Thursday, December 15, 2016

Is Bhakti Caru Swami De Facto A Ritvik? (Prahlad Nrsimgha France)


Who is driving us to Krishna?

[PADA: Bhakti Caru swami has made many comments that he is only the "representative" of Srila Prabhupada (de facto ritvik idea?), and that he personally cannot bring people to Krishna (because he is not an uttama adhikary), but that he can bring people to Srila Prabhupada. And Srila Prabhupada can take these people to Krishna. Right! 

Basically, this is the ritvik idea, the priest or ritvik cannot take people to Krishna personally, so he acts as the (conditioned soul) agent for the acharya. And for saying this, some other GBC gurus have complained that BCS is "preaching the ritvik ideology." 

At the same time, even the official GBC has said that when your GBC guru falls down, you can worship Srila Prabhupada and offer bhogha to him direct, albeit for a short time, until they find another conditioned soul to be your guru. And this is seen as a sort of ritvik idea as well. 

Anyway, the bottom line is that due to so many failures on the part of their "appointed and voted in" gurus, the GBC and their leaders like BCS are being forced to emphasize people taking direct shelter of Srila Prabhupada, and to back pedal themselves as some sort of (ritvk?) agents of the acharya. 

This Prahlad Nrsimgha fellow seems to be criticizing this effort of making Srila Prabhupada the center, without really explaining what else would have to be done? Naturally Rocana posts this article because its spinning in a circle without offering any actual solution. The writer of this article never tells us, who will drive us back to Krishna then, if not the acharya Srila Prabhupada? Maybe Santa Claus will drive us back to Krishna then?]   

There's a New Trick in Town

BY: PRAHLADA NRSIMHA DAS (FRANCE)

Everyone loves you... In the earliest 1990s, I knew and directly heard Bhakti Caru Swami saying to his disciples... and to the world:

"I can not drive you to Krsna but I can drive you to Srila Prabhupada."

And he gave no further explanations about this interesting point, which would have been, anyway, very difficult to do… For a person who wants to go to Krsna, it's better to discriminate. And not be too blind and ingenuous. Of course, if this person only reads candy marshamallow Dandavats newspaper, it will be difficult...


[PADA: OK well Dandavats is the official spokesperson web site for the GBC, if its defective, it means the entire GBC gurus process is defective for using that site as their mouthpiece. This is another problem with GBC / Rocana / Kailash / Torben Neilsen / Ajit Krishna, etc al. they say the GBCs are their "living gurus," then they say, their gurus are speaking rubbish and "candy marshmallow" foolishness. So they are promoting worshiping fools? Why are they promoting the worship of fools? Then never explain? Neither does the author of this paper explain this program?]

So, again, my intention is not to point especially at one person, but to use practical and real examples to have a more general reflection. And no one can say that Bhakti Caru Swami is not representative of ISKCON! He is always in very high positions in our Movement.

[PADA: Right, BCS has a high post, but he is preaching "covered ritvik" according to some of the other GBC leaders. Of course the GBC does not agree with Hrdayananda and others, so this begs the question, why is the GBC allowing people to publicly speak alleged bad siddhanta -- what the GBC says are the wrong ideas -- while allowing them to be posing as their GBC acharyas?]


My goal is neither to preach some kind of Ritvik philosophy. 


[PADA: OK but if BCS is not saying he is like a ritvik, a representative, what is he saying then? You are confusing things. And if no one represents the acharya as his agent (or ritvik), how will anyone connect to him?]

But only to try and clear things which are not clear! When it's about a guru (and certainly others) and someone who is always in very big positions, this lack of clarity can have (and probably had already) big consequences!

[PADA: What is clear is, BCS is now saying he is more or less a ritvik priest, he can represent the acharya, but he is not one himself. The author of this article never tells us -- what is the clear solution?]

You can think that the 90s are old time. Very far back... but don't be in illusion. This kind of person, till now, had no capacity to really change. The changes that you could possibly see are only superficial. Another aspect of the same personality or an aspect which emerges temporarily more than another one. So, only the other face of the same coin.

What Bhakti Caru Swami said in the 90s is certainly used today. The past trick is still new and acting... some kind of justification of one's position when one doesn't feel qualified, but can not resist the desire of having an exalted position.

