Back To Prabhupada, Issue 73, Vol. 2, 2022
GBC voted-in guru HH Badrinarayan Swami ("BAD") claims that by having a GBC voted-in diksa guru, one gets "the best of both worlds":
"grand disciples of Srila Prabhupada have both blessings, they have the blessings of their physically present spiritual master [...] they also have a connection with Prabhupada, so it's the best of both worlds."
(BAD Morning Class, 5/12/21)
And, hence, such people have at least the same as what the "rtviks" (the IRM) have:
"Whatever the rtviks say they have, you also have. [...] ‘Well, I'm not really connected to Prabhupada [...] I got this second rate guy' [...] they've been brainwashed to think that they're not getting Prabhupada's mercy, they're making an either/or choice."
(BAD Morning Class, 5/12/21)
Let us check what Srila Prabhupada states. All emphases added.
In the same lecture, BAD states that for a disciple, a physically present guru is needed as he is someone who:
"can keep them off the mental platform and keep them in line and who they can ask immediate questions and get immediate answers"
But BAD himself does not have this facility, since, like the "rtviks" he condemns, he ‘only' has Srila Prabhupada as his guru, and thus has not had a "physically present" guru for 45 years! So BAD's proposal fails at the very first hurdle due to self-contradiction and hypocrisy as he himself is not practising what he insists others must practise. Indeed, if a "physically present" guru is required, then Srila Prabhupada would have taught that:
‘As soon as I physically depart, all my disciples must get "re-initiated", or accept another "physically present" guru.'
However, not only did he not teach this, he actually taught the opposite:
"So we should associate by the vibration, and not by the physical presence. That is real association."
(Srila Prabhupada Lecture, 18/8/68)
The most important question that needs to be answered is what did Srila Prabhupada order? Because, if he did not order successor diksa gurus for ISKCON, but rather ordered that he remain the sole diksa guru, then:
1) Any GBC voted-in diksa guru would be disobeying Srila Prabhupada, and thus would not be a guru but an unauthorised fraudster who has no standing in Krsna consciousness, let alone as a ‘good as God' diksa guru:
"If one is disobeying the spiritual master, he cannot remain in the pure status of life. He cannot be siksa-guru or anything else. He is finished, immediately."
(Srila Prabhupada Lecture, 4/7/74)
2) By accepting such a disobedient person as one's guru, his disciple would be part of this offensive disobedience to Srila Prabhupada, and thus cannot result in the disciple receiving Srila Prabhupada's mercy. Rather, it can only be severely detrimental to one's spiritual life:
"If he displeases Krsna's representative he has no entrance to the Krsna's kingdom, [...] Immediately rejected. [...] Disobedient... "Obedience is first discipline." So if Krsna's representative is disobeyed – "Get out immediately." Krsna is very strict."
(Srila Prabhupada, Room Conversation, 12/12/70)
Therefore, if one disobeys Srila Prabhupada, then, rather than getting his mercy, one is immediately rejected. Hence, before accepting a GBC guru as one's diksa guru, one would need to first confirm that the GBC guru was authorised by Srila Prabhupada to replace him. For only then could accepting the GBC guru possibly result in being the "best of both worlds" and ‘double mercy'. But, as we have copiously documented throughout all of our IRM literature, no successor diksa gurus were authorised by Srila Prabhupada. Thus, BAD's claim that one would still be connected to, and getting, Srila Prabhupada's mercy, by accepting successor GBC gurus is untrue. Rather, one would be cut off from Srila Prabhupada. Thus, far from ‘doubling the mercy', one would now be getting no mercy at all, either from Srila Prabhupada or the GBC guru who is just a fraudster.
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1) Every person only has a fixed, limited amount of time in their lives. Therefore, if one has accepted a physically present GBC guru, every second that one spends worshipping/reading/listening to this physical guru is one less second spent on focusing on Srila Prabhupada. Hence, we reported in the BTP 68 ‘QNN' article "The 40% Guru", how GBC voted-in guru HH Sivarama Swami had developed a "40%" theory, that since one must listen to one's physically present GBC guru, one can only end up listening to Srila Prabhupada 40% of the time.
2) It is our philosophy that the diksa guru is supposed to be treated as everything, or like God, for the disciple:
"The murti of the spiritual master should be treated as good as the Deity [...] The guru should be treated as good as God. This is stated in all the sastras."
(Srila Prabhupada Letter, 29/1/76)
This has been acknowledged by numerous ISKCON leaders, such as GBC member Praghosa Dasa who stated that having a GBC guru poses a "problem" because it causes GBC guru followers to divert their attention away from Srila Prabhupada due to focusing on their GBC gurus:
"it's natural that devotees, second generation, third generation devotees, it's natural that they will have deep appreciation, respect, love, and all of those things for their diksa guru [...] So that in one sense is natural [...] this is the problem, we cannot have gurus taking such a significant role that they become the be all and end all in the lives of devotees."
(Praghosa Dasa Interview, 18/11/20)
In addition to diverting one's time away from Srila Prabhupada, the GBC guru will also shift one away from Srila Prabhupada's teachings towards whatever one's GBC guru happens to teach, because, naturally, the disciple is supposed to accept and follow whatever his spiritual master says. And, we have documented in BTP the GBC gurus teaching differently from Srila Prabhupada (and even from what their own fellow GBC guru colleagues teach!).
BAD's claim that the GBC guru improves one's spiritual situation is defeated by the facts. The GBC guru actually – disconnects us from Srila Prabhupada – both spiritually and also practically.
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