Back To Prabhupada, Issue 81, 2024
This column answers challenges that our readers have forwarded to us for answering.
The quotes in shaded boxes below are from a lecture given on 16/8/24 by Swarup Damodar Dasa ("SWD"), who has held the positions of Temple President at ISKCON Durban, Co-National Secretary for ISKCON in South Africa, and Executive Committee Member of the ISKCON South Africa National Council. Our response is interspersed in coloured text.
"Madhudvisa Prabhu, one of Prabhupada's closest disciples, commented that he heard this from Prabhupada: that actually, the only offense greater than underestimating the position of the spiritual master is to overestimate it. Prabhupada said like that."
Immediately, we begin with a claim that Srila Prabhupada "said like that", on which the points following are based. But, SWD is admitting that he is just repeating what someone claims Srila Prabhupada supposedly "said", rather than there being any proof that Srila Prabhupada actually "said like that". Thus, Srila Prabhupada may or may not have said this, as the article on POP on page 6 explains.
"this is where we can understand how the rtvik philosophy is so offensive to Prabhupada, because they've gone to great lengths to overestimate his position"
SWD claims that the IRM's position – that Srila Prabhupada remains ISKCON's diksa guru for the duration of ISKCON, which SWD refers to as "the rtvik philosophy" – "overestimates" Srila Prabhupada's position. Having made such a heavy claim, that what we state is "so offensive" to Srila Prabhupada, one would now expect there to be heavy evidence to back it up.
"to overestimate his position, against the philosophy of Krsna Consciousness, against the philosophy of Vedic understanding, against the understanding of what the parampara is."
So he then immediately states the above, to claim that his claim that what we state is supposedly "so offensive" is based on further claims that what we state is against "the philosophy of Krsna consciousness", "Vedic understanding", and "the understanding of what the parampara is". But he then leaves it at that and provides zero evidence for any of these wild claims. So, as we have documented many times, this is what passes for "preaching" in today's ISKCON. One makes a claim, bases it on further claims, and then offers zero evidence to support any of them! One is thus acting as if one is the Acarya of ISKCON and taking Srila Prabhupada's position as the authority, whose very word alone is enough to establish that whatever one utters must be true, just because one uttered it!
"So now in his [Srila Prabhupada's - Ed.] name, if we were to teach Vedic understanding incorrectly, is that glorifying Prabhupada or an insult to Prabhupada? You understand? It's actually an insult to him."
As we have seen, it is SWD who is giving "Vedic understanding incorrectly" in his own name, having been unable to offer any evidence from Srila Prabhupada to support his claims. Whereas, our position that Srila Prabhupada is ISKCON's diksa guru is based entirely on Srila Prabhupada's authority - as one can verify for oneself by consulting our many documents such as The Final Order, BTP Special Issue, etc. There we prove that our position simply repeats the position that Srila Prabhupada established for himself, which is that he would continue to act as the diksa guru of his own institution, with rtvik priests conducting initiations on his behalf. He ordered this system in his July 9th, 1977 directive on initiations, and neither SWD, nor anyone in ISKCON, has ever produced any subsequent order annulling this directive.
What is even more galling is that, earlier in his lecture, SWD himself ‘unwittingly' agrees with our position. He states:
"the foundation of it [ISKCON - Ed.] is a very, very strong and unbreakable understanding and acceptance of Prabhupada's position as the Founder-Acarya, the founder-spiritual master of the movement. [...] He was very, very concerned that that position must always be maintained"
SWD admits that Srila Prabhupada's position in ISKCON as its Founder-Acarya must never change. However, this means that Srila Prabhupada will also always be its diksa guru by virtue of being its Acarya, as proven by our book: Srila Prabhupada: The Founder-Acarya of ISKCON - Presenting the Conclusions of the GBC Foundational Document. The book quotes both Srila Prabhupada and the GBC agreeing with this conclusion. And Srila Prabhupada's rtvik system was set up to continue initiations in ISKCON on behalf of Srila Prabhupada, so that he would thus always remain as ISKCON's diksa guru and Acarya.
Indeed, SWD is extremely emphatic about this point, that Srila Prabhupada must always be the "Founder-Acarya", and thus diksa guru of ISKCON, stating that:
"If ISKCON is devoid of that understanding, then there is really no ISKCON. There is really no ISKCON. There's nothing to ISKCON if Prabhupada is excluded out of that position as the Founder-Acarya."
This means that, without Srila Prabhupada always being the diksa guru of ISKCON - if he is excluded out of this position by the GBC successor diksa gurus - then there will be "no ISKCON". Hence, to claim that Srila Prabhupada always remaining the Acarya and thus diksa guru of ISKCON is so essential that without this one thing alone there will not even be an ISKCON, is just as much of a glorification and "estimation" of Srila Prabhupada's position as we have given!
In conclusion, SWD has simply launched a needless, offensive attack on Srila Prabhupada's position, which he has then demolished by his own words! Hence, it is actually SWD who is "so offensive" to Srila Prabhupada, by claiming that the very position Srila Prabhupada ordered for himself is an "overestimation" of his position.
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