[PADA: Well yes, BCS has not come completely clean, he still says that the people who are falling into illicit sex are or were parampara persons who fell, thus he still thinks the parampara is populated by debauchees, deviants, sexual predators and orchestrators of molesting and murders. So he thinks the parampara from God is full of sexual predators and criminals, that means he has a mundane idea of God and His successors. Of course my trash man is not as degraded as many GBC acharyas, so that means BCS and the GBC are not advanced enough to worship my trash man.] 

So, his declaration had the appearance of honesty and maybe, from him, there was some little piece of real illusory honesty in it. But even at this time, tears did not come to my eyes because of such a display of modesty and humility.

If you have still some fresh neurons working in a normal way, you can understand very quickly that to make such a difference between driving someone to Krsna and driving him (her) to Srila Prabhupada, and so, to make a difference between Krsna and His Divine Grace, is illusory, material and even offensive! And makes no real sense.

[PADA: Well sorry, but we neophytes cannot drive people to Krishna, this is not an illusion, its a fact. We have to connect them to the pure devotee ...]


It is a fact that Prabhupada is not Krsna, of course. Even if we must consider the bona fide spiritual master as the external manifestation of Krsna in our heart, and so, as non-different from Krsna. But we also know that Srila Prabhupada does not create universes...

Bhakti Caru Swami is a direct Prabhupada disciple but sorry, I am not automatically impressed by this fact nor by the fact that he had Srila Prabhupada's direct association. M. Jolicoeur had also direct association with Srila Prabhupada and received diksa from him but today, he even doubts Krsna's existence! And there are many other, more or less similar examples. So, this criterion is not as absolute as some senior devotees would like to make it appear...

[PADA: Excellent point. To say that some of the current disciples of Srila Prabhupada can be listed as parampara acharyas, when its well known they can and often do fall down, express doubts, and even some will say that Krishna does not even exist, means they are prematurely being posted as acharyas. Clearly they are not fit for such an elevated post. 


For example Satsvarupa says "I have to battle constantly with doubts that Krishna is a myth" and "the more I chant the drier it gets" and so on, and yet despite making so many bogus statements like this, his literature are sold all over ISKCON as some masterpiece writing of a realized soul under the authority of the GBC, and BCS. Why is Bhakti Caru Swami supporting literature that says, "the more I chant, the drier it gets"? BCS is giving a terrible advertising for Krishna's name.] 

I know Prabhupada's disciples who have spontaneously a material vision of their spiritual master. They still see him in his old age body, and you hear things like: 'Oh... Prabhupada must be very upset and must cry a lot because of how things turn and change in ISKCON". This is not my vision.. 

I much more imagine Prabhupada completely blissful in his svarupa, sat-cid-ananda form, and even if he, probably, has an eye on his Movement and can be very unsatisfied about some things, he has spiritual vision. He knows how things work! This sankirtana Movement is new and special only for us! 

From the spiritual world and pure spiritual point of view, this sankirtana Movement of Lord Caitanya's is some kind of routine... always acting somewhere in some material universe. So, everyone in the spiritual sky knows how it works: When the acarya leaves the planet, immediately, some chaos starts... deviations, speculations, etc., to a certain extent.

[PADA: And you are spreading the chaos by saying we should not act as representatives but as acharyas?] 

Later, another acarya appears and again sets things in order and goes further in establishment of Krsna Consciousness on the planet, in all aspects. After some time, this acarya also leaves Earth and again there are troubles to another degree for some decades. And again another acarya appears... etc.

So, of course, it can not be a pretext for us to do nonsense, and we will pay for our nonsense. But it is not a reason for Srila Prabhupada to make an absolute tragedy and drama about it. So, I don't have this vision of Srila Prabhupada crying, like some advanced, Prabhupada-having-material-vision-of, direct disciples have. To conclude, the argument that Bhakti Caru Swami knows better because he can write 'ACBSP' on his CV does not automatically make me surrender to his bla bla...

So, what Bhakti Caru Swami was saying is not about the fact that we can not go directly to Krsna. Everyone knows this philosophical point. But you can also note that, as far as I know, in spite of this reality, Srila Prabhupada never told anyone that he was driving people to his own spiritual master. 

But instead, driving people to Krsna... And we know that his Divine Grace fully respected the parampara system and never jumped over his guru and the sampradaya! And considered himself as dasanudas anudas... So, to say that, as guru, you drive someone to your own guru, looks something new and not practiced till at least 1978!

[PADA: If we are not going to drive people to our guru, who are we going to drive them to instead? This author is spinning ...]

Bhakti Caru Swami's declaration was about another purpose to fulfill. And it worked and still works today. For him and certainly for others, even having no real meaning. So, let's analyse Bhakti Caru Swami's declaration.

All that means:

I am not qualified to guide you to Krsna because I am not at this level and did not reach Krsna myself, but I can make you reach the pure devotee for I reached him myself. So, it means different possible things which are not in accordance with any spiritual reality.

[PADA: Of course this is the reality: we neophytes cannot drive people to Krishna ourselves, we have to guide them to a person who can take them there. Even Dhruva's mother was considered as a vartma-pradarshaka guru, and not a parampara acharya, what to speak of us neophytes.]


The spiritual reality is that the real pure devotee, even being different from Krsna in term of quantity, being a jiva like anyone of us, is on the same level as Krsna. Meaning on the same pure spiritual platform of suddha-sattva. There is no difference.

The non-reality expressed by Bhakti Caru Swami can be many:

1) He considers that Srila Prabhupada is not at the same level as Krsna, and so, considers himself as being in capacity to drive someone to Prabhupada, accepting, at the same time, the fact that he is not able to drive someone to Krsna. It is obviously a big offense. And makes automatically his own guru Srila Prabhupada, to be non-qualified (in the pure perspective to go to Godhead) and useless because not on real spiritual level. In this case, anyway, what's the use of driving someone to a useless and non-qualified guru?


[PADA: No, a neophyte should say what BCS says, he is not qualified, but his guru is qualified.]

2) He considers that Srila Prabhupada and Krsna are on the same level (which is a fact) but for a very mysterious reason, he can drive someone to Prabhupada but not to Krsna. Again, all that had nothing to do with respecting the sampradaya system and not going directly to Krsna. 

It is and was a completely other point. Speculative point... In this case, it is real sophism. If you have on the top of a mountain a piece of halava together with some sweet rice, why could you reach the piece of halava and not the sweet rice? And again, Srila Prabhupada was fully respecting the sampradaya system and so, his guru. But, although very humble, he never said that he was driving people to Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Maharaja. But to Krsna!

[PADA: Well yes, but Bhakti Caru is not on the level of Srila Prabhupada, so he can only take people to an acharya, because he is not one.]

 
3) Bhakti Caru Swami has a material and sentimental vision of Krsna Consciousness itself! So, he accepts both the fact that Prabhupada and Krsna are on the same spiritual platform and the fact that himself is not on this platform (and so, not actually able to drive anyone to both of them) but because he has some emotional sentimental feelings for Prabhupada, that will be enough to get Prabhupada's mercy and so, Krsna's mercy. 

Even if Bhakti Caru Swami is not qualified, Prabhupada will, more or less, take him in his pocket or suitcase at time of death, out of reciprocal sentimental material feelings. And so, Bhakti Caru Swami will reach Krsna. And his faithful and unalloyed own disciples with him...

So, not only does Bhakti Caru Swami try to draw Srila Prabhupada at his own level of having still material sentimental feelings, but in his opinion, Prabhupada is a kind of matchmaker who makes deals with Krsna. We enter in a kind of nepotism or cronyism... well... arrangements and favoritism on the basis of still material feelings. And Krsna is supposed to accept someone on this basis. So, Bhakti Caru Swami tries also to draw Krsna to his own level. And all that is supposed to work! Yes, of course! And Santa Claus will very soon come through my chimney and put presents in my shoes!!!

[PADA: But the author fails to tell us who will drive us to Krishna? Does he think Santa Claus will do that? He fails to tell us who will?]


That is just about materializing Krsna Consciousness and making it very cheap.

