KNOW YOUR ISKCON HISTORY (Bhajahari das)

KNOW YOUR ISKCON HISTORY

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One of the nicest things about being oldish (64 last month) is that I am now able to look back over the history of Iskcon, the wonderful movement that I grew up in, and was intimately involved in serving on many different levels.

With the benefit of hindsight I can see all the stupid mistakes I made in my immaturity. I think it is also fair to say that I can see many of the mistakes we made collectively. Perhaps the greatest mistake or deviation was ignoring Srila Prabhupada's instructions regarding the association of his so called Godbrothers. (Please be patient - the expression "so called Godbrothers" will be explained by Prabhupada further on)

We were a very dis-functional group of misfits, but somehow or other Srila Prabhupada was mystically able to coax us all into performing so many amazing varieties of devotional service.

Since the physical departure of His Divine Grace in 1977 so many bewildering things have happened.
Recently, after giving our family business (Gokula Vegetarian Cafe, Watford) over to my two sons to manage, I have had the time and space to ponder many of these misfortunate and unhappy deviations.

Recently, due to a disagreement about Srila Prabhupada's instructions regarding associating with the Gaudiya Math, I took the opportunity to go over Srila Prabhupada's letters etc., to see how much physical evidence was available.

I knew without doubt that HDG had warned us very strongly on MANY occasions to keep his Godbrother at arms length, and that is what got me into the disagreement in the first place.

Having been the Temple President at Bhaktivedanta Manor on three different occasions over quite a short period of time, approximately 7 to 8 years, (yes - I know - it was a complicated time and I could write a book about the details), as well as holding other responsible posts in the book distribution leadership areas and being TP in the little Nottingham temple, i had plenty of inside information from the GBC and other sources, and so I was aware of the instructions on the subject.

In fact once I received a telegram from Srila Prabhupada telling me not to allow such and such swami to speak in the temple. He could be stay and be given all facilities, but he was not allowed to give lectures. The only problem was that when I received the instruction, somebody, the TC or someone, had already invited him to speak and the class was going on.

What would you do in such a circumstance ???

Well, a direct instruction from your Spiritual Master is a direct instruction. So I went straight into the temple room, paid my obeisances in front of the speaker, and with a nervous voice, asked if he would please join me outside the temple room for a moment.

There I showed him the message from Srila Prabhupada and told him that as Temple President I was not allowed to let him speak. I apologised that I had not made him aware earlier - but I had only just been informed myself.

Some would say that I should have left him speak, and then explained the situation to him after his talk, and they may well be correct. But I did what I did. Now, back to my looking for evidence of Srila Prabhupad's advice to avoid his Godbrothers. Below are just a few of the examples I found, and I must confess they shocked me somewhat by their firmness and strength.

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No 1

"It is now clear that my Godbrothers take exception to my being called as Prabhupada, and on this point they wanted to poison the whole Society, that is clear. But how it was manipulated - that is a mystery" SPL to Rupanuga 25-9-70

No2

"Regarding the Gaudiya Math, our position has nothing to do with them. They cannot do anything and if somebody does something, they will be envious" SPL to Yamuna 18-11-70

No3

"Do not be depressed. All along my Godbrothers gave me only depression, repression, compression - but I continued strong in my duty." SPL to Guru das 29-8-72

No4

"If you are serious to be an important assistant in our Society you should fully engage yourself in translation work, and do not mix yourself with my so called Godbrothers. As there are in Vrndavan some residents like monkeys and hogs, similarly there are many rascals in the name of Vaisnavas, be careful of them. And do not dare to question imprudently before your spiritual master. Further talks we may discuss when we meet" SPL to Niranjana 21-11-72.

No5

"Our big, big Godbrothers in India, they could not preach Lord Gauranga's Name all over India. They are simply inclined to criticise me, that my students call me Prabhupada. They could not do anything practical and tangible. They are satisfied with a temple and a few disciples begging alms for the maintenance of the temple. So we can understand that they have all become sudras. How can they have interest in Bhagavad-gita. Although some of them have been born in Brahmana families, but by quality are all sudras." SPL to Niranjana 21-05-73

No 6

"Their proposal for co-operation is a myth. They haven't done anything which is cooperative. You know in a recent article they managed to write in such a way that Madhava is doing the world movement and we are his subordinate. From the beginning that has been their mentality. So there is no possibility of co-operation with them. Rather you should avoid strictly meeting with them. They are not after preaching but material gain and reputation and adoration.

Otherwise, why are they non cooperating with me ? So no cooperation is possible. Do not think or indulge in loose talks. Be careful always. Let us do the duty of propagation sincerely and seriously in our own principles. Krsna and Srila Prabhupada Bhaktisiddhanta Saravati Thakura are our only hope and they are helping us. If anything has to be done it is to be talked in the higher level between Madhava Maharaja and myself, but I know his mentality is different and there is no possibility of cooperation." SPL to Acyutananda Maharaja 8-06-74

No 7

"My Guru Maharaja used to say, prana arthe yanra sei hetu pracara. "One who has got life, he can preach." The dead man cannot preach. So you become with life, not like dead man. Without life... Just like all my Godbrothers. They are dead men. And therefore they are envious of my activities. They have no life. If you want to make easy-going life, showing the Deity and then sleep, then it is a failure movement. (Morning Walk July 13, 1974, Los Angeles)

No 8

"So these rascals, Godbrothers, they are envious that... What he has written? Bon Maharaja. Just see what kind of men they are. They are not even ordinary human being. They are envious of me, and what to speak of make a judgment by estimation? They're envious. Enviousness is immediately disqualification of Vaisnava, immediate. He is not a human being."  (Room Conversation, October 16, 1975)

No 9

“Just like our Godbrothers. They are envious. What I have done to them? I am doing my business, trying to serve my Guru Maharaja. But they are envious because I am so opulent. I have got so much fame, so many influence, so much influence all over the world. Everyone is praising me about... That is ignorance. And this is regrettable because they are posing themselves as Vaisnava. Ordinary man can do that, but they are dressing like Vaisnava, and they are so envious. That Tirtha Maharaja, unnecessarily he was envious, whole life fighting, fighting, fighting in the court and died."
(Room Conversation, 8 January, 1977)

No 10

"So it is better not to mix with my Godbrothers very intimately because instead of inspiring our students and disciples they may sometimes pollute them. This attempt was made previously by them, especially Madhava Maharaja and Tirtha Maharaja and Bon Maharaja but somehow or other I saved the situation. This is going on. We shall be very careful about them and not mix with them. This is my instruction to you all. They cannot help us in our movement, but they are very competent to harm our natural progress. So we must be very careful about them."  (Letter to Rupanuga, 28 April, 1974)

No 11

"So any one of my Godbrothers cannot help me in this way of book writing because they are unfortunate in the matter of preaching work. They are simply trying to infiltrate our society to so something harmful by their attempt. So please do not have any correspondence with this Purusottama or any of my Godbrothers, so-called."  (Letter to Karuna Sindhu, 9th November, 1975)

No 12

"Regarding the Gaudiya Math books being circulated there, who is distributing? Who is sending these books? The Gaudiya Math does not sell our books, why we should sell their books. Who has introduced these books? Let me know. These books should not at all be circulated in our Society. Bhakti Vilas Tirtha is very much antagonistic to our society and he has no clear conception of devotional service. He is contaminated. Anyway, who has introduced these books? You say that you would read only one book if that was all that I had written, so you teach others to do like that. You have very good determination." (Letter to Sukadeva, 14 November, 1973

No 13

"So I have now issued orders that all my disciples should avoid all of my Godbrothers. They should not have any dealings with them nor even correspondence, nor should they give them any of my books or should they purchase any of their books, neither should you visit any of their temples. Please avoid them." SPL to Visvarkarma 9-11-75

No 14

Srila Prabhupada: "We haven't got to manufacture. To manufacture ideas is troublesome. Why should we take the trouble? And as soon as you want to manufacture something to my…., that is DANGEROUS. …That you are singing every day, "what our guru has said, that is our life and soul." …As soon as this POISON will come -suppress guru and I become Brahman- everything FINISHED. Spiritual life is finished. Gaudiya Matha finished, …VIOLATED the orders of Guru Maharaja…..And as soon as you manufacture, fall down. This manufacturing idea is very, very dangerous in spiritual life. …Our mission is to serve bhakta visesa and live with devotees. NOT THAT YOU TAKE THE PLACE OF GURU. THAT IS NONSENSE, VERY DANGEROUS. Then everything will be spoiled. As soon as you become AMBITIOUS to TAKE THE PLACE of GURU-gurusuh nara matih. That is MATERIAL DISEASE."  (April 1977, Bombay)

(Emphasis add)

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Now that you have read them, please consider that the GBC members who were in post at the time of Srila Prabhupada's departure MUST have been aware of these instructions. So how come they went straight over to the Gaudiya Math just a few months after Srila Prabhupada left and

"In consultation with HIGHER AUTHORITIES" came back with all kinds of instructions on how 11 ambitious young leaders could now become initiating Acaryas in place of Srila Prabhupada. When you consider that many of these men had just spent months with Srila Prabhupada in Vrndavana, and were well aware of his caution in regards to the Gaudiya Matha, it beggars believe that they, within a few months, decide to go to 'HIGHER AUTHORITIES' for details on things that they could/should have discussed with the Acarya himself during the months he laid in Vrndavan preparing to leave.

This appointment of 11 Acaryas has been accepted as bogus by practically everyone inside and outside of Iskcon. Jayadwaita Maharaja even made a public apology on the pages of our Societies' magazine Back to Godhead for the magazine's complicity in the deviation.

What most devotees do not know however is that in those same meetings with 'HIGHER AUTHORITIES' the seed of the GREATEST contamination was also sown

That is IT IS PERFECTLY OK TO CHANGE THE WORDS OF THE ACARYA AFTER HIS PHYSICAL DEPARTURE. This evidence is documented for those that are prepared to read through the transcripts of the GBC's meetings with Sridhar Maharaja in Feb 1978

In brief though, they were told a story that one of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta's educated scholarly disciples had stated that if a 'wrong word' was found in the writings of the Acarya, then the dictionary should be changed. The GBC 'SELECT' group were told that that was OK for the neophytes - but the more advanced disciples will change/edit the writing.

No mention of the principle of Arsha Prayoga that Srila Prabhupada mentioned in several occasions.
So now the BBTi has allowed its editors to make almost 5,000 changes to JUST ONE of Srila Prabhupada's books. The main one Bhagavad-Gita As It Is. The BBT EDITS website falsely describes this as bringing the Gita 'Closer to Srila Prabhupada'

As if Srila Prabhupada missed 5,000 mistakes when he looked over the manuscript before he sent it to McMillans for publishing. Stunning....... It is sometimes said that if you are going to tell a lie, then make sure it so big and fantastic that nobody will believe you could have possibly made it up.
Just see how it works ...... "One giant step for mankind"

KNOW YOUR ISKCON HISTORY

now..... Will the REAL ISKCON ..... please stand up.....

For Srila Prabhupada......

As he stood up for us.....

All that is necessary for evil to triumph, is for good men to do nothing. There have been a lot of really good men side lined for too many years.

You know who you are.

Please rise up...

Stand and Fight

All GLORIES to our Srila Prabhupada.