Narasimha dasa Response to Rocana dasa

October 30, 2003

Dear Rocana Prabhu,

Please accept my obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. I have noted with some concern your response to Sri Mukunda's polite letter on behalf of Yasoda Nandan Prabhu and the Hare Krishna Society.

We don't feel it is a priority on our part to answer all your rambling challenges since they in fact offer no real obstacle to our proposal, which is to form an organization and society that represents Srila Prabhupada and His mission precisely. We feel that Srila Prabhupada made His will and intentions regarding the future of His mission very clear, but as is sometimes seen at the time of the departure of a great Vaisnava Acarya, chaos ensued nonetheless. It is the duty of sincere disciples to try to serve the actual mission of the Spiritual Master, in spite of the chaos.

The Hare Krishna Society proposes that sincere disciples of Srila Prabhupada who have not been poisoned start accepting Srila Prabhupada's words and arrangements for conducting His mission absolutely, or just as he prescribed, without concocting their own solutions. (Problem seems to be that this proposal really scares and annoys some people.) Dozens of sincere devotees have contributed to, read, edited, approved, and appreciated our small book, "Srila Prabhupada Siddhanta" or "The Prabhupada Book". Many devotees have worked cooperatively to get this completed and published and distributed, for the benefit of everyone. They have done this as devotional service to Srila Prabhupada. The idea with this publication is to clearly delineate the actual teachings of Srila Prabhupada with regard to essential points of Vaisnava siddhanta and practices. And we are finding that many, many devotees, most of whom have studied Srila Prabhupada's books very carefully, agree precisely regarding Srila Prabhupada's teachings and the actual siddhanta of Krishna consciousness. This is the good news. The bad news is that some so-called Vaisnava preachers are very frightened and annoyed at some of these essential conclusions.

It seems you also have a high conception of Srila Prabhupada, yet you have some bone to pick regarding Srila Prabhupada's instructions for initiations. Many neophytes have become preoccupied and bewildered regarding this persistent issue of initiations. This is mainly due to the deliberate misrepresentation of Srila Prabhupada's instructions by a few ambitious men. Srila Prabhupada often said understanding comes through discussion and submissive inquiry, not by challenge. Nonetheless, if you want to go on publicly challenging His instructions, His senior disciples, or His Hare Krishna Society, I suggest you do so by way of replying to the specific items in The Prabhupada Book with which you disagree. Also, why are you avoiding answering the question asked of you my Yasoda Nandan Prabhu? Sounds like you are not serious about actual sadhu-sanga.

By the way, I just read Yasoda Nandan's reply to you and thought it was very appropriate and kind. My feeling is that you should be ignored completely, unless you can start speaking clearly about what really bothers you about this Krishna consciousness movement, Srila Prabhupada's instructions, or HKS. No serious devotee should ever listen to someone who rambles on and on without offering clear conclusions substantiated by Srila Prabhupada's books and instructions. At least the devotees of HKS are not fooled by such smoke screen tactics. I feel the real issue here is that you want an excuse to go off on your own and preach in your own way. We have no objection if you want to conduct your own mission, but for your own good, you should refrain from offensive attacks on those who want preach precisely what Srila Prabhupada instructed.

Hope you are well.

Sincerely,

Narasimha das