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| Vaishnava Foundation and “ISKCON” |
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nasato vidyate bhavo “Of the changeable, there is
no endurance; of that which is eternal, there is never a change.” Bhagavad-gita,
2.16 “I see time’s sandy bottom and
detect how shallow it is. Its thin
current slides away, but eternity remains.” Thoreau
(adapted) The fabricated so-called
“ISKCON,” controlled by today’s vitiated GBC, is not an eternal
manifestation. It is a temporary warping
that will merge into oblivion in due course of time. We are now subjected to its perversities, and
that is adversarial to everyone’s spiritual and devotional interests. Nevertheless, we must, somehow or other, gain
a long-term perspective on the thing, and this entails an honest appraisal of
what is going down and what has already gone down. We must understand what is at
the root, at the very base, of Vaishnavism, and it is not difficult to do—provided
you are unbiased, that is. At the base
of Vaishnava philosophy and process is undeterred and unmotivated honesty, arjavam. This
must be there, because it beats back the influence of hypocrisy so prevalent in
this yuga. It is the foundation of the
Vaishnava faith, from which arise good growth and strong support, leading to
the creation of many brilliant projects and prospects for the Hare Krishna
movement of Krishna consciousness. It
always and must include historical accuracy, and this pivotal principle has
become almost lost now. On the other side of the
ledger, we find pillars of hubris rooted in deception and prevarication. We must not give them any long-term—and
certainly not any eternal—value. We must
know the extent of their temporary power and influence, never underestimate it,
and, at the same time, be contemptuous of their historical relevancy—because they
don’t have any. We must understand how intrinsically
shallow that whole thing is, and, if we actually have such knowledge (within
the working principles of buddhi-yoga), we shall act
accordingly in order to demonstrate our realization. Today’s horrific manifestations of the “ISKCON,”
the rittviks, and the neo-Mutt, as well as the less sickening and newer development
of the smorgasbord, are but minor blips on the spiritual screen. They will pass. History will not judge them kindly, but such
history is to be written many hundreds of years from now. In and of itself, that history cannot be very
relevant to us, but its perspective is.
That is why we must in toto
reject today’s fabricated so-called “ISKCON” movement as intrinsically of no
real value. “ISKCON” and the Big Lie Prevarication of the most
perverse sort is at the root of the fabricated, so-called “ISKCON” movement,
and all of the first echelon members of that organization traffic in it. Indeed, although none of them is a spiritual
master, they are all masters of deception.
They understand well that the lower rank and file—including party men,
chelas, space cadets, fanatics, poison girls, and sentimentalists galore—are
quite easy to keep under control. The
pond is now stocked with carp, so to speak.
This new rank and file is ready for certain manipulation as long as they
all continue to buy into the big lies that “ISKCON” leadership has solidified
within its paradigm. In this, first and
second echelon “ISKCON” leaders follow a powerful leader from the recent past many
consider to have been the Second Antichrist: “ . . . the magnitude
of a lie always contains a certain factor of credibility, since the great
masses of the people, in the very bottom of their hearts, tend to be corrupted
(rather than consciously and purposely evil).
And that, therefore, in view of the primitive simplicity of their minds,
they more
easily fall a victim to a big lie than to little ones--since they
themselves lie in little things but would be ashamed of lies that were too big.
Such a falsehood will never enter their heads, and they will not be able to
believe in the possibility of such monstrous effrontery and infamous
misrepresentation in others. Yes, even
when enlightened on the subject, they will long doubt and waver and continue
to accept at least one of these causes as true. Therefore,
something of even the most insolent lie will always remain and stick--a fact
which all the great lie-virtuosi and lying-clubs in this world know only too
well and also make the most treacherous use of.” Mein Kampf, Vol.
1, The
masses of such rank and file devotees, having been thoroughly invultuated by various bijas from
the contaminated lower astral, as well as by a flood of nescience within their
own hearts, are all victims of various big lies. This is true within the “ISKCON,” the
rittviks, and the neo-Mutt. It is
especially the fact in the Mutt itself, from which all three of the
aforementioned deviant and pseudo-Vaishnava groups have sprung. The
worse manifestation of this principle, however, is made self-evident when these
poor followers, floating helplessly in the stream of time, will ever doubt all
good evidence and authority and historical fact. They will always doubt, up to and including
the bewilderment that sinful doubt is, in itself, a self-perpetuating cycle actuated
within the lower modes of nature. Their
intelligences are ever invultuated in this manner,
and, even in the face of grievous shocks, they cannot be brought to
sanity. They will continue to accept the
big lie that, somehow or other, their “ISKCON” movement is fated by destiny to
take over the world and convert everyone to a kind of Lord
Krishna’s will, unlike our own, is Absolute.
When He wills something to be so, it comes to be or immediately is. His will is never thwarted and can never be
thwarted; He does not require any kind of group consultation in order to then
hold an election and make a decision.
Lord Krishna, or the fully self-realized spiritual master, do not use
voting mechanisms in order to determine who is guru. Either Lord Visnu
or the fully realized guru can immediately benedict a devotee to the post, and
that is how it’s actually done: “Because the bound
cannot help the bound, the rescuer must be liberated. Therefore, only Lord Krishna
or His bona fide representative the spiritual master can release the
conditioned soul. . . Only Vishnu is the master of Maya; therefore, He alone
can give release to the conditioned soul.”
Bg., 7.14, purport There
is no need of any election. The
Webster’s Dictionary defines elect as “chosen” or “selected”; the
word does not always mean—in fact, it does not even generally mean—that there
has to be some kind of vote. When Lord
Krishna or Lord Vishnu or the fully self-realized spiritual master elects a
devotee as diksa guru, it means that They recognize or chose or select or
benedict him to be so, without any kind of voting or non-vetoing procedures
involved whatsoever. When a board elects
one of its own as uttama-adhikari, it can only mean that, by the spiritual
power of his self-effulgence, he is automatically recognized for just who he
is. The Western mentality of manufacturing
or rubber-stamping spiritual leaders via election devices (of any and all varieties)
has got to stop. The initiation fetish
feeds directly into the diksa-guru fetish, and everyone becomes absorbed in
minutiae without seeing what is being destroyed in the process. Genuine guru is never voted into his post. The
concept that a diksa-guru is appointed as an uttama-adhikari by the departing founder-acharya is a big lie.
A qualified diksa-guru can be recognized for what he is, but he is never
arbitrarily appointed in order to fill some kind of imminent vacancy. The concept that Lord Krishna holds an
elective meeting in the spiritual world wherein He and His favorites get
together and vote an uttama-adhikari on earth is a big lie. The idea that some mother church or body or governing
commission on earth can elect an uttama-adhikari in a similar fashion is a big
lie. The concoction that such a
governing commission (while still bona fide and empowered) can have, within it,
a different elite group not at all under its control is a big lie. The concept that an uttama-adhikari appoints
a governing body to then appoint any number of maha-bhagavats
is a big lie. The
idea that said commission—composed entirely of jiva souls who all possess free
will—has an inherent, automatic, self-corrective mechanism invested in it by
its founder-acharya is a big lie. The self-serving concoction that the
governing body is no longer under the authority of the D.O.M. (Direction Of
Management), i.e., that His Divine Grace somewhere in time invalidated the
authority of the D.O.M., is a big lie. The
concept that gurus, appointed or voted in or not-vetoed in some fashion, can be
given pre-fabricated territories on earth (in which they are the designated exclusive
diksa-gurus of choice for initiating newcomers, i.e., the zonal acharya hoax) is a big lie.
The
fabrication that, after the zonal acharya scheme invariably
becomes exposed, the gurus who benefited from it remain diksa-gurus is also a
big lie (of course, they never were bona fide gurus at any time, so do not let
this one confuse you too much). The dumbed down fix-it-as-you-go arrangement to not have gurus appointed
(by the commission) but, instead, to elect them as diksa-gurus by voting
mechanisms is a big lie. The further dumbed down fix-it-as-you-go devolutionary arrangement to
no longer vote anybody in but to require recommendations and then put “recommended”
diksa-gurus in queue (subject to being shot down by veto from influential
members within the commission—and, if they pass that hurdle, then they are
actually become gurus) is a big lie. The
fanatical dogma that “ISKCON” is guaranteed to be the vehicle to spread Lord Chaitanya’s There
are obviously many more big lies other than these, but with this comprehensive list,
at least you get the picture. These examples
all serve to comprise the unauthorized foundation of “ISKCON,” and, although
the other groups do not share every one of them, they also have their own set
of big lies underlying their respective operations. The bedrock of “ISKCON” is
prevarication, mostly in the form of devastatingly big lies. We shall not
tangentially explore all of that in relation to the other groups at this time,
because “ISKCON” remains the Big Kahuna. If it can (and must be!) effectively exposed,
then the other groups will not be all that difficult to resist and beat down
when that expose is consummated. Foundational
Principles We believe that guru hyperinflation poses a very great
danger to not only the devotee world, but also to the international order at
large. It is intrinsically linked to the
initiation fetish, which also amounts to a kind of initiation hyperinflation as
well. We are against watering down the
principle of the bona fide spiritual master, still, having exhaustively and
thoroughly analyzed Prabhupada’s statements and purports threadbare, we cannot
but come to the conclusion that the status of genuine guru begins before the
very rare platform of mahabhagavat is attained. We believe that problems are best solved by
cooperation and not by complex legislation and legal solutions. As an organization, we function in the spirit
of cooperation, but this should not be interpreted to mean that we cooperate
with anyone and everyone on anything and everything. We observe social and spiritual etiquette
with the “ISKCON” and the rittviks when we sporadically deal with them, usually
in the form of some kind of purchase of devotional goods from one of the groups. We cooperate with them, and remain humane and
civil. We cooperate with the smorgasbord
similarly. So, cooperation is not
neglected by us. Do we cooperate with
the neo-Mutt? Never! Cooperation is an important theme for our group, and
we listen to the spiritual master in this regard. Many others are no longer listening to him
and, for them, his microphone has been turned off. This is not the case for our circle,
however. If he wants us to board the
ship of We believe that small and
independent is both beautiful and authorized at this time, i.e., let us first
get some healthy trees before we become too absorbed in big, big talks about
the forest. We make all of our decisions in an atmosphere of transparency, and
we do not believe that any good can come out of secret backroom deals. We do not pass along problems to the cul de sac of commissions.
We deal with problems as they arise, we consult amongst ourselves
regularly, and every member is encouraged to propose solutions. We have no faith whatsoever in bloated
bureaucracies as a method to study and solve problems. This we consider to be the Vaishnava
Foundation, if you are at all interested. Pillars of “ISKCON” Hubris As briefly mentioned in our
previous article (GBC: THE
GODS WHO FAILED), the pillars of “ISKCON” hubris, firmly embedded in
the mortar of an all-pervading prevarication, are: 1) Failure to take responsibility, 2) Audacity to make
unauthorized changes, 3) Imitation of the Acharya,
and 4) Jiva-himsana.
The edifice of this movement’s superstructure now stands on these
pillars, and His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada gave repeated warnings that none
of it should have been allowed to transpire: “Yamaraja
is one of the GBC of Krishna . . . As we have got twelve GBCs, similarly When the feces hits the fan,
no one amongst the leadership takes any responsibility for it. They find a scapegoat. If that is not possible, they table the
problem to a committee, where it gets sandbagged and forgotten in course of time. Has the so-called “ISKCON Resolve” committee
actually resolved anything? If the
eleven pretender mahabhagavats had taken
responsibility for their humongous “mistake,” would the movement not now be repairing
itself in a healing stage? Instead, they
found a couple of scapegoats, provoked a schism with Swami B.R. Sridhar, and
then claimed that everything was hunky-dorry when the
commission expanded the number of diksa-gurus by three (adding two little
Indians). When you check out the history
of how this whole thing has played out (and continues to play out), you cannot but
be amazed on how reactive measures have been rationalized and put into motion, with
avoiding responsibility being made the prime necessity. The first and second echelon leaders are
still in their enjoyment phase of the cycle—and the rest of us remain in the
suffering phase—but this will eventually reverse. The GBC men were obviously given some perks
by the Acharya, but they were also required, in order
to earn those advantages, to be very responsible leaders. In this they have failed miserably, and some
inauspicious reactions are scheduled for them as a result of their headlong
dive into the ocean of irresponsible and whimsical behavior. “Gradually the Krishna
Consciousness idea will evaporate: Another change, another change, every day
another change. Stop all this. . . Don’t manufacture ideas!” Letter
to Sudama, The GBC cannot be blamed for
the book changes; so it would seem. This
tail can be directly put on the donkey of the BBT(i),
the existence of which is, in itself, an unauthorized change. However, the GBC had and still has a
fiduciary responsibility to speak out strongly against all of these hundreds of
unauthorized, unnecessary, and whimsical changes to Prabhupada’s books. Had the commission done so, do you think that
the two fallen brahmins now running the BBT(i) would have, through the sheer strength of a technically
legal status separate from the governing body, been able to persist? Of course not! The GBC was duty-bound to speak out
forcefully against all of the changes, but it did not do so. This makes it, at least indirectly, also
culpable for those changes. There have been so many
changes. The actual status of the shaktyavesh-avatar Sampradaya Acharya
has been changed in the minds of thousands of devotees by the poisonous
propaganda of the so-called Lilamrita. Who authorized that book? The GBC, of course, and its author mentions
the commission’s imprimatur in the work itself.
The GBC is a broken arrow, subject to no authority other than its
own. How is that? Well, in no small measure, it is because the
GBC has trashed the D.O.M., relegating it to some past relic that no longer has
either relevancy or authority. This
self-serving change has major negative repercussions connected to it. A Quick Descent to Morbidity “. . . the most powerful can
do something which is all-good, but our imitation of such acts will put us into
endless difficulty.” S.B., 1.10.36,
purport. We are supposed to follow in
the footstep of the Acharya, never to imitate
him. The GBC, in its immeasurable
hubris, decided to allow eleven of its most powerful members to imitate the
Sampradaya Acharya.
The results of this terrible scheme are still being felt as they play
themselves out. When there is imitation,
there is not following. When there is
imitation, there is automatically anartha.
When there is anartha, there is never any guru present there. The “ISKCON” movement lurches
from one endless difficulty to another, although, absorbed in an over-confident
mood of complacency, these GBC men think that they have everything under
control. They do not, because the
imitation that they fostered back in the Seventies will continue to haunt
them. We could give countless examples
of how those eleven pretenders engaged in egregious imitation, but your author
would rather give a little known example of such imitation that transpired
immediately after the so-called reforms of the mid-Eighties. This concerns a
prominent—make that most prominent—member of the current commission. The remaining diksa-gurus of “ISKCON” were in
dire straits at that time. Like Nixon,
they were losing their base. They were
enjoyers and imitators; they were not interested in any tapasya
such as training their so-called initiated disciples. As such, they relegated that to the temple
presidents. Back at that time, the
temple presidents (NATPA) were in revolt.
Many of the so-called gurus had been exposed for criminal activities,
sexual escapades, and even intoxication.
Things were starting to fall apart; the imitation scheme would not hold. As such, the remaining five
gurus still in good standing with the GBC and their “ISKCON” confederation
decided to remove the vyasasans from all of the
temples. Politically, it was a shrewd
move; imitation took a step backward, and, in one sense, you could say that it
was a good thing. However, I found it
very interesting what transpired immediately after this in one of the American
temples. That temple president (who
benefited greatly in this change, which, I have noted in a previous article,
was the Second Transformation Instead, he chose to give one class
while sitting atop it! Now, that’s audacity! That’s imitation! That’s utter contempt for everyone, as this
man relished in his triumph (a victory, it should be noted, that was leveraged
off of other influential TPs, or former TPs, whose political positions were rejected). “And you want to take credit,
all credit, for the original . . . simply by imitating. You are so foolish. Why
shall I give you the credit? I shall give credit to the origin. That is our
philosophy.” Morning
Walk, And now we come to jiva-himsana. “There are many religious
propagandists who do not know how the ultimate problems of life can be solved .
. . This is also jiva-himsana. Real knowledge is not
given, and (such) religionists mislead the general populace.” Cc., Madhya, 19.159, purport. That all the GBC men are
certainly vegetarians is not what is important here; violence against other
living entities is not restricted to the beefeaters. When asked for a concise definition of envy,
Prabhupada once replied, “Envy means that you cannot live.” We were supposed to be given all facilities
for making advancement in spiritual life, which is real life. If we are not given those
facilities, then we cannot live. The
materialists believe that the constitution of the human opportunity is sex life,
sexual liberty, and the pursuit of orgasm.
But the devotees of the Lord are interested in a completely different
kind of life. They need structures and
facilitations and amenities in order to live that life. When these are taken away from them, it constitutes
action impelled by envy of other living entities, by violence. That constitutes jiva-himsana. It is a
subtle form of the mode of passion, and it has a very extensive influence
within the “ISKCON” organization. The
GBC epitomize this spirit of constant competition for the top spot amidst a
continuous surcharge within an atmosphere full of violence and opposition. They have fulfilled so many unauthorized
desires through various machinations, all of which are completely dependent
upon the artificial hierarchy they have successfully imposed on all of their
victims, viz., godbrothers and godsisters who did not buy into their schemes. It is a whirlwind of jiva-himsana,
but only devotees of the Lord are able to spot it. This is because it is almost never manifested
superficially. [i] I remember in college when I
saw a cartoon featured in the editorial section. It showed a warrior-brute loaded down with
grenades, weapons, and armor. He was
walking through an utterly desolated landscape, smoking in sheer chaos. His quote was at the bottom of the drawing:
“I think I won.” The upper echelon
members have, at least materially speaking, won this competition. But they have also lost in a way that will
come back to bite them in the end. Any
person absorbed in jiva-himsana may be able to cover
his tracks in relation to the conditioned souls of the world, but there are
many demigods who know it well where he is actually at: “When this dust is agitated
by the whirlwind of fruitive activity, it overcomes
the heart. Thus, the mirror of the heart is covered with dust. There are many
desires to perform auspicious and inauspicious activities, but people do not
know how life after life they are keeping their hearts unclean. One who cannot
give up the desire for fruitive activity is
understood to be covered by the dust of material contamination.” Cc., Madhya, 12.135, purport. Splinter is the Night “Half of what they say is
lies, and the other half ain’t true.” Here Comes The first and second echelon
men of “ISKCON” believe that all the other organizations claiming allegiance to
They think that they
represent the splendor and bliss of We do not love them. We do not trust them. We have no obligation to do either, because the
whole operation is rooted in prevarication, in the big lie. The foundation of the Vaishnava faith is
different from “ISKCON,” and we invite you to reassess your position in
relation to that “ISKCON” splinter group—and once again join the devotees of
the Lord who are trying to rejuvenate a spiritual movement that is supposed to
build a house in which the whole world can live. “Now has the GBC become more
than Guru Maharaja? As if simply GBC is meant for looking after pounds,
shilling, pence. The GBC does not look after spiritual life; that is a defect.
All of our students will have to become guru, but they are not qualified.
This is the difficulty.” Letter to Alanatha i “Ahimsa, nonviolence,
means that one should not do anything which will put others into misery or confusion.
. . Ahimsa means that people should be trained in such a way that the full
utilization of the human body can be achieved. The human body is meant for
spiritual realization, so any movement or any commissions which do not
further that end commit violence on the human body. That which furthers
the future spiritual happiness of the people in general is called nonviolence.”
Purport to Bhagavad-gita 10.4-5 Quotes from the books of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada are copyright by the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust |