Back To Prabhupada, Issue 83, 2025
We have hitherto conclusively and consistently demonstrated how the guru hoax depends on the fiction that Śrīla Prabhupāda ordered a GBC guru system to replace him as ISKCON's sole dīkṣā guru. However, as we show below, it is actually worse than that. The guru hoax depends not just on fiction, but also on science fiction. HH Hridayananda Dāsa Goswami ("HD") is a guru hoax founder, being one of the 11 ṛtviks who became "zonal ācārya" dīkṣā gurus to replace Śrīla Prabhupāda as ISKCON's dīkṣā guru, after the latter's physical departure. As mentioned in the Editorial, HD has written a new paper titled A Historical Review of ISKCON's Initiation System ("HR"), and the quotes in the shaded boxes below are from HR.
Time machine required
"Prabhupāda named eleven senior disciples, including me, to aid him in the formalities of spiritual initiation during the end of his life."
Śrīla Prabhupāda chose these 11 ṛtviks to initiate on his behalf on July 9th, 1977.
"Prabhupāda had informally decreed: that in his absence, the eleven ṛtvik gurus he had chosen to initiate on his behalf would become "regular gurus" and initiate in their own name."
HD then claims that Śrīla Prabhupāda had "decreed" that these 11 ṛtviks "he had chosen" would become "regular gurus". This claim can only refer to a statement Śrīla Prabhupāda made on May 28th 1977, as this was the only time Śrīla Prabhupāda had ever used the term "regular guru", when he stated:
"When I order you become guru he becomes regular guru."
(Śrīla Prabhupāda, Conversation, 28/5/77)
Thus, what HD claims was "decreed" about "regular gurus", could only have occurred in May. However, as already noted, Śrīla Prabhupāda "had chosen" 11 ṛtviks only in July. Therefore, it is physically impossible, even in theory, for Śrīla Prabhupāda to have "decreed" in May that:
"eleven ṛtvik gurus he had chosen to initiate on his behalf would become regular gurus".
Because the eleven ṛtviks had not yet even been chosen. And, therefore, Śrīla Prabhupāda could not have "decreed" in May something that had yet to take place! Such a "decree" would, however, be possible if Śrīla Prabhupāda used a "time machine", which is an imaginary device used in science fiction novels to allow a person to travel back in time. Then -
i) if after July 9, Śrīla Prabhupāda entered this time machine to travel back to May 28th;
ii) and he then conducted the May 28th, 1977 conversation again
- since he has travelled back from the future, he can now "decree" that the 11 ṛtviks "he had" chosen in July, "would become" regular gurus in May! But we know this did not happen, because a "time machine" does not exist, and thus Śrīla Prabhupāda did not order the 11 ṛtviks to become "regular gurus". This time-travel science fiction nonsense underpinning the guru hoax is illustrated in the diagram above.
Regular guru reality
If Śrīla Prabhupāda engaged in the time travel mentioned above, then at least it would be theoretically possible for Śrīla Prabhupāda to state that 11 ṛtviks he had chosen in July would become regular gurus in May. However, in practice, even with this time travel, Śrīla Prabhupāda would still not have stated what is claimed, because Śrīla Prabhupāda does not in any case speak about ṛtviks transitioning into regular gurus in his absence. He simply states what would occur in the event he gave an order for regular gurus:
"When I order you become guru, he becomes regular guru. That's all. He becomes disciple of my disciple".
But he does not actually give this order on May 28th, 1977. Nor does "when I order" mean that the order will definitely be given. Nor, for that matter, does he give this ṛtvik -> regular guru -> physical departure transition order on July 9th, 1977, or at any other time. But the very fact that without resorting to time travel such a transition order is not even theoretically possible merely epitomises just how ridiculous the guru hoax actually is!
Extraordinary reversal
Earlier we had quoted HR stating:
"the eleven ṛtvik gurus he had chosen..."
However, Śrīla Prabhupāda used the term "ṛtvik" but never "ṛtvik guru". Thus, the word "guru" has been added to put words into Śrīla Prabhupāda's mouth in an attempt to, it seems, give further weight to the false concept that the ṛtviks were to become dīkṣā gurus—a concept we have just thoroughly debunked. ISKCON's "Ministry for the Protection of ISKCON" had earlier produced an official reply to the IRM's foundational paper The Final Order ("TFO"), titled Prabhupāda's Order. This reply opened with the following claim by HD, stating what is supposedly the "main problem" with the IRM's position:
"The significant point here is that terms such as ritvik-guru and ritvik-acharya simply do not exist. [...] There is no such term because there is no such concept. In other words, our friends are proposing something that does not exist in Vedic culture. This is the main problem with it."
But HD has himself now used the "ritvik-guru" term, which he had earlier claimed does not even exist! This is an extraordinary reversal, because it would mean that what the official GBC reply to TFO stated was supposedly the "main problem" with TFO, is now actually not a problem at all.
Also, just like Śrīla Prabhupāda, TFO's author does not even use the term "ritvik-guru". And therefore, HD's original "main problem" argument against TFO was in any case a concoction.
Conclusion
We note again how ISKCON is unable to muster even one sane argument to defend the guru hoax, having to rely instead on science fiction and self-contradiction.
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