Just read again the Bhagavad-gita verses I quote in my article Death Golden Gate, which are about the required level to go to Krsna at the time of death. All that goes together and is in the same text, Bhagavad Gita, then the verse: tad viddhi pranipatena... about acceptance of a bona fide guru. You can not separate those different verses. If they are in the same Krsna's speech to Arjuna, it is not by chance!

A person who believes that he can reach the level mentioned in those verses, without a bona fide spiritual master and his mercy, is in illusion. And a person who thinks that he can go to Krsna without being raised, before, to the level described in those verses, only because he accepted a bona fide spiritual master, is also in illusion. This person may have many sentimental material feelings for his guru but the qualified guru does not have! He has only spiritual feelings. The same difference as between compassion and pity, which is the material degenerated version of compassion. Meaning compassion without intelligence and spiritual knowledge. And discrimination.

So, the guru is not supposed to introduce any non-qualified person in spiritual Krsna's world. The person must be completely purified in order not to become a possible trouble in the spiritual world. Only such a person can enter into Vaikuntha. This person must be completely cured of material disease, which means that this person must have gone through all the difficulties and have crossed all the obstacles of this way (like it is said in Bg 18.58), thanks to the sampradaya and Krsna's mercy, and through devotional service, with all the required infinite patience, enthusiasm and determination described in Upadesamrta. 

All that till the point where this jiva will think: never again!!! I don't want to do this very very long effort again and never want anymore to become entangled in material nature for any reason which exists. Even if this walk to perfection has been mainly of joyful application as described in Srimad Bhagavatam. That state of mind can not be obtained through a cheap way. Sorry!

At this point, the jiva will not be anymore a possible trouble in Krsna's kingdom and can be introduced by the bona fide guru.

To resume, the bona fide spiritual master takes a person to Krsna by putting this person on the way, giving the seed, and by enabling this person to walk all along this long way. That is not possible without Krsna and the sampradaya's mercy.

Srila Prabhupada gave us some interesting information about the difficulties of this way in Bhagavad-gita but, like often, things that I read so many times when I was a sankirtana devotee and loved, simply disappeared! Impossible to find them anymore in the more recent editions that I have! Jayadvaita Swami fulfilled his pure devotional service and that is really catastrophic, at least for the moment!

When some big leaders are asked about this point, because of devotees' complaints, they generally say that those complaints are bogus, invoking always the same examples, like the one of the bad traduction which gave the "planet of trees"...as if it was the only instance of Jayadvaita's intervention! What's the goal behind that?????!!!!!

Stalin did the same at his level, trying always to change historical reality as he wanted! For instance, you could see, on official photos, Stalin with Molotov, some others, and Ejov, the chief of the Secret Police. But when later, Ejov became in disgrace and was killed by Stalin, he disappeared from the original photo. They had the technic to do that. So, officially Ejov never existed! 

Of course, people remembered Ejov but were too much afraid to say something against what the regime was saying. And for the next new generations who never knew Ejov, it will be without any importance! Even if someone will tell them something about it. And certainly they will not even believe those assertions said by persons they will consider as old drivellers... it was Stalin's plan for everything...changing Truth...

So, it may be the same for the next generations of devotees... they will maybe hear something about things which disappeared from Srila Prabhupada's books (who remembers at the moment that Prabhupada said that the Kurukshetra battle made 840 million dead people? He was explaining about weapons of this time. It was at the end of the Bhagavad-gita Introduction) or were much changed, but it will be just rumors for them and most of them will think that it's just about conspirationists' delirium!


[PADA: OK so the GBC are conspiracy delirium for changing the books, how does that make them gurus? Same problem we have with Torben Nielesen / Ajit Krishna / Kim Moller team -- they say the GBC are demons for changing the books, so lets kiss the jack boots of the GBC gurus and worship them as our living saviors and messiahs? We have to worship their demon gurus, and that will take us to God? Why do they say we have to lick the boots of their demon gurus program members in order to attain God?]

So, how will they be able to reach Krsna with very changed books? Maybe it is Jayadvaita's goal... he cannot reach Krsna himself (and maybe does not care about it) so why others could? And all that is based only on one sentence from Prabhupada! "Whatever Jayadvaita does, I agree!" Yes, but at this time, our sannyasi was in Prabhupada's direct spiritual energy. But he obviously was and is not strong enough to stay in that same energy after the acarya's physical disappearance. So, Maya devi found her agent...

