in this May 28th, 1977 conversation.
4) Nor is there any "interpretative" or rtvik transmogrification statement from Srila Prabhupada wherein he states that "when I appoint rtviks, you must interpret that appointment as meaning that these rtviks should immediately transform into diksa gurus as soon as I physically depart".
We apologise to readers for having to explain such elementary points regarding what "choosing" means. But a massive hoax has been perpetrated on the basis of claiming that Srila Prabhupada chose gurus, yet no ISKCON leader appears to understand or accept that for Srila Prabhupada to have chosen gurus, he actually needs to have chosen them!
We can also note that none of the rationalisations offered by HD or the other rtviks in the previous article, about how and why they became diksa gurus, were based on having been "chosen" by Srila Prabhupada to change into a diksa guru from a rtvik. Thus, they contradict HD's claim here regarding having been "chosen" as a guru by Srila Prabhupada. In addition, ISKCON's leadership (via ISKCON's official magazine, Back To Godhead), also officially accepted that 11 gurus were not "chosen" or appointed by Srila Prabhupada:
"by the influence of maya, illusion, a different idea soon evolved – that Srila Prabhupada had appointed eleven "pure devotees" to serve as the only gurus after him."
('An Apology', Back To Godhead, #25-01, 1991)
However, since the "eleven" mentioned above were the 11 appointed rtviks, if they were not appointed as gurus, then they were not authorised to stop functioning as rtviks by turning into gurus, and thus should have remained as rtviks. This logical conclusion, however, is still deliberately ignored by ISKCON's leadership, so that the root of the guru hoax is still allowed to exist.
"this whole rtvik nonsense, which is, I mean the word rtvik in Sanskrit doesn't even mean surrogate, so one of the comical things is using a word which doesn't even mean what they think it means in Sanskrit."
As noted in the previous article, if the rtviks chosen by Srila Prabhupada were not ordered by Srila Prabhupada to turn into diksa gurus, they would and should have remained as rtviks. HD calls this fact – that HD and the other appointed rtviks should have remained as rtviks because they were not ordered to change into diksa gurus – "this whole rtvik nonsense". And he claims that those who state this fact "think" that "rtvik" means "surrogate" in Sanskrit, and that such thinking is "comical." However, here is what The Final Order (TFO), the "rtvik bible" (as named by GBC gurus HH Jayadvaita Swami and HH Bhakti Vikasa Swami), actually states "rtvik" means in Sanskrit:
"The word "rtvik" (meaning "priest")".
TFO never claims "rtvik" means "surrogate". Thus, what is actually "comical", and actual "rtvik nonsense", is HD not even being aware of the "rtvik" subject he is addressing, leading to him putting forward a fake argument. However, it is also a fact, and there is no dispute that, Srila Prabhupada appointed 11 such rtvik priests, including HD, via the July 9th, 1977 directive, to only initiate on Srila Prabhupada's behalf, whereby those initiated would be the disciples of Srila Prabhupada (as proven on page 4). And HD's comical thinking cannot change this stubborn fact.
HD states that:
"there are absolutely GBCs, temple presidents, all over ISKCON who are bullies, who are exploiting the Hare Krishna Movement to be little dictators, and they push people around and they totally ignore Prabhupada's instructions"
Unfortunately, as we have revealed in this and the previous article, both through HD's own words, and Srila Prabhupada's statements, HD is also guilty of this. Because he is exploiting the Hare Krishna movement to be a "good as God" guru by ignoring Srila Prabhupada's instructions regarding his rtvik appointment, which he is falsely acting on as being a diksa guru appointment.
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