Is guru a ritvik disciple?

Back to Prabhupada, Issue 20, Summer 2008

By Krishnakant

One of the 70 unauthorised GBC voted-in gurus is His Grace Kratu Das, whose website states that he is in charge of Srila Prabhupada’s Samadhi (burial place) in Vrindavan. The same website claims that he is an initiated disciple of Srila Prabhupada:

“He met his Guru, His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada in 1976, from whom he received a direct order for preaching Krishna consciousness. He then got initiated by Srila Prabhupada in 1977 in Toronto, Canada.”
(Kratu Das website)

The website also mentions that his wife’s name is Amrita Keli Devi Dasi.

However, having proclaimed to the world that he is both a false guru successor to Srila Prabhupada and his initiated disciple, we find a Kratu Das and Amrita Keli Devi Dasi writing the following Vyasa- Puja offering in 1987 to another guru, Kirtanananda Swami (“Bhaktipada”), one of the original 11 guru hoaxers:

Srila Prabhupada: The only bona fide ISKCON guru HG Kratu Das: Became Srila Prabhupada’s disciple after Srila Prabhupada departed?

“Dear Srila Bhaktipada, […] Please be merciful unto me, I am so fallen; yet you have accepted me as your disciple. Thank you very much. It is only by your mercy, that I am a devotee. […] Your servants, Kratu Das, Amrita Keli Devi Dasi Similar Vyasa-Puja offerings are present in previous years as well, confirming beyond a doubt that Kratu Das and Amrita Keli Devi Dasi are the initiated disciples of Kirtanananda Swami. The offerings are listed as coming from Vancouver, Canada, which is where the website of the “guru” Kratu Das states he was residing, at the time these offerings were made. We welcome both His Grace Kratu Das and the GBC to clear up this  mystery. Is it that by some amazing coincidence there were two pairs of  devotees called Kratu Das and Amrita Keli Devi Dasi, living in the same  place at the same time? Or is it that one of the GBC gurus is claiming to  be  Srila Prabhupada’s initiated disciple, when he actually took initiation  later  on from one of the guru hoaxers? In which case, are the GBC  conceding  that actually we are all Srila Prabhupada’s initiated disciples  after all, since  even one of their own gurus claims this, having never  taken  initiation  from Srila Prabhupada when Srila Prabhupada was on  the  planet? In  which case, why are they so vehemently and violently  opposed  to allowing all of us to become Srila Prabhupada’s disciples? And if Kratu Das can become Srila Prabhupada’s initiated disciple retrospectively, when actually he took initiation from, and became the disciple of, someone else, why is he preventing others from doing this by insisting they must take initiation from him?