“ISKCON” Gurus, Initiations, and Party Men- Part 1

BY: KAILASA CANDRA DASA

Mar 28, USA — First of a Five Part Series

“. . . do not try to initiate. You are not in a proper position now to initiate anyone. . . Don’t be allured by such maya. . . Don’t be allured by cheap disciples. Go on steadfastly to render service first. If you immediately become guru, then the service activities will be stopped; and as there are many cheap gurus and cheap disciples, without any substantial knowledge, and manufacturing new sampradayas, and with service activities stopped, and all spiritual progress choked up.”
Srila Prabhupada Letter to Acyutananda/Jaya Govinda on Aug. 21, 1968 from Montreal (emphasis added)

Secretary: What about the so-called gurus that take a little bit here, a little bit there?
Prabhupada: So-called gurus, they are so-called gurus. They are not gurus. That is already explained. If one does not speak what Krishna speaks, he is not guru. If you accept so-called guru, that is your misfortune. What can be done?
Secretary: Some of them will say some things that Krishna says, but they’ll take from other places also. What is the position of such persons?
Prabhupada: He’s most dangerous. He’s most dangerous. He is opportunist. He’s finding out customer, something here… According to the customer he is giving something, as the customers will be pleased.
Answers to Questionnaire Room Conversation on June 28, 1976 (emphasis added)

vidyam cavidyam ca yas
tad vedobhayam saha
avidyaya mrtyum tirtva
vidyayamrtam asnute

“Only one who can learn the process of nescience and that of transcendental knowledge side by side can transcend the influence of repeated birth and death and enjoy the full blessings of immortality.”
Sri Isopanisad Mantra 11 (emphasis added)

During the final years of the preaching activities of His Divine Grace Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami Maharaj Prabhupada Thakura, who was both shaktyavesh-avatar and Sampradaya-Acarya, one of his favorite initiated disciples was Professor Sanyal, a learned intellectual and an accomplished writer. Even during his manifest lila, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Gosvami Prabhupada–who was and remains a direct associate of Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu (along with his illustrious father, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura)–approved of Professor Sanyal’s book. This book, entitled Krishna Chaitanya, was entirely bona fide according to the Sampradaya Acarya. I once possessed it, but the mahant of the Radha-Raman temple, Visvambhara Gosvami, asked me in Vrindavan to give it to him in 1984. I acquiesced to the request. His Divine Grace Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the most recent Sampradaya-Acarya and our initiating spiritual master, allowed that this book be consulted and read by his disciples, along with Bon Maharaj’s Bhaktirasamritasindhu.

I had the actual quote (referenced below) by Prabhupada about Professor Sanyal, and it was used in my preaching in 1980, specifically at the beginning of a manuscript I co-authored back then entitled In The Measure of Our Conviction. The quote is not to be found in any later edition of the Bhaktivedanta Vedabase; perhaps, it has never been included in any ISKCON databases. If so, that is a shame. The quote is very important and should not be lost in the oblivion of time.

Now, I am going to share with you this quote from Srila Prabhupada as per my personal memory; what is written in bold italics is exact. The gist of the entire quote, as per its follow-up paragraph, is accurate and in context. Srila Prabhupada did not at all approve of this Professor Sanyal after the final day of 1936 (the disappearance of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta), neither did Srila Prabhupada approve of any of Professor Sanyal’s writings after that time.

“Professor Sanyal, he was a very nice man. But he was a Party Man . . .”

That statement has been attributed to Srila Prabhupada. I do not exactly remember the wording of the rest of the quote, but I do remember what it meant and indicated. It indicated that, due to his having become a Party Man, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati arranged to have Professor Sanyal leave the scene very quickly. A recent posting on the Internet, by someone who apparently has researched Professor Sanyal, states that he died a natural death. If you have access to the exact quote, send it our way; we shall recognize it immediately and post it.

