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| The Corruption of Self-Serving Myths Deception Under Lies the Cult of “ISKCON” By Kailäsa Candra däsa |
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“Anything created by a human being--that is not acceptable. We do not follow that principle, because a human being is always imperfect. So, we cannot take
anything manufactured, myth, by any human being.”
“On the surface of the earth there are many great mountains and oceans that are very heavy, and mother earth has no difficulty carrying them, but she feels
very much overburdened when she carries even one person who is a liar. It is said that, in Kali-yuga, lying is a common affair . . . “
“History is full of absurdities masquerading as absolutes.”
Authentic transcendentalists possess an affinity for the Absolute Truth, while most others do not. Mundane facts remain facts, although time wears down their relevancy. On the other hand, higher relative truths are revealed to the devoted transcendentalist at a special stage (rarely attained), i.e., when he or she realizes the actual form of the self, free from the astral body (Paramätmä darçanam). It must be known that the Absolute Truth is completely beyond the purview of the universal coverings. As such, such a special realization can be had only when it is free from all that covers it. What in particular covers it? For the unbiased, that is not a difficult question. Notice that realization on the eternal plane is called realization of the Absolute Truth. This gives every sincere practitioner of the science of bhakti-yoga a strong hint as to what covers it, does it not? In other words, what is the opposite of Truth? We all know that Falsity Personified rules in Kali-yuga, and, in that family, we also find myth, mendacity, hypocrisy, deception, dissimulation, and deceit of all kinds. This age is an ocean of lies. The Absolute Truth is particularly covered at this time, however, by all that falsely poses to be the Absolute Truth--but, in point of fact, is not. All emphases added for your edification and realization In this two-part series, we shall cover subjects connected to this topic. We cannot presume the ultimate triumph of Çréla Prabhupäda’s Hare Kåñëa movement of Kåñëa consciousness. There are many reasons for this, not the least of which is that, by his words and actions, he made definitive statements that it could be ruined in due course of time. His movement brings the highest merit possible to the serious and sincere theist, who, by definition, must be a transcendentalist as well. However, all attempts to promote that highest merit—all attempts that mistakenly include the smug attitude of certain triumphalism--paradoxically work against the desired outcome. We instead must have enough intelligence to understand that his movement is now in very deep trouble. Why that is so will now be discussed in this two-part series. Beware of Darkness
“As the age of Kali will make progress, people will become more and more irreligious, and they will become more and more liars.
They'll forget to speak what is true.”
“A person who lies has to suffer just like a person who loses everything by gambling or like one who is weighed down by profound anxieties. . . The
severity of the reaction for lying increases in consideration of whether one has done so for the sake of an animal, a human, money, or property.”
Enjoy the world’s conveniences. At a certain point, all the lies at the foundation of the fabricated, so-called “ISKCON” ecclesiocracy are no longer able to be recognized as such by those who believe them, even as the negative impact of those lies became more and more apparent, year after year. The party man still takes shelter of these ideas, even as they eventually degenerate to the status of myths, unspoken shibboleths automatically known to all members in good standing, who are presumed to have infused them into their astral bodies.
