Back To Prabhupada, Issue 84, 2025

In previous issues, we have covered the sheer vehemence directed at accepting Śrīla Prabhupāda as ISKCON's dīkṣā guru:

1) GBC voted-in guru (now "fallen") Trivikrama supported the idea that this would make Śrīla Prabhupāda a "zombie guru" (see BTP 57, "The Guru Hoax's Hellish Consequences").
2) Fellow GBC voted-in guru HH Bhakti Vikāsa Swami claimed that doing the same would make Śrīla Prabhupāda comparable to a dead horror-film character (see BTP 71, "Attacking Śrīla Prabhupāda's Transcendence").

It is now claimed that this is actually worse than even the evil of child sex abuse.

Śrīla Prabhupāda: Belief in him as guru claimed to be worse than child abuse

ISKCON representatives agree

In the previous article, we covered ISKCON India's Scholars Board ("IISB") issuing a statement in response to BTP 83 defeating its attack on The Final Order. In support of this IISB statement, GBC guru hoax supporter Ajāmila Dāsa ("AJD") made the following comparison:

"the rtviks' sin is worse than child sex abuse"
(AJD, social media comment, 9/8/25)

By "rtviks", he refers to all those who believe Śrīla Prabhupāda continues to remain ISKCON's dīkṣā guru. This condemnation of rtvik belief being worse than child sex abuse was met with approval by ISKCON representatives. ISKCON India leader, Basu Ghosh Dasa ("BGD"), who is Secretary of the ISKCON India Governing Bureau and an IISB member, agreed with this comment by giving AJD's post which contained this comment a thumbs up "Like". And a representative for ISKCON's Prison Ministry also agreed with the comment by responding:

"I always deeply appreciate your thoughtful and powerful statements."
(Candrasekhara Dāsa, social media comment, 10/8/25)

We thus have a situation where senior ISKCON representatives are publicly supporting the idea that sexually abusing a child is less serious than believing that Śrīla Prabhupāda remains everyone's dīkṣā guru.

"Thought crime" punished

The above attitudes by ISKCON's representatives should not be surprising given ISKCON's past behaviour:

1) We documented in previous BTP issues that simply believing that Śrīla Prabhupāda is ISKCON's dīkṣā guru was enough to get banned from an ISKCON temple. Whereas even convicted child abusers have still been allowed to visit temples. Thus, a mere "thought crime" was considered to be worse than actually grievously abusing a child. Similarly, "rtviks" have been expelled from ISKCON, but convicted child abusers have still been allowed to be a part of ISKCON.
2) ISKCON accepts that its "good as God" gurus can then become child abusers, and indeed some have. Even after ISKCON leaders have stated a GBC guru has engaged in child abuse, he can still be allowed to continue being a "good as God" guru, as was documented in the case of HH Lokanath Swami (please see BTP 70, "GBC Politics Case Study"). Thus, the GBC's philosophy allows a potential future child abuser - but not Śrīla Prabhupāda - to become dīkṣā guru in ISKCON.

Desperate arguments

The reason given for the claim quoted at the outset of this article, that the "rtvik" belief is worse than child sex abuse, is the "rtviks":

"falsely accusing (Śrīla Prabhupāda) him of the very serious philosophical deviation of changing the unchangeable eternal Law of Disciplic Succession."

1) The "law of disciplic succession" refers to this statement made by Śrīla Prabhupāda in a letter to Tuṣṭa Kṛṣṇa Dāsa on 2/12/75:

"during the lifetime of your Spiritual master you bring the prospective disciples to him, and in his absence or disappearance you can accept disciples without any limitation."

But we have never accused Śrīla Prabhupāda of changing this law. No such statement from us can be produced. This is just a lie.

2) But the GBC do break this "law", since they have allowed "grand-disciple gurus" to initiate in their gurus' physical presence.

3) ISKCON India and BGD also do not believe in this law, because in the above letter Śrīla Prabhupāda uses the terms "my disciples" and "every student", which obviously includes Śrīla Prabhupāda's female disciples. However, ISKCON India and BGD staunchly oppose females acting as dīkṣā gurus.

Challenge to the GBC

ISKCON has made efforts in recent years to appear to take a hard line against child abuse. For example, ISKCON leaders have claimed:

"for ISKCON, the protection of children is paramount."
("CPO Bharat", ISKCON India Child Protection Office, website)

So, do ISKCON's leaders actually believe that protecting children is paramount – which means "more important than anything else" – or is making sure people don't have the "wrong" beliefs about their GBC gurus more important? If it is the former, then we will expect the GBC to publicly repudiate its representatives within ISKCON India and the Prison Ministry for agreeing that child abuse is not as severe as the "rtvik sin". If it is the latter, the GBC needs to decide if it wishes for:

1) Law enforcement, courts, judges, etc., to know that ISKCON's current official policy is to consider child abuse to be not as serious as believing the wrong thing about its gurus. This may be of particular interest currently, given that a criminal case was recently filed in India against multiple ISKCON leaders regarding rampant child abuse within ISKCON.
2) Child abuse survivors to be told that the permanent, lifetime trauma of their abuse is believed by ISKCON to not be as terrible as some unknown person - who has never harmed them, nor whom they have ever met - walking around with the "wrong" philosophical thoughts in their head.
3) It to be known throughout prisons that ISKCON's "preaching" is that one should not get "too much" into Śrīla Prabhupāda, because that is worse than even being a paedophile. I am sure they are aware of the well-known attitudes towards paedophiles in prisons! (We have prisoners who are BTP subscribers.)

And so on. Do they wish the world to know that this is how ISKCON views child abuse?

Conclusion

We await the GBC's repudiation, or failing that, its default agreement, regarding "child sex abuse" not being as serious as simply believing Śrīla Prabhupāda is the dīkṣā guru.

Subscribe for FREE to Back To Prabhupada Magazine - Click Here

Return to "ISKCON India Scholars Board" Index

Return to "GBC Body" Index

Return to IRM Homepage