Back To Prabhupada, Issue 85, 2026
In the article on page 4, we noted that though the GBC officially claims to accept Śrīla Prabhupāda’s authority as the śikṣā guru for ISKCON, in practice it does not. This thus leads to a de facto rejection of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s authority. A related position is to claim that one does not even need Śrīla Prabhupāda’s authority at all before engaging in any activity.
In an interview, ISKCON Bangalore Temple President Madhu Paṇḍit Dāsa (“MPD”) set out a system for conducting spiritual activities.
Step 1: Intuition, not order
Interviewer: “you're constructing apartments in the name of building houses near to the temple and you never got the quote of it. You were just driven by intuition.”
The interviewer alleges that MPD acted on “intuition” rather than an order from Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Step 2: Quotes come later
Interviewer: “Later on I heard that you got the quote of Prabhupāda […] you can construct apartments […]”
MPD: “Townships, spiritual townships.”
Interviewer: “So you get it even before you get the quote of Prabhupāda.”
The interviewer then alleges that it was only later on that MPD found a quote from Śrīla Prabhupāda authorising the actions he had already taken.
Step 3: Because of chanting 16 rounds
MPD: “Yes. If you chant 16 rounds all these things will come. […] everything will come, then you go and find the quote. You will find Prabhupāda wanted that. In fact after Akshaya Patra, that was only after, that we got so many quotes.”
1) In response, MPD confirms everything the interviewer had just stated. That one can act first without an order from Śrīla Prabhupāda, because subsequently, one will automatically always find a quote from Śrīla Prabhupāda justifying one’s actions.
2) He states that such post-action discovery of quotes is guaranteed as long as one chants 16 rounds.
We can therefore summarise this system as follows:
1) Chant 16 rounds.
2) You do not need an order from Śrīla Prabhupāda to act.
3) Whatever action you take will subsequently be found to be bona fide due to discovery of orders from Śrīla Prabhupāda sanctioning your action.
Further, this system has been “proven” to work, as there are two examples where quotes were later found that supposedly showed that the action taken earlier was authorised by Śrīla Prabhupāda:
i) Constructing spiritual townships by the temple.
ii) “Akshaya Patra” or the program for providing mid-day meals in schools.
However, this philosophy of –
a) “Act first and look for an order later”;
b) “Chant 16 rounds and you will definitely find that order”
– is actually a new deviant philosophy that has been invented, because Śrīla Prabhupāda has not taught the above way of following him. Because Śrīla Prabhupāda has not taught the above is alone enough to render it deviant. But we can also show that what is stated in Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books for how he should be followed is the exact opposite of the philosophy given above.
The method of following the spiritual master, Śrīla Prabhupāda, is stated in Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books as being:
“The order of the spiritual master is the active principle in spiritual life.”
(Cc., Ādi-līlā, 12.10)
This means that because the order of the spiritual master is the active principle in spiritual life, one cannot act without it. Thus, it is absolutely essential that one first has the guru’s order in hand before one does anything. Which is the exact opposite of the philosophy given in point a) in the previous section, which states that one can act first and hope to find the order later. And thus even if one manages to find the order later, one would still be disobeying the teaching given above, that one should always seek his order first.
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Śrīla Prabhupāda:
His order comes first
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If we now turn to point b) given in the earlier section – that as long as we chant 16 rounds, we will find the quotes later, just as MPD claims he did in the two cases cited – we can show that this is not always guaranteed to happen. And MPD should know this better than anyone else, because:
1) He was strictly chanting 16 rounds.
2) But he had not consulted Śrīla Prabhupāda’s orders regarding the system for initiation in ISKCON.
3) He therefore accepted HH Jayapātāka Swami as his dīkṣā guru, which he admits resulted in him being “offensive” to Śrīla Prabhupāda (MPD, Vyāsa-pūjā offering, 2025).
4) Only later, after he received The Final Order from the IRM, and consulted Śrīla Prabhupāda’s orders, did he realise that he had disobeyed Śrīla Prabhupāda in following one of the 11 dīkṣā gurus supposedly appointed by Śrīla Prabhupāda:
“In 1999 for the first time, those who were having a reform movement within ISKCON, the literature created by them, The Final Order, came to me. […] I had thought that these 11 people were appointed by Prabhupāda.”
(MPD, TV9 Interview, 29/5/11)
So, sometimes one will definitely find Śrīla Prabhupāda’s quotes later to justify one’s actions, but sometimes one may not. Thus, not only does this philosophy not work, but it can cause one to commit offences as admitted above. And therefore, we are advised to have the guru’s order first before acting, rather than look for it afterwards. Otherwise, one is gambling that one will definitely be proven correct later on by successfully finding the quotes to prove that one was acting in a bona fide manner.
We saw above how this philosophy can be dangerous because it can cause one to commit offences to Śrīla Prabhupāda. However, we can further note that the only way one can even espouse such a philosophy – that one’s actions will always be in line with Śrīla Prabhupāda’s orders even without an order from Śrīla Prabhupāda – is if one is so empowered so as to be infallible. Hence, unless one is actually on this level, such thinking can become very dangerous and offensive.
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