The following is a reply to “Ritvik Reality or “I Stop for the Time Being” ”, an article by His Grace Rupanuga Das (HDGACBSP, 1966). Quotes from the said article shall be enclosed in speech marks “ “ thus, with our reply following underneath.
| “On July 9, 1977 Srila Prabhupada issues a letter to all GBC and Temple Presidents, naming eleven disciples to “act as ritvik -representatives of the acarya, for the purpose of performing initiations, both first initiation and second initiation.” […] Although the letter does not specifically indicate that the ritvik initiations are to go on in the future after Srila Prabhupada’s disappearance, a number of his disciples assert that the word “henceforward” means that Srila Prabhupada wanted ritvik initiations to go on in perpetuity. […] Their ultimate proof of this is his use of the word “henceforward” in the letter.” |
Like the GBC papers which challenge the IRM’s position, the author asserts a ‘straw man’ argument (an argument which is not actually stated by the IRM). When challenging someone’s position it helps to actually know what the position being challenged is! For the umpteenth time, it is not claimed that the permanent nature of the July 9th directive depends on the word henceforward, as we make clear right at the outset of “The Final Order” (the IRM’s position paper) on page 3:
“Furthermore the argument that the whole ritvik system "hangs" on one word - "henceforward" - is untenable, since even if we take the word out of the letter, nothing has changed. One still has a system set up by Srila Prabhupada four months before his departure, with no subsequent instruction to terminate it. Without such a counter instruction, this letter must be seen as Srila Prabhupada's final instruction on initiation, and should therefore be followed.”
(“The Final Order”, Page 3)
As is made clear, the directive gives a permanent system for ISKCON because it states what must be followed in ISKCON, and it is not subsequently terminated. If a directive gives a system for ISKCON to follow, the sane course would be to follow it, not stop following it!
| “Everyone is more or less trying to prove what Srila Prabhupada really meant by the word “henceforward,” and the debate has been going on for years, with opponents citing the same Guru, Sadhu, Sastra. Both parties are fixed in their positions. Now who will decide?” |
Again another false statement. As stated earlier, it would help if those who attempt to write on this subject actually have some idea what it is they are writing about. The GBC’s position was invalidated when they withdrew their position paper which “The Final Order” rebutted, thus leaving them with no position. And the IRM has proven its position in multiple ways that do not depend on the word “henceforward”, as well as proving it via the words of the GBC themselves (please see ‘Back To Prabhupada’ Special Issues 1 and 2). In terms of evidence the issue has been comprehensively settled. All that remains is for the GBC to accept what they themselves have agreed with!
| “So the question must be raised: Does Srila Prabhupada himself say anything further about what he intended in that letter? Yes, he does. On October 18, 1977, several months after the July 9th letter in question, and just a matter of weeks before his disappearance, Srila Prabhupada indicates what his intentions were for introducing ritvik initiations.” |
As we will soon see, in this conversation Srila Prabhupada does NOT say anything about “what his intentions were for introducing ritvik initiations”.
| “To reiterate, the word “henceforward” per se can be interpreted, but intended meaning can be best explained by the author himself, Srila Prabhupada. No one can deny this point.” |
To reiterate the ritvik position does not rely on the word “henceforward”, as explained earlier.
| “The October 18th 1977 conversation takes place in Vrindaban. A Bengali gentleman has come from New York seeking initiation from Srila Prabhupada. But Srila Prabhupada has already deputed his ritvik acaryas and he thinks Jayapataka should do the initiation.” |
Correction – Srila Prabhupada has never used the term “ritvik acaryas”.
| “I stop for the time being” indicates that the ritvik appointments made three months earlier were necessary due to Srila Prabhupada’s condition, but he considered them temporary-to last until his own initiations could begin again. In other words, “for the time being” indicates Srila Prabhupada’s expectation of taking up initiations again in due course. “And if by Krsna’s grace I recover from this condition, then I shall begin again,” indicates his hopeful intention to take up initiation duties again in the future.” |
1) But the ritvik appointments in July were not made due to Srila Prabhupada’s “condition” since the extra function the ritviks performed meant that Srila Prabhupada only needed to use his vocal chords – either by giving a name for the initiation acceptance letter to be sent out by his secretary, or to chant on a Gayatri thread:
“Now that Srila Prabhupada has named these representatives, Temple Presidents may henceforward send recommendation for first and second initiation to whichever of these eleven representatives are nearest their temple. After considering the recommendation, these representatives may accept the devotee as an initiated disciple of Srila Prabhupada by giving a spiritual name, or in the case of second initiation, by chanting on the Gayatri thread, just as Srila Prabhupada has done.”
(July 9th, 1977, directive)
And we know Srila Prabhupada had absolutely no problem with the use of his vocal chords, as he was speaking continuously, before, during and after the ritvik appointments in July.
2) In addition further evidence that the ritvik appointment had absolutely nothing to do with Srila Prabhupada’s physical condition, is the letter His Holiness Tamal Krishna Maharaja writes 2 days after the ritvik appointment, mentioning the appointment:
“A letter has been sent to all the Temple Presidents and GBC which you should be receiving soon describing the process for initiation to be followed in the future. Srila Prabhupada has appointed thus far eleven representatives who will initiate new devotees on His behalf. You can wait for this letter to arrive (the original has been sent to Ramesvara Maharaja for duplicating) and then all of the persons whom you recommended in your previous letters can be initiated. His Divine Grace has been maintaining His health on an even course and most amazingly has doubled His translation work keeping pace with the doubling of book distribution.”
(Letter to Kirtanananda Maharaja from Tamal Krishna Maharaja, July 11th, 1977)
We are asked to believe that even though Srila Prabhupada has been “maintaining His health on an even course” such that he has “doubled His translation work”, nevertheless he was somehow physically unable to select names for initiation acceptance letters.
3) The July 9th directive making the ritvik appointments itself does not state that they were being made due to Srila Prabhupada’s “condition”. Rather it only states that they were being made for “the purpose of performing initiations, both first initiation and second initiation”, and nothing more.
4) Plus in the conversation being referred to, Srila Prabhupada does not state that the ritvik appointments were made due to Srila Prabhupada’s ‘condition’. He only states that he has stopped “initiation” due to his condition:
Prabhupada: |
Hare Krishna. One Bengali gentleman has come from New York? |
Tamala Krishna: |
Yes. Mr. Sukamal Roy Chowdury. |
Prabhupada: |
So I have deputed some of you to initiate. Hm? |
Tamala Krishna: |
Yes. Actually... Yes, Srila Prabhupada. |
Prabhupada: |
So I think Jayapataka can do that if he likes. I have already deputed. Tell him. |
Tamala Krishna: |
Yes. |
Prabhupada: |
So, deputies, Jayapataka's name was there? |
Bhagavan: |
It is already on there, Srila Prabhupada. His name was on that list. |
Prabhupada: |
So I depute him to do this at Mayapura, and you may go with him. I stop for the time being. Is that all right? |
Tamala Krishna: |
Stopped doing what, Srila Prabhupada? |
Prabhupada: |
This initiation. I have deputed the, my disciples. Is it clear or not? |
Giriraja: |
It's clear. |
Prabhupada: |
You have got the list of the names? |
Tamala Krishna: |
Yes, Srila Prabhupada. |
Prabhupada: |
And if by Krishna's grace I recover from this condition, then I shall begin again, or I may not be pressed in this condition to initiate. It is not good. |
Giriraja: |
We will explain to him so that he will understand properly. |
Prabhupada: |
Hm? Hm? |
Giriraja: |
I said we will explain to the Bengali gentleman just as you have described to us, so that he'll be satisfied with this arrangement. |
We know that this cannot mean Srila Prabhupada has stopped initiating persons, since he was continuing to initiate persons as his disciples via this ritvik appointment, exactly as he was initiating all along.
5) Rather Srila Prabhupada can only be referring to stopping and resuming some aspect of initiation which directly depended on his health, and therefore not something which the July 9th directive was fulfilling. And this was him being able to personally (physically) perform the initiation ceremony when he was directly approached in person by someone, since he would have to physically sit in on the ceremony - pour ghee on the sacrificial fire etc. And this is exactly what happened in this case with the gentleman who had travelled all the way from New York to have Srila Prabhupada himself perform the initiation ceremony. This can be proven from the following part of the conversation:
Bhagavan: |
It (Jayapataka’s name) is already on there, Srila Prabhupada. His name was on that list. |
Prabhupada: |
So I depute him to do this at Mayapura, and you may go with him. I stop for the time being. Is that all right? |
If Srila Prabhupada was speaking here of Jayapataka substituting for him via acting exactly as stated in the ritvik appointment, there would have been no requirement for Jayapataka to travel from Vrndavana to Mayapur, since in the ritvik system, the ritvik simply issued a recommendation by letter from wherever they were present:
“Now that Srila Prabhupada has named these representatives, Temple Presidents may henceforward send recommendation for first and second initiation to whichever of these eleven representatives are nearest their temple. After considering the recommendation, these representatives may accept the devotee as an initiated disciple of Srila Prabhupada by giving a spiritual name, or in the case of second initiation, by chanting on the Gayatri thread, just as Srila Prabhupada has done.”
(July 9th, 1977, directive)
The fact that Jayapataka had to travel all the way from Vrindavana to Mayapur to personally tend to the gentleman is because he had been asked by Srila Prabhupada in this case to handle the whole initiation including the ceremony.
6) That Srila Prabhupada was available to ALSO perform ceremonies, where able, ALONGSIDE, rather than instead of, the ritvik system he set up, is stated when he is making the ritvik appointments:
 |
(left: Srila Prabhupada and Rupanuga Dasa) |
Srila Prabhupada states here that he is also available alongside the ritvik system to carry out initiations himself where possible - “India, I am here”. But he also names Jayapataka to be a ritvik for India as well.
And thus since Srila Prabhupada is not physically able to carry out a whole initiation ceremony, Jayapataka, whose name is mentioned above as being also present in India to be a ritvik, is now given the task of handling this personal request as well. This was necessary because in this case the gentleman had travelled all the way from New York to get initiated in person by Srila Prabhupada, rather than being resident in a temple as normal, in which case the temple president would have carried out the initiation ceremony, both before and after the ritvik appointment:
“After the Temple President receives a letter from these representatives giving the spiritual name or the thread, he can perform the fire yajna in the temple as was being done before.”
(July 9th directive, emphasis added)
So since in this case we had the unusual case of someone wanting initiation in person rather than in a temple, Srila Prabhupada naturally called on whoever was the local ritvik to also take care of this.
| “The phrase “begin again” also refers to the way Srila Prabhupada was doing initiations previous to his appointment of the ritvik representatives.” |
Previous to the appointment of ritvik representatives Srila Prabhupada was only selecting names to be sent out in the initiation acceptance letters (plus chanting on the Gayatri thread). The initiation ceremonies, chanting on beads etc; everything else had been delegated. Srila Prabhupada can not therefore possibly be referring to him resuming this since it had no connection with his physical condition.
| “Srila Prabhupada created a grand global arrangement for, in effect, biding time. Why? Because, as Srila Prabhupada himself explained, “I may not be pressed in this condition to initiate. It is not good.” |
As already stated, there is no evidence that from July until October Srila Prabhupada had appointed ritviks due to being unable to “initiate” as a result of his “condition”.
| “The reasonable conclusion to all this is straightforward when based upon Srila Prabhupada’s declared intentions: he wished to return to his duties as initiating Spiritual Master as soon as he could,” |
The only extra thing Srila Prabhupada’s “duties as initiating Spiritual Master” entailed before the ritvik appointment was that he would select names for the initiation acceptance letters. Since this was not at all dependent on Srila Prabhupada’s physical condition, and since Srila Prabhupada was still in reasonable health when he set up the ritvik system, the only reasonable conclusion is that Srila Prabhuapada is here only speaking of being unable to satisfy requests in person to physically perform initiation ceremonies.
| “which means that the word “henceforward” was equivalent to “for the foreseeable future” and “until further notice.”” |
This word simply means what it means, which is “from now on”. The Final Order has not claimed it means anything else, or tried to re-define it as done here. Nor is such a re-definition even necessary. The ritvik system was meant to be applied in ISKCON “from now onwards”. That’s all the directive states, and all that is claimed for it by the IRM. If someone wishes to claim the directive means something else, or that it was not meant to apply for ISKCON, or only apply for a certain period etc, let them produce Srila Prabhupada saying this. Yet Srila Prabhupada has never been shown saying anything even remotely approaching this.
| “Therefore, there is no evidence that Srila Prabhupada intended to introduce the July 9th Letter as a permanent procedure for continuing his disciplic succession. That parampara procedure had already been explained in his books.” |
As we have seen there is no evidence that:
a) Srila Prabhupada had introduced the ritvik system due to his “condition”.
b) Srila Prabhupada was unable to perform the functions he delegated to the ritviks due to his “condition”.
On the contrary we have seen evidence that:
c) Srila Prabhupada was referring to responding to personal requests to physically performing initiations, which he had already stated he would do alongside the ritvik appointment.
The parampara procedure is that the bona fide spiritual master initiates disciples, and a change to this arrangement requires his order. The parampara procedure is not that the orders of the spiritual master are terminated without such a countermanding order. The parampara procedure is not that the orders of the spiritual master are terminated based on speculating that when Srila Prabhupada states he cannot physically perform initiations, it must mean he intends to terminate the ritvik system.
Conclusion
From every conceivable angle it has been shown that Srila Prabhupada is not speaking about having set up the ritvik system due to his health. Consequently he cannot be referring to terminating it once his health improves. He speaks only of his ability to satisfy personal requests for initiation, which would require his health to be good and which he had already stated he would be doing alongside the ritvik system wherever practical.
Therefore since the October 18th conversation does not involve Srila Prabhupada stating he intends to terminate the ritvik system, and the July 9th directive states it must be applied in ISKCON, it must continue to so be applied.