Back To Prabhupada, Issue 80, 2024
Welcome to Issue 80 of Back To Prabhupada (BTP).
The recent passing of HH Gopala Krsna Goswami ("GKG"), a GBC member and GBC guru, was marked by profuse glorification of him and his teachings by ISKCON's leadership.
1) In particular, ISKCON India's governing body, called "The Bureau", praised:
"his noble and transcendental instructions"
(Bureau Letter, 10/5/24)
A member of this same body, Basu Ghosh Dasa ("BGD"), further claimed that due to GKG's extremely transcendental position, he was now "nitya-lila-pravista", which means that he believed that GKG had directly ascended to the spiritual world and entered into Lord Krsna's eternal pastimes (BGD, Social media post, 8/5/24).
2) GKG's "transcendental instructions", which were praised by ISKCON India above, included his support for female diksa gurus ("FDG"). In 2020, after the GBC authorised FDG by GBC resolution 701.6 of 2019, a special video was produced to promote this GBC resolution that authorised FDG. GKG was one of the participants in this video, and he talks at length promoting FDG, concluding that:
"I believe that Prabhupada would permit exceptionally qualified female disciples to be guru. [...] The GBC Body has acted very maturely."
(GKG, ISKCON News video, posted 13/6/20)
3) However, this same ISKCON India, which has glorified GKG and his instructions, vehemently opposes FDG, stating it is deviant:
"introduction of FDG is divisive, deviant and a misrepresentation of Srila Prabhupada's teachings [...] is a core value of our society, as is vegetarianism"
(Proposal draft by ISKCON India Advisory Council EC, 31/12/21. All emphases in issue added.)
4) Hence, ISKCON India is claiming:
a) As FDG is one of GKG's "transcendental instructions", it must be bona fide.
b) As FDG is deviant, it must not be bona fide.
Clearly, this is a contradiction. They also claim:
c) Promoting FDG means promoting deviation and disobedience of Srila Prabhupada, as the issue of who can be guru is a core value, as fundamental as not eating meat.
d) One can promote such deviation, as GKG did, and still enter into Krsna's eternal pastimes in the spiritual world.
Claiming that one can preach such deviation and still achieve the highest spiritual attainment is both a contradiction and taking spiritual life to be very cheap which means acting as a sahajiya:
"That is sahajiya, which means a class of men that take everything very cheap."
(Srila Prabhupada Letter, 15/6/72)
5) These contradictions are from ISKCON India, but we are continually documenting contradictions from all corners of ISKCON. One can only assume that due to their mania for contradiction, ISKCON leaders do not believe there is anything wrong in continually contradicting oneself. However, Srila Prabhupada severely condemned contradiction:
"If he says contradictory things, is he not a rascal? [...] Therefore he is a rascal."
(Room conversation, 13/7/75)
6) One reason why contradiction is such rascaldom is that it leads to total self-defeat. If one is consistent rather than contradictory, then one can either be consistently right or consistently wrong, i.e. there is at least a theoretical 50-50 chance of being correct. If, however, one is contradictory, then one will always be wrong, since any argument one puts forward is immediately defeated by the contradictory opposing argument one has also put forward and one's argumentation collapses on itself! Hence, never mind having the right argument, a contradicting rascal does not even have an argument. Hence, due to all of ISKCON's leaders being riddled in general with such contradiction, we are very easily able to defeat them simply by pointing out such contradictions. However, do not be surprised if ISKCON's leaders still continue with their contradiction festival, and we continue defeating them!
Thank you and Hare Krsna.
In Srila Prabhupada's service,
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