“No one is free from the sinful reactions of speaking lies.” Rationalizations for “dovetailed” lying abound, but they took an incremental leap in late 1973 with the introduction of plainclothes collection techniques. In analyzing letters referring to it (just previous to its actualization), it becomes quite clear that His Divine Grace was against the idea. He conceded that his devotees could present themselves to the public in fine Western suits and dresses, but he insisted that they all wear tiläka, with the men shaved up and openly displaying their devotional status. When the O’Hare Airport in Chicago was first opened (your author was part of the crew that arrived there the day after it was opened), the devotees were not in plainclothes. However, by late 1973, at the beginning of the Christmas pick, one of the most influential commissioners in the movement insisted, in letter after letter, that Prabhupäda allow the devotees to collect in plainclothes, wigs, and without tiläka on their foreheads. All kinds of lies and half-truths thus worked their way into the approaches that these collectors then took, culminating in the change-up, which was taught as a kind of art form. It all led to short-term huge collections, of course, but, long-term, the whole strategy must be questioned now. Yet, even prior to the above-mentioned 1973 “Christmas Marathon,” various leaders were chafing at the bit to employ such deceptive techniques:
“But other things, lies, they will not help us to train ourselves in truthfulness. Lie to some, not to others--that is not a good philosophy. Rather, the
brähmaëas are always truthful, even to their enemies. . . That art you must develop, not art of lying.” The idea was to dovetail the vice of lying into the pick, to swipe money from Rävaëa and thus convert it into laxmé--all well and good, theoretically. However, in lieu of the collective consciousness it produced, in not only the temple leaders and the collectors but throughout all the temples, it backfired; it created a kind of outward show masking an insidious internal corruption. The best devotees, the ones that got the most pub (in, for example, the Saìkértan Newsletter, distributed regularly to and posted at most centers) turned out to also be the best liars (“for Kåñëa”). The “ISKCON” leaders apparently forgot that they, and all the followers who were engaged in these plainclothes operations under them, had just been, but a few years previous, fully saturated in mleccha culture. Those habits and mentalities do not die overnight. Since that culture is below that of even the fourth-class man, the çüdra, it is referred to as fifth-class (païcama). There is nothing transcendental about it:
“If he is a liar--immediately he is païcama, less than çüdra.” As attachment to the benefits (read, money) of all these plainclothes techniques (“pick the bone and bring it on home”) began to become ingrained within the Society—even to the point that a training video showing a step-by-step method of the change-up was created and actively marketed—another form of the lying crept in. This was the idea that any lie is good if the result can be ascertained to be “good for the movement.” There were so many rationalizations at the individual level connected to this contaminated consciousness that no article could really cover all the territory. That morphed into ätmavad manyate jagat, e.g., “I know I lie and sanction lying, but I know that you must also constantly lie, because you are no better than me.” Thus, the old “judge by the results” cliche reared its ugly head, i.e., as long as some big devotee’s lies are bigger and better (in terms of material results), then the other guy’s lies do not please Kåñëa as much as his. A culture of änåta-vrata, a fondness for speaking lies, thus wove its way, gradually and almost imperceptibly, into the Society. In this universe, beings who take pleasure in lying as yakñas, rakñasas, and bhütas; they give pain to others. As the movement became trapped in a sub-culture of lies, at a certain point there was no way out. The monetary results were too big to overturn techniques steeped in subtler and subtler forms of deception. Your author, at the aforementioned airport, witnessed one big collector sell some big books to a man who told him (that collector), during the initial conversation, that he was heavy into hunting. That collector then assured the traveler that the books he was receiving were actually all about hunting. Falsity Personified entered into Çréla Prabhupäda’s movement during the Seventies, and the men and women absorbed in the gratification of plainclothes collection techniques helped to introduce it. Still, because they surrendered their money to the temple authorities, the reactions did not hit those collectors as hard. The reactions hit those who spent the money (“for Kåñëa”) much harder than it did the peons who collected it. Yet, the culture of mendacity robbed the movement of its previous virtue, although the leaders—who rarely if ever went out and collected—were able to continue to cut the “pukka” profile, with no worries about their upkeep.
