Back To Prabhupada, Issue 77, 2023
In the previous issue, we documented GBC voted-in guru HG Mahatma Dasa ("MAD") preaching ISKCON needing to be "almost rtvik" (see BTP 76 "GBC Guru: We Can Allow the Rtvik System"). By "rtvik" he meant the IRM's position that Srila Prabhupada remains ISKCON's diksa guru. Now he has gone further! (All emphases added.)
In a video titled "Guru is One Who Brings You Closer to Prabhupada" posted on 19/6/23, MAD states that:
1) The GBC voted-in "guru" is supposed to just be: "assisting Prabhupada like a monitor in a class assisting the professor in doing his work, helping the students better understand what the professor taught".
This makes it clear that Srila Prabhupada is the diksa guru ("professor"), and GBC "gurus" are just students who help other students of the professor. This is "no change" to the situation that existed when Srila Prabhupada was physically present as diksa guru and everyone was his student (disciple), and the senior students would help the newer students.
2) This "monitor" should be someone "who you feel is best at helping you connect with Prabhupada, [...] come closer to Prabhupada".
This is the "Back To Prabhupada" program. What is the result of reading BTP? You come closer to or "back" to Prabhupada – BTP! Thus, by MAD's definition, one should choose an IRM member, rather than a GBC guru, as one's "monitor guru"!
3) That "Srila Prabhupada is the one who is taking us back to Godhead".
This makes Srila Prabhupada become the diksa guru:
"The spiritual master initiates the disciple to deliver him"
(Cc., Madhya-lila, 1.128, purport)
MAD's GBC voted-in guru colleague HH Sivarama Swami ("SRS"), in a lecture he gave in Budapest on 16/7/23, attacked the statements made by MAD in his video with the following withering accusations (quotes later in this article in shaded boxes will also be from this SRS lecture):
"this is rtvik philosophy"
"this then becomes straight rtvik"
"it's all bogus. It's all backwards"
"it's brainwashing devotees"
"So this is crooked thinking"
"the guru is being described as a monitor, very soon to become a janitor"
"you're killing the Krsna Consciousness movement"
"What's being attacked is the whole principle of guru-disciple relationship"
"you're actually going to destroy the disciple's Krsna Consciousness."
"Why do devotees come up with something like this? [...] they don't study, read Prabhupada's books [...] And I would say probably that due to bad association."
Note, if we were to engage in such heavy criticism of a "good as God" GBC guru's words, it would be called "Vaisnava aparadha"!
"Now, does the diksa guru follow Srila Prabhupada and Krsna's teachings? [...] if he is, then he's also taking you back to Godhead. Because he's giving you the same instructions."
SRS makes the above argument to protest MAD's statement that it is Srila Prabhupada who is taking everyone back to Godhead. SRS claims that the GBC diksa gurus also take one back to Godhead by dint of giving the same instructions that Srila Prabhupada gives.
1) However, SRS also admits that:
"taking you back to Godhead means that you're receiving instructions. And sure, we're receiving Prabhupada's instructions"
2) That these instructions from Srila Prabhupada are already received by everyone directly from Srila Prabhupada:
"Because everybody is going to be reading Prabhupada's books. [...] And everyone's heard Srila Prabhupada's books."
3) That the GBC guru tells us to get these instructions from Srila Prabhupada directly:
"because that person (the GBC guru) gives you Prabhupada's Bhagavad-gita and says, ‘read this'"
4) Reading Srila Prabhupada's four main books, rather than reading a GBC guru's book, is enough to take one back to Godhead:
"Whether they read my books or some other devotees' books, is not that important. But these four books, just four, and that, Prabhupada said, ‘That's enough to take you back to Godhead, and make you fully conscious'."
Hence, according to SRS's own explanation, it is Srila Prabhupada alone who is taking us back to Godhead by dint of us directly receiving enough of his instructions from himself via his books!
"He never said, ‘I'm the person who is going to take you back to Godhead for the next 10,000 years'"
SRS claims Srila Prabhupada did not state that he will deliver all persons in ISKCON (by "10,000 years" SRS simply means the time for which ISKCON is predicted to exist). However, in regard to taking persons back to Godhead, SRS admits that Srila Prabhupada:
"told his disciples he's going to do that."
So then SRS has to accept that Srila Prabhupada did say that he will take people "back to Godhead for the next 10,000 years" if everyone in ISKCON is supposed to be his disciple. Which we have shown via numerous proofs is actually the case – we give 6 different proofs just in our BTP Special Summary Issue alone that Srila Prabhupada remains ISKCON's diksa guru. Indeed, SRS also gives a proof that Srila Prabhupada is the diksa guru for ISKCON:
"So transcendental knowledge, divya jnana [...] this is what diksa is [...] injecting transcendental knowledge into the heart of the disciple, that is diksa. Every day we're singing, divya jnana hrde prokasito."
SRS states the diksa guru is the one who is injecting "divya-jnana" or transcendental knowledge into the heart of the disciple, and illustrates this with the words: "divya-jnana hrde prokasito" – which are sung daily to Srila Prabhupada by everyone in ISKCON during guru-puja. Which would mean that Srila Prabhupada is injecting this divya-jnana into the hearts of everyone in ISKCON, and thus is everyone's diksa guru in ISKCON.
Though SRS viciously condemns MAD for preaching "rtvik", SRS then proceeds to prove that MAD's "rtvik" teaching is actually correct! One day the GBC gurus will actually manage to oppose the IRM, rather than ‘unwittingly' always prove that we are correct!
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