Back To Prabhupada, Issue 74, Vol. 3, 2022, Quotes, Notes & News
GBC voted-in guru HG Adi Karta Dasa ("AKD") claimed in a recent lecture that Srila Prabhupada "named" 11 diksa gurus:
"right before he [Srila Prabhupada] passed away, he named eleven gurus. There were eleven people who he wanted to initiate disciples"
(AKD Lecture, 25/8/22)
Other ISKCON gurus have also made this claim, sometimes using terms such as "selected" and "chosen" to allege that Srila Prabhupada named or appointed 11 diksa gurus. However, we know for a fact that:
1) 11 persons were only named by Srila Prabhupada once. This was in the July 9th, 1977, directive. No other time does Srila Prabhupada name only 11 persons "right before he passed away".
2) Thus, for example, in the May 28th, 1977, conversation, no one is even named, period.
3) In the directive, the 11 were not named as diksa gurus. One can read the directive and see that they were named only as "representatives" who would accept disciples for the actual diksa guru, Srila Prabhupada:
"The newly initiated devotees are disciples of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupad, the above eleven senior devotees acting as His representative."
(July 9th, 1977, Directive)
It is therefore just an indisputable, historical fact that Srila Prabhupada never named 11 diksa gurus. Whether or not Srila Prabhupada did something can easily be verified. It is not up to interpretation or debate. He either did it or he did not. Thus, you cannot find Srila Prabhupada ever naming 11 diksa gurus. Indeed, so indisputable is this fact that even the GBC is forced to agree. In their own ISKCON Journal, they printed and accepted the following statement from now deceased ISKCON guru HH Tamala Krsna Goswami ("TKG"):
"Actually, Prabhupada never appointed any gurus. [...] He appointed eleven rtviks. He never appointed them gurus."
(TKG, 3/12/80, ISKCON Journal, 1990, GBC Executive Committee)
Some ISKCON guru hoaxers need to keep falsely claiming 11 diksa gurus were named because if 11 diksa gurus were not named by Srila Prabhupada, then there is no authority for the 11 rtviks that Srila Prabhupada did name to turn themselves into diksa gurus. One cannot just change the position that Srila Prabhupada ordered one to take up for another position of one's choosing without another order from Srila Prabhupada authorising such a change. Which would mean the 11 rtviks should have remained as rtviks, and the guru hoax crumbles. The alternative for these guru hoaxers is to accept the conclusions of a resolution proposed by HH Jayadvaita Swami ("JAS"), which were also accepted by the GBC. This resolution accepts that no diksa gurus were named, but that instead we can only claim that it is "implicit" that Srila Prabhupada "intended" the rtviks to become diksa gurus (JAS Email, 13/12/03). Thus, some guru hoaxers have understood that by claiming that the authority for the guru hoax was only "implicit", then by definition it means that it is open to challenge as there is no proof, no order, to say otherwise, and so the argument is already lost anyway. Indeed, JAS does not even make any attempt to explain how it is even "implicit" that the rtviks must become diksa gurus. Therefore, some GBC gurus have just decided that it is better to lie and falsely claim that there was an order for 11 diksa gurus, even if it is a fake order, than to accept there was no order at all.
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