But let's come back to Bhakti Caru Swami's declaration...

4) The other possibility is that Bhakti Caru Swami thinks humbly that he only understood and understands Srila Prabhupada. And so can connect his disciples to Prabhupada through this understanding, even feeling himself as non-qualified. That looks pretty, but he has to explain with which intelligence? 

If it is just about intellectual intelligence, it will be useless to get spiritual success. And if it is about spiritual intelligence, it is said that no one can understand the activities of a real pure devotee. Except another real pure devotee, of course! Who by nature can also drive someone to Krsna. Something that Bhakti Caru Swami declared himself unable to do. On this point, at least, he was right! Better than nothing in my opinion! So, even this possibility has no meaning.

In conclusion, we see that in terms of quantity, there is something in ISKCON today, especially in India which is a very favorable ground. In the West, it is not the same and many times catastrophic! About quality, it is much more questionable and that results in this situation in the West. I hope that devotees are not forgetting the goal of Krsna Consciousness. Which is not something just about making Earth more peaceful... But even thinking about the real goal, individually and collectively, is not so perfect if one thinks he can reach it through illusory beliefs: Through the Disneyland assertion said by Bhakti Caru Swami in the beginning of this article, for example.

Or through belief of providential miraculous Goddess Death.
Or through other illusory beliefs...

I read in his blog that Kadamba Kanana Maharaja was saying that he knew that devotees will take him to Krsna. It was when he discovered he had a cancer, so we can understand... but if it is a general belief, it becomes a problem. 

[PADA: Some followers of Kadamba, Gunagrahi, Bhakti Tirtha and others are saying they got cancer from taking their sins, right, they are not qualified to take sins. Even some followers of Narayana Maharaja said he got stage four cancer from taking sins, well, maybe you guys should not be taking sins then? Yep, Prahlad Nrsimgha has no explanation for this either? More spinning ...]

I appreciate this sannyasi who was in France for 1 or 2 years. 

[PADA: OK Kadamba is not a mere sannyasa, he is saying he is a diksha guru who can absorb sins like Jesus, thus Kadamba is saying he is another Jesus, that is way beyond sannyasa? Why doesn't Prahlad Nrsimgha know that regulated sannyasa and Jesus are different categories?]

A nice person! But where did he find this belief except in Kadamba Kanana sruti? On contrary, Srila Prabhupada said that everyone is alone in his own plane at the time of death and that nobody can be of any help for him. 

I heard also a Prabhupada disciple saying long time ago that the only thing which we had to do was to wait (to leave our body). Enough to go to Krsna! If I were a naive young devotee, I would have thought: what a nice philosophy! Even the trees are able to do that! So I am able too... and resting on that, my success is guaranteed!

Bhakti yoga is like a snowball! When you start to push a snowball, if you go on this way, your snowball becomes bigger and bigger. So, the crude reality is that we will go to Krsna with no doubt, for we have started the process! The only question is when?

Most of us probably will not go at the end of this life. That's my belief. But where is the problem? Krsna is a person, not a logical! So why He would let a serious devotee go to A heavenly planet for 10,000 years and miss this sankirtana opportunity?!!! 

This devotee will take birth again in a good family or in a devotee family and will go on with his (her) progress. It is not a reason for us to slow down our progress! When we have a treasure to find, we don't late the movement! But we can neither run as fast as a cheetah! But what's the use of deluding oneself and others with speculative points? Illusion does not make things easier! We see that life in the spiritual world with no material illusion is easy! When life in maya's kingdom is impossible!

[PADA: Correct, the GBC gurus are not going back to Godhead because for starters, shastra says false gurus have to go to the most obnoxious regions. And because they are accepting the sins of so many followers, they will take those sins with them to these hellish planets. In any case, the author does not explain any of this. The good news is, BCS statements are being more introduced, and his statements are de facto ritvik. The author fails to tell us, if Srila Prabhupada is not the person driving us to Krishna, who is? He does not know? ys pd]

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