Even though the GBC resolutely refuse to certify their voted-in gurus as being “pure devotees”, claiming only that they have “no objection” to them acting as gurus, they have now seen fit to declare if someone is a pure devotee as soon as they die (no doubt hoping to have the benefit of hindsight to check whether or not they have succumbed to the usual scandals and falldowns). For they have formed a committee to decide who gets to have a samadhi (tombs reserved only for the most advanced pure devotees), and who gets to only be burned and have a plaque (thus considered to be just ordinary conditioned souls), upon their respective deaths:
“4. To decide which of the departed disciples of Srila Prabhupada will be interred in full, given a puspa samadhi, or honored with a plaque in the Mayapur Garden of Inspiration.”
(Resolution 308, GBC Meetings, 2008)
And being charitable, this “pure devotee” certification has now been extended to all Prabhupada disciples. For this resolution supersedes a previous resolution passed in 1997 which stated that only those who were one of the guru hoaxers would be honoured with samadhis, whilst every other Prabhupada disciple would automatically be declared non-liberated, and have to only make do with plaques. So it’s taken them 11 years to move to the point of realising that non-gurus could also possibly become liberated, but then again only if they were initiated before 1977. Disciples of the deviant gurus have yet to be considered for such an honour. The GBC thus decides which select group can possibly become liberated, with even this select group changing from time to time depending on the GBC’s whims and fancies!
