GBC: The Gods Who Failed |
“One should very carefully avoid associating
with both the sahajiyas, who are sometimes known as Vaisnavas,
and the non-Vaisnavas, or avaisnavas.
Their association changes the transcendental devotional service of Lord Krishna into
sense gratification, and when sense gratification enters the mind
of a devotee, he is contaminated.” Cc.,
Antya 6.278 This is one of the heaviest
statements or commentaries ever made by His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada. What he is clearly saying here is that the
devotional service of the Supreme can itself be changed—mid-stream, so
to speak—into sense gratification. Put
in another way, the commentary forcefully indicates that Yogamaya
can be converted into Mahamaya. This principle is not well known, although
Prabhupada had previously given a hint about it in his Bhagavad-gita: “They also have partial
independence, but by misuse of their independence, when the service attitude is
transformed into the propensity for sense enjoyment, they come under
the sway of lust.” Bg, 3.39, purport. All
emphases in this article added for your edification and realization The process of devotional
service is meant to turn lust back into love of Godhead, as per this: “If, therefore, lust is transformed into love
for the Supreme, or transformed into Krishna consciousness—or, in other words,
desiring everything for Krishna—then both lust and wrath can be spiritualized” Bg, 3.39, purport.
That principle is better known, although the processes that are alleged
to be applying it are highly questionable now, especially in the West. Our real process is nivritti-marga, because we cannot re-enter the spiritual realm if we
still have material desire; we have to get all of that out of our astral body and
then dissolve the linga-sarira as well. Nivritti-marga,
especially when it is trodden in You can say that new files,
folders, and programs must also be added, and we would not disagree. However, unless those inputs are
cent-per-cent spiritual and transcendental, they are not ultimately helpful. Whether many or only a few of them (and only in
a bona fide way) are added or not, the nonsense files, folders, drivers,
and programs must be eliminated from the machine of the astral body. That is the process of nivritti-marga in Pravritti-marga, in the proper sense of the term, is connected to the
karma-kanda of karma-mimamsa. A genuine guru in that line is required in
order to successfully prosecute it, and its rituals and regulations are not so
easy. It is not a path meant for bhaktas, however, because its goal is the heavenly planets. These are supposed to be attained after its
practitioner has enjoyed himself here according to strict pravritti
rules and regulations. It is Vedic, no
doubt, but it does not represent the essence or cream of the Vedic
revelation. The essence begins with the upanisads, and that study and the prosecution of its viddhis also marks the inception of nivritti-marga. Now, is a
concocted path of material enjoyment—one allegedly dovetailed to Technically, it is not. However, sometimes the spiritual master calls
the expansion of material activities (by the vikarmis of this Western culture,
etc.) as action on the pravritti-marga. This is because the pulse is quite the same
as that of the Vedic system, but the routine procedures, views, attitudes,
rituals, and modus operandi differ, often
radically. Such is especially the case
for the atheists and agnostics. This same principle would apply to the
sahajiyas as well, especially the ones who are obviously after (and generally
attaining) various forms of profit (money), adoration, distinction,
aggrandizement, power, fame, sense gratification, and all kinds of material
amenities. This is something that
requires our attention. For Srila Prabhupada’s
disciples, a management system was envisioned and created meant to facilitate all
of them in advancing on the path of We all know that Prabhupada
created the governing body for the express purpose of maintaining his system
just as he had envisioned and set it into motion. These men were, in some (certainly not all)
ways, comparable to the universal management team of the demigods. In this analogy, Srila Prabhupada (saksad-dhari) was like God and the commissioners were
supposed to be like demigods working under him, obeying his dictates,
surrendering to his will, and enacting his transcendental plan. Their assignment or fiduciary responsibility was
to maintain his system intact, and that duty entailed their being particularly
aware not to allow the pulse of pravritti-marga to
enter into any of the important circles.
A non-threatening kind of pravritti-marga
would be allowed only at the outermost circle, the fringe of this system; that’s
why those devotees of weak faith (komala-sraddha)
were and are appropriately called fringies. Now the question we must ask
ourselves at this time is: Has a kind of pravritti-marga
wormed its way into what, superficially, appears to still be the Hare Krishna
movement? Due to bad leadership and
association, has the previously transcendental devotional service of the Lord
been converted into sense gratification?
Is there now, accordingly, an over-emphasis on the attainment of
material positions and results, bank accounts, and related amenities that has
created a covert fervor of sahajiyism? Is there any real transcendental shelter
afforded in the fabricated, so-called “ISKCON,” or is that association now just
another version of the rat race? After that, the next question
should be: If so, how did this all transpire?
We shall examine these questions and offer some answers. There is absolutely no way to give the commissioners
a pass on any of this, because the body itself, along with all of its members,
has its fingerprints all over the current matrix. The idea of the best of both worlds or of
dovetailing pravritti-marga is no longer viable. The
rubber band has been stretched to the breaking point; indeed, it has
broken. That is why this article will
not waste time discussing reforms; it will not meet any criteria of so-called
constructive criticism. Such critiques
are meant for that which can be reformed, and both the vitiated GBC, as well as
the “ISKCON” organization it controls, are beyond that status. Those Were the Days If you contend that bogus
gurus are the real problem, we shall not at all disagree with you. The hippie peace movement of the mid-Sixties
and early Seventies aspired to wonderful ideals, but the intrusion into its mix
of Indian impersonal gurus and Buddhist rinpoches worked
to covertly and insidiously destroy it.
The influence of the bogus guru is always to be avoided; his pernicious bijas will definitely spoil all that is truly worthy or evolutionary
in thought and feeling. However, the
worst variety of bogus guru is the bogus Vaishnava guru; another name for this
dangerous element in human society is sahajiya.
The association of such people actually has the potency to convert the
transcendental service of the Supreme Lord into Maya, and, when that happens,
the movement with the highest ideals is turned into a post-modern vehicle of pravritti-marga. The bogus guru of “ISKCON” is
a product of the GBC; indeed, many commissioners themselves also fill the
role. We shall explore this theme later
in the article. For now, let us
understand an important principle that underlies the current power of the GBC. We shall first present two mundane examples
(separate analogies), then we shall consider the direct thing—the one that most
concerns us at the present moment. In
Kali Yuga, movements of very high ideals almost always devolve into their own
opposites. They do so when not properly
founded and/or when care and attention to proper management is not maintained (by
later leaders of such movements). This
is the important principle above referenced. Although we
are simply going to mention it here (without any details), just take a look at the
Marxist-Leninist Communist of the material dialectic. What high
ideals he espoused: “Power to the people!” “Workers of the World, Unite!” “From each according to his abilities; to each according to his
needs,” etc. However, Communism
did not at all play out that way, did it?
Indeed, it became its own opposite, and “Uncle Joe” is now remembered as
the greatest murderer in history. As Westerners in general and
Americans in particular, we really did not have to live through any of
that. As such, begging your indulgence,
let me give a brief synopsis of two movements that were (are), so to speak,
closer to home. This brief digression is
not tangential, because, when applied analogously, these examples will help us
to understand the current predicament of what is now nothing more than a
devolutionary reflection of the Any devotee over the age of
fifty-five remembers it all quite well, because we were part of it, we were
into it, and we lived its ideals. Sure,
it began in a rather bawdy way in the mid-Fifties, but that is not how we were
affected by it. By the mid-Sixties, we
were given a new emotional surcharge by its deep lyrics along with its unprecedented
musical arrangements. It was powerful
stuff. In a sense, you could say that
the leaders of these bands, particularly the bards who exemplified that
movement (the lead songwriters and singers), were practically like gurus to
us. In our eyes, the musicians
themselves were not frauds. We believed that they believed their own messages and
hundreds of young, hip, creative people became our leaders in a very practical
way. We trusted their right and ability
to lead us; they had a new explanation and something important to say. Sometimes
their idiom of expression was a bit obscure, and, here and there, garden-variety
platitudes were put forward. Nevertheless,
the message music of peace, love, and defiance of all that was hypocritical and
false enthused us--we became part of a movement that sang
to the heart of universal ideals, apparently in harmony with the meaning of
life. This music offered a fresh and
relevant insight into the reality of that moment; as a side benefit, our
generation did not have to be overly concerned about security. We were becoming introspective, and this
music was helping us to turn on, tune in, and drop out of the rat race. However, rock ‘n roll was actually unable to
maintain any kind of evolutionary trajectory.
By the late Sixties and early Seventies, it began to branch into a
subtle kind of nihilism. Hard rock
eventually morphed into heavy metal.
Psychedelic rock eventually morphed into dark music with satanic groups like
Black Sabbath. The tragedy of this devolutionary
momentum did not stop there. Rock ‘n
roll spawned punk and the Sex Pistols.
The ultra-sense gratificatory emergence of disco was a splinter
outgrowth of rock ‘n roll as well. As
the decades marched on, the devolutionary cycle dropped to ever-lower octaves, as
pop culture descended into goth,
mechanical, rap, hip-hop, and cyber-punk. Now, the point we wish to stress
here is that contemporary music has many millions of listeners, and most of
them are rapt fans. They are addicted to
it, and they believe it to be progressive.
However, from the standpoint of the transcendental perspective, it is
anything but. Chock full of the two
lower modes, it has virtually no redeeming features whatsoever. With only very rare exceptions, it is
cent-per-cent materialistic; the high ideals that were so often present in the
mid-Sixties have gone straight into the crapper. Although, technically, it is
considered a separate genre by post-modern music’s history buffs (absorbed in their
own minutiae), today’s rock ‘n roll has become its own
opposite. That is one example that many
of you can relate with, and here is a second one: The Green Movement. You could say that it started with Silent
Spring, and we would not disagree.
Then there was Buckminster Fuller and Earth Day in April, 1970; this was
soon followed by Stuart Brand’s Whole Earth Catalog, which almost every
hippie had on his bookshelf. The
counter-culture started to get more into it not long afterwards, and hippy-greens
latched onto Koulvinaska’s thick, soft-cover manifesto
that merged these trends of that time. The original green ideals
were high: A return to a simpler lifestyle, free from the rat race. This was
made even more manifest by E. F. Shumacher in Small
is Beautiful. Again, the ideal was
freedom from the mode of passion. When
Spirit sang that something was wrong and that you know that it must be so if
you are having to hear it in a song, the peace movement and its message music was
moving from the metropolitan, political sphere toward the rural idyllic and rustic,
forest retreat. Simple living and high
thinking was pushed by the deep greens; this synchronized with our highest
ideals. Once again, however, things
devolved. Rather than go through a
thumbnail sketch of the interim of that itinerary, we should know it for a fact
that today’s viridian green movement is fully absorbed in its own concoction of
pravritt-marga.
It is avante-garde, dedicated to
ever-increasing sense gratification. This fool’s paradise is achieved via
scientific invention and nano-technology that
supposedly will overcome the destruction of the environment; everyone will be
allowed to enjoy material life even more.
It looks down on what it calls the “dark greens,” considering them
antiquated, anti-life, misanthropic, anti-progress, and
anti-accomplishment. It has a similar
outlook on rural ashrams, because it is rooted in the city and the atheistic
and agnostic lifestyles that permeate metropolitan life. The deep greens should be our
natural allies, but they are not. They
are far closer to our standard than the Hindoo, who
has insidiously taken over the “ISKCON” movement by greasing its wheels. If we had stayed on course, we would now be linked
with the deep greens; they would be assisting us in so many ways while we
ministered to their spiritual needs.
However, today’s “ISKCON” movement is thoroughly post-modern (sometimes,
even haute-coutre), almost exclusively city-oriented,
dependent upon the Hindoo, and shot through with all kinds
of anachronistic trends, such as feminism, Western pragmatism, multi-layered corporate
webs of imposed hierarchy, inter-faith, and many other diversionary and
artificial arrangements and lifestyles.
It is the antithesis of the ideals ordered and exemplified by its
founder-acharya (such as simple living and high
thinking), and it acts against its own constitution, its own scriptures, and
its original path. The original path was
nivritti-marga in vidhi-sadhana-bhakti-yoga,
but the pulse of contemporary “ISKCON” has nothing to do with that. Instead, the new and improved movement is
materialistically “progressive,” which is nothing but code for an emphasis on mundane
accumulation, constant activity, continuous conflict, and, of course, all kinds
of sense gratification cloaked by a thin veneer of “ Betrayal is Such a Bitch “That is not the business of
GBC. The president, treasurer and secretary are responsible for managing the
center. GBC is to see that things are going nicely but not to exert absolute
authority. That is not in the power of GBC.” Letter to Giriraj,
The major deviations in
today’s movement have all transpired due to the GBC having engaged in treachery
and betrayal, i.e., illegal activity in order to set those deviations into
motion. They have betrayed the fiduciary
responsibility assigned to them by His Divine Grace, but this should not at all
be surprising. It should not shock
anyone that they have done this, because, if you have kept up what went on
around Srila Prabhupada (especially in the last months at Vrindavan),
such subsequent criminal activity could only have been expected. It was (and
remains) not the kind of illegal activity which has any hope of being
prosecuted by secular authorities, but that does not diminish its pernicious
effects. It was illegal for the body to
exert absolute power, as the GBC attempted to do (and for some time, was able
to pull off to a considerable extent) in the spring of 1978. It was illegal for
the commission to declare a big lie, viz., that Prabhupada had appointed eleven
mahabhagavats.
It was illegal for the GBC to empower that lie and to implement it
worldwide. It was illegal for the body to create exclusive zones for these
so-called acharyas.
It was illegal to create the acharya board
within the GBC. All the initiations performed
by these pretenders were also illegal, according to obvious shastric
logic dovetailed with Vaishnava prajna. It was not in the power of the GBC to say
that the parampara, as represented by the last Sampradaya Acharya,
worked only through them and that their appointment of diksa-gurus was bona
fide because Srila Prabhupada transferred to the commission his absolute power. It is illegal for the GBC to
abrogate unto itself the power to have its party men wait in queue for one,
two, or three years in order to see if any of the members of the commission
vetoes his nomination to be diksa-guru. It is illegal for the body to recognize
such a “guru” when he manages to avoid that.
It was illegal for the commission to have diksa-gurus recognized by
votes of the body before this latest concoction. It may not be illegal, but it
is certainly highly distasteful that the GBC has not spoken out strongly against
the so-called Lilamrita, especially since its
author advertises in the book itself that his work has received that body’s
imprimatur. It is equally abominable
that the commission does not raise a deafening outcry against all of the
changes enacted to Prabhupada’s books by the so-called BBT(i). It was illegal and not in the
power of the GBC to incorporate, since His Divine Grace obviously wanted it to
remain an unincorporated management organization. It is illegal to have the Society’s temple
presidents declare sole allegiance of their temples--and especially sole fiduciary
oversight of those centers--to the GBC, circumventing the original system of
trustees for each center established by His Divine Grace. Any one of these
abovementioned illegalities would be enough to render the commission
unauthorized and not entitled to any devotee’s allegiance. All of them combined together, along with many
other shady arrangements not brought out in this small article, make the whole
governing commission really nothing more than a criminal enterprise. It was not in the power of the GBC men to do
any of this, and every individual president has been emasculated and compromised
as a result of these harmful seeds sown by the combined intent of a vitiated
GBC. Scent of an Omen “Now, I want all of you to
work cooperatively and very frankly. That is our process. Not that we shall
always plot and scheme . . . “ Letter to Amogha, What is happening to Krishna
Consciousness, the corporate structure that has centers worldwide and is
considered as being the Hare Krishna movement, is very ominous. Corporate power, past recognitions, and
various intrigues regularly enacted by its first and second echelon leaders all
combine to create a kind of solidarity based on qualities against The solidarity of this movement
is based upon four pillars that are all-pervading amongst its vanguards. These four qualities are: 1) Imitation, 2)
Propensity to change anything and everything, 2) Irresponsibility, and 4) Jiva-himsana. Combined,
they have hardened the hearts of the leaders in such a way that there is
practically no hope of getting back on to the original track. That would entail a return to knowledge,
detachment, ethical dealings, responsibility, following in the footsteps of the
acharya (not imitating him), and freedom from envy of
one’s fellow travelers on the highest path of liberation (nivritti-marga). It would
mean returning to the real philosophy, process, and directives, and abandoning
the passionate impulse, which entails pleading “time, place, and circumstance”
whenever there is another change promulgated. In the article at following link, we
shall, in detail, delve into the four above-mentioned pillars of deviation. Every
GBC man represents them at this time, and so do the commission’s lackeys,
hacks, party men, enforcers, sycophants, and dull-witted followers. Krishna Consciousness and the Cracked Disc of Discord,
. None of these
current deviations transpired by accident. They are all a result of a
loose conspiratorial vision, rooted in fix-it-as-you-go arrangements. Its goals are being gradually achieved, but
the plan for carrying out the vision always remains malleable. This conspiracy
was hatched entirely by GBC men and first echelon leaders, and the current
leader of the “ISKCON” movement—who makes it an express point to treat any
accusations of conspiracy with contemptuous exasperation (in order to get
everyone to think the very idea is a hysterical reaction)—has his own war-time
consigliore counseling him. They are both powerful
intellectuals who now effectively work the yin method of organization,
collegiate consensus, and hierarchy, which is intrinsic to the Second
Transformation. The yang epoch of the zonals crashed and burned. Now the biorhythm of the movement has switched,
and this has empowered its new leader as well.
In order to carry out his attempt to steer the movement in the direction
he wants it to go, the professor creates various illusions that only devotees advanced
in knowledge and an understanding of the astral sphere can pierce. He is succeeding in his harmful attempt, at
least at this time. Make no mistake: Their
movement is always suffused and surcharged with conflict, because a constant
state of strife allows its leaders to remain in power. The divide and conquer
principle is intrinsic here, and it is also made rather easy to employ by the
fact that most devotees have been programmed to obey or face the consequence of
ostracism. This malefic momentum did not simply happen; always remember that
Humpty was pushed. The commission, which was
meant to manage the We cannot continue to
associate with these sahajiyas, because, if we do, our devotional bija will be
converted to a creeper that is conducive to sense gratification and samsara. What is going on here is all rather ominous,
although superficially their movement appears to be a juggernaut that cannot be
stopped. It can be effectively blocked and
checked, however, when enough devotees finally realize that the GBC are gods
who failed, and that the covert pravritti-marga that
their enclave has pushed for over thirty years must be individually expelled,
by every bhakta and bhaktin, through the determination
of his or her own higher intelligence. Quotes from the books of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada are copyright by the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust |