ISKCON's Tolerance of Sannyasa Mockery
BY: S.V. SHARMA
Feb 03, 2011 — VRINDABAN, INDIA (SUN) — One of the most damaging things to ISKCON, in my humble opinion, is the tolerance of sannyasis in the ISKCON group being allowed to keep large amounts of money. Money and women are the two items a devotee must shun before he accepts the renounced order of sannyasa, and they are equally contaminating to the ahankara. If after taking sannyasa one is allowed to again become a controller of money, even in his own bank account, then all his tapas is lost. He becomes like a householder in his heart, yet he wants others to give him the respect of the renounced order. This is hypocrisy.
If one has a bogus guru that promotes such things by his own bad example, then nothing is to be expected of the followers of such an impostor guru in sannyasa dress. But with the perfect examples of renunciation by Rupa, Sanatan, Jiva, Gopal Bhatta, Raghunath Bhatta, and Raghunath das Goswamis, and the modern day example of Swami Prabhupada, the Acarya of the ISKCON organization, it is only shame to be brought on the ISKCON movement that some of their sannyasis are allowed to collect, harbor, or even invest monies that may have been given to them by their students, or left to them in wills by their departing parents. All money is after all Krishna's property, is it not?
Sriman Mahaprabhu would not even have audience with political figures who were seen to be attached to material opulence in the form of money and sense gratification, and he would divorce himself as the Supreme Lord from anyone posing in the elevated dress of sannyasa, but who was showing signs of attachment to artha and kama. When it is widely known here in Vrindaban and elsewhere in the world, that some ISKCON sannyasi gurus factually have millions of dollars in their personal bank account, yet they still carry the danda of one who is free from all such attachment, do they not make a mockery of sanatana-dharma? It is amazing how followers or students of such posers can accept such a person as truly representing our sannyasa dharma. Nowhere in our Vaishnava history is this allowed or accepted. That is the reason why sannyasa ashram is so widely respected here in India. Such renounced persons are bold enough to depend only on Krishna, and not on their daily investment reports.
No one I have seen on the Sampradaya Sun is discussing this error of the ISKCON leaders in tolerating the ISKCON sannyasa asram becoming an embarrassment to all Vaishnavas. If someone wins millions of dollars, inherits it, or is given it by his followers, but keeps it in his own name, is he not considered fallen if he doesn't immediately return it to its rightful owner - Sri Krishna?
Such lack of regulation of the sannyasa ashram in ISKCON may also encourage others who may be coming from the householder ashram, to wear the cloth of sannyasa when he primarily sees the financial opportunity in a so-called sannyasa ashram.
This most important negligence needs to be corrected if ISKCON's image of purity and parampara is to be maintained.
