Back To Prabhupada, Issue 75, Vol. 4, 2022
We will see how, in order to place restrictions on gurus who are considered fallen, rules are concocted on the spot by the GBC and other ISKCON leaders. But these rules reveal that there is no philosophy, whether spiritual or material, nor even reason, consistency or common sense that underlies these rules – never mind Srila Prabhupada's teachings! (Emphases added.)
On 15/12/22, the GBC passed a resolution to address the Bhakti Vidya Purna Swami/Anirdesya Vapu Dasa ("AVD") scandal mentioned in the previous article. In this resolution, the GBC ruled that disciples initiated by AVD before February 2007 "continue to be initiated devotees in ISKCON, in the line of Srila Prabhupada". The GBC's rationale for this rule is explained in the resolution:
"in February 2007 Anirdesya Vapu das was restricted from accepting disciples via GBC Resolution 312/B which was based upon a CPO decision from September 2000".
They thus claim that AVD disobediently continued to initiate after February 2007, and hence the disciples he initiated after this date cannot be considered validly initiated. However, the GBC appear oblivious to the glaring contradiction which arises from their stated fact that AVD's February 2007 restriction was itself based on a decision which was passed almost seven years earlier: in September 2000. AVD was, therefore, according to the GBC, as guilty in 2000 as he was in 2007 of the abuse he was accused of, and which led to the restrictions on him.
The GBC has thus created an arbitrary time bubble during which, although AVD was unqualified to initiate, he was somehow still qualified – just because it took the GBC this time to figure it out! In creating this concoction, the GBC has also produced a further contradiction. The resolution further states:
"If any of those devotees [initiated pre-February 2007] choose to seek reinitiation from a guru in good standing in ISKCON, either now or in the future, they are welcomed and encouraged to do so."
Thus, the GBC claims that pre-February 2007 initiations are valid, but that such initiates are still encouraged to accept initiation from another diksa guru. But, to accept initiation from another diksa guru in spite of already having a valid initiation is a great offense:
"I am greatly surprised for Bon Maharaja's initiating you in spite of his knowing that you are already initiated by me. So it is deliberate transgression of Vaisnava etiquettes [...] no Vaisnava will approve of this offensive action. [...] you must know that you have committed a great blunder."
(Srila Prabhupada Letter, 26/3/68)
Thus, if AVD's initiation was truly valid like the GBC claims, these disciples would be committing guru-aparadha.
The GBC passed a resolution on 20/7/22 giving ISKCON's regional governing bodies the choice to ban GBC voted-in guru HH Lokanath Swami ("LOK") from visiting or initiating people in their regions, due to his having reportedly sexually abused a minor in the 1990s. Per this GBC decision, ISKCON's North American Council ("NAC") has decided to place such a ban on LOK, which includes requesting him to not even accept invitations to virtual/online events based out of North American ISKCON communities (NAC Statement, 24/10/22). However, the NAC has stated he will be granted a "grace period" until the end of December 2023, until which time those who had already been aspiring to take initiation from LOK may do so with the "blessings" of the NAC. The NAC has even set up a special channel ("Transition Team") to help aspiring disciples of LOK "navigate the process" of taking initiation from him prior to 31/12/23 (Email from NAC "Transition Team", 30/10/22). Thus:
1) The NAC accepts that LOK sexually abused a child while acting as a "good as God" diksa guru (NAC Statement, 8/5/21);
2) For this reason, the NAC believes he should be stopped from initiating;
3) However, the NAC will still give its "blessings" and continue to allow people to dedicate their lives to LOK as their "good as God" diksa guru, for another fourteen months.
There is no explanation for how LOK is a bona fide guru until the end of 2023, suitable to permanently give one's life and soul to, but at the moment the clock strikes midnight on New Year's Eve 2023, he suddenly loses all his "sakti" to be a bona fide guru. And, if he suddenly loses his "sakti", then there is no explanation for how he could have had it before or why devotees should be "blessed" to accept him before this date. Nor, indeed, is it explained on what date he acquired this sakti. Was it before the abuse act in 1990? If so, how come he loses it permanently only 33 years later, and not straight after the act happened?
Clearly, such a position is entirely absurd.
We therefore have a corollary to the GBC's aeroplane-tattva, where a GBC guru's "good as God" status is determined by wherever their plane happens to land (which we described in BTP 72 article "Institutionalising Aeroplane-Tattva" and which the NAC has also supported by instituting). In the present case, the GBC guru's status is simply determined by an arbitrarily set time and date.
In the minutes of the GBC's 2011 Midterm Meeting, where the body discussed LOK's child sexual abuse case, GBC members were reported stating that LOK has a "burning desire to initiate", "cannot breathe without initiating" and "is addicted to being a guru"; and that "many" GBC gurus are "intoxicated with initiations". Even they recognised this as something they "need to discuss" as "we are embarrassing ourselves every year" (October 2011 GBC Midterm Meeting Minutes). This addiction to initiating explains why the GBC have concocted so many nonsensical "tattvas", since they are desperate to somehow keep the guru hoax monstrosity propped up at any cost.
What is key about the preceding two new tattvas is that the validity of an initiation depends entirely on an administrative body arbitrarily deciding it is valid. The initiation has absolutely nothing to do with the validity of the guru. Thus, AVD was sanctioned for child abuse in 2000, but initiations from 1999, 2000 and 2001 are still valid! LOK perpetrated child abuse in 1990, and initiations in 2024 are invalid but valid in 2022, i.e. initiations become more valid the closer you get to the incidence of child abuse!
ISKCON leaders are not even pretending that they are still following some kind of guru-tattva or philosophy.
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