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Who Authorised Srila Prabhupada?

 


IRM

Back To Prabhupada, Issue 70, Vol 3, 2021, Interactive

"First of all, thank you for the great work you are doing, protecting Srila Prabhupada's spiritual legacy. Srila Prabhupada states:
"One should take initiation from a bona fide spiritual master coming in the disciplic succession, who is authorised by his predecessor spiritual master. This is called diksa-vidhana."
(SB, 4.8.54, purport)
This quote alone disqualifies all the bogus gurus we are having in ISKCON.
Now, this is the question I have in mind: who authorised Srila Prabhupada to be a spiritual master and give diksa to spiritual aspirants? Was it Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati? If yes, any record of that? Or was it someone else?
It would be great having a clear answer to that, in order to have a strong argument against people who could argue that Srila Prabhupada gave diksa without being officially authorised (and therefore would be on the same level of the present bogus gurus).
Thanking you in advance, receive my deepest and sincere salutations."
- Shanya Griesbach, Valencia, Spain

Editor replies:

1) Firstly, this question can be answered in an axiomatic sense as follows:

a) If we accept Srila Prabhupada is a bona fide guru, then he must already be properly authorised.

b) If he was not properly authorised, then he would not be a bona fide guru, and there would be no point in quoting him as you have done, or even having this discussion about ISKCON or anything else related to it, as we would only be discussing something that, in any case, is just an unauthorised concoction, having sprung from an unauthorised diksa guru. Thus, for any follower of Srila Prabhupada or member of ISKCON, your question is irrelevant, as we all already accept, a priori, that Srila Prabhupada is bona fide and thus authorised.

2) We can, however, note that Srila Prabhupada does himself answer the question as follows:

Brahmananda: "He's asking when did you become the spiritual leader of Krsna consciousness?"
Srila Prabhupada: "When my Guru Maharaja ordered me. This is the guru-parampara."
Indian man (1): "Did he just..."
Srila Prabhupada: "Try to understand. Don't go very speedily. A guru can become guru when he's ordered by his guru. That's all. Otherwise nobody can become guru." [...]
Indian man (1): "When did he tell you to...?"
Srila Prabhupada: "What is the business, when did he tell me? And why shall I disclose to you? It is so very insignificant thing that I have to explain to you?"
Indian man (1): "No, I am just curious to know when."
Srila Prabhupada: "You should be curious within your limit. You should know that one can become guru when he is ordered by his guru. This much."
(Conversation, 28/10/75)

However, this does require that you accept that whatever Srila Prabhupada states above is the truth. And if you did that, then you would already be in the position mentioned in point 1a) of accepting Srila Prabhupada as an authorised, bona fide guru, since you accept anything he states as automatically being authoritative, and hence the above answer would not even be necessary for you.

3) Thus, as far as ISKCON is concerned, in regards to successor diksa gurus to Srila Prabhupada:

a) For ISKCON, Srila Prabhupada is the supreme authority and Acarya.

b) Therefore, anyone within ISKCON must be able to show proof directly from ISKCON's authority, Srila Prabhupada, that they were authorised by him as a successor diksa guru.

4) Hence, in conclusion:

a) If one does not accept that Srila Prabhupada is the Acarya, and authorised, then it would mean that his GBC "successor" diksa gurus are in any case also automatically unauthorised, having been disciples of, and succeeded, an unauthorised imposter.

b) If, however, one accepts Srila Prabhupada is the authorised Acarya of ISKCON, then one must supply proof of having been authorised by him to succeed him as the diksa guru of ISKCON. And no one can.

So, either way, there is no authorised successor diksa guru to Srila Prabhupada!

 

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