Response to the Swamis
BY: ROCANA DASA
Feb 25, CANADA (SUN) — Dear B.B. Visnu and B.G. Narasingha Swamis, Dandavat obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
I applaud the effort that you have made to address the discussion at hand. It gives me pleasure to know you are reading the Sampradaya Sun. If you have read my writings pertaining to our Srila Prabhupada's spiritual identity, you will know that of all people, I embrace and promote the conception that he is a nitya-siddha, Shaktavesa Avatara deputed to fulfill the mission of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in the matter of spreading His message throughout the planet. Considering that the esoteric aspect of Lord Caitanya's message reveals, in detail, the nature of the top-most transcendental loving relationship existing between Lord Sri Krsna and His Eternal Loving Consort, Srimati Radharani, how could I not conclude that our Srila Prabhupada is very dear to Radharani?
In fact, our differences are not over the above-mentioned issue, as I think you well know. I was motivated to comment on Swami BG Narasingha's "Lila Smarana" glorification of our Srila Prabhupada because it was presented in a sastra-like manner. Instead of giving the impression that Srila Prabhupada is/was a sadhana-siddha as opposed to nitya-siddha, the Swami declares with unqualified authority that he personally knows the exact origin of Srila Prabhupada's nitya-lila. The manner, style and tone of his treatise easily leads the reader to assume that he must be very advanced in order to have realized these truths. As Srila Prabhupada himself never spoke on such matters in regards to his Sampradaya Acarya, nitya-siddha Spiritual Master, I can't comprehend why or what motivated the Swami to write in the manner he did.
In his first rebuttal, Narasingha Swami explained that he felt authorized on account of his engaging in such high level discussions on our Srila Prabhupada's nitya-lila status with his siksa guru, BR Sridhara Swami. This brought to the surface a long contentious debate surrounding the differentiation between BR Sridhara Swami and Srila Prabhupada. Srila Prabhupada's preaching methodology as it pertains to publicly discussing very advanced aspects of our siddhanta amongst unqualified audiences is a practice that is in opposition to many, if not most, of his Godbrothers.
BG Narasingha Swami, in his accompanying comments/purport, has mentioned that his realizations sprang from discussions with BR Sridhara dasa Goswami. He chose to include two poetic verses, along with the Sanskrit, wherein the Goswami is glorifying Sri Sriman Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Goswami Maharaja. As I see it, Narasingha Swami chose to follow in the footsteps of his siksa rather than his diksa guru in the matter of glorifying his diksa guru. Naturally this opens up a whole field of debate.
In my mind, there are three primary questions before us:
- Is Narasingha Swami personally so spiritually elevated as to be qualified to write such a sastra-like glorification?
- Is he elevated enough to personally know the exact origin of Srila Prabhupada's nitya-lila?
- Is Narasingha Swami following Srila Prabhupada's mood in writing such a glorification, or is he following his siksa guru's mood?
We have discussed the degree to which, or the clarity with which, the "Lila Smarana" may suggest that Srila Prabhupada is a dearmost servant and/or a Gopi. My point is that the matter is unclear due to the construction of the writing. This issue is really a sub-set of question #1 above. Regardless of our agreement or disagreement on that point, there seems to be no argument about the fact that Narasingha Swami has personally proclaimed the specific origin of Srila Prabhupada's nitya-lila.
Most of the subsequent issues and assertions that have been raised in our follow-up discussions are, in my mind, a distraction from the essential questions above. Instead of directly addressing these issues, Narasingha Swami, and now B.B. Visnu Swami, have inserted a host of other less important issues into the debate. I don't mind discussing these issues, some of which I find quite interesting, but let us not forget that the primary questions above have not yet been addressed straight-on by the Swamis.
Secondarily, I would also like to point out that sastra-like glorifications of our Spiritual Master should be carefully considered given the modern pandemic display of pontification by authors wishing to gain public notice by speaking with absolute certainty insofar as their pastimes and realizations of AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada. I am referring here to the BBT publication of Satsvarupa Goswami's Lilamrta, as well as numerous other biographies, diaries and memoirs, both written and verbal. I am not discouraging individuals from relating their realizations or telling stories about their experiences with Srila Prabhupada, so long as the audience is made well aware of the speaker's spiritual inability to speak with absolute authority. When these utterances are couched in sastra-like prose, however, or printed by the Acarya's own press, like the BBT and presented by institutional authorities (the GBC) as "bonafide", it is another matter altogether. Such literary efforts tend to find their way onto book tables and into lectures right alongside the Sampradaya Acarya's absolute literature. I know that for the most part, Swami BG Narasingha agrees with me and speaks out on this matter. On the other hand, in this particular incident, he appears to have gone too far in the opposite direction.
As to the matter of whether or not Narasingha Swami had any ill intentions in bringing up the sannyasa vs. householder issue, again you miss the main point. We all know what Srila Prabhupada said on the matter of sannyasa. Those like myself, who have been in the movement for as long as you or Narasingha Swami, know the quotes. Choosing to bring that issue up in the context of the Lila Smarana conversation seems to me to be nothing more than a personal putdown. To say it's something else is questionable, no matter how much you'd like to spin it. In fact, B.B. Visnu Swami again makes sure the reader understands just how long the two have been sannyasis, even thought it's not relevant to the issue at hand.
Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu's Sankirtana movement was a social revolution in itself, wherein all bodily designations were ignored and the focus was put on seeing the spiritual designations. Granted, in some contexts such as preaching in India, taking sannyassa proves to be a valuable tool for preaching on the levels that you mention, for disentangling oneself from family life, and fitting into the cultural milieu via the status given to sanyasis. But that in itself is not an absolute principle. In terms of my "monkey" comment, I admittedly used the reference in a different context to make a point about Narasingha Swami's use of the term as a putdown of householders. Even though you now claim it was purely on the philosophical level, I think the readers understood the mood in which the comment was made, just as I did.
As for the argument you make regarding Sanskrit (or classical Bengali) editors falling down and thus disqualifying someone's work, that really is not the point. The point that I made (not 'Kedar') is that Narasingha Swami appears not to have informed his readers that it was Bhakti Nandana Swami's translation work, not his own. That information apparently wasn't in the Purports, either. This harkens back to what I previously said in terms of the practice we see of Godbrothers trying their best to project the image that they're more advanced than they actually are, and using glorifications of Srila Prabhupada as the vehicle.
You suggest the comments made by 'Kedar' are not true because "we don’t' even know who he is" (don't be so sure). You question how close he was to Narasingha Maharaja when the song was written. I can provide a little more information in that regard. He was close enough to make this statement:
"I remember very clearly that Tripurari Swami was talking about it (Lila Smarana). Narasingha Maharaja was visiting him for a couple of weeks in Eugene at the time. I asked how did he do it, and Tripurari Swami told me in detail that Narasingha Maharaja faxed the poem to Bhaktinandan Swami, who faxed translations back, and verse by verse they worked it out. They also talked over the phone about it. My guess is that Bhaktinandan Swami, who prided himself in knowing all the important Gaudiya granthas, modeled the style, structure and meter of the translation after an existing poem by one of the great Acaryas. Narasingha Maharaja was so happy with the poem that he, Tripurari Swami and Visnu Maharaja sang it at Srila Prabhupada's Disappearance Day celebration, to which they had been invited at the Krishna Balarama Mandir in Vrindavan that year."
