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| RITTVIKS ARE TRANSMITTORS OF NESCIENCE |
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Prabhupada:. . Another
facility, if you cannot finish your Independent of any discussion
about how Srila Prabhupada wanted his
mission to be conducted after his departure, his daily interchanges with his disciples
clearly had one central goal: To upgrade their characters by successively
unlocking spiritual power and bliss, raising every devotee to purity. Srila
Prabhupada himself set the standard example of full surrender to This demanded from each and
every disciple effort to become free from all misconceptions, to become
liberated from false identification rooted in nescience. This liberation was meant to replace avidya, which otherwise manifested in the form of false
philosophy, sense enjoyment, concoction—and bogus religions. “And if we daily manufacture a kind of dharma
according to my concoction, or we accept everything as real dharma, that is a
mistake.” Practically all of Srila Prabhupada’s
disciples and followers came from extremely fallen backgrounds. They were Westerners
who had been both habituated and trained from birth to pursue material
enjoyment, mostly though sinful means. It is difficult to estimate or describe in
words the potency of Srila Prabhupada in persuading so many sense enjoyers and
mental speculators to give up sinful activity and act without fruitive intention. He
enabled them to perform service to him, and, through him, to please a Supreme Being
almost none of them had ever heard of just a few years previously. Srila Prabhupada neither
added nor subtracted from the standard message of the previous Acaryas. Nevertheless,
his movement was not an organization meant for jnanis
attached solely to philosophical speculation and mental gymnastics. Like a
jewel with many facets, Srila Prabhupada’s Society offered something for
everyone. For the passionate, there were positions and results. For the
studious, there was an infinitely deep philosophy and spiritual science. For the
social butterflies, association was provided; for the sensual, fantastic
prasadam. Everyone found something to do
for Lord Sri Krishna, something that Vishnujana Maharaja would later say enabled them “to get
free from millions of lifetimes of karma.” Still, Srila Prabhupada’s teaching
was an absolute science--a perfect process consisting of successive steps—meant
for reaching the purity he wanted his disciples to attain. His devotees were frequently
enjoined not to neglect knowledge of those successive steps required for
achieving that pure goal. Unfortunately,
his leading secretaries were not all serious enough to hear him concerning this,
and over the years contamination infiltrated its way into his movement. This
led to unauthorized changes. That contaminated
influence remains the source code for most of today’s many problems, and where
it came from was described by His Divine Grace: “It is a fact, however, that the great
sinister movement is within our Society.” Letter to Hansadutta from It was able to infiltrate, in
no small measure, due to their careless misunderstanding of encouragement
from the Sampradaya Acharya; some of the leading
secretaries deceived themselves concerning their actual level of development. Disregarding
his guidance and warnings about how tedious and difficult it actually is to achieve
enlightenment and ecstasy, they advertised pretentious symptoms of devotion. They
became convinced that pure devotional service is easily attained--and foolish
neophytes became their followers, duped by the show-bottle display. “They (ecstatic feelings) should be
checked. Otherwise one will gradually become sahajiya or one who takes
spiritual advancement as something materially manifest.” The presence of a physically
manifest spiritual master serves to check sahajiyism,
and the instructions of the externally manifest guru, both general and specific,
define what sacrifice for and service to the Lord actually is. Without the
guru’s manifest presence, some neophytes (especially those of sinful Western
descent) are often unable to remain fixed in the service attitude. This is due
to their natural tendency to pursue material enjoyment and mental speculation,
concoction. When a guru is as
extraordinarily encouraging as Srila Prabhupada, some of them believe, after he
departs, that his encouragements have become the Absolute Reality—and they then manufacture
something. “This, they're manufacturing,
concoction. This is not . . . That means sinful activities, because he has
manufactured something. That is sinful.” If somebody manufactures, he's a devil. It tends to spiral downwards.
They become convinced that pure devotion is the monopoly of their select and
special group. They delude themselves
into believing that they have received the mysterious, special, obscure, and confidential
directive which overrides everything and everyone else. Since Srila Prabhupada has
departed, the egocentric tendencies of powerful men have continued to deviate many devotees from the true path of his bhakti
science. Those men have contaminated it with some kind of alleged confidential
and special plan, but such concoctions only serve to continually water down the
movement: “If they are fully educated in our
philosophy, and if they can get all of the knowledge and study it from every
viewpoint, then very easily they will perform tapasya
or renunciation. And that will be their advancement in Taking Arjuna’s
example in the Bhagavatam, an eternal associate
of the Lord was unable to protect the Queens of Krishna from a band of infidel
cowherds after the disappearance of the Lord. Those who tried to turn back the
takeover of Prabhupada’s movement suffered somewhat similar setbacks. It is
folly to presume that nothing has changed since the departure of His Divine
Grace. As a confidential associate of the Lord, Srila Prabhupada was able to
single-handedly keep thousands of disciples bona fide while he walked amongst
us. In the first months after
Srila Prabhupada’s disappearance, the rank and file devotees still followed him
strictly; their level of fired-up purity was maintained in a mood of
transcendental lamentation. Cataclysm and the evil process of disintegration
did not ensue until his leading secretaries introduced the zonal acharya concoction in the spring of 1978. “Our difficulty is that, instead of
following the supreme leader, we are creating by mental concoction some leader
according to our material conception of life. And we are following.” In the same gita, in his purport to 5.16, Srila Prabhupada says
that Satan is nescience or avidya. Under that malignant
influence, eleven men developed a misconception about their real identities, accepting
some limited encouragement as the Ultimate Reality. They did not have enough faith
in Srila Prabhupada’s instructions regarding what they were, what they were
actually qualified to do, and how he would be succeeded. They did not bother to
make a thorough and scrutinizing study of his instructions before proclaiming
themselves pure. Everyone knows what
happened. Powerful men who imitate a
pure devotee will get the reactions of their spiritual master business, but it
takes a little time: “However, one should not imitate the
behavior of an advanced devotee or mahabhagavata
without being self-realized, for by such imitation one will eventually
become degraded. . . The devotee should also know his own position and should
not try to imitate a devotee situated on a higher platform.” They enthusiastically imbibed
some highly questionable advice from Gaudiya Matha.
Then, in the service of self-aggrandizement and aparadha, they engaged the rank
and file--but they were not able to pull it off. “But if you want to manufacture
something of your own concoction, that will not act.” Although the concoction
failed, the temple “inmates” who had succumbed to it, as could only be
expected, caught that same disease of faithlessness. The zonal acharya
imposition had its origin in faithlessness and concoction, and it is now the fruit
of that misadventure. Ever since the reprobates wreaked havoc on the movement,
it has been nearly impossible to manifest a faith in “GBC-ISKCON” leaders necessary
to perform hard austerities and sacrifice under their direction. Those of us
who served them in dismantling the house that Srila Prabhupada built were all
infected by their faithlessness, to one degree or another. As a consequence, we
now have various camps working at cross-purposes--all somehow continuing the
zonal acharya spirit of audacity--yet with different mindsets. A Religion of the Mind “This
practice we should give up. Mano-dharma. Today’s most vocal spokesmen for rittvik mano-dharma often transmit their philosophy under the
impression that they have always been at the forefront of resistance to GBC-ISKCON
mano-dharma. Many of the rittviks,
however, had previously either caved in to the zonals,
were dyed-in-the-wool yes-men, or, at least in one case, were actually zonal acharyas themselves. They all took advantage of the actual
resistance provided by those devotees who never accepted the original
concoction. If rittvik dharma was as obvious as its
loudest exponents claim, why did it take until 1989 for some brahmins and talented writers to find
out about it and transmit its initial version? Previous to that time, all of today’s
post-modern rittviks were under the influence of different
bewilderments concerning what Srila Prabhupada really wanted. Because the spirit
of many of today’s rittviks is the same as the zonal acharyas--audacity--few of them are honest or humble enough
to admit their previous acceptance of something else. Suppose, for arguments sake, we accept the
one-word justification for rittvik dharma: “henceforward.” Then, which version
are we to follow? The rittviks are known for their
lack of agreement and in-fighting. There
is no governing body amongst the lot of them, but only mutual agreement on one
point of philosophy and process, which they all have wrong. Their centrifugal movement manifests currently
in four distinct flavors: 1. Should
we follow the garden-variety rittvik dispensation (hard rittvik) for the next
ten thousand years? 2. Or (soft
rittvik), just up until the next Sampradaya Acarya? 3. Are
the ceremonial officiating acharyas (of Prominent
Link, a covert form of rittvik) actually gurus?
4. Or,
as per the latest rittvik mutation, are they “gurus,” some kind of ambiguous
hybrid of officiating acharya and spiritual master? Some of those in this last-mentioned rittvik camp
push their special interpretation with a virulent style that pushes an
all-encompassing interpretation of the July, 1977 letter as the be-all and
end-all for post-samadhi initiation. When interpreted, however, through the original
rittvik presentation manufactured over a decade and a half ago, the July, 1977
letter--which, it should be noted, was not even written by Srila Prabhupada--only
authorized eleven men to perform initiations . . . into perpetuity. Then what is to happen to the Krishna
Consciousness movement when those eleven men have left their bodies? Some of
today’s “officiating acharyas” now say the right
cause entails training the new disciples, giving personal attention and
instruction. But there are still others who accept the new people immediately
as equals and let them go their way. “Of course, it is a fact that you cannot make an
organized religion by your concoction.” “You cannot make your right cause. You cannot
formulate that ‘This is right cause.’ That is mental concoction. You must get
it sanctioned.” Rittvik dharma really hinges on just one word
in the context of a convoluted interpretation of the letter which contains it. As such, there is no real guidance on how this
new religion is to be carried out. According to the Bhakti Sandarbha, only a liberated person can associate with
an aprakat guru, a spiritual master who has left
external vision. Due to lack of absolute guidance, its process and management are
rooted in concoction, adjusted on the fly in accordance with the pseudo-utilitarian
principle of fix-it-as-you-go. The rittviks learned this technique in association with GBC-ISKCON,
which picked it up from another source: “So any one
of my godbrothers cannot help me . . .
because they are unfortunate in the matter of preaching work. They are simply trying to infiltrate our society
to sow something harmful by their attempt.”
Rittvik mano-dharma
is a reactionary movement, and is also collective denial about the departure of
Srila Prabhupada. The rittvik leaders created an alternative, when name, fame,
and facilitation were denied them by the GBC. They justify everything by crying,
“What better guru than Srila Prabhupada!?!” However, he is no longer manifest
to correct or manage their questionable proposals, interpretations, and
processes. Crucial instructions are being transmitted to deluded followers by each
of these self-appointed rittvik leaders, many of whom act as a kind of guru. Just as in the zonal acharya
concoction, Srila Prabhupada here has been relegated to a figurehead position, while
embodied controllers pull the strings to indulge domineering propensities in
his name. Few will dispute the value of
taking shelter of Srila Prabhupada’s teachings and instructions in order to make
spiritual advancement. Artificially designating him diksa
guru into the unforeseeable or even foreseeable future, however, is where the rittviks deviate from our parampara. It’s a concoction
rooted in mental speculation, and it is destined to fail. The recent ten
thousand dollar offer--to anyone who can prove that the concoction is approved
by sadhu and sastra--flies in the face of all rittvik
arrogance. “And one who does not follow the acharyas and creates and manufactures his mental
concoction, his version will not be accepted.”
Rittvik dharma takes to another
level the unauthorized ecclesiastical process of selecting, appointing, or
approving guru that GBC-ISKCON mano-dharma has institutionalized.
In regard to the rittvik position on a departed
spiritual master and Sampradaya-Acharya, it is essentially
“Churchianity.” Even if we could be convinced that Srila
Prabhupada actually wanted a rittvik system after his departure, where is the
corroboration of sadhu and shastra?
The rittviks like to claim that Srila Prabhupada was shaktyavesh and could establish or preach anything
unprecedented, like rittvik dharma. But
such a radical departure from Vaishnava tradition and shastra
on the part of His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada is nowhere indicated by his actions,
or in his preaching, or writings--not anywhere near to this extent. His consistent
teachings, example, and directives all point in a different direction. At its worst, rittvik dharma is an attack on
the entire Gaudiya Vaishnava disciplic succession. In the minds of its
outspoken proponents, as evidenced by some recent articles, unless a person is
ready to hop on its bandwagon, he is working against Srila Prabhupada. It is
not enough to be endeavoring to develop the sincerity and seriousness needed for
contacting a real guru. Those who write articles opposing it get even more
abuse. If Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami Prabhupada
or Srila Rupa Goswami were preaching at this time, would
the rittviks treat them any differently? Do you think that an
exaggeration? Then consider the
following passage from a recent article representing the newest rittvik faction. Culled from The Reality is That it’s NOT Crystal Clear?, the
excerpt has been streamlined. Its
meaning has been clarified, not changed.
That article had been posted previously on the Sun, and the hyperlink
is herein provided. As such, you can access the whole excerpt and double-check
the context. “The July 9th Letter—ordered
sent out to every single Temple President and GBC man, as well as every single
devotee in the world—is a matter of public record . . . on March 27th,
1975, he (Prabhupada) asserted that his Directives took precedent(sic) over the
general instructions of his books.” This pundit’s air of absolute certainty is
laughable, especially considering that the interpretation of the July 9th
letter was not “self-evident” to any of today’s rittvik proponents prior to 1989.
But he claims that his understanding of the letter is an overriding mandate,
superceding the sacred science presented in all the books, all the letters, all
the room conversations, all the morning walks, all the platform lectures, everything. Paramahamsa:
Srila Prabhupada, when you are not present with us, how is it possible to
receive instructions, for example, on questions that may arise? Prabhupada: Well, the questions... answers
are there in my books. Why should we believe that the March 27th
Oath of Allegiance, which only applied to In his recent indictment of Rochan, Balavidya, and Kailasa
Candra prabhus contained in the article Simple
Matter, the same pundit denigrates them, accusing them of promoting
personal interpretations of the July 9th letter. Such ad hominem only serves to discredit his cause. It energizes a crack-back which further
exposes the false underpinnings of rittvik dharma, and it also drives another
wedge between and amongst the various rittvik factions. Not all of them approve of the argumentum ad hominem method. Concerning what is contained in the July 9th
letter, the appointment of rittviks for the
unforeseeable future is not at all self-evident. That is why
there is so much discussion regarding the letter’s interpretation. It is only self-evident
in the minds of zealous rittviks, whose purposes are
directly served by extending the period of its application beyond the
disappearance of Srila Prabhupada. They want us to believe that the July 9th
letter is somehow more important than Srila Prabhupada’s teaching on guru and
initiation, which all support a different conclusion. A Directive is important
but only to those it is directed to; the Oath of Allegiance was not meant for
the rank and file devotees. They were not asked to sign it. It is one thing to
discuss or interpret the wording of the July 9th letter. It is quite
another to use some malinterpretation of it as a
blanket minimization of Srila Prabhupada’s books, teaching, and guidance. That nescience is magnified when conducted
through the mode of Vaishnava-aparadha. In the Bhagavatam,
Romaharsan Suta refused to
stand when Lord Balarama entered the assembly. It was
only after this offence that his fallen birth was remembered. Similarly, Srila
Prabhupada’s sadhakas should be accorded respect due Vaishnavas
actually
initiated by him. Atma-Dharma:
Channeled to the Disciplic Succession “No one can be spiritually realized by
manufacturing his own process, as is the fashion of the foolish pretenders. The
Bhagavatam says: dharmam
tu sakshad bhagavat-pranitam: the path of religion is directly
enunciated by the Lord.” Rittviks take a role of pseudo-guru without having the real
qualifications of spiritual master. This decision is rooted in faithlessness. Rittvik
mano-dharma is just another convenient means of
avoiding the instruction brought out at the beginning of this article: To
become completely When we are not sincere enough to obtain the
association of a physically manifest mahabhagavat--as
well as the opportunity to be, in that way, unambiguously directed by him--it
is due to our weakness and lack of sincerity. Rather than seeing through the
eyes of scripture (shastra-cakshush) and coming to
this obvious conclusion, rittvik dharma creates an artificial rationalization
as to why, after all, such direct association is not really important. We
should be profoundly alarmed that the Supreme Controller is collectively
providing us a rope with which to hang ourselves. But we are not. What has been
lost is honesty. Ignoring something that should not be ignored
is called ignorance, nescience or avidya. Neophytes sometimes
think they are more advanced than they actually are, and, as such, something is
more important than sticking to the science of In the early Nineties, to compete with this
dishonesty, rittvik dharma was the next expedient. This alternative form of initiation
was touted as a means to match the numbers of new initiates still following GBC-ISKCON
dharma. The zonal acharyas, in part, had justified
their so-called empowerment to give diksa because many
new people were clamoring for initiation from them. But what is the value of an
initiation that is not authorized? In any such scheme, the foolish initiate misidentifies,
complacently assuming that he has been linked to the sampradaya. He falsely thinks that he is on an equal
level with devotees who were actually initiated by His Divine
Grace Srila Prabhupada and gives up searching for a manifest spiritual master. “Yes, there is definitely a vast difference between
initiated and non-initiated. One who is initiated is authorized, and one who is
not initiated is not authorized. Just like, for example, Pradyumna
is attending class in Sanskrit in a college. He is given chance to learn
Sanskrit, but he is not equal with the regular students. One who becomes
initiated is channelized to the authorities in the
disciplic succession. One who isn't initiated may chant Hare Krishna (and
should certainly be encouraged to do so) and serve in his own way. And
gradually, by doing so, he may want to be initiated. But, otherwise, he may
fall away from following the rules and regulations.” Letter to Satsvarupa in All of these concocted processes of
initiation and pretender gurus are just different varieties of “spiritual” poison.
Honesty dictates that, if you are not qualified, if you do not have the adhikara, you will not pose as something you are not. You
will not preach something that you are not certain is in accordance with the
previous spiritual masters, holy men, and the scriptures. Only that pure devotee who is teaching in
complete accord with atma-dharma can deliver others
from the satanic influence of this material world: "As for your next question: 'Can only a few pure
devotees deliver others?' Anyone, if he is pure devotee, he can deliver others.
He can become spiritual master. But unless he is on that platform, he should
not attempt it. Then they will both go to hell, like blind men leading the blind." We appreciate recent articles posted on Sampradaya
Sun exposing those false underpinnings of the rittvik concoction. For well over a decade, we have been ahead of
the curve on this. We have also had posted on our website a cogent
understanding of the July 9th letter; as aforementioned, it has recently received
notoriety as being the so-called “final order.”
Kailasacandra dasa has written other articles exposing rittvik mano-dharma: Everywhere The Followers Make The Whole Thing Bungled Flaws In The Rittvik Concoction Srila Prabhupada: Yes, the best friend is the spiritual master, because
he saves (you) from the blazing fire of confusion. That is best friend. Srila Prabhupada’s consistent teaching is to
strive for a level of purity and realization that rittvik dharma cannot provide. For its conditioned follower, however, there
is a disease in the heart. Hundreds and
possibly even thousands of devotees have a rittviknot
now tightly tied within them. They all need to especially develop more
sincerity and patience: “It doesn't matter if things are going a little slow,
but make everything slow but sure. That is a good principle. To do things
hastily and incorrectly is not good. There is a proverb in Bengali: sabure mawaphale. This
means that all valuable nuts, like almonds, macadamias, walnuts, coconuts,
etc., all take a long time to fructify. Anything valuable takes a little time
to come into existence. Therefore there is no harm in waiting for the best
thing. But everything is well that ends well. That should be the principle.”
If both the mind and heart become purified, a
devotee does not fall victim to the rittvik misconception about his real
identity. He or she instead tries to
follow the authorized process to self realization. He or she takes shelter of His Divine Grace A.
C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the most recent Sampradaya Acharya, in the right way.
The true purification process, the science of Madhudvisa: His
question was that “Can you take initiation by accepting the spiritual master in
your heart without actually taking . . . ?” Emphasis
added. Sri Sri Guru-Gauranga jayatah. Quotes from the books of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada are copyright by the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust |