Back To Prabhupada, Issue 79, 2024
We have previously reported the shift of GBC voted-in guru HG Mahatma Dasa ("MAD") towards the position of the IRM (e.g. see BTP 75 "GBC Guru Admits They Are Not Real Gurus" and BTP 76 "GBC Guru: We Can Allow the Rtvik System"). These IRM shifts by MAD have continued even further, and thus we can now comprehensively compare his current position with his preaching from just a few years ago. (All emphases in article added.)
In BTP 55, "ISKCON ‘Sex Guru' Attacks BTP", we reported MAD criticising BTP because we supposedly:
"break faith in Prabhupada's instruction that he wanted his disciples to be diksa gurus."
(MAD article, "Rtvikism Hardens the Heart")
However, while referring to the original 11 devotees chosen by Srila Prabhupada on July 9th, 1977, to continue giving initiations on Srila Prabhupada's behalf as rtviks, MAD now accepts that:
"Prabhupada had chosen 11 devotees to continue giving initiation and they [...] innocently or ignorantly thought, ‘Well, now we're supposed to replace Prabhupada.' Because if Prabhupada disappeared then someone else has to take his role or walk in his shoes. That didn't work. It created many problems, because nobody can imitate or take Prabhupada's place."
(MAD, Lecture 17/11/23. All quotes in shaded boxes taken from this lecture)
Srila Prabhupada's main role was that he was the diksa guru for ISKCON, because, without this role, there would not have been any ISKCON as there would have been zero disciples! MAD accepts that just because Srila Prabhupada physically disappeared, it did not mean that Srila Prabhupada's role needed to be replaced. Which would mean there is no need for successor GBC diksa gurus. MAD had also stated in regard to the GBC gurus that they were, in any case, only fake gurus:
"but we never proposed to be the real thing."
(MAD, Initiation Lecture, 8/9/22)
One might thus argue that MAD himself has done almost as good a job of "breaking faith" in the claim of a successor diksa guru "order" from Srila Prabhupada, as us!
Similarly, in that same BTP 55 article, we quoted MAD criticising "rtviks" (ISKCON leaders' name for IRM followers) for allegedly teaching that:
"no devotee in Iskcon has the qualifications and abilities to be diksa guru."
(MAD article, "Rtvikism Hardens the Heart")
And MAD has stated that these qualifications for a diksa guru are that he:
"directs you back to Godhead, who takes responsibility for your spiritual life."
(MAD article, 3/5/19)
MAD is correct that it is the diksa guru who takes the disciple back to Godhead:
"The spiritual master initiates the disciple to deliver him"
(Cc., Madhya-lila, 1.218, purport)
And, even though there are many ISKCON "devotees" present, MAD now insists that Srila Prabhupada is the only one we must let "do his job" of delivering us:
"Let Prabhupada do his job. Let him save you. Don't resist, just follow him sincerely."
(MAD, social media quote, 17/11/23)
MAD further states that we have exactly the same possibility of being saved by Srila Prabhupada today as when he was physically present, because Srila Prabhupada acts in exactly the same way now:
"So, if that's true then, it's reasonable to accept that it's true now. [...] Can Prabhupada save you today? Yes."
Thus, by insisting that it is Srila Prabhupada who must function as everyone's diksa guru by delivering them back to Godhead, MAD has contradicted his previous criticism of us and himself implied that:
"no devotee in Iskcon has the qualifications and abilities to be diksa guru".
In BTP 44 article "Guru-Tattva Basics - 2", as well as in the above-mentioned BTP 55 article, we reported MAD emphasising the "vital" importance of a "physically present" guru:
"contact with a guru who is physically present is vital to a devotee's spiritual growth"
(MAD website)
"To preach in a way that does not allow love to develop for a potential living diksa guru is a criminal act."
(MAD article, "Rtvikism Hardens the Heart")
Thus, MAD emphasised the importance of developing a relationship with a physically present GBC guru. However, now MAD says that his advice is that the "best" thing one can do is develop a relationship with the non-physically present guru Srila Prabhupada:
"the best service I can offer you, or the best thing I can say to you is that, "Don't ever think you don't have this connection or access to Prabhupada". And pursue that connection."
In BTP 55, we quoted MAD claiming that the proof of a bona fide guru is the amount of faith a prospective disciple has in him:
"A devotee's faith in an advanced devotee is the most important proof of the qualification of his prospective guru."
(MAD article, "Rtvikism Hardens the Heart")
However, MAD has now admitted that too much faith in GBC gurus is the very thing that has caused disaster for their disciples, and therefore the key is to have firm faith in and connection to Srila Prabhupada instead:
"the problem here, that we saw, with some gurus, was they didn't help their disciples connect with Prabhupada [...] when their guru fell there was no Prabhupada to fall onto [...] devotees that didn't have as difficult a time, because all their faith wasn't reposed just in their guru, ‘my guru is everything, if he goes, I am finished'."
(MAD, Discussion, 30/11/22)
MAD has radically shifted from making vehement anti-BTP statements to instead now basically repeating what is stated in BTP! Thus, it can be seen – as with the case of MAD's previous incorrect preaching regarding illicit sex which he subsequently reversed after we exposed it (see BTP 59 "Sex Guru's 180° Flip Following BTP Expose") – that GBC gurus are following the IRM's lead!
However, MAD needs to stop being a hypocrite, and take the main step of aligning his actions with his preaching: officially return his disciples to Srila Prabhupada and renounce his position as a GBC diksa guru.
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