e expose a common cheating technique used by ISKCON's leaders to claim that Srila Prabhupada can no longer be ISKCON's diksa guru. The quotes in the shaded boxes are from a lecture given by GBC voted-in guru HH Bhakti Vikasa Swami ("BVKS") on 19/9/24. (Emphases added.)
"unfortunately, the first batch of gurus [...] made such a mess that it gave rise to a major deviation, rtvikism, which is against all sastra and all tradition."
It is claimed that Srila Prabhupada remaining the diksa guru of his own Society, of which he is the Acarya, (which BVKS labels as "rtvikism") would somehow be "against all sastra and all tradition". This is a common argument used by ISKCON's leaders, and we have quoted them claiming this in previous issues. There is a simple way to check if such a claim about "sastra" is true.
1) Srila Prabhupada states that the teachings of the guru and sastra are the same:
"Guru means who follows the sastra and sadhu. So there are three, the same."
(Srila Prabhupada, Lecture, 30/11/76)
Thus, as Srila Prabhupada is BVKS's guru, he must accept that Srila Prabhupada's teachings are the same as the teachings of sastra.
2) Therefore, if Srila Prabhupada remaining the diksa guru of his own Society is against "all sastra", then it must also be against "all of Srila Prabhupada's teachings". And BVKS could simply state these many teachings of Srila Prabhupada which supposedly prevent Srila Prabhupada from acting as the diksa guru of ISKCON. But he has not done this.
3) Rather, it is because of BVKS's inability to state even one teaching of Srila Prabhupada, never mind "all", that Srila Prabhupada acting as the diksa guru of his Society would be against, that he takes shelter of terms like "sastra" and "tradition". Because, if instead BVKS claimed that what he states is directly taught by Srila Prabhupada, then people may expect him to quote Srila Prabhupada stating this. And thus, he avoids mentioning Srila Prabhupada's name altogether!
This is therefore a double cheating:
1) BVKS cannot quote the sastric principles taught by Srila Prabhupada that Srila Prabhupada's being the diksa guru would be against;
2) It is because BVKS knows this, that he deliberately references "sastra and tradition", rather than Srila Prabhupada's teachings.
As quoted earlier, BVKS (and other ISKCON leaders) also claims that Srila Prabhupada being the diksa guru of his own Society would be against "all tradition". Again, this suffers from the same cheating technique already exposed. If something is supposedly against Srila Prabhupada's teachings, then in ISKCON, we only need to quote Srila Prabhupada stating this. Because it is Srila Prabhupada that is the Acarya and authority of ISKCON, not "tradition". Rather, the only reason one would have to avoid Srila Prabhupada's teachings, and refer to something else such as "tradition", would be if one could not actually quote Srila Prabhupada's teachings to substantiate the point one is trying to make, as is the case here.
1) In addition, in order to claim that something being against "all tradition" is even relevant, BVKS would need to first quote Srila Prabhupada stating that any order he will issue will always be "traditional".
2) Not only does BVKS not produce such a statement, he actually states that Srila Prabhupada does not follow tradition:
"disciples of gurus who are still present, that many of them will start to initiate [...] there have been many cases in the past in our Gaudiya sampradaya, although I have some reservations in as much as Srila Prabhupada was very much against this"
Thus, BVKS states that:
a) There are "many" historical precedents in our sampradaya of disciples of gurus initiating in the physical presence of their gurus. But Srila Prabhupada was "very much against this".
b) Hence, BVKS accepts that Srila Prabhupada is "very much against" something that is traditional!
"Srila Prabhupada characteristically said, ‘what is the difficulty? It's not at all difficult to be a guru, you just repeat what you have heard.'"
Unfortunately, the one time BVKS finally refers to a specific instruction from Srila Prabhupada, he still cheats. Because BVKS mentions the above statement in connection with persons becoming GBC diksa gurus. However, this is the type of statement from Srila Prabhupada that BVKS refers to:
"Every one of you can become a guru. [...] "How can I become guru? I have no qualification." No. There is no need of qualification. Simply repeat. [...] So it is not very difficult task. Anyone can do this."
(Srila Prabhupada, Lecture, 16/12/76)
This statement clearly refers to "every one" and "anyone" becoming guru in this way. And there are other similar statements. This obviously therefore also refers to females, as they are at least 50% of the world's population, and so clearly are included amongst "every one" and "anyone". Yet, as a leader of the movement against female diksa gurus, BVKS already accepts that such statements do not refer to diksa gurus, but to anyone who just preaches.
"But people who take to this, they want to delude themselves into believing they have a guru when they can't trust anyone."
BVKS makes the above statement about those who continue to accept Srila Prabhupada as their diksa guru today ("rtvikism"). He claims such persons are only deluding themselves that they have a real guru, because they cannot actually "trust anyone".
1) Obviously, if one accepts Srila Prabhupada as one's diksa guru, one accepts him as one's life and soul, and thus trusts him fully. So it is not true that they do not trust "anyone".
2) It is true that they do not trust any of the GBC gurus. But why should they?:
a) They do not need to trust any of the GBC gurus like BVKS, because they already have a bona fide guru, Srila Prabhupada.
b) Nor should they trust any of the GBC gurus, when the latter have usurped Srila Prabhupada's position.
GBC gurus will deliberately take shelter of terms such as "sastra" and "tradition" rather than just directly quote Srila Prabhupada to make their point – because they can't!
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