Apparently, Professor Sanyal joined the Party of Ananta Vasudeva (later called Puri Maharaj), as opposed to the Bagh Bazaar Party of Tirtha Maharaj. As such, his writings, after the disappearance of his Guru Maharaj, backed that (Vasudeva’s) party line. In the “ISKCON” movement a different course was followed, although there were parallels. Instead of declaring one maha-bhagavat, it was declared by the “GBC” (just as falsely) that there were eleven of them. Of course, Ananta Vasudeva was a very learned scholar in the Vaishnava siddhanta, unlike the eleven Zonal Acaryas of the post-modern era. Still, despite his erudition and previous approval from the Acarya, Srila Prabhupada did not condone the writings of this Professor Sanyal after the disappearance of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura.

The most important thing to consider is that Srila Prabhupada did not approve of Party Men. He in effect condemned this kind of functionary. Currently, the original ISKCON movement is covered by the “ISKCON” sheath, just as our original mind, intelligence, and ego is covered by the material ego (ahankara), material intelligence, and material mind. The “ISKCON” movement is dominated by Party Men, and this has been the case since the late Seventies. The Party Men cooperated with the Zonals (of course, the Zonals themselves were all Party Men) and helped to empower them. The Party Man faction is a multi-faceted dynamic, composed of fanatics, sycophants, henchmen, and temple officers. It always has been.

There is Krishna Consciousness and then there is a perverted reflection of Krishna Consciousness. The Party Men of “ISKCON” represent, at best, only a reflection of Krishna Consciousness. The dynamic of the Party Man is found in what he thinks constitutes the recognition, approval, and blessings of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Party Men measure these ideals in terms of their position in the corporate structure of their institution. As long as they remain a somebody like a Temple President or a “GBC”-and as long as there is adequate revenue flow to continue in their status and with their project-then whatever they are doing or saying is considered spiritual by them. Krishna Consciousness means to see as Lord Krishna sees, to see as the Chaitya-guru or Paramatma sees. To become Krishna Conscious means to see the Party Men for what they really are.

The Party Men shift with the ever-changing winds of corporate doctrine. They are “GBC” loyalists. The “ISKCON” movement is completely under the control of the “GBC.” Unlike ISKCON, however, the real GBC no longer exists-and, as far as that goes, it never did function in a bona fide way for a great deal of time even while Srila Prabhupada was still with us. The devolution of this governing body has been long in duration, the offenses have been very great, and the GBC has been ruined, permanently warped and perverted into the “GBC. ”

The Party Man is a particularly nasty piece of work. He sometimes comes in the form of a sannyasi. He is often completely without genuine conscience. His intelligence always works to ponder the Party Line and the current momentum; he always wants to make sure that he will be on the side that is winning. His shibboleth is: “‘ISKCON’–with all thy faults–I still love thee!” He backs the current transformation, and we are now in the Second Transformation….To Be continued…..

Why I had to leave ISKCON Bangalore-Msg to FOLK friends

Respected Prabhus, Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!!! Hare Krishna!!!

I have been going through blogs regarding ISKCON websites for some days, and thought of writing this letter. Srila Prabhupada would say many a times, that whenever the devotees preaching are successful, the demons would become more and more destructive. This also happened in the case of brainwashing case in USA in 1976-1977. More we see demons getting furious at the preaching work of devotees, more they invite their fall down or death closer.

How will Lord Krishna and Srila Prabhupada spare those who are just blindly being guided by devotees who are just after properties and women? IBDA website is just full of non-authentic, baseless allegations against senior management of Hare Krishna Hill devotees. Many of us have a feeling that all these stories have been cooked up by fallout devotees just to shake the faith of young FOLK devotees.

The anti-ISKCON Bangalore group has not done any preaching and are poaching on the young devotees who have been inspired from Hare Krishna Hill youth programs, just to shake their delicate faith. It is my open appeal to all my FOLK friends that do not associate with anti-ISKCON Bangalore group devotees. Srila Prabhupada forbade his disciples not to associate with all those groups of Gaudiya Matha camps who were envious of him. It’s not that Srila Prabhupada was against them, but to save the bhakti-lata creeper of his disciples. ISKCON Bangalore is a great organization, which is getting purer and purer as time is passing by and as they are learning more and more about Srila Prabhupada’s instruction about running a worldwide organization. We have seen this change ourselves.

I was serving ISKCON Bangalore few years back, and things have wonderfully changed in these years. The newer devotees are full of energy and under purer guidance by the senior management of Hare Krishna Hill. It obviously takes time to learn from the past mistakes and rectify them when you are running a big organization. When the Hare Krishna Hill was under HH Jayapataka Maharaja, there were some malpractices, being carried out under Guru’s approval.

Obviously these guru themselves were bogus, so were their malpractices. So it took sometime to things to take a proper shape in ISKCON Bangalore at Hare Krishna Hill. Many of the devotees who were under mode of ignorance and passion left criticizing the temple authorities, but they could not understand the practical mood of senior management regarding preaching at the same time defending the Hare Krishna Hill devotees against the bogus gurus. We, as new generation devotees at Hare Krishna Hill (those who had been coming in touch with Srila Prabhupada after 1999), were brought up in a purer environment, and were carefully protected from the outside world of envious people who were dressed in saffron but wanted to imitate the position and power of Srila Prabhupada.

I request all the devotees to approach the post-1999 devotees and ask them about the culture of ISKCON Bangalore at Hare Krishna Hill, and you will understand by yourself how the potency of accepting Srila Prabhupada as the sole diksha guru of ISKCON works. It’s the Srila Prabhupada magic which is working. There are so many pre-1999 devotees around the place who will tell you so many stories of Temple building and telling stories of knowing Madhu Pandit Prabhu personally, they never knew his mood even though they may have been personally close to him.

Madhu Pandit Prabhu has taken an unprecedented step of re-establishing Srila Prabhupada as the sole acharya of ISKCON. Many of you may say that Lord Krishna or Srila Prabhupada themselves would rectify the problems in ISKCON, but then I ask one question. Are we supposed to just sit down and not make efforts for doing some service for Srila Prabhupada? Madhu Pandit Prabhu is a great person and a very capable as far as management of a big organization is concerned. He is soft at heart, yet bold enough to take steps to rectify devotee’s mistakes. Just to give you an example, I myself was asked to go alongwith my parents from the temple as I was shouting on the devotees (that was the biggest mistake in my life). Had I not been removed from temple, I would have created so many Vaishanva aparadhas against sincere Vaishnavas and would have suffered more and more in this life and as well as in coming ones. So, Madhu Pandit Prabhu saved me by punishing me. And I know of so many of pre-1999 devotees who also left temple, but it all happened for their own good. I would not like to take their personal names, but none of us who left the temple were purer than others who were inside.

The other camp people would cook up so many stories against our temple management. What to say about Radhey Shayam Prabhu and other devotees at ISKCON Pune? I had to hear nonsense blasphemy against Hare Krishna management for hours together. While on the train, Vibhava Krishna Prabhu spoke so many things irrelevantly about Madhu Pandit Prabhu. Believe me, all these people are blinded by their bogus gurus, who shower them with nonsensical blessings and praise for destroying the preaching activities at Hare Krishna Hill.

And people are so crazy that they want living Guru. Srila Prabhupada’s vani is enough for us, as he desired in July 1977? Now these people, after becoming crazy after living guru, after some time they will become crazy by asking for living KRSNA. I pray to all my FOLK friends not to get deviated from pure path of Krishna Consciousness by following full-heartedly the Srila Prabhupada’s instructions.

If you associate with those who are envious of Hare Krishna Hill management, you might also have to give up the golden opportunity of serving sincere Vaishnavas, Srila Prabhupada, Sri Sri Nitai Gauranga and Sri Sri Radha Krishna-chandra. Remember this will not happen by getting punished by senior devotees, but subtly by Srila Prabhupada and Paramatma. So I request you all not to disobey the valuable advice of seniors at Hare Krishna Hill. Please become devotees and disciples of Srila Prabhupada. Being direct disciples of Srila Prabhupada is not a monopoly of those who were born before 1978, but for every sincere soul who wishes to follow Srila Prabhupada’s orders till the end of Golden Age of Sankirtana in this Kali Yuga.

Hari Bol.

Your servant,

Bhakta Aniruddha.