Back To Prabhupada, Issue 77, 2023
We saw in the previous article how GBC voted-in guru HH Sivarama Swami ("SRS") failed in his 16/7/23 Budapest lecture to defeat the IRM's ("rtvik") position, by defeating himself! The quotes in the shaded boxes are from the same lecture given on 16/7/23, and show him cheating to try to defeat the IRM's position. (All emphases added.)
To try to prove that Srila Prabhupada ordered that he be succeeded as ISKCON's diksa guru, SRS quotes the following from a room conversation Srila Prabhupada had with the GBC on 28/5/1977 –
Satsvarupa: "Then we have a question concer..."
Srila Prabhupada: "When I order you become guru, he becomes regular guru."
– and then proceeds to "explain" the above exchange by claiming:
"he says, "No, you become guru. He becomes regular guru.""
However, SRS has completely changed what Srila Prabhupada said! Srila Prabhupada does not say –
"No, you become guru"
– as if urging one to become a guru by batting away any possible objections to becoming guru by saying "No". Srila Prabhupada actually says:
"When I order you become guru"
Changing "When I order" to "No" completely changes the meaning. "When I order" means you first need an order to become a diksa guru. An order which was never given. "No" means the exact opposite. You do not need anything, and instead you just go ahead and do it – become guru. Thus, SRS has changed Srila Prabhupada's actual words to avoid having to explain the non-existence of a diksa guru order from Srila Prabhupada.
To try to prove that Srila Prabhupada ordered that he be succeeded as ISKCON's diksa guru, SRS also puts forward the following claim:
"But Prabhupada did speak about the law of disciplic succession. And what is that law? At the disappearance of your guru, you can accept disciples without limit."
SRS quotes the above statement about the "law of disciplic succession" from a letter Srila Prabhupada wrote to Tusta Krsna Dasa on 2/12/75. In that same letter, Srila Prabhupada states to whom this "law" would apply by stating:
"Every student"
"my disciples"
It is undisputed that Srila Prabhupada had many disciples and students who were, and are, females. Thus, by putting forward this quote as evidence for successor diksa gurus, SRS is accepting that there should also be female or Vaisnavi diksa gurus. However, SRS also states that:
"Vaisnavi diksa guru makes us a laughing stock."
Thus, since SRS has rejected Vaisnavi diksa gurus, he must also reject this "law" as being evidence for Srila Prabhupada ordering successor diksa gurus – lest he also becomes a "laughing stock"!
Another argument SRS gave to oppose the fact that Srila Prabhupada is taking everyone back to Godhead, is that Srila Prabhupada allegedly stated that Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura will take his disciple back to Godhead:
"Srila Prabhupada said about the TOVP*. And maybe it was Jayapataka Maharaja or Bhavananda Maharaja said, ‘Oh, Prabhupada, we'll bring the Queen of England to the opening.' Prabhupada said, ‘You bring the Queen of England to the opening, Bhaktivinoda Thakura will come down from the spiritual world, he'll grab you by the hand and he'll take you back to Godhead.'"
*TOVP – Temple of the Vedic Planetarium, or the Mayapur temple project.
However, here is the recording of the incident referred to above. Rather than Srila Prabhupada stating that Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura is taking one of Srila Prabhupada's disciples back to Godhead, Srila Prabhupada simply agreed that Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura would be pleased with the temple – that's all:
Jayapataka: "We want to make the Mayapur temple so beautiful and make the city so nice that not only the Queen of England and the President of United States, but even the Russian and Chinese leaders, they'll all have to come to see this. They can't avoid. Will that please Bhaktivinoda Thakura? [...]"
Srila Prabhupada: "Oh, yes."
(Room Conversation, 8/11/77)
There is no mention of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura taking Jayapataka or Bhavananda, or anyone else, back to Godhead.
"We're the Krsna Consciousness movement. So why do we have to have the Founder-Acarya as the center point? [...] It's not what Prabhupada emphasised. Krsna Consciousness movement. Prabhupada wanted Krsna at the center."
Yes, Krsna should be in the centre. The question is how should Krsna be in the centre? And the answer is via putting Srila Prabhupada in the centre first, because this is what Srila Prabhupada stated ISKCON must do:
"I wish that each and every Branch shall keep their independent identity and cooperate keeping the Acarya in the centre. On this principle we can open any number of Branches all over the world."
(Srila Prabhupada Letter, 11/2/67)
And SRS has to agree, since he states one cannot "jump over" and approach Krsna directly, but rather one must go through the guru in the parampara first:
"it goes evam parampara-praptam, it goes through. Prabhupada would always say, don't try to jump over, go through. Don't try to jump over to Caitanya Mahaprabhu, don't try to jump over to Krsna, just going through"
And this guru, as established in the previous article, is Srila Prabhupada.
1) SRS's sole evidence for Srila Prabhupada being succeeded as ISKCON's diksa guru is:
a) A fabricated phrase from the 28/5/77 conversation – "No, you become guru";
b) A "law" which he himself must accept does not order successor diksa gurus, otherwise he would turn into a "laughing stock".
2) He also makes other false arguments.
But, as we explained in the Editorial, SRS is able to rely on his disciples remaining ignorant of such cheating, because he knows they will not read BTP and thus discover it.
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