“Oh King, in the Kali-yuga, people will deceive others under the guise of virtue.” The collectors lied persistently. They were very active. These industrious men and women (especially the women, because their collections were the largest) fell for a deliberate policy, one that was permeated by lies and half-truths. Thus, they reached a point where they deceived themselves about what they were saying and what they were actually doing. Their plainclothes get-up became part of the mask of their new personas, allegedly dovetailed for the interests of the Supreme Lord. They developed the power to attract. They learned the art of forging instantaneous “friendship” with the vikarmés, but they were deceptive friends:
“In this world, there are many deceptive friends in false garbs, but eventually, because of their false behavior, their actual enmity becomes manifest.” In due course, and for all practical purposes, they became practically non-different from the people who they constantly associated with out on the pick. Obviously, at a certain point, they were not immune from taking some of that karma. The word was spreading, and the devotees eventually became known as rip-off artists. The real ISK-CONmen, however, were the leaders who encouraged all of this and benefited from it in so many ways. Indeed, in the above-mentioned Newsletter, the names of the temple presidents and governing commissioners were listed next to their zones and temples, i.e., they were given primary (and sometimes sole) credit for the “laxmé points” that were being accrued. Yet, they themselves almost never collected or distributed anything. Of course, they collected the revenue after it was turned in. Thus, they enjoyed all the conveniences that the huge revenue stream afforded them. They believed, wrongly, that they had successfully avoided any negative reaction for having attempted to turn vice into virtue in this way, i.e., the attempt to convert a culture of continuous lying into service of the Absolute Truth. After this, the movement started to become darker as the months and years passed, as the collections grew bigger, as the lies became more egregious and constant, as the paradigm shifted. In other words, practically everyone became a liar . . . “for Kåñëa.” Mäyä means deception, and Mahä-Mäyä entered into the movement in a very big way through this money-making scheme. The dealings between devotees also became darker. The paintings became darker. At the same time, the Machiavellian Manipulator was able to rise to the top by utilizing occult methods in his own powerful style. This eventually led to the poisoning of His Divine Grace and the elevation of the eleven pretender Mahäbhägavats, the “zonal äcäryas,” less than a year after Prabhupäda left us. Thus, everyone in the movement was soon set on the path of believing so-called “truths” that they would never have accepted previous to contacting and joining it.
WAR IS PEACE
Many deceptions became integral to the movement, but the latter-day leaders could rather easily to pull it off at that time, because the culture of deception had so captured the hearts and minds of the vast majority of the rank-and-file. When the mask of the so-called appointment was exposed, the vitiated G.B.C. resorted to voting on gurus, rubber-stamping them in that way. This eventually led to the No Objection Certificate. All these methods (to allegedly determine guru) remain steeped in lies, but, although time changes things superficially, that inner reality of “ISKCON” does not change. The song remains the same:
“The Bhagavad-gétä (16.17-18) rebukes such men by calling them ätma-sambhävita, meaning that they are considered great only on the strength of deception and are empowered by the votes of the ignorant and by their own material wealth.” The Whole Thing Will Deteriorate
“If we simply go on expanding and there are no qualified men to lead, then everything will be spoiled eventually.”
“. . . you all may use your intelligence for Krishna's service and not for any personal ambition. We have worked very hard and established a great
institution, but, if we think for our personal benefit, then it will become ruined. This is my only concern.” Spoiled. Ruined. Lost. Deteriorate. Do these nouns and adjectives connote something guaranteed to function, or to even exist, for thousands of years? Any sane and unbiased reader will readily answer that they indicate the exact opposite. Let us look at the first quote. Does the track record of the movement, particularly since the spring of 1978, indicate that the movement has been run by qualified men? Such “qualified men” allowed the eleven pretender mahäbhägavats to get away with all that they were able to pull off for almost a decade! Since the mid-Seventies, all the emphasis was on member and money expansion, on bigness in general, on up-the-organization mentality, on huge egos. This mentality was encouraged—nay, insisted upon—by the men running the operation at the first and second-echelons. Judge by the results, and those results are now in. The strength of the movement--in all areas that really matter--has diminished considerably.It took time, but it is now self-evident that everything has been spoiled, and that was, in no small measure, due to the unqualified men leading the whole show. Let us consider the second quote. “The poison is personal ambition.” Another way of saying this is that “devotional service” actuated by the ambition of the false ego (ahaìkära) does not serve the cause of devotional service; it serves the cause of Mahä-Mäyä instead. You can say that the leaders of the movement were very intelligent men, and, in some sense, that is true--at least for some of them. Shrewd intelligence utilized to fulfill personal ambition is not in the category of service under the working principles of buddhi-yoga. By the beginning of 1979, it was not difficult to discern who had benefited as a result of the institutional mahä-bhägavat rubber-stamp. Do you think that it all went down accidentally? What we see now was the product of personal ambition. Prabhupäda stated clearly that this was his chief concern. He had every reason to be concerned, because even some of his dedicated devotees (“the real workers”) were able to spot it before he departed our external vision. The beneficiaries did not merely think in terms of their personal ambitions, they acted upon those thoughts. Does that mean the movement has been ruined? If the shoe fits, maybe someone or something is wearing it.
“If you adulterate our Saìkértana Movement with some business motive, then it will be spoiled immediately. Be careful in that
way.” The whole thing has been little more than a business since the late Seventies. A devotee was assassinated, in no small part because he intuitively entitled his treatise The Guru Business. Ever heard of all that corporatism that was promulgated by the fellow in India who came from a big business background? He rose in the ranks quickly, because such business acumen has been, since the late Seventies, highly esteemed. Immediately, the movement has been spoiled by all of this. We must remember that, in the context of eternal time or even of the Golden Age, three or four decades still qualifies within the category of the immediate.
“And I am surprised that none of the G.B.C. members detected the defects in the procedure. It was detected only when it came to me. What will happen when I
am not here, shall everything be spoiled by G.B.C. ?” Every sane male and female devotee knows it well that the vitiated G.B.C. has had its fingerprints over every major deviation that has gone down since it engineered the “appointment” of eleven pretender mahä-bhägavats in the spring of 1978. There is no need to go into detail here, because some of those details will be covered in other sections of this series. Everything has been spoiled by the G.B.C., and, His Divine Grace, fully equipped with tri-käla-jïa, foresaw that this is what might very well transpire. He was unable to prevent it, but he did warn us.
“So, I want you leaders especially to . . . become yourselves, completely convinced and free from all doubt. On this platform you shall be able to carry on
the work satisfactorily, but if there is lack of knowledge, or if there is forgetfulness, everything will be spoiled in time. . .
Now we have got so many students and so many temples, but I am fearful that, if we expand too much in this way, that we shall
become weakened and gradually the whole thing will become lost.” As most of you know, this letter was written in the immediate aftermath of Prabhupäda’s suspension of the G.B.C. in April of 1972. Such was the status of the “ultimate managerial authority,” i.e., that it could be suspended and all of its powers delegated back to the temple presidents. Herein we see that His Divine Grace warns about forgetfulness and lack of spiritual knowledge. Certainly, time has shown that the movement’s leaders turned out to be very forgetful as to the source of their power. As far as lack of knowledge is concerned, have any of you ever received in-depth, transcendental knowledge from any of those men? Prabhupäda feared that his whole movement would be lost in due course of time, and that’s exactly what has happened. Due to too much expansion, along with a lack of jïäna and vijïäna in the science of Kåñëa consciousness, the leaders became weakened, the followers became even more weakened, and the whole thing was lost.
“Krishna Consciousness Movement is for training men to be independently thoughtful and competent in all types of departments of knowledge and action, not
for making bureaucracy. Once there is bureaucracy, the whole thing will be spoiled.” There was very little bureaucracy in the early Seventies, and, for all practical purposes, there was no bureaucracy whatsoever in the Sixties. Yet the movement flourished at those times. Now, there is a labyrinth of bureaucracy; just check out the Resolutions that come out of Mäyäpura every spring in order to recognize this fact. To say that bureaucracy has spoiled the Hare Kåñëa movement of Kåñëa consciousness is to state the obvious. There is precious little training, and, where there is, generally it is mis-training--but bureaucracy? Oh, there is plenty of that!
“If we divert our attention in this way, the whole thing will gradually deteriorate. . . All these things are nonsense
inventions. Such inventing spirit will ruin our this movement. . . It will be another hippie edition. Gradually the Krishna
Consciousness idea will evaporate: Another change, another change, every day another change! Stop all this!” The Western mentality is all about something new, about change. That is not the Eastern mentality, and it is certainly not the Vaiñëava mentality. It is, however, the mentality of “ISKCON,” displayed in so many ways. Just consider all the book changes, for example. Then there are the changes in the style of the paintings and the changes in the inclusion of these dark, humanistic paintings in books in which they were not meant to be included. This inventing spirit is very different from creative intelligence in Kåñëa consciousness, but “ISKCON” people are unable to recognize that difference. It has ruined the movement, converting it into something else. As such, expect the nonsense inventions to continue through new transformations that the movement periodically undergoes in order to buy more time.
“Why is there this politics? This is not good. If politics come, then the preaching will be stopped. That is the difficulty. As soon as politics come, everything is spoiled.” If you want to get trained in politics, then join “ISKCON”; you’ll get some heavy-duty training, if that’s your interest. By 1975, the movement, especially at the upper echelon, was embroiled in cutthroat politics. It’s a long story, mostly forgotten. Of course, not all of us have forgotten it; some of it is on the record, such as this letter—and those constitute the tip of the iceberg. Some evidence is still intact. A vegetable can be partially spoiled, and you can still salvage some of it, especially if it is cooked. In 1975, there was only partial spoilage of the Society; the movement could still have been salvaged. Alas, it was not, and, at this time, the covert prediction embedded in this letter, relating to the campus politics of that time, has played out.
“If someone feels cheated by our men, because they are using dubious methods of distribution and collecting money, our purity may be doubted and reputation spoiled.” This topic was covered in the previous section. These nine quotes are obviously not all-inclusive. They should also provide some realization, particularly for the devotees who have suffered its whips, who have realized these truths the hard way. As such, it takes forbearance to endure propaganda that Prabhupäda’s incorporated entity could not be spoiled, could not be ruined, cannot deteriorate, and cannot be eventually lost. It is becoming all of these things right before your very eyes! Accurate and Inaccurate Metaphors
“Such accomplishments are possible only when one worships the real Kåñëa and not some fabricated "Kåñëa" invented by foolish men
who are without knowledge of the intricacies of the science of Kåñëa described in the Bhagavad-gétä and Çrémad-Bhägavatam.” “The Kåñëa of genuine Kåñëa-kirtana is not the imagined Kåñëa attempted to be imprisoned by the hybrid ideologies of feeble mankind, the “Kåñëa” conceived as a historical figure or an allegorical or mythological “Kåñëa”; nor the “Kåñëa” of the prakrta-sahajiyäs or materially lusty persons; nor the “Kåñëa” portrayed by mundane artists or of those in the grip of liberal doctrines; nor the “Kåñëa” of the clay-brained; nor the “Kåñëa” taken as fuel supply for any personal inclinations. Such Mäyä-mixed “Kåñëas” are not the Kåñëa of Kåñëa-Saìkértana” Transcript of lecture by Çréla Bhaktisiddhänta Sarasvaté Prabhupäda, posted in The Gaudéya, 9.187-188 Theological science is a difficult subject, and fanaticism never helps us in understanding it. The illusion of the zealot soon devolves to that of fixed dogma. Illusory or inaccurate metaphors produce the same results, in due course of time. The great äcäryas, however, warn us that virtually anything can be corrupted, and, when they become so, then the material manifestation of the thing is a perverted reflection of reality in the darkness of ignorance. Was Mäyä-Sétä the same form, the same entity, as the real Sétä? This is a rhetorical question, but some of today’s dogmatic fanatics cannot bring themselves to admit that Çréla Prabhupäda’s corporate creation, ISKCON, can be, and has been, warped to the point that it is no longer what it once was, but something else. Is there anything higher in all of eternity—including everything that is within material existence—than the Name and Form of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kåñëa? Most of you will honestly answer that there is not. Yet, in the above-mentioned two quotes by the most recent great äcäryas in our disciplic line, they both refer to a fabricated “Kåñëa,” an imitation “Kåñëa,” a mythological “Kåñëa,” a Mäyä-mixed “Kåñëa.” Is that blasphemous on their part? Of course it isn’t, despite the jaded opinions of various holier-than-thou sahajiyäs, particularly the bäbäjés of Rädhä-kunda. What is, somewhat indirectly, being presented by these great äcäryas--when they put those quotation marks around the Name of the Supreme Lord--is the ever-present fact that anything can become a corrupted manifestation of what was once the real thing, including even Çré Kåñëa. During the time of the Lord’s pastimes, there was an imitation Viñëu in the form of the inimical King Pauëòraka. Çälva presented an imitation form of Vasudeva. This goes on in the material world. So, why is it blasphemous to say or write that the current corrupt manifestation of Prabhupäda’s original corporate entity now also merits having quotation marks put around it? Yet, there are many who feel that it is blasphemy, and all of them are either overt or covert reformers. Still, did His Divine Grace try to reform the Goudéya Mutt? No. Instead, he called it asära or useless, i.e., beyond the point of reformation. It ignored him, and he ignored it. His mission was never approved by the Goudéya Mutt, and, in letter after letter, he warned his disciples to avoid it. In point of fact, he even criticized it in his books, which will become the lawbooks of mankind for thousands of years. Does ISKCON even exist anymore? Maybe. In the mid-Eighties, when your author managed the Mount Kailäsa Foundation (about one-half hour east of Hopland, California in the mountains), one of our vehicles was involved in a head-on on the back roads leading to the property. Fortunately, the accident took place at a very low speed, so there were no injuries. The driver, your author, was not at fault and our vehicle was insured. As such, the insurance company paid up by simply covering the then face value of the vehicle, rather than for cost of repairs. The vehicle still ran. However, a bit later, as your author was traveling to Petaluma, third gear went out; it is probable that that was an after-effect from the accident. We still used it for local runs, but it was never the same, obviously. So, you could say that ISKCON, if it still exists, is a bit like that now, except both first and second gear have also gone out. To some degree, it still runs in reverse, but not at all as it used to. In not just many but most ways, that entity cannot spiritually give what it used to be able to give to its adherents. We could get into specifics here, but that could become more than a bit tangential. There is the metaphor of the rotting cow in the well, the idea that the transcendental flow of ISKCON is still pure. But this sentiment is not born out by experience, neither is it backed up by Çréla Prabhupäda’s letters. As we have already delineated, he clearly and specifically warned that his movement could be “ruined,” that it could be “spoiled,” that it could be “lost,” etc. The idea of the dead cow in the artesian well, now poisoning what is otherwise wholesome water, is wistful. When it finally disintegrates, according to this proposal, then ISKCON is back better than ever! That’s not what’s going down, and it is just this kind of dogmatic sentiment which allows “ISKCON” leaders to continue to plunder the remnants of the entity’s former status, along with its current (and dwindling) revenue stream. If they charge that we are trying to destroy the movement, that is a red herring. We are simply trying to wake some of you up, that’s all. Take a look around, open your eyes, and you will clearly see that a perverted reflection of Prabhupäda’s movement now has almost all of the power—and its beneficiaries continue to rip-off all that they can as a result. Calling a spade a spade is not in the same category as trying to destroy a spiritual entity. We do not try to wake up the institutional zealots, of course, because that is impossible. We shall thus continue to bear the burden of their reactionary slings and arrows. To them, we have but this to say: Curb Your Dogma! You Will Ruin My Book!
“ . . . if they write some wrong conclusion, the whole thing will be murdered.” "If you put anything bogus in my book . . . this is my greatest fear: That you will ruin my book, and the whole book will be ruined because of you!” There have been massive changes to the books, particularly to the Bhagavad-gétä , since His Divine Grace left us in late 1977. In Bhagavad-gétä alone, there are 741 known changes, and many of these are more than mere corrections. We are not fanatical about correcting what needs to be corrected, i.e., obvious errors. The editor of the 1972 Macmillan edition was sloppy and careless. The book was inexcusably delayed in being submitted to the printer, and, when it did finally get produced, there were some mind-boggling errors still in it. Those should be corrected, and any genuine brähmin would agree with that. Many of those corrections were made in the 1983 Lichenstein version, of course, but the totality of the changes in that edition went far beyond a relatively few corrections that merited being addressed. Prabhupäda’s books are supposed to be non-different from him. His purports are supposed to be him speaking, through the eyes and mind of the reader, to his followers or disciples. The books are supposed to represent the absolute authority. If there are unauthorized changes to his books—changes which may appear to be common sense but which are, nevertheless, unauthorized—then that authority is challenged. When progress is made in understanding the science of the Absolute Truth, the readers of his books, particularly his genuinely initiated disciples, are going to be scrutinizing words and phrases for inherent yet hidden realizations contained in them. Much of this study will involve cross-referencing, according to the same principle. However, book changes can and will drastically interfere with this spiritual process, to those disciples’ great disadvantage. Of course, therein lies the method to the madness. When the authority of the books is lost, then, for all practical purposes, the connection to Prabhupäda (as topmost authority) is lost with it. What replaces him? Why, the vitiated G.B.C., of course, as well as the senior men who supposedly know what he wants. One of these senior men spoke out about this in 1979. There was a tape made of him talking about a number of topics, including book changes, with one of his disciples.[1] This tape was buried in the Archives for over thirty years, but its existence became generally known recently. Your author is not aware of all the politics that were involved in bringing this tape to the light of day, but, somehow or other, it was recently accomplished. We are a bit ambivalent about presenting this man’s quotes, because the source—and your author believes that he is a bona fide source in terms of this specific topic—was one of the eleven pretender mahäbhägavats, one of the zonal äcäryas. In some ways, it could be said that he may have been the best one, because, in 1980, he had his elevated seat (so-called vyäsäsana) removed from the temple room. This was six years prior to when that became the standard during the Second Transformation. Of course, his right decision then was, within days, reversed, due to bad association (read, the other pretender mahä-bhägavats, in a controlled panic, flew to Los Angeles immediately in order to harangue and intimidate him and, in effect, force him to once again cut the undeserved profile of an uttama-adhikäré). The seat went back up. We presented one of the excerpts from that afore-mentioned tape at the top of this section; it is the second quote. We shall now present three more of them, adding a brief commentary to each: “The first of many experiences I've had with Prabhupäda (was him) literally drilling me pounding it into my head that you're never allowed to change anything in his books.” There are two important concepts here. One is that His Divine Grace recognized that changes to his books would destroy the essence of his movement, which, to no small extent, they already have. The other conclusion to be drawn is that Prabhupäda often had to deal with his leaders in a very heavy manner, such as “pounding” into their heads something that should have been communicated very obviously and rather easily. “Prabhupäda just explained how everyone's a rascal for daring to touch anything in his books. The greatest anxiety he has is that, after he's gone, we will add things to his books that are bogus. We will take things out that are bona fide, (and) we will make changes in his books and the whole work for ten thousand years--his plan Prabhupäda was working on--it will all be spoiled by us, because of our tendency to change.” Prabhupäda referred to his leading secretaries as rascals at times even in his letters, what to speak of private conversations. They apparently became de-sensitized to this over time. Prabhupäda foresaw what some of his leaders were going to do to his books after he left, and he tried to prevent it. That attempt was unsuccessful, because free will is what it is. His Divine Grace had a plan, and the linchpin of that plan, guided fully by Providence or Higher Destiny, was that his books remain free from unauthorized change of all variety. His governing commission has been spoiled, his movement has been spoiled, and even his books have been adulterated. We need to recognize this, but we should not think that the leaders did not know about this potential before they concocted all of these changes. "...you can get a first hand understanding of how intense Prabhupäda was and how concerned he was that, in the future, no one ever be allowed to make changes in his books. This was more than just a preoccupation with Prabhupäda. This was . . . you could call this a transcendental phobia, that the entire movement would, without any shadow of a doubt, be completely wasted--and all the work and effort of all the devotees that Prabhupäda was directly (instructing), as well as his own efforts would--all be ultimately lost if his books we’re changed. That was his attitude.”
Transcendental anxiety or greatest anxiety would be more appropriate descriptions; the term phobia is best not used in connection
to a pure devotee. Again, notice the verbiage: Spoiled, wasted, lost. These men knew that his movement could be destroyed, but they went ahead and did
their own thing, because they had the power to do so. Now, they are reaping the results—some of them, at least. However, Prabhupäda’s serious devotees have
been negatively impacted by these changes, arguably the worst manifestation of which is the unauthorized changes to his books.
_________________________ OM TAT SAT Go to Part 2 
Quotes from the books of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada are copyright by the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust |