Aug. 1998 - By Sattvic dasa adikari,

Dear maharajas and prabhus.

Hare Krishna

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

The statement sent to all devotees by the GBC executive committee is quite astonishing to say the least. It quite amazing to see how ambiguous our leaders can be. In trying to please everybody they simply obtained the opposite result. It's clear that unless we stand by truth we cannot make progress in pushing on this wonderful Sankirtana movement.

For the last 21 years we have paid so much attention in covering up fall downs and justifying our unwillingness to accept the fact that we disobeyed the order of His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada. In doing this we have created a society of fanatics without spiritual understanding as to who is and what constitute a real spiritual authority. The recent attempt by the GBC to tone down the spiritual difficulties of Harikesha maharaja and their poor performance in achieving their goal is yet another example of dishonesty. On one hand our GBC is establishing the fact that Maharaja has given up the Sannyasa ashrama, offended Srila Prabhupada, claimed to be various manifestations of the Absolute Truth, claimed his fiancée to be a various manifestation of Sakti - in other words fallen down from the standards of being a sane follower of Srila Prabhupada and of  Vaisnava tradition.

On the other hand they say that he is still the link in the parampara for his disciples, that they can still worship him as their spiritual master, that they can offer bhoga and expect that it will be accepted by the Lord and can then be honored as Prasada. Sometime it makes me think whether they have any respect at all for the countless devotees who have dedicated their lives in the pursuit of  philosophical understanding. Their statement is nothing but an insult to the intelligence.

The reaction of his disciples is quite reasonable taking into account that they have been trained to see their spiritual master in an absolute light. All these years of lies, misleading, philosophical misunderstanding has finally backfired. What we have failed to provide as leaders and disciples of Srila Prabhupada is the correct understanding of Guru Tattva as taught by Srila Prabhupada himself in his books, lectures and personal example i.e. that the spiritual master is above the modes of material nature and therefore is not subjected to material embarrassment . The mind is the center of all sensory activities and those who have failed to control it cannot be said to have controlled the senses. At this point how can anyone be a spiritual master if he is not in control of the mind? Harikesha maharaja is evidently displaying symptoms of a conditioned soul and should be accepted as such - notwithstanding the fact that he has engaged in devotional service to Srila Prabhupada all these years and therefore needs our affection, compassion and support to enable him to successfully recover from his diseased condition. He needs help from medical professionals and moreover he needs to reflect about his spiritual position and give up the false concept that he can act as an initiating spiritual master. If we are to help him or any one for that matter we have to clearly establish once and for all what Srila Prabhupada desired in the matter of carrying on initiations after his departure. Srila Prabhupada is a Mahabhagavata and devotees who have taken shelter of him feel protected and secure under his perfect guidance.

What our leaders have done all these years is that they have denied this sense of security for all generations of devotees to come by preaching that a guru could be subjected to the embarrassing treatment reserved for conditioned souls. Also forced them into a blind following type of personality cult and the reaction of this is evident by the fanatical expression of anger and frustration by his disciples. The reaction is natural because according to scriptures one has to place full faith in his spiritual master and see him as good as God. What is unnatural is that after all these fall downs we have not realized that the gurus in Iskcon are not authorized by Srila Prabhupada. We are unwilling to follow the warnings of our spiritual master Srila Prabhupada on this issue and are therefore now suffering the bitter consequences.

"The spiritual master must never be carried away by an accumulation of wealth or a large number of followers. A bona fide spiritual master will never become like that. But sometimes, if a spiritual master is not properly authorized and only on his own initiative becomes a spiritual master, he may be carried away by an accumulation of wealth and large numbers of disciples. His is not a very high grade of devotional service. If a person is carried away by such achievements, then his devotional service becomes slackened." (Nectar of Devotion. Chapter 14)

As long as the truth remains concealed we'll be faced with similar situations as we have experienced all along since the departure of Srila Prabhupada. Unless Srila Prabhupada's order on initiations for ISKCON, as elaborated on in the "Final Order", is understood and implemented the disintegration of Iskcon will continue.

Please also read:

Harikesha's Monika by Guru-Shakti das
Harikesa "Prabhu" - Guide Us! by former disciples