Back to Prabhupada, Issue 22, Winter 2008/9
By Krishnakant
In a course given at the Mayapur Institute for Higher Education, ISKCON GBC voted-in guru, His Holiness Jayadvaita Swami, (“JS”) launched a blistering attack on Back To Prabhupada (BTP) magazine for allegedly offending sadhus (all quotes in the tintedpanels are taken from a lecture hegave in January 2007):
“WE DON’T DO IT IN PRINT! IT’S THE LAST THING YOU DO! TO PUBLISH VILIFICATION OF A SADHU? ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND? YOU DON’T DO THAT. EVER. And the Internet is worse. To publish it on the Internet for the whole world? Sadhu-ninda? And I don’t care who does it. Those Back To Prabhupada guys. Where’re they going back to? Prabhupada would be so happy that instead of publishing Back To Godhead we publish sadhu-ninda!”
This continues the usual tactic of attacking us for supposedly making “offences” because what we actually say cannot be refuted. Always note that no one is claiming that what we state is not truthful. Rather, we are criticised for the fact that such truths should not be spoken since they will offend our great sadhus. One wonders what would be the case if we actually wrote lies!
What is sadhu-ninda?
Srila Prabhupada explains the term sadhu-ninda as follows:
“A Vaisnava accepts anything favorable for executing his mission. But foolish persons, not knowing the purpose of such exalted Vaisnavas, indulge in criticizing them. That is forbidden. Since no one can understand what a Vaisnava does for the purpose of executing his mission, to criticize such a Vaisnava is the offense called sadhu-ninda.”
(Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Adi-lila, 15:22)
Clearly the mission of ISKCON, as given by Srila Prabhupada, is not to remove Srila Prabhupada and usurp his position, claiming that since he is “dead” he can no longer initiate. Such a claim would actually be sadhu-ninda, and defending Srila Prabhupada against such claims clearly is not. Nor is pointing out that perpetrating a guru hoax in the name of Srila Prabhupada is destroying Srila Prabhupada’s mission, not executing it. Thus by the definition of sadhu-ninda given above, BTP is clearly not guilty, since we are not criticising the execution of Srila Prabhupada’s mission, but the thwarting of it via the Great Guru Hoax.
Double Standard
If, however, for the sake of argument we accept JS’s bogus definition that sadhu-ninda is stating the truth about anyone who is engaged in thwarting Srila Prabhupada’s mission, especially in print, a prominent candidate immediately comes to mind, who stated the following in print:
“32. By allowing, advocating, taking part in, perpetuating, and defending these and other forms of contamination and decay, the members of the GBC have brought the ultimate managing authority of the entire International Society for Krishna Consciousness to a state of disrepute and pollution.”
(“32 Grievances against the GBC”, Jayadvaita Swami, March 5th, 1987)
[Note the above is just a sample - there are 31 other attacks against the members of the GBC!]
“FACT: ISKCON gurus have had illicit sexual intercourse with both women and men, and possibly children as well.”
(Where the Ritvik People are Right, Jayadvaita Swami, January 1996)
“Remember the days of the “11 pure devotees”? And the pure devotees who came next? Remember the Rolexes and the silver plated and the swanky cars and the knock-‘em-dead lunches and the closets full of kashmir sweaters? Remember how our authorized pure devotees derailed Srila Prabhupada’s society, luxuriated in its resources, lorded it over their godbrothers and godsisters, and drove so many sincere people out? Some of these pure devotees are still with us, right on the GBC. […] Some of our North American GBC leaders now putting on the pressure for tests and investigations and justice are the same men who not long ago were playing “Krsna and the gopis” with their female disciples.”
(Letter to Prithu Das, Summer 1997, Jayadvaita Swami)
As we can see JS is more than happy to criticise ISKCON gurus and GBC members in print with no less vigour than BTP!
GBC also guilty
JS’s hypocritical self-righteousness knows no bounds, for he states that even the GBC funded website, dandavats.com, should not be read:
HH Jayadvaita Swami:
Attacks GBC like BTP
|
“I’m not going to say anything about dandavats.com except that I don’t go there and I forbid my disciples to go there.”
Presumably it is because much of the information which we simply repeat in BTP is taken from official GBC sources published in places such as the above website. The falldowns of Satsvarupa and Balabhadra Das (Bhakti Ballabh Puri Goswami) are just two recent examples. As JS says, stuff published on the internet is much worse:
“And the Internet is worse. To publish it on the Internet for the whole world? Sadhuninda?” |
Therefore, if we are filling our magazine with information about how ISKCON’s “sadhus” have thwarted Srila Prabhupada’s mission, which is repeated verbatim from the GBC, then according to JS the destination of the GBC and the IRM is the same, for as he says:
“And I don’t care who does it. Those Back To Prabhupada guys. Where’re they going back to?”
Yet JS is more than happy to accept the perks of following such persons who, according to him, must also be committing sadhuninda, because he was only able
to become an ISKCON guru by lining up to get voted in by the same GBC he strongly criticizes, and he participates fully in ISKCON today under the same GBC’s authority.
Conclusion
a) According to the actual definition of sadhu-ninda, BTP is not guilty of committing this, but the guru hoax program is.
b) According to JS’s bogus definition of sadhu-ninda, he himself is a prime culprit.
c) According to JS, the GBC are also prime culprits in committing sadhu-ninda, but hypocritically he is still happy to loyally follow them.
So again we see the usual display of mass hypocrisy from the guru hoaxers, which is only to be expected since this is Kali-yuga, the age of hypocrisy:
“This is the age, Kali. It is called Kali. Hypocrisy, simply hypocrisy. Kali means full of hypocrisy.”
(Srila Prabhupada Lecture, November 26